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From a "third-world" perspective I would like to
confirm ALL that was written here. Countries which lack cash and
machines ( and are therefore " third-world") often have excellent human
resources and creativity , with local projects well under way which may
not use the name "Permaculture" but do much of the same
thing.
Although agreeing that Permaculture promises a lot
more than one sees on the ground, I would like to contribute to
this discussion suggesting ( and this is our strategy here in Brazil, and I
am repeating what I said in another thread) that one of the major functions of
permaculture is its multi-disciplinary vision, it has an organized
overview which ofen lacks in specific local projects. Besides teaching
people to have this overview, I think that one of our major functions in
international aid is in networking, locating what already exists and linking
that up, locally and internationally. Of course that is impossible in a
two-week or a two-month visit, and it is CERTAINLY impossible if you donīt speak
the language. Permaculture pioneered ( or lifted from other sources?) a
lot of techniques, but it is no longer unique in this, and I think in many cases
was left behind by oither institutions and projects which have developed certain
areas much better than we ( alternative technology, ecological agriculture,
alternative housing, etc.)even in apparently poor countries. There is a lot of
arrogance in the movement, because the course makes us feel omnipotent ( I
know-- I was there!!!) Reminds me of a PC teacher who came here and, in
the year 2000, said that " Bill Mollison had appointed him to make a
Permaculture network in Brazil(of course with him having the power to decide who
would be part of that network..)" when a local network was already
in place and vibrant since 1993 ( wonīt name names here...)
I am particlarly interested in the ramifications of
the New Paradigm ( also another thread being repeated here)and how that reflects
in new structures. In its holistic, multi-disciplinary systemic
approach, Permaculture is one of the best tools I know of for helping people and
institutions move into New Paradigm thinking and acting . In
this I think we can help the aid agencies who are vaguely fumbling in this
direction-- so the suggestion below of frequenting Australian aid agencies
before going overseas is most interesting-- and the best transformation for the
Third World could be from there, by transforming the vision within the
agencies...(It is unfortunate that Lisa Mollison is trying to pull Permaculture
back into Old Paradigm structures ( control, hierarquies, fear , fragmentation
etc.)If she were to succeed ( but she wonīt!), we would have to change the name
of what we do, because Old Paradigm Permaculture is an oxymoron...)
In a practical vein, tropical Permaculture is
extremely well anchored here in Brazil, and we are dedicated to training these
young idealistic people who would like to do this kind of work(and also others
in other regions of Brazil). They can have real-life experience in
alternative communitites and in other projects in places which will
not be harmed by their lack of experience( and lack of the language). The
results until now have been most positive, as we have been able to fill in that
first serious gap between new knowledge and hands-on experience in a Third World
situation ( although I personally donīt think Brazil is third-world-- it is just
being thoroughly robbed by its own government and by trans-national
corporations).
As to documentation, I would ask what do we
actually document in Permaculture? The number of gardens built? The
number of ecovillas constructed? What is there to measure, exactly?
How do you measure a design system? I think we can measure parts of what is
included in Permaculture ( kilos of carrots etc.)but how can we measure that
leap when people begin to have a holistic view and discover that they are
powerful ( one of the biggest contributions)? I DO think we can measure
them somehow, and am most interested in seeing the form used , as suggested
below.
For those who are interested, our drylands
polyculture program is full steam ahead and being documented, comparing results
to neighboring fields. That is one sort of documentation of the
agricultural model as recommended by Permaculture which we can offer to aid
agencies,( in another six monthīs time)..And as we are also going into
depths with the farmers about other aspects of the rural property ( water
catchment, budgeting, etc.) the project is taking on more and
more the profile of a Permaculture project( whole-farm planning) and not
just an agroecological one...
So I would suggest that the function of foreign
teachers coming in as part of an aid program could be to help
already-exisitng local programs take the next step, adding new insights-- for
example a workshop on alterntive money systems is very
powerful! -- as that would be a contribution which continues when the teacher
leaves. But again , it is my experience that if the teacher does not speak
the language, he/she is terribly dislocated, has difficulties in penetrating the
actual situation and making a real contribution.
In the end, why travel? After all, each of these
countries has its own slums, its own collapsed farms, its own third world
embedded in apparent affluence. ( My sister was director of a
program which collected food for the hungry-- in the rich United Sates! I
Was absolutely shocked when she sent me the statistics of the extent of this
hunger...)The inspired young people could travel in instead of out... But--
needing adventure-- Brazil is at their disposition!
