[Sdpg] Mesoamerican Convergence on Sustainable Development- Guatemala Nov 2005 stitute for Mesoamerican Permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

Permacultura America Latina (PAL) and the Institute for Mesoamerican 
Permaculture (IMAP) plan to host an eight-day convergence with the 
participation of forty Mesoamerican grassroots organizations from eight 
countries on the volcanic shores of Lago de Atitlan, Guatemala in November 
2005.
PAL believes that the concept of sustainability must be connected to the 
introduction and practice of appropriate technology to permanently remove 
food scarcity and introduce clean drinking water and sanitation. When 
communities have met these basic needs they are then free to focus on the 
agenda of social transformation. We feel that grassroots groups have 
fundamental tools to illuminate solutions in the Mesoamerica region. It is 
our intention to produce a grassroots roadmap for sustainable development 
in Mesoamerica and initiate practical, multi-organizational collaborations 
among the participants.
IMAP, one of PAL's semi-independent projects, is an NGO established in 2000 
by men and women concerned with the grave environmental, social, political 
and cultural problems affecting the rural communities of the Mesoamerican 
region. IMAP promotes Permaculture as a way to achieve self-sustainability 
in rural farming communities. Their primary focus is on the preservation 
and promotion of native and open pollinated seed varieties through the 
establishment of community seed banks. The larger vision is to connect 
community based organizations throughout Mesoamerica by creating a 
Mesoamerican Seed Bank Network.
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For more information please email pal at permacultura.org or call 505-989-1695 
in Santa Fe.NM http://www.permacultura.org/