hi everyone
Permaculture & Sustainable Aid for the 21st Century: How to Change the Paradigm of Emergency Disaster Relief & Development to a Model of Life Affirming Assistance is the big event for Santa Barbara Permaculture Network this year on June 30, July 1, 2. As the title suggests, it tackles a huge subject. As Americans we have often thought of emergency relief in terms of sending aid to other countries, after Hurricane Katrina we also see a need to know how to respond in a better way to our own natural disasters. Natural disasters, wars, famines, how does the human family respond to each others needs during these stressful times? What new models can we create to assist each other better? Come listen to those who have been doing this work for many years with permaculture as a tool---with not only immediate emergency relief, but longer term recovery and development efforts, and land care strategies that permaculture can provide. Geoff Lawton, Nadia Abu Yahia and Andrew Jones are the key speakers, please see below for bios and more info about the event

Permaculture & Sustainable Aid for the 21st Century
Workshop and Lecture
How to change the paradigm of emergency disaster relief and development to a
model of life affirming assistance.

Fri June 30 7pm Lecture Geoff Lawton
Fe Bland Auditorium  Santa Barbara City College West Campus  $15

Sat & Sun July 1 & 2, Workshop with Geoff Lawton, Nadia Lawton, and Andrew Jones including Panels discussions on Rebuilding Local Economies with Fair Trade Companies and Local Residents who went to help in New Orleans and more

Cost $160 Two Days , $90 per day or (Payments before June 8 - $120) Student $120
Fe Bland Auditorium, Business Communication Forum (BC Forum) Santa Barbara City College, West Campus   721 Cliff Dr Santa Barbara, CA 93109-2394

For more info and registration Santa Barbara Permaculture Network margie@sbpermaculture.org 805-962-2571
www.sbpermaculture.org
Checks made to Santa Barbara Permaculture Network PO Box. 92156 Santa Barbara Ca 93190

Nadia Abu Yahia (Lawton) was born in the Dead Sea Valley in Jordan. She learned traditional ways of land use from her father, an expert farmer and herbal healer of Palestinian, Bedouin descent. She later went on to complete her permaculture diploma in design, education and site development and has recently become a registered permaculture teacher.


Andrew Jones Australian has a background in ecology, permaculture, humanitarian aid and international development. Past 15 years has worked in a humanitarian aid and development context in the Middle East , the Pacific, Asia , Europe and the United States . With CARE International, the International Rescue Committee, Counterpart International and SurfAid International., United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Macedonia and Albania , and with the United Nations Environment Program most recently in Indonesia in a post-tsunami recovery context. (www.fullcirclellc.com) .

Geoff Lawton one of the world's foremost experts in “permaculture,” providing consulting, designing, teaching and project implementation for clients that include private individuals, groups, communities, governments, aid organizations, non-government organizations and multi-national companies. Lawton has served clients in 17 different countries, including Jordan , Iraq , Egypt , USA , Mexico , Macedonia , Vietnam , Costa Rica , Brazil , Ecuador , Peru , England , Denmark , Australia and the South Pacific. Permaculture Research Institute (www.permaculture.org.au ).

QUOTES

Aid is a necessary but delicate affair; some forms of aid can produce
dependency, facilitate further inequities in a society, destroy or impair
cultural values, decrease the yields of the environment, upset balance
nutritional habits, or actually destroy sustainable local ecologies or
agricultural systems.
Bill Mollison Permaculture Design Manual

Overseas experience has shown that every dollar spent on disaster mitigation helps to save three dollars in later disaster response and recovery. Indonesian experience shows a bigger ratio of around 7 to 1. Overseas experience has also shown that it takes a community between four to twenty years to recover from a major disaster, depending largely on its level of preparedness.
Yayasan Indonesian Development of Education and Permaculture Community Based Disaster Management (CBDM) Kit
www.idepfoundation.org

War is a serious destroyer of sustainability and social coherence, and the genocide which followed the war in Cambodia further reduced sustainability. Bombing destroyed natural resources, cultivated areas and cultural heritage. .
War also reduces the ability of a country to withstand undesirable foreign influences....Foreign and disinterested world monetary organizations direct fiscal policy and reconstruction with no regard to sustainable outcomes, and blame the country for its poverty or inability to cope with their decisions. Sustainability finds itself in crisis and crisis requires relief.

"Sustainability in a Worn Torn Nation" Permaculture Projects in Cambodia, Rosemary Morrow , Hopedance Magazine



. In the aid context when things are really rough you get the sense that despair is almost a luxury that you can’t afford because certainly the people around you for the most part are not wallowing in self-pity. They’re getting on with their lives and doing their best. It’s remarkable and humbling to work with people who are the focus of natural disasters or war and conflict because what you often see is an extremely high degree of dignity.
Andrew Jones Unpublished Interview for Permaculture & Sustainable Aid for the 21st Century Conference


I think the paradigm of aid and development is going to change drastically in the 21st century, because it needs to. Partly what we’re dealing with, the reality of aid and development as it’s currently practiced in broad senses is partly a result of having these massive global imbalances in wealth distribution, technological resources, and trade benefits.
Andrew Jones Unpublished Interview for Permaculture & Sustainable Aid for the 21st Century Conference


So I think that homegrown aid and regionally-based aid and networks between people are going to be the things that really grow and thrive as we’re coming into a network age. I think that the ability for people to connect and work together as equals is of huge importance because that’s actually going to be the most effective way of working with folks who are in situations of stress and facing challenges.
Andrew Jones Unpublished Interview for Permaculture & Sustainable Aid for the 21st Century Conference

For more info and registration Santa Barbara Permaculture Network margie@sbpermaculture.org 805-962-2571
www.sbpermaculture.org
Checks made to Santa Barbara Permaculture Network PO Box. 92156 Santa Barbara Ca 93190

Co sponsor
SBCC Environmental Horticulture Dept,  Environmental Studies Program Santa Barbara City College, Nutiva, Hopedance Media and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network