Steve Cran gives NGO stakeholders a field briefing on the village zone permaculture design strategy.
“My system of the “5 rings of sustainability” is adapted from permaculture for community development. From tribal people to aid officials this system makes sense. In each ring we know many “best practices” that will improve that community or household. The rings are interconnected.”
In the new village garden, set-up by Steve on his arrival, he draws in the dirt, with a stick, the basic 5 zone permaculture strategy. He explains how the basic unit of food security is the home food and medicinal garden, and how this expands out through the village to the hunting lands, with the outermost zone being the “eco-zone” for regeneration and wildlife.
The Woolworths Trust EduPlant in association with DWAF, LandCare SA and SABC Education was conceived in 1995 to address greening and food security issues for schools and their communities. Schools run community outreach projects that provide food, trees and Permaculture assistance for hospices, HIV/AIDS patients, the unemployed and indigent communities.
From Via Campesina Africa comes a fine publication, dispelling the idea that farmers in Africa are somehow permanently waiting for aid agencies to give them good ideas.
A Thousand Suns tells the story of the Gamo Highlands of the African Rift Valley and the unique worldview held by the people of the region.
This isolated area has remained remarkably intact both biologically and culturally. It is one of the most densely populated rural regions of Africa yet its people have been farming sustainably for 10,000 years.
Shot in Ethiopia, New York and Kenya, the film explores the modern world’s untenable sense of separation from and superiority over nature and how the interconnected worldview of the Gamo people is fundamental in achieving long-term sustainability, both in the region and beyond.
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”Lincolns Gettysburg address
Bill Mollison explains FDR’s Great Depression program the Civilian Conservation Corps (possibly the most popular such New Deal program) and its permaculture work swaling in dry landscapes. It is a response to a comment on the post”The unemployed should besiege the Obama administration”
As in Transition Towns, Klimaforum09 and other larger-scale permaculture projects, we need to work with governments, or more correctly make government work for us. See Klimaforum’s 10 000 Trees Strategy which will be funded by a 100 Euro/tonne Carbon Tax or watch for Transition Towns Totnes upcoming book on Working with Local Government.
Bill Mollison Father of Permaculture Shares his Wisdom on Dryland Systems, to find out more about Bill and his work please visit; www.tagari.com
The CCC performed 300 possible types of work projects within ten approved general classifications: 1) Structural Improvements: bridges, fire towers, service buildings; 2) Transportation: truck trails, minor roads, foot trails and airport landing fields; 3) Erosion Control: check dams, terracing and vegetable covering; 4) Flood Control: irrigation, drainage, dams, ditching, channel work, riprapping; 5) Forest Culture: planting trees and shrubs, timber stand improvement, seed collection, nursery work; 6) Forest Protection: fire prevention, fire presuppression, fire fighting, insect and disease control; 7) Landscape and Recreation: public camp and picnic ground development, lake and pond site clearing and development; 8 ) Range: stock driveways, elimination of predatory animals; 9) Wildlife: stream improvement, stocking fish, food and cover planting; 10) Miscellaneous: emergency work, surveys, mosquito control.[3] The typical so-called CCC enrollee was a U.S. citizen, unmarried, unemployed male, 18–20 years of age. Each enrollee volunteered, and upon passing a physical exam was required to serve a minimum six month period with the option to serve as much as two years. He lived in a work camp, received $30 a month (with a compulsory allotment $22–25 sent to a dependent) as well as food, clothing and medical care.[4]
The CCC became one of the more popular New Deal programs among the general public, providing economic relief, rehabilitation and training for a total of 3 million men. The CCC also provided a comprehensive work program that combined conservation, renewal, awareness and appreciation of the nation’s natural resources.[5] The CCC was never considered a permanent program and depended on emergency and temporary legislation for its existence.[6] On 30 June 1942 Congress voted to terminate funding for the CCC, formally ceasing active operation of the program
During the President’s brief stop at Camp Nira [S.N.P. CCC Camp #3], he was treated to a brief pageant entitled “The burial of old man depression and fear and the return of happy days.”… two C.C.C. members, one with a banner “C.C.C.” and the other with the symbol “NIRA” [National Industrial Recovery Act], marched toward a covered object labeled “fear.” As the torchbearers set fire to “fear”… The covering destroyed, [and] “Old Man Depression” was revealed in effigy. This too was fired and the President happily commented, “that’s right, burn him up.”…The bugler played “Happy Days Are Here Again” as the President…applauded.{2}
Konso is the little area in southern Ethiopia where Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge is based. It has suffered repeated food insecurity over the last 50 years.
