Friday, JUNE 12, 9-10am, Sustainable World Radio
 Interview with Juan Rojas of the Institute of Mesoamerican Permaculture

Sustainable World Radio, KCSB 91.9 FM PST
 also streaming live on www.kcsb.org, interviews posted later on     www.sustainableworldradio.com

Join Jill Cloutier of Sustainable World Radio for an interview with Juan Rojas of the Institute of Mesoamerican Permaculture (IMAP). Rojas has been instrumental in establishing grassroots organizations aimed at appropriate methods of farming and land restoration, always seeking the skills and expertise of local farmers. Since 1994 Rojas has been a part of the thirty year old Campesino a Campesino (Farmer to Farmer) movement.

Joining Jill in studio will be Wes Roe and Margie Bushman of Santa Barbara Permaculture Network who first met Juan Rojas in 2005 at the 7th International Permaculture Convergence in Croatia and then again in 2007 in Brazil for the 8th International Permaculture Convergence. www.ipc8.org.  They will be speaking about the importance of the International Permaculture Convergences (IPC's) in building an international community of personal and regional knowledge exchanges.  The next IPC will be in Malawi, Africa, November 2009.

MORE ABOUT JUAN ROJAS:

  Juan Rojas was born in El Salvador, who after qualifying as an industrial electrician became involved in the trade union struggles of the 1980's.  Forced into exile by a brutal military regime, he spent four years in Mexico, and later eight years in Australia where he studied Permaculture as a useful tool for rebuilding his home country following the peace accords of 1992.

Mesoamerica is a term that recognizes the cultural, ecological, traditional, and sociological similarities, rather than political boundaries of what currently makes up the countries of Central America.  Juan Rojas is a certified permaculture instructor and one of the founders of both the Institute of Mesoamerican Permaculture and the Permaculture Institute of El Salvador who has worked with others to acknowledge these similarities along with the comparable dilemmas and obstacles that countries in the regions share.

Juan recently taught an Advanced Indigenous Permaculture Design Course May 26-june 4  2009 in Wisconsin for the Oneida Nation at the Tsyunehka Farm hosted by the College of Menominee Nation Sustainable Development Institute.  www.sustainabledevelopmentinstitute.org

       

~Permaculture (PERMAnent agriCULTURE), a design system based on ecological principles for creating sustainable human environments ~
~Permacultura (agriCULTURA PERMAnente), un sistema de diseño a base de principios ecológicos para crear un medio ambiente sostenible.~

 

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Resources/websites:

Institute for Mesoamerican Permaculture (IMAP)  and Permaculture Institute of El Salvado  www.permacultura.org

Campesino a Campesino, by Eric Holt-Gimenez.  Author spent over 25 years in Mexico and Cenral America as a community organizer and agricultural outreach worker, learning that only when farmers taught each other, many times with parables, stories, and humor, was knowledge successfully transferred. His is executive director of Food First/Institute for Food & Development Policy.
 http://www.foodfirst.org/backgrounders/campesino

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
   an educational non-profit since 2000
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie@sbpermaculture.org
 www.sbpermaculture.org

"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to grow." - Anonymous