[Lapg] Growing Green Economies IPC8 Brasil May 2007

Tue Jul 18 23:00:13 PDT 2006

Growing Green Economies ,
International Permaculture Convergence &Conference May 2007 Brasil
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/46583.html

   Ali Sharif, Iranian born head of Santa Fe-based Permaculture America 
Latina, is in town promoting green economics. Sharif studied with 
Australian founder of Permaculture Bill Mollison and now manages projects 
around Latin America.

By Staci Matlock | The New Mexican Sante Fe USA
July 18, 2006

In true Ghandian style, Ali Sharif has spent time with Third World pit 
toilets and high-level government officials.

As projects director with the Santa Fe-based nonprofit Permacultura America 
Latina, www.permacultura.org Sharif is putting his decade-long experience 
with low-tech solutions and political power brokers to use as coordinator 
of next year's 8th International Permaculture Conference and Convergence in 
Brazil. www.IPC8.org  The conference will focus on designing true, 
prosperous green economies. "We need to go beyond inspiration to a real 
definition for green economy," Sharif said during a recent Santa Fe visit.

He's tracking down economists, bankers, businesses and practicing "permies" 
from 40 countries so they can collectively figure out how green economies 
-- based on renewable-energy products -- can actually function. Sharif is 
hoping the conference will attract the likes of An Inconvenient Truth star 
Al Gore.

"Permies," like Sharif, are permaculturists trained to design communities 
and homes based on common sense, sustainable practices and local needs. 
Permaculture stands for "permanent culture" or "permanent agriculture." 
Bill Mollison of Australia founded permaculture-design principals in the 
late-1970s.

Permaculture helps villages and individuals look at better ways to grow 
food, produce clean water, create energy and build low-cost houses. 
"Permaculture is not water, or a chicken or the tree," Mollison once said. 
"It is how the water, the chicken and the tree are connected."

Sharif, born in Iran in 1953 and educated in Europe, was an early student 
of Mollison's. He helped found Permacultura America Latina in Santa Fe 18 
years ago. He's spent most of those years directing and building 
permaculture projects in Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala and for the last several 
years, the Brazilian rain forest. His job, in part, has been to help people 
figure out a way to build villages, make a living and prosper without 
plowing under the rain forest. A lot of the ongoing "colossal levels of 
destruction" has been because of poor decisions and bad design, Sharif said.

In the mid-1990s, Permacultura America Latina's work attracted the United 
Nations' attention. The U.N. said it would cut a deal with Brazil for land 
if the group would establish six demonstration and education centers in six 
different ecosystems. To date, they've accomplished four where local people 
and government officials can get a look at practical solutions to 
everything from raising chickens without commercial feed to building better 
toilets. Their newest center, in Salvador, Brazil, is directed by a Santa 
Feans Isabela Coelho and Yarrow Schley.

"When we started, the word permaculture wasn't known," Sharif said. "Now 
we're known nationally. We're negotiating at all kinds of levels."

Brazil's government and businesses are beginning to support their methods, 
Sharif said.

One of Sharif's newest projects will combine solar-powered computers, kids 
and rain-forest restoration. He's received seed money to buy mini Mac laptops.

Eventually, he plans to have solar systems installed to run the laptops. 
Amazon youth can learn to use the computers in exchange for helping replant 
destroyed portions of the rain forest linking five villages with "useful" 
plants such as trees and herbs.

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock at sfnewmexican.com .

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  Go to www.IPC8.org for more details

2007 Permaculture Conference & Convergence
Greening our Economy with the
Principles of Permaculture

Permaculture is an ecological design science for creating efficient, 
productive, and self-sustaining systems that serve human communities and 
evolve into dynamic and regenerative relationships with the surrounding 
environment. As such, the promise of Permaculture extends far beyond food 
production systems to our entire economy. How we can use the principles of 
permaculture to green the global economy will be the theme of the 2007 
Permaculture Convergence in São Paulo, Brazil. By linking the Permaculture 
concept to the emerging field of green economics we can begin defining what 
a sustainable global economy might look like and how it can be practically 
adapted to ensure that human welfare and ecological imperatives are rooted 
at the center of the model. The theories and language of green economics 
provide sustainable policies with a compelling argument couched in the 
powerful language of money and economics.

The Conference will host international speakers who will present plenaries, 
workshops and case studies that are directed towards responding to the 
immediate challenges facing a world that must decide its course. Their work 
will highlight public policy requirements and the active participation of 
the business community necessary to encourage sustainable economies at the 
local, state, and national level. Successful banking strategies, business 
and innovations will be the three panels during which the themes of global 
environmental markets, micro-financing, green accounting, certification, 
complementary currencies and carbon credit exchange will be presented.

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International Permaculture Conference
Greening our Economy with the Principles of Permaculture
May 16-18, 2007
Convention Center, São Paulo, Brazil
Ticket Cost: USD $100

The Conference will be organized around three panels each of which will 
cover six themes. The panels are: Successful Banking Strategies, Successful 
Business Strategies and Successful Innovative Strategies.

Those wishing to participate must reserve their tickets on-line. All 
international participants must pay for tickets on-line at the time of 
reservation. For those who cannot pay on-line, special arrangements can be 
made with the IPC8 secretariat. Brazilian participants must pay by "boleto 
bancario". Some tickets will also be available at the door.

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8th International Permaculture Convergence
May 22-25, 2007
Pirenópolis, Goiás
USD $250

The Permaculture Convergence is a private four-day gathering organized on 
behalf of the larger global permaculture family. It provides a unique 
opportunity for permaculturalists to set continental and global agendas, 
make appropriate connections, and share innovative experiences. The event 
will be hosted in IPEC which is located on the outskirts of Pirenopolis. 
IPEC is a unique permaculture reference center and school and has been 
awarded national prizes for innovative architecture and technology.

To participate, delegates must be recognized Permaculture Design 
Certificate holders (PDC). Convergence working committees will be organized 
under major climate groupings and special attention paid to the issues of 
green technology, seeds and genetic resources, trade, academic degree 
certification, bioregionalism, women in development, ecovillages, 
permaculture schools, development of permaculture organizations, disaster 
strategies, and urban self-reliance. (Design of this program will be 
undertaken over the next several months.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: Convergence participation will be limited to 250 people. 
Prospective participants must pre-register online. There will be a 
selection process for qualified participants. Accepted participants will be 
notified via email of acceptance.

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