[Sdpg] [permaculture] PERMACULTURE TRAINING IN GAIA ARGENTINA

Mon Jul 28 16:00:52 PDT 2003

*THANKS FOR SHARING THIS INFORMATION WITH LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE,  AND FOR 
SPREADING IT IN WEB PAGES*

ARGENTINEAN PERMACULTURE INSTITUTE

Invites you to a great opportunity of intensive Permaculture training in 
Latin America

Permaculture Design Course

 From 24th October to 7th November 2003

  Permaculture Advanced course on Ecovillage Design

 From 9th to 14th November 2003

By Peter Bane and Keith Johnson (US) & Gustavo Ramirez (Argentina)

Introduction

Permaculture is the design of human-centered environments - towns,
homes, gardens, and farms - to work with, not against Nature. We can
create neighborhoods and villages that harvest energy from the wind and
sun, capture and store rainwater, produce food for their inhabitants,
and build soil and clean their own wastes while existing in harmony with
the wildness of the landscape around them. Permaculture principles can
also be applied to the design of social and economic systems that will
support restoration of the earth and nurture self-reliant communities.

This revolutionary and holistic design system is based on the
integration of widespread grassroots research, the wisdom of traditional
peoples, and modern ecological science. Originated  with the work of
Australians David Holmgren and Bill Mollison, Permaculture is now taught
and practiced by thousands of men and women in over 60 countries.

These courses brings together experienced designers from Northern and
Southern ecovillages to share the challenges and the success of their projects

Peter Bane took his initial training in Permaculture design with Max
Lindegger and Lea Harrison in 1990, and has gone on to teach over 25
design courses, most recently in Chile, Colorado, Michigan, and North
Carolina. For over ten years he has published The Permaculture Activist,
North America's leading journal of permaculture design. As editor,
author, and journalist, he has reported on Permaculture systems from
Nepal to Scandanavia, and his writing has been published in more than a
dozen journals and books in Britain, Canada, Australia, South Africa,
and the United States, including Planet Drum, Katuah Journal,
Permaculture International Journal, Communities Magazine, Eco-Farm and
Garden, The Villager, The Overstory Book, and others.
A consultant to Slippery Rock University (Pennsylvania) in the design of
its graduate program in sustainable systems, and a charter faculty
member of the Ecovillage Training Center in Tennessee, Peter is
presently a board member of Culture's Edge, an educational non-profit
sponsoring programs in sustainable living in the Southern Appalachian
Mountains. He has pioneered new course formats in Permaculture education
and received the International Permaculture Community Service Award in
1994. Since that time he has been a member of Earthaven Ecovillage in
western North Carolina. He joined the community's founding group seven
years ago, has served as its Firekeeper (president) and Waterbearer
(treasurer), and has played a leading role in developing the village
Land Use Plan. Recently he built a timber-frame and clay-straw cottage
for himself from local and salvaged materials. A native of Illinois,
Peter has lived in all regions of the United States, as well as in
Hawaii, Ireland, and Mexico.

Gustavo Ramirez Since his youth art, oriental spirituality and nature have 
fascinated him. Graduated as a veterinarian in 1983, since then he has 
participated in several wildlife projects.

He got interested in the health of the planet as a whole and started 
working towards the protection of two wild areas near Buenos Aires City. 
Whilst working there he created and developed an environmental education 
program based on the deep connection with nature.

He is founder member of Gaia Association. He has lived in Gaia Ecovillage 
project for five years, and has played a leading role in the general design 
of the site. He recently built, together with his wife, their cob cottage 
with local materials.

With Permaculture he found the synthesis of many areas in which he has been 
working separately, which has opened new paths in his work with nature.

He took his initial training in Permaculture design with Max Lindegger in 
1996, and has gone on to teach Permaculture Design Course in Argentina, 
Uruguay, Peru, Chile.

He has created and coordinates Instituto Argentino de Permacultura. He is 
an active member of RAPEL (Latin-American Permaculture support network) and 
has made presentations in 1st Latin-American Congress in Argentina. He is 
also an active member since the creation of GEN (Global Ecovillage Network) 
and ENA (Ecovillage Network of Americas)

One of his main interests at the moment is the adaptation of Permaculture 
systems to the Latin-American reality, and the inclusion of art, native 
flora, and popular knowledge to his designs.

