• TheRoadToAbundance

The Road to Abundance

Ali Shariff

10 June 2005

Process: slide projection & talk, followed by questions & answers

Summary

Ali showed the development of the Brazilian Permaculture Institute and its work in the Amazonas region. The institute’s strategy is to develop solutions that reverse destructive land management practices like cattle farming, provide an alternative livelihood to people in the region and help them to avoid or decrease financial debt.

Key points

• 9 institutes in Latin America created since 1988, including Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Peru; in Brazil 5 demonstration centres, one in each major ecosystem. The aim of the institutes is to jump-start national programmes

• The institute is led by a small informal group; new projects are set up with the support of ones that are already up & running. Connections between projects are largely informal & personal. The Brazilians also have links with projects in other countries. Fundraising for projects started in the US, and increasingly in Brazil. By the end of 2005 all institutes are supposed to be self-financing through economic activities and educational programmes.

• Key to success of all projects is community involvement – there is a history of failure in programmes flown in from outside without local involvement. Education centres in the Amazonas, Pampa and Sahado (savannah) regions are part of a strategy to create leaders in reversing the destruction of these ecosystems, recruited from inside the affected communities

• The leadership training for young people involves two 2-week intensive courses with a two week period at home in between. The training is in practical skills with land and settlements, in organisational skills such as administrations, finances & NGO management, and also builds up self-esteem. The centre and the headquarters all demonstrate the locally relevant and innovative design, construction and use of materials (super adobe, underground buildings, large timber structures, adobe domes)

• The institute’s centre is located in Manaus, the main city of the Amazonas region. The area is badly affected by destructive land management since the “green” revolution and many new people have settled on previous rainforest land in recent years. The institute took on a 10ha site to demonstrate how land in the Amazonas region can be used productively, affordable and non-destructively. They also created a 700sqm demonstration area, producing fish, pigs, chicken, vegetables, fruit and honey.
• Co-operation with other groups and institutions is pragmatic – there has been a permaculture course for the Brazilian army (including chief of staff), schools and the Landless Movement alike. Currently the institute works on setting up a 1-year curriculum for sustainable technology in a regional college.

[Scribe: Tomas Remiarz]