Konso land is poor quality and the country is cut up by deep eroded gullies and canyons. Rain is unreliable, increasingly so in recent years. These harsh conditions have bred what some call ‘the toughest farmers in Africa’. Tough, they certainly are. And the Konso are very good farmers. “The major economic base is agriculture (80%) and 20% only is butchery, weaving, pottery, black smithery, petty local brewery trades, tannery and local carpentry.” (Korra Gara, 2008) The most notable feature of their renowned agricultural system is its terracing, constructed over large tracts of the rugged landscape by centuries of communal labour. The terraces reduce erosion and are carefully crafted to balance the competing demands of maximizing water infiltration, with allowing adequate drainage so that the terraces do not collapse in times of heavy rain.
Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge
Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge is a multifaceted project working in the Konso Special Woreda, which integrates an Eco Lodge, model Permaculture farm (the first in Ethiopia) and PC design training centre and consultancy facility. Our resident trainer, Mr Tichafa Makovere from Zimbabwe has practised Permaculture in southern Africa for more than 15 years and is a veteran of the SCOPE (Schools and Colleges Outreach Permaculture Program) which has been tremendously successful in training and implementing Permaculture in schools around southern Africa in the last decades. SFEL, with Tichafa’s help, now seeks to repeat these successes in southern Ethiopia. So far SFEL has given the PDC to 13 school teachers in Konso and begun implementation in 5 Konso schools, working in partnership with Save the Children Finland and other NGOs.
Create post This article reprinted with permission from Bollier.org. So another climate change summit (Durban, South Africa) has produced no action, even in the face of mounting evidence of the deterioration of the planet's atmosphere. Climate change denial has now moved from the right-wing, wacko fringe to the pinnacles of “respectable” power as top go […]
As a gardener, Winter Solstice holds much more meaning for me than the conventional new year marker of January 1. Even here in Southern California's year-round growing season, we observe the slowing of plant growth into semi-dormancy as the Solstice approaches. We witness the acceleration into new growth once the Solstice is past. Animals know it too […]
Original Berkeleyside Article By Nathan Pensky Even in a community as amenable to progressive values as Berkeley, there are few small businesses so powered by idealism as BioFuel Oasis, which this month is celebrating its eighth birthday. An environmentalist mainstay since 2003, the company specializes in the sale of biodiesel fuel chemically rendered from r […]
Are you part of a social change organization that needs to update your logo that a friend put together 10 years ago in Microsoft Word? Are you confused by all the terminology, or where to begin when designing or redesigning your logo and identity materials? Would you like to read a book more relevant to the world of social change than to the corporate busin […]
Create post The City of Davis, California, is blessed with two things: an abundance of sunshine and lots of beautiful, mature trees to provide a natural refuge from it. These trees, carefully planted by several generations of Davis' residents, helps to keep energy costs down by protecting homes and businesses from the direct heat of the sun. Unfortunate […]
For this month’s Transition Book Club meeting, we used Paul Gilding’s The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring on the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World as a springboard for a wide-ranging conversation. [For a synopsis of the book, skip to the bottom; continue reading for more on our discussion.] read more […]
Create post It all started innocently enough. Following the Holidays and New Year of 2007 we emptied out all of our garbage and recycling to clean up for the New Year. Many months later (May 14) it was time to put out our first bag of garbage and it dawned on me that in over four months we had only created a single bag of garbage. I wondered where could we t […]
Last week, Design Action sent out a letter to the Oakland City Council, some local businesses, and to local newspapers, in support of Occupy Oakland. The Oakland Tribune published the Op-Ed today (11.15.11) with the headline: “Banks cost Oakland more than protesters” We are a downtown local, cooperatively-owned and managed small business, and residents of Oa […]
In her visit to Los Angeles, Vandana Shiva reminded us how Gandhi had the symbolic actions -- sitting in protests -- but with that he also had the cotton -- the tangible actions. Dr Shiva said that along with the protests, people need to grow food, to build connections within their communities, to make changes in their lives. read more […]
Bill Mollison explains FDR’s Great Depression program the Civilian Conservation Corps (possibly the most popular such New Deal program) and its permaculture work swaling in dry landscapes. It is a response to a 
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