Permaculture Design Course

 From 24th October to 7th November 2003

Cultivate Practical Skills for Growing your own Food and Medicine,
Building your own earth-friendly House, and helping Restore your
Community to vital sustainability

The course curriculum will cover the 72-hour requirement for
Permaculture design training and participants who complete the course
will receive a certificate authorizing them to use the term in pursuit
of a livelihood.

Subjects include:
Ethics and Principles
Observation, Pattern & Design
Ecosystems, Climate & Biogeography
Forests, Soils, and Water
Earthworks
The Design of the Home
Natural Building Systems
Energy and Waste Treatment
Appropriate Technology
Gardens and Food Storage
Plants, Animals, and Aquaculture
Design of Towns and Villages
Economic and Financial Systems
Broadscale Agriculture and Land Managment.
Tools for the Designer
Creating a Livelihood

Permaculture Advance course on Ecovillage Design

 From 9th to 14th November 2003

Learn the template for creating new ecological communities. We will
explore physical and social technologies, the challenges and pitfalls,
group dynamics, financial and legal aspects of creating or recreating
human communities for the 21st century.

How do we design our way through the crisis of global civilization?
Human-scale, fully featured communities are pioneering a setting for the
creation of new, more fully human beings. The social experiments of
intentional communities grow out of a centuries-old impulse towards a
more peaceful and rewarding way of life. Now they are being wed to a
growing ecological awareness and sophisticated technologies for living
lightly on the earth in the creation of "ecovillages," new or
reinhabited settlements capable of meeting the life cycle needs of their
residents while restoring the earth around them.

This 6-day program will expose participants to the full range of issues
involved in creating sustainable human settlemnents: vision and design,
recruitment, creating community glue, making and keeping agreements,
governance, finance, economic development, shaping the landscape,
meeting infrastructure needs, testing and renewal, and enduring through time.

THE SITE

This course will be held at Gaia Ecovillage Project, in Navarro 110km. 
southwest of Buenos
Aires on the Argentine pampa. Built as a milk-processing plant 50 years 
ago, Gaia has been extensively rehabilitated as a Living and Learning 
Center, with sleeping facilities, classrooms, library, community kitchen, 
greenhouse, etc.  Power at Gaia is generated by wind turbines, and good 
examples of reforestation, forest garden, natural building, appropriate 
technology, waste water treatment, composting toilets, solar showers, solar 
ovens and several sustainable systems in different stage of development may 
be seen at the site.
And all of this in the context of a small pioneer community in evolving 
process.

Gaia hosts the regional office of the Ecovillage Network of the Americas, 
and the Argentinean Permaculture Institute (IAP), as a space for 
experimenting, implementing and teaching Permaculture systems. They offer 
courses in Permaculture, Sacred Dances, Aromatherapy, Community living and 
more. It offers an updated library covering a wide range of topics based on 
sustainability, as well as interesting videos. IAP organized the 1st Latin 
American Permaculture Congress with great success on march 2000.

A lively mix of South and North Americans promises to make this a special 
event. Instruction will be in Spanish and English with translation.
Dormitory accommodations are simple but comfortable, and participants will 
enjoy delicious vegetarian meals.

Courses Fees & Registration

Those people wishing to attend need to submit the completed application 
form. Due to limited spaces, they need to send a deposit of 50% of the fees 
to confirm. There is a 10% discount for those who attend both courses. 
Donations are welcome to subside others participants from Latin America 
that ask for financial support.

The total cost includes tuition, notes, lodging and meals

Permaculture Design Course: US$750

Advance course on Ecovillage Design: US$400  - Participants should have 
basic Permaculture knowledge as a pre-requisite to the Ecovillage Design 
Advance course.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Asociacion GAIA - http://www.gaia.org.ar - Email: gaia at gaia.org.ar

Postal address: Almafuerte 1732 - San Martin (1650) Buenos Aires - Argentina

Phone: (+54-2272) 492072 - Fax: (+54-11) 47522197
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