Permaculture Poem

Wed Sep 6 09:53:18 PDT 2000

Check out this great permaculture website and articles, designed by Joanne
Tippet who has given permission to post.
                                        Wes
http://www.holocene.net/
ps below is her bio and following is a Permaculture Poem by  Chief Maama
Masopha
Lesotho

Joanne Tippett is an ecological designer, sustainability consultant and
trainer.As an adjunct faculty member at Dominican College in San Rafael
California, she teaches a class entitled 'Ecology and the Environment', with a
lab section in 'planning for sustainability'. 
 She holds a BA in ecological design and cultural studies from Lancaster
 University, UK. and a Diploma of Permaculture Design. She has completed an
advanced permaculture design course with Lea Harrison; the Advanced Training
Program of The Natural Step, studying with Karl Henrik Robert, Paul Hawken and
Jonathon Porritt; has studied Holistic Management with the PELUM team from
Zimbabwe and ecological design with Sim van der Ryn and John and Nancy Todd. 
        She has carried out many ecological site planning projects ranging in
scale from a school of 5 hectares to a rural development center of 300 acres.
She has run four full two-week permaculture design courses, and has lectured
and given workshops in ecological design and strategic planning for
sustainability in Lesotho, South Africa, Great Britain, Germany, Australia and
the USA, including workshops for Milliken Industrials, the Ecological Design
Association, U.K., Archeworks, Chicago and U.C. Berkeley.
        Joanne created the SuNstainable Pathways Design Process. She is active
on the steering committee of the North Bay Sustainability Center. She will be
conducting research for a Ph.D.at the University of Manchester, U.K. between
2000 and 2003. The thesis title is 'A PARTICIPATORY PROTOCOL FOR ECOLOGICALLY
INFORMED DESIGN'. 

PERMACULTURE    By Chief Maama Masopha

Working with nature is my hobby,

Working with nature is part of my life.

Permaculture, where were you
When we lost the vegetation we had?
Permaculture where have you been?
Now that we are starving,
Why did you delay to be known,

While we have many specialists?
My country is now bare.
Who can we blame?

Herbs are diminishing,
Drought has taken advantage.
Where shall we get the herbs?
What will the herbalists do?

Importation is becoming our motto.
Our soils are very poor,
Their good structures are gone,
Their textures are destroyed,

Yet you are present and silent.
Why did you hesitate so long to be applied in Lesotho,
Yet you are known by the world?

Chemicals have spoiled our soils,
The ecosystem is disconnected,
People and animals are suffocated,
Chemicals are very expensive,
Farmers cannot afford.
Permaculture, do you know where you originate?

You are a citizen of Australia,
Your fathers gave you a good name.
We highly appreciate their thoughts,
Because you involve everything.
Living things are in need of you,
Besides you, there is no living.

New Zealand visited your home,
They saw your preciousness,
They wanted to elope with you.
This, your fathers appreciated,
Because you are a child of nations.

Your wonders reached Nepal and Zimbabwe.
The idea was put into practice, you proved to be creative.
Botswana did not hesitate,
Possibly Kalahari Desert will improve.

U.S. accepted your challenge,
They made trials on small scales,
Less expenses with high yields,
With natural resources surrounding you.

England became aware of you tricks,
They allowed you to rule their hearts.
Thailand heard of this new technique,
They wanted a positive change
And you did not betray them.

Permaculture , become our living,
Your ideas are perfect,
Your principles are marvelous.
Your fruits are known by the world.
Your absence caused migration,
Ignorance of you caused erosion.

Look at the mountains in Lesotho;
Big dongas are countless,
One district is almost a desert,
Maize does not reach the height of a man.

Who to care about this situation?
Our top soils are enriching another country,
Tonnes of soil are deposited every year,

As if not enough,
Our water is irrigating another country.

Permaculture, we are in need of you.

Unity is our motto and our song.
Are we doing it practically?
Berea, Maseru, Quithing Agriculture Groups, what are your views?
How many schools are members? If they are few, why?
How can we solve this problem?

