Delivered-To: lakinroe@silcom.com
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 22:49:02 -0800
From: Marjorie Lakin Erickson
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To: sbpcnet@silcom.com, lakinroe@silcom.com
Subject: Permafloat a sail boat delivering permaculture to coast land areas
http://www.permaculture.net/Colorado/permafloat.html
Permaculture Afloat
Our decision to launch ecological seagoing vessels is founded on the deceptively simple fact that most people live in coastal areas (60% of world population lives within 10 miles of a coastline). Positioned at the juncture of inland natural resources and waterbourne riches, coastal lands have throughout history been key to trade and cultural exchange. Coastal peoples are traditionally adaptable and resourceful, yet they are also particularly susceptible to resource depletion, pollution, climatic changes and economic dislocation. Global warming and sea level rise make these areas especially vulnerable. There are perhaps no more obvious and dramatic locales where the forces of collapse can be so effectively met by the forces of regeneration and renewal.
Permaculture Afloat is delivering teachers, seeds and technologies to coastal lands. Our floating educational institute provides living quarters, office and library space, and cooking and dining facilities. Books, journals, tools and small-scale sustainable technologies are the valuable cargo of our earth-friendly boat.
The techniques promoted by the Permaculture Afloat program will enable farmers, gardeners, and landscapers to eliminate the use of dangerous chemicals, improve water quality in rivers, ground water and marine ecosystems; and grow more healthful food.
We are addressing Permaculture on two levels in the Permaculture Afloat Program. First, we are promoting simple self-sufficiency for single families with backyard gardens. Secondly, we are introducing Permaculture design principals to farmers, school children and market gardeners.
We first began organizing the Permaculture Afloat project in 1997 when we networked with government and non-government agencies in the Caribbean. Although we received a great deal of enthusiasm for teaching workshops in the area, we lacked suitable funding to get the program off the ground. In late 1998 we received a donation of a 30-foot sail boat in excellent condition and start up money for the program.
CRMPI Director Jerome Osentowski is heading up this project but has been assisted by CRMPI staff and numerous volunteers. Over the next two years, Permaculture Afloat will focus on providing Permaculture information to local native farmers and gardeners in the Bahamas. Many of the small island communities in the Bahamas have become dependent on food imports despite their year-round growing season. Unfortunately agriculture, especially small-scale farming, is increasingly being considered a lowly trade. We believe that by creating a network of Permaculture activists in the area we can enhance the status of small farmers, create a local source of diverse food stuffs, and help protect native ecosystems and cultures from the continuing influx of negative non-local influences.
Attendance to our first Permaculture Afloat presentation in the Bahamas was overwhelming. Over 100 people showed up for our presentation on Man-o-War Cay, including local farmers, home gardeners, government officials, garden club members and high school students. The audience responded with a great deal of enthusiasm to our slides, and a great deal of questions! After the presentation we were approached with many invitations to do additional work, including the following:
1)Jerome gave a presentation to 25 local students at the Government High School's Agriculture class on Marsh Island and agreed to help them set up a demonstration plot and to help them test and develop methods of "alley cropping" and other Permaculture techniques for a local Neem (medicinal herb) farmer. The Agriculture class's teacher, a native of Guyana, is extremely enthusiastic about Permaculture and is arranging to attend one of CRMPI's Permaculture Design Certification workshops in Colorado this coming summer. We are also arranging for her to spend a couple of weeks in Florida to learn from the agro-forestry group Echo.
2) Jerome gave a presentation to a local primary school and was invited to help them set up a demonstration garden.
3) A local pig farmer and a local chicken farmer asked Jerome to help them set up more integrated systems for their operations.
4) Jerome conducted a small workshop for backyard gardeners.
5) A Customs agent (and enthusiastic backyard gardener) said he would help provide Permaculture Afloat with all the necessary approvals to bring seeds into the country. We would like to obtain seeds (donated whenever possible) to help local farmers and gardeners diversify their crops when appropriate.
Not bad for 6 days!
After returning from the Bahamas Jerome gave a short presentation and a 1/2 day workshop on Permaculture to the staff of Echo, a nonprofit with offices in Florida that promotes sustainable agriculture/forestry. They are really a wonderful group. Jerome obtained some seeds and books from them and established a long-term relationship with them for the future procurement of seeds and books for the Permaculture Afloat program.
In this short time it has become quite obvious that there is a great deal of interest in, and a great deal of need for, information on Permaculture in the Bahamas. Our goal is to provide workshops free of charge to local farmers, gardeners, and schools with limited budgets; and to charge those who can easily afford to pay or who have budgets for such presentations, i.e., garden clubs of the wealthy and some government agencies. Until the program is a little better established however, we will be relying on grants and individual contributions for support. We plan on conducting up to a half a dozen 4-day workshops over the next twelve months as well as dozens of shorter presentations.
Any support you could provide towards this effort would be greatly appreciated. For more information please contact us at permacul@rof.net. Donations, payable to "Permaculture Afloat", can be sent to:
Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute (CRMPI)
P.O. Box 631
Basalt, CO 81623
Note: Our long-term goal is to obtain a larger boat in order to carry a larger library and more Permaculture scholars and to take the program to more distant shores. If you or your organization has a 40 to 65 foot sail or motorsailer that could be donated (it's tax deductible!) please contact us.