Developing Permaculture Aid Project Skills

There are as many people holding different skills as there are species, and this diversity of skills is required to build permaculture projects around the world. As the world heads towards peak oil, peak soil, and peak water, the demand for permaculture education continues to grow, and at the forefront of this demand are people in developing countries who are dependent upon being able to grow their own food and whose livelihood depends on the health of the local soil.

The first Permaculture Project Aid Worker Course conducted by the Permaculture Research Institute was held in November at Zaytuna Farm in NSW, Australia. Geoff Lawton and Rosemary Morrow led the six-day course, which was attended by twenty-three students in total. Lawton established the course as a response to keeping up with the demand for skilled aid workers on overseas projects, as well as a vision to establish a network of permaculture education centres around the world.

Students of the first PPAWC were offered this vision as a goal for the future, as well as bestowed with concrete tips for planning, establishing, carrying out and monitoring a project anywhere in the world. Says Morrow, “A permaculture demonstration site or education centre may be the ultimate theme for a strong glue that bonds an unintentional community.” She stresses that people bring different and varied skills to a project and encouraged all students to pursue this work with a passion. “There’s room for all of you to run with it and make it your passion and do it the way you want.”

Both Lawton and Morrow have many years of overseas development work incorporating permaculture designs, leading permaculture workshops and establishing ongoing projects. Lawton has worked in countries as varied as Vietnam, Morocco, Iraq, Brazil, the USA, and Jordan, and brought to the course his expertise in working with various cultures and in refugee and disaster situations. Morrow has extensive experience working with children and to alleviate nutritional deficiency in developing countries such as Cambodia, through education and teaching people how to set up gardens. Both of their skill sets serve to demonstrate the range of projects and needs, as well as the perseverance required to carry such work through.

Both of them stressed that such work is not always easy, and presents various cultural, physical and financial challenges at times. However, having a world view that carries you through difficult situations and gives you the ability to be effective and makes you feel like you are making a difference, as well as which is “inherently tolerant of people,” (Morrow) are the main criteria which determine one’s suitability to the task. “Permaculture is disaster training,” says Morrow. “Individuals doing it won’t survive—we have to work to support communities to buffer disastrous effects.”

If you meet this criteria, then the further skills required can be learned. The first tip is to start SMALL. You want the biggest result with the least effort. Once examining your motivation to establish a project, you will want to look at four areas: How to Start, On the Ground, After the Project, and Monitoring and Evaluation.

Getting started entails looking at the climate profile, creating a concrete action plan, looking at the legal aspects of your project, interacting with local political and community systems, creating a model financial plan and budget, looking for paid work and funding, and creating community.

Once on the ground, you will need to look at cultural sensitivity, access to local resources and knowledge, the reality on the ground, hands-on practical skills, dealing with culture shock, interaction with the local economy and enhancing your skills base.

After the project is established, you should look into its financial sustainability, having a home base project, and interacting with the people you left behind.

All aid workers should learn to write at least a simple project proposal and learn to document their proposed work, which includes having an executive summary and synopsis which highlights key points and can be read quickly by a busy person.

As Lawton teaches in his courses, spend ninety percent of your time thinking and planning, and ten percent doing the work. Says Morrow, “The more thinking in advance you’ve done, the more likely you are to be happy with the result you’ve gotten.”

In terms of designing the demonstration site, you will need to prepare a site analysis and site plan. This includes water access, a nutrient/garden plan, a whole site work plan, and whole site energy and waste plan. If you are going to teach, you must have clear competency in teaching to analyse the site.

In terms of teaching a PDC in developing countries, it is helpful to talk about definitions and help find a common understanding of terminology. Don’t always assume people know what you know. Spend some time thinking about students’ needs and what facilitates student learning. Be skilled in conflict resolution, if possible. Again, start small—always start by teaching an introductory course in the community first. Later, after doing a successful PDC, you will need a plan to carry out training into the wider community.

Both teachers of the Aid Worker Course stressed the need for people to help in the areas of water and food in the future. They also indicated a need for training materials to be translated, and a need for seed saving knowledge everywhere. “We are now in the regenerative process principle,” said Morrow, “We must plan more for future needs—we need a replacement principle.” Looking to Maslov’s Hierarchy of needs for survival is one way to assess community needs—security, shelter, food, water. Carl Popper’s philosophy is also applicable—start where it effects most of the people most beneficially. However, beware of the limits of permaculture. You cannot stop a war, and you should not put your life at risk.

Outcomes of the November PPAWC were the first graduates, who will hopefully be able to carry the training out into the world through developing projects, networking and helping others improve their skills. Course administrators also received a thorough evaluation and feedback which will be applied towards improving future courses. Students’ comments revealed that they would have preferred more time spent working on practical skills and in the field, as well as a more clearly developed curriculum. This has been taken into account and students on the second course held in February will be treated to more time in the field developing skills on the ground.

The other great advantage of the course was the opportunity to begin building a network of aid workers. Students shared access to information and resources, and even created a skills database. Several students discussed creating websites for networking and fundraising resources. The hope is that this network will spread to, and help serve, the rest of the global permaculture community. After all, it is only through sharing available resources that we can have access to all.