For how long do we ask for funds
>From countries which have the same problems?
Why can't we change?
Not only the attitudes of people,
But do.

ACTION SPEAKS, PERMACULTURE IN LESOTHO     By Joanne Tippett

This article was first published in Permaculture Magazine. 
http://www.permaculture.co.uk
"Permaculture - the Magazine that's planting seeds..."
Ketso ea Bua, c/o Craig Anderson: spitzkop at hotmail.com
Ketso ea Bua (Action Speaks) is a community - based NGO (non-governmental
organisation), founded in 1988. It is located in
the small village of Ha Souru in Lesotho. Ketso ea Bua aims to address 
problems of hunger and unemployment in the surrounding area through
small-scale, self-help projects, which provide for basic needs and income
generation. There is a core group of twelve members, with the active
involvement of other villagers.

There was a general interest in permaculture in the village, as a member of 
Ketso ea Bua had attended a permaculture course several years ago. The group
had heard of work we had done in the area, and were interested to know how
permaculture could be applied to a vegetable growing project they were
developing. Money was raised from the American Ambassador's Self Help Fund,
and
we were hired to design and implement a permaculture plan.
         A 3.5-acre site had been granted by the chief to Ketso ea Bua.The
site
is bordered on two sides by severe erosion gullies and on one side by a steep,
rocky hill from which there is a high level,of runoff during rains. There are
very few trees in the area (and none on the site), and the 
landscape is dry and eroding. Adjoining land is used for cattle 
grazing and maize growing. Five of the men went on an excursion in search of
available biomass, and returned with 5 sacks of 
leaves for mulch and 5 sacks of cow manure. It had taken half of 
the day to find even this meager amount. Fortunately, water was 
available on the site in the form of a reliable spring.

        A 2-metre high security fence, topped with barbed wire surrounds the
plot of land. This is typical in Lesotho, where problems
of theft of vegetables and fruit trees and uncontrolled grazing of green 
growth are rife. The image of this security fence surrounding a ploughed field
of thistles and alfalfa is a stark one.

We had three main roles. The first was to find out the group's goals, and 
to work out the best way of achieving them. As  members of the group had not
had much opportunity to see examples of  sustainable agriculture, this
included
introducing them to alternatives in land use. The second role was to teach
about  permaculture principles underlying the design and the
practical techniques that were being introduced. The third was to 
coordinate the implementation of the design. As we had little
common language between us, communication took a variety of forms, which
tested
my acting ability and Buddy's speed sketching skills. 
        During the previous two years, we had often worked with Ntate Maama
Mosupha, a farmer, teacher and village chief. One of the
first things we did with the Ketso members was to arrange a field
trip to Ntate Maama's orchard/garden, so they could see first hand a local
person applying permaculture successfully. This was exciting for me, as I was
able to listen to a former student of mineexplaining his application of 
permaculture principles. The field trip was also attended by the 
Village and Ward Chiefs and five members of the Village 
Development Council. This was important politically, as they were also 
impressed and henceforth supportive of the project. 
        In the following weeks, Ntate Maama helped with Sesotho translation
during training sessions, and will be an important source of information and
assistance as the project develops.
         The first week was spent in observation and asking questions about
earlier projects and the group's ideas for the future. We came up with some
preliminary ideas, using the  SuNstainable Pathways Design  process,  which I
developed and piloted while in Southern Africa. At this 
stage, we worked with members on a demonstration "Swale Orchard" 
(a swale is a water-harvesting ditch and bund on the contour 
of the land). This first swale was dug very slowly, possibly 
because members couldn't initially see its value or role. After it 
had been planted with fruit trees, herbs,bushes and fodder grasses, 
however, there was a sudden comprehension and excitement. 
The remaining 450 metres swales were dug phenomenally 
quickly.
        As a result of the training sessions we ran, a similar leap of
perception occurred about the  role of trees on the land. There are
few patterns of integrated agro-forestry in Lesotho. We discussed the role of
trees in soil improvement and the water cycle,
and introduced trees with a variety of products. Ketso members started to see
that the trees could be a valuable and profitable
part of a vegetable growing system. In the three weeks of implementation 
work, we planted over 500 trees. As well as
providing fruit, nuts, forage for cattle, mulch, timber and firewood, these 
will act as a genetic bank for a future nursery. Another
major shift in perception came with the understanding that animals can be 
an integral part of the agro-forestry system.

