Join Ark Eden & Liquid Interiors May 17th for a fun evening at Eat Right restaurant and learn about healthy eating on a busy schedule, green drinks, green decor, and green DIY accessories. Details above. Contact: Rowena@liquid-iinteriors.com
Certificate In Permaculture Design
The Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) is an internationally renowned 72 hours course that provides the foundations of permaculture design principles and methodology as set forth by the founder of the permaculture movement Bill Mollison. This course will be taught by Steve Cran and other permaculture certificate holders of Ark Eden in Hong Kong between March 24th and April 10th 2012.
The PDC is the essential foundation for further permaculture work and research, and is a pre-requisite for the Diploma in Permaculture Design delivered by the Permaculture Institute. Thousands of permaculture designers worldwide constitute today a network of educators, consultants, emergency and development aid workers and environmental activists who influence major institutions, private and public, as well as individuals creating business and thinking alternatives, developing a group of committed people working together to change the way we view and design not only our landscape but also our future.
The course covers sustainable human settlements for a wide variety of landscapes and climates. It includes the application of permaculture principals to food production, architecture design, system optimization, energy efficiency, and explores alternative economic practices as well as legal strategies supporting permaculture solutions.
Specific topics include:
- Theory and principles of Permaculture
- Eco-efficient home placement and design
- Energy management techniques for all climates with specific focus Hong Kong climate regions
- Waste management
- Organic food production
- Water harvesting and management
- Ecological balance and pest control
- Drought-proofing landscapes
- Soil building and soil erosion control
- Livestock
- Aquaculture
- Emergency preparedness
- Wind and fire control
The foundation for this course is The Permaculture Designer’s Manual by Bill Mollison.
Participants are invited to bring details of their own sites or potential site to consider during the course. Practical application exercises will take place on the Ark Eden site.
Course Instructor:
Steve Cran is a sustainable community development specialist or “Permaculture Aid Worker” with 20 years of field project experience He enjoys the challenge of assisting people living on the edge of survival to rebuild their communities. Steve has set up projects in war zones, post disaster zones, poverty zones and in many difficult areas on this troubled planet most people would shy away from.
He focuses on training the trainer from whatever community he’s working with. Local people training local people by building working models to inspire the rest of the community bring solid results. “The world’s problems grow at an exponential rate so I design projects that solve problems at an exponential rate”.
He worked for 5 years with rural Aboriginal communities in outback Australia. In 1999 he went to East Timor and formed a Permaculture training network which he developed over 5 years. This network continues to grow.
He returned home to Maleny, Queensland, Australia in November 2004. A month later the tsunami wiped out over 200,000 people in several countries.
Steve’s field experience was called upon to set up a project in Aceh, Indonesia. He joined IDEP to build the “Greenhand Field School” in Ache, in of the worst affected areas hit by the tsunami. The Greenhand Field School is a training centre to train trainers in sustainable community development best-practice. The Greenhand Field School focus is on food security, organic farming, community agro-forestry, appropriate technology, and local solutions for the tsunami survivors. The trainers being trained are mainly Achenese and the Greenhand Field School was designed so the best trainers run their own facility.
In January 2010 Steve was asked to go to northern Uganda and work with the Karamajong people to restore food security and assist in ending violence and conflict in an area plagued by conflict and poverty for 40 years. Aid dependency had robbed the people of the ability to grow their own food and the youth were sucked into a cycle of violence in cattle raiding with the abundant supply of automatic weapons available in East Africa. These youth were known as “the Warriors”. Working with an international organization, Steve trained many of the Warriors to become “Green Warriors” and return to their communities and introduce self-sufficiency through permaculture. He was able to prove that the Karamajong people were more than capable of growing their own food and the “food-aid” was having a negative impact on their culture and health. Many communities that were written off by the government and the UN produced crops and converted barren land into farmland using basic hand tools and non-hybrid seed. The “Green Warriors” of Karamoja provided new role models for the people of Karamoja. The project continues today.
Steve Cran is now conducting training throughout Southeast Asia on Permaculture-Aid Field Skills. Transferring his skills to young people wanting to make a difference in this world, his courses are challenging and instructive. “These are the skills in the field you can’t learn from books”, says Steve.
Links:
Steve Cran’s Blog, Permaculture aid in Uganda
Youtube: Preparing to do aid work
Green Warrior Challenge on YouTube
Dates:
March 24th & 25th 2012
March 31st to April 10th2012 (except Sunday April 8th )
Venue: Ark Eden – Mui Wo – Lantau Island – Hong Kong
Time: 10:00 am to 18:00 (Talent show on April 7 th until late night)
Language: English
Course Fees: $6.000 HKD*
Accommodation: On request
Meals: The course fee covers the cost of a vegetarian lunch of every day. Please let the organisers know if you have any special dietary requirements
*The following categories of applicants can apply for and seek up to 50% discount of the course fee if he/she is:
A full-time farmer and/or full-time employee of a registered agricultural association or charitable organization. Applicants need to submit a letter of recommendation that releases him/her for the duration of the course. Applicants must also be committed to attend the course with 100% attendance
For all enquiries, please contact:
Jenny Quinton +852 92774025 or
Philippe Couture +852 9475 8089
Deadline for application is March 16th 2012. Applications will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis.
You may download application forms here
or register online below
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