Marsha
Instituto de Permacultura da Bahia
Brazil
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2001 9:32
AM
Subject: Re: research on pc projects
needed
Hi Rick + Naomi...
Must be some parallel thought going on
here!
You wrote:
We work with an aid agency on sustainable
permaculture aid projects. One of
the issues that came up at our last
meeting was the lack of documentation
and research into the
effectiveness of permaculture techniques.
I think this attitude may be more common among aid agencies than we
think. Over years of work with an agency, I have come across a skepticism
regarding the effectiveness of permaculture as a tool in aid. I know that. a
few years back, an agricultural adviser with AusAID (the Australian
government's aid funding body) publicly ridiculed permaculture at an aid
organisation meeting. He said "Permaculture is not a suitable technolology for
overseas development" and likened it to Farming Systems Research of the
1970s.
Were there the documentation you mention, then answering critics
would be simplified.
Rick and Noami write:
Many case studies are documented in the various
global permaculture
publications and in the International Permaculture
Conference Proceedings
papers. However we do agree that there is a broad
lack of research and
quantitative data reports on such
projects.
Articles in the permaculture
press are valuable as descriptive journalistic pieces. They are generally not,
however, analytical articles which ask questions about processes and outcomes.
They therefore lack that hard, enquiring edge which is needed to make a
realistic assessment of things and which is needed to effectively answer
critics. In fact, a great deal of permaculture writing is self-congratulatory,
fails to address negatives (how else can we learn?) and make comparisons. This
feels good in the short term but takes us nowhere over the longer
term.
At the risk of being accused of negativity to permaculture
development aid, may I make a few observations based on experience in
permaculture since 1984 and in overseas aid since 1995?
1) There is no
funding that I know of to successfully carry out in-depth monitoring and
evaluation visits of permaculture development aid projects. This is one of the
reasons that hard data is difficult to find.
2) Much permaculture aid
is short-term stuff rather than the long-term which is so critical to training
local people to take over the management of projects and to ensuring their
sustainability (as much as that is ever possible). Little thought is given to
making projects sustainable.
3) There exists a 'workshop' mentality
with permaculture aid. That is, it is believed that by conducting a workshop
or two, what is taught will continue to be implemented. Our experience in the
South Pacific indicates that this is untrue.
There's an interesting
story about an Australian permaculture team that went to PNG for a project. As
I received the story, they went to Port Moresby markets and demonstrated a
solar cooker. Locals, interested in the seemingly useful contrivance, asked
why they hadn't seen such a device before. Well, maybe they hadn't, but the
organisation seemed to be suggesting that small scale appropriate technology
such as the cooker was new to PNG. In fact, a little research would have
disclosed the existence of appropriate technology in the country since the
late 1970s. Anyone who visits the UniTech campus in Lae, on the PNG
north coast, can visit the Appropraite Technology and Community Development
Institute, spend time in their excellent library, buy there publications -
including the excellent manual on appropriate technology and small scale
village agricultural development, the Lik Lik Buk (a must for rural
development workers) visit the technology workshop next door and see the
buildings they designed. And why have solar cookers not taken off? Maybe it
has something to do with the extent of wet season cloud cover, the cost
and simply finding the materials to make a solar cooker from.
4)
Generally, a Permaculture design Course, without any follow-up study or prior
experience, is an inadequate qualification for working in overseas
aid.
While working for an aid agency in Sydney, I don't know how many
times young hopefuls - really well intentioned people - walked into the
office and asked to be deployed to one of our aid projects in Melanesia. When
asked about experience and studies, all they had was a design certificate.
Usually, they had just completed one and, fired up and enthused, were
consequently ready to put it into action (called by some the 'permaculture
eureka' effect).
The design course is all too often an
information-shovelling effort where a knowledgeable teacher downloads content
into the heads of students. Actual skills development is another matter. The
students I saw had no skills in, or even knowledge about, techniques commonly
used by development field staff and which we use in Melanesia - Participatory
Rural Appraisal, Participatory Technology Development, community food security
assessment. Nor did they commonly have any knowledge of project
management.