Two years of working in Southern Africa taught us a great deal about the 
application of permaculture principles to the process
of participatory design, and how this leads to a greater probability of a 
successful project.

One of the most important of these applied principles is the planning 
guideline of "build in feedback loops". We began the
design process by asking questions and making demonstrations. The next 
stage was to complete the design with members,
asking for reactions, further ideas and changes. This was done on the site,
using rough sketches and physical descriptions.
Initially, the process of doing demonstrations and having feedback sessions
can
seem to take a lot of time and slow down the
process of design. We found, however, that the increased sense of ownership
and
understanding this process engendered
was very important. The increased speed of implementation more than made up
for
the time and effort put into involving people
in the beginning stages of the project.

This process of building in feedback loops was repeated as implementation
proceeded, so that the final design reflected
people's growing understanding and input, as well as lessons learned during
implementation. We were living in the village and
also worked practically in the field. This helped to gain trust and respect 
early, which facilitated such a participatory designprocess.

                            Knowing we were soon to leave Southern Africa, 
we set up a system which people could manage and develop without further input
from us. It was very important to come up with a
clear plan, and to make sure we left people with sufficient information to
further develop the land. There are few opportunities for Ketso 
Members to gain access to many of to sources of information which we take for
granted, such as books and educational videos.
                            One of the most important things we did, 
applying the ecological principle of "connections", was to make contacts
between people working in the field of sustainable land use in the region.
Especially valuable links were those with other farmers, as farmer -
to farmer exchange of information is one of the most effective tools for
learning and development. Ntate Maama narrated the Sesotho 
version of the video we produced about the permaculture plan and the uses of
the plants on the site.

                            We instigated a novel experiment for land 
reclamation on the degraded hillside, currently used for communal grazing,
which forms part of the Ketso project land. The typical model
for re-afforesting hillsides is to erect a fence around the area, which is
usually not popular with the owners of herds, and often leads to 
the fence being cut and the trees destroyed by illicit grazing. Pine and
eucalyptus are usually planted, as they are not palatable to grazing animals.
However, they do not supply "multiple uses" to the people in the area.
                            We set up an experimental tyre/swale on the 
hillside, turning the "problem into the
solution". These were rows of scrap tyres wired together, set on contour 
and weighed down with rocks. Multi-purpose trees
and bushes were planted in every third tyre, and protected from grazing 
with high piles of scavenged thorny branches. Thus,
many uses could be "stacked" onto the land, with managed grazing while 
growing trees for firewood, nuts, fruit and building
materials, and bushes for berries and supplementary fodder for livestock, 
without purchasing expensive fencing. If this
experiment is successful, clippings from the thorny hedge planted on the 
perimeter of the vegetable plot will provide resources
for replication in the area. Provision was also made for growing cattle 
fodder as an integral part of water harvesting and soil
stabilization within the vegetable plot, as cattle are symbolically very 
important in the culture of Lesotho.

                          One of the goals for this site is to develop a 
"land based training centre", which will eventually include a multi-purpose
training, craft work and community building. On the last day we spent at the
project, Ntate Seakanelo, the site manager, talked about one day
standing on the patio of the centre, which will overlook the pond and
agro-forestry system.
                          At the time, all that could be seen were swales 
and tiny trees and herbs, but it made me realize that we had participated in a
leap of perception of how much could be achieved using local resources and
skills. For me, this leap of awareness was the most important and exciting
part
of what we accomplished while 
working with Ketso ea Bua.

                                        Tsamea hantle, rea le boa. (Go well 
and thank you).

                                           Ntate Maama'a poem about 
permaculture

Santa Barbara
Permaculture Network
224 E. Figueroa St, #C
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
805/962-2571
sbpcnet at silcom.com  
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