Quail Springs Permaculture launches PDC for International Development Professionals and Social Entrepreneurs

Permaculture Design Certification Course Hosts Roster of Instructors from around the World. Quail Springs Permaculture launches Permaculture Design Certification Course for International Development Professionals and Social Entrepreneurs.

Quail Springs, California
Photo © Craig Mackintosh

Monetary assistance and training without stewardship ethics seems to be the standard for international aid today. With over 14 billion given by the U.S. Agency for International Development alone, it is increasingly important to ensure the results of aid are regenerative. Today, giving a man to fish, opposed to teaching him to fish, means that he will overfish. Quail Springs is not only teaching people how to “fish” but they are equipping people with the ethics and tools that lead to multi-generational ecological, social and economic sustainability. By using permaculture as a sustainable design framework to help secure community and individual stability, Quail Springs is innovating a new pathway for the international development community. Their upcoming Permaculture Design Certification course (PDC), taught by professionals with experience in international development projects, will teach participants sustainable systems thinking, design strategies and provide a comprehensive approach to permaculture as a tool for future development projects.

The instructors, hailing from Quail Springs Permaculture in southern California, all the way to Africa, span a gamete of professions whose various experiences make up an impressive group whose international efforts have seen much success.

Warren Brush, Julius Piti, Loren Luyendyk, Pete Schwartz and Lyn Hebenstreit constitute just five of the equally established twelve instructors involved in the course. Warren Brush is the co-founder of Quail Springs, Sustainable vocations and numerous other permaculture and peacemaking oriented projects. Warren’s extensive understanding of permaculture and work with his organizations, as well as others, has sent him around the world to work in numerous development projects side by side, be it with other permaculture organizations or child soldiers in Africa.

Like Warren, Julius Piti, a Mozambican, has worked extensively in Africa. Julius’ work in community building led him to the Chakuwa village permaculture project in Zimbabwe. Chakuwa became one of Africa’s most successful post-war success stories by employing permaculture through an integrated agricultural approach. His constant work and dedication has made him a prominent peacemaker and community-building expert in Africa. His successes in using permaculture for community building in Africa bring an in-depth first hand understanding of permaculture’s potential for sustainable development projects.

In addition to the founders of different permaculture organizations above, the instructing roster also includes a university professor. Pete Schwartz is a physics professor at Cal Poly focusing on society, development, and sustainability. His student research involves developing low-impact technologies appropriate for developing countries (and for the USA as well), including concentrated solar power, passive solar heating, improved cooking facilities, and electric transportation. The practice and application of these studies can be exemplified by the collaborative summer school in Guatemala, Guateca which represents a natural extension of Schwartz’s academic, technical, and societal efforts.

Loren Luyendyk and Lyn Hebenstreit both add to the diversity of permaculture talent and knowledge available to participants. Luyedyk’s international permaculture work with Surfers without Borders and Lyn, the founder of the international organization Global Resource Alliance (GRA) will combine with the rest of the instructors to display the variety of potential applications for permaculture in international development projects, highlighting sustainable agriculture, to community development.

The instructor’s professional achievements and wealth of knowledge will outfit the Permaculture Design Certification course (PDC) participants with tools to help increase the sustainable nature of their future development endeavors. Teaching permaculture’s effectiveness as a sustainable system design approach to securing stability for individuals and communities will produce sustainable results for years to come, and the PDC course instructors aim to do exactly that.

Quail Springs’ PDC course offers a full spectrum of relevant practices applicable for International Development and Social Entrepreneurship. Non-Governmental Organizations, Government Agencies, academic institutions and community organizers working in international development and social entrepreneurship are encouraged to participate in the course to increase the sustainable nature of their respective developmental projects.

The Permaculture Design Certification Course employs knowledgeable instructors, who will cover five overarching sections supplemented by applicable hands on learning, design exercises and systems thinking among other development strategies. Starting with an introduction centered on creative problem solving as a learning process, the course will cover Eco-literacy for sustainability, sustainable design, designing for sustainability and invisible structures. These combined topics enable the participants to develop a skill set and practices essential for a more sustainable future.

Our biggest challenge in this new century is to take an idea that seems abstract — sustainable development — and turn it into a reality for all the world’s people. — Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General.

About Quail Springs

Quail Springs is a non-profit organization and community collaboration dedicated to the multi-generational learning journey of seeding and tending the gardens of human, land-based culture in a sustainable way. Quail Springs strives to inspire people and organizations to learn the languages of the land and one another to live in accordance with the infinitely diverse web of ecology and its vitality through many generations.

Quail Springs’ work has expanded to other sites regionally and globally. With programs now offered around central and southern California, throughout the US, and internationally, Quail Springs is dedicated to providing quality education programs and germinating demonstration sites.

For further information, please visit www.quailsprings.org. To schedule an interview or for media related inquiries, please contact Alissa Sears at (805) 969-3744 or via email at alissa (at) christiecomm.com