5) In general, monitoring and evaluation of permaculture
projects, even in developed countries, is lacking. There seems to be little
mention of it in permaculture design courses and little application of it as
part of the overall permaculture project management cycle. Yet, without
a realistic assessment of our work, how do we learn? How do we improve? One of
the notions we adopted for our work in the Pacific was that of 'continual
improvement' based on monitoring and adjustment - through formal analysis,
participant questioning and informal discussion - and, at suitable intervals
when funding allowed, through evaluation of the program to date.
6)
Permaculture has to move beyond the herb spirals and banana circles mentality
to create a niche in the aid industry where it works from its strong points.
To do this, permaculture has to shed its aversion to self-reflection, its
dislike of the consideration of negatives and the defensiveness of some of its
adherents. It needs to become self-critical. It must also shed the damaging
'permaculture missionary' attitude of some of its more enthusiastic
proponents which can be e real turn-off to development
professionals.
7) Permaculture needs to leave emergency and
humanitarian intervention to the agencies streamlined to provide this - the
Australian Defence Force and the emergency agencies such as Medicine Without
Frontiers, Red Cross/ Crescent, World Vision and so on. Permaculture is at
home in the development phase following an emergency when infrastructure is
being rebuilt, not in the emergency response phase for which it has little
experience, no Australia-based or in-country back-up (including an
administrative and communications component), little knowledge about field
security in conflict situations, little financial back-up and little
experience working with those whose melieu in this area.
This is not to
say that permaculturists should not participate in a broader team in
emergency/ humanitarian aid.
Rick +Noami write:
Does anyone on this list know of any formal
research into the effectiveness
of permaculture strategies, or
documentation of projects that could add to
our current
knowledge?
We applied for and received funding from
an agency research body to produce an evaluation - a documentation - of our
program in the South Pacific and to produce some training manuals suitable for
use by Melanesian field staff. These latter include a manual about basic
introductory agricultural techniques for people using slash and burn farming
(includes mulching, soils etc).
Rather than produce the research
(carried out through the 'action research' methodology) in conventional
data-heavy format, we wanted it in a form understandable by Melanesian aid
workers as well as by people in developed countries. Consequently, we are
producing it as a narrative, in everyday English... more as a journalistic
document but heavy laden with factual stuff. All these products are nearing
final draft and will most likely be made available free as PDF format
printable documents from a website planned for the program.
Rick +
Noami write:
We believe (with a passion) that permaculture
systems work if well designed
and considered, it would be great to have
more documented evidence of this.
Absoloutely! Permaculture provides that broad appreciation of a
situation.
May I recommend that permaculture people interested in
overseas aid:
- volunteer in Australia or wherever they live with a
suitable non-government aid organisation to gain understanding of how aid and
its agencies operate and to build up some experience in project
management
- enroll in one of the permaculture advanced courses for aid
workers - Permaculture Education at Nimbin and the Seed Savers Network at
Byron Bay offer courses - maybe Rick + Naomi do too?
- learn
participatory techniques for working with communities
- if your
interest is agriculture, then learn about human nutrition and health. water
supply and irrigation and sanitation as well as developing practical food
gardening skills in your garden or in a community garden
- read books
such as:
a) STRIKING A BLANCE - a guide to enhancing the effectiveness
of non-government organisations in international development (Fowler A, 1997;
Earthscan; London)
b) A BASIC GUIDE FOR DEVELOPMENT WORKERS (1995,
Rubin F; Oxfam; UK)
c) CHOOSING RESEARCH METHODS (1992, Pratt B, Loizos
P: Oxfam; UK)
d) BASIC ACCOUNTING FOR SMALL GROUPS (1992, Cammack J;
Oxfam; UK)
e) GARDENING FOR BETTER NUTRITION (1978, Pacey A;
Internediate Technology Publications; London)
f) GETTING READY - a
guide for international NGO, permaculture and community development workers
(1998: Permaculture and Development Team; Sydney, Australia) - from Action for
World Development: awdev@ozemail.com.au
g) BRIDGING THE GAP - a
guide to monitoring and evaluating development projects (Broughton B,
Hampshire J; Australian Council for Overseas Aid; Canberra, ACT)
h) TWO
EARS OF CORN - a guide to people-centred agricultural development (Bunch R,
1982; World Neighbours; Oklahoma, USA)
i) PARTICIPATORY LEARNING AND
ACTION - a trainer's guide (Pretty N et al, 1995; International Institute for
Environment and Development; London)
j) DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGY WITH
FARMERS - a trainer's guide for participatory learning (1997, van Veldhuizen
et al; Zed Books; London)
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