Permaculture in Africa

by charliewilson | Jun 6, 2024

Permaculture in Africa

We would like to explore the possibility of incubating a circle that would bridge the gap between grassroots projects in Africa and the CoLab (and beyond).

Funded with 1750 GBP through emergent festival

STATUS : ONGOING

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Team

Mhkulu Colossa, Siobhan Vida Ashmole, Josie Redmonds, Aimee Fenech

Reporting Officer: Mhkulu Colossa

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Area

Prototyping, Emergent festival, Next Steps project, Diversity, participation and engagement

Objectives 2025

The high level objective is to grow and strengthen the work of the Permculture in Africa (PIA) circle through a project designed to help meet the needs of grassroots PIA members in navigating and getting value from the CoLab. This project aims to create an accessible onboarding pathway/guide as well as curate/collect resources tailored for PIA grassroots projects.

Objectives:

1. Develop a guide/pathway for permaculturists from Africa to better navigate the CoLab and the resources provided.

◦ What is it -introduction to CoLab, why are you here , where to go next, what is available, permission to engage/culture, add people you meet in CoLab to linkedin/other sm, how to be an egaged community member (refer to training) – a short document

◦ By when we will complete it: – Mid August – testing time in community

◦ How will we know that this has been successful / quality output / relevant – feedback from community and PIA circle, feedback from African Permaculturists who would like to join/ have joined.

◦ How will it be useful post grant: it is a resource which is valuable to people coming in post funding and still be useful to help them becoming engaged.

2. Curate, collect, and share resources tailored for PIA grassroots projects, including opportunities, information, capacity building, funding, and co-marketing:

◦ What is it that we are sharing – opportunities, information, capacity building, funding, and co-marketing, identify key areas to start (identified by the community)

◦ How many resources – depends on budget est 1 hour per post – could be multiple resources per post

◦ How will we know that this has been succesful / quality output / relevant – think hard about the curation and really highlighting the value

◦ How will it be useful post grant – focus on perennial (how the seasonal can be perennial – eg share funder not funding opp with deadline)

◦ When do we do this – throughout the project time

Outcomes 2025

Objectives 2024

We would like to conduct a picture forming exercise to put together a Vision, Mission and Aims for this project that is co-created by stakeholders present in the CoLab

Starting with answering:

what could be the main objectives of this project
what could be the next steps in order to get the project on the road
Who needs to be included and consulted to make this project effective?
What do we consider effective and impactful here?

At the end of this exercise we should be able to:

produce a co-created VMAs
identify next steps & have enough information for an action plan
Identify possible collaborators/ important groups we should consider working together with

We aim to complete this exercise between March 18 and April 15 and would release the findings during the Emergent Festival.

outcomes 2024

We have completed the picture-forming exercise, co-created VMAs for this new circle, and come up with a list of potential collaborations and next steps.

Permaculutre in Africa is now a new circle within the CoLab.

Members are: Vida Ashmole, Aimee Fenech and Josie Redmond

resources created

VMAs.

Picture forming journey.

contact links

contact@perma.earth

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Tepla Gora Eco Market

by charliewilson | Jan 13, 2024

Tepla Gora Eco Market

A community-driven marketplace that connects small organic and handcraft producers from Carpathians, wider Ukraine (and soon beyond) with international buyers.

The idea comes from Tepla Gora Eco Centre, based in Carpathian mountains, Ukraine. We are a natural retreat, ecovillage, volunteering and permaculture centre. Our website is teplagora.org.

The online marketplace for local organic products has been part of Tepla Gora’s vision from early on. But it was due to the war that some internally displaced people (IDP) that stayed at the eco centre have joined the team and together we started looking at ways to build more resilience in these uncertain times. The eco marketplace seemed like a great opportunity to do that in a way that would be a win-win-win: by diversifying our organisation, supporting IDP team members and scaling our impact by supporting local ecopreneurs and the broader community in Ukraine and soon abroad.

Funded with 294.30 GBP through emergent festival

Funded with 1300 GBP through diversity stipends

STATUS : COMPLETED

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Team

Andriy Grushetsky, Iryna Kotsar

Reporting Officer: Andriy Grushetsky

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Area

Prototyping, Emergent festival, Next Steps project, Diversity, participation and engagement

Objectives

To support the project manager financially for one month.
To buy example products for trial and/or order professional photography services.

OUTCOMEs

Project Update October 2023

A market stall at Tepla Gora cafe has been set-up and we have been selling local hand-made products to the eco centre visitors. There have been circa 40 sales with a 6 euros average purchase for total of 300 euros.

We have researched and put in place systems for card payments processing (both for offline and online), cash register, accounting and stock management.

Branded packaging and stickers were designed and produced for Tepla Gora branded products.

We promoted the ecomarket during our events and through social media.

The online store language has been changed to Ukrainian to accommodate the interest from our community in Ukraine and to get some online traction quicker.

We have also polished the store design, navigation, texts and have been adding the products descriptions and photos. We added the payment method and integrated delivery service provider functionality.

We are planning to promote the online store in Ukraine first (Q1, Q2 of 2024), and then to add the English version and promote it abroad (Q3, Q4 2024). At the same time we will continue engaging with small craft producers and permaculture farms to add their products to the marketplace and expand the products range.

resources created

Tepla Gora’s online presence and in-person shop:

contact links

contact@perma.earth

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Domestic Waste Water Systems – Legislation?

by charliewilson | May 30, 2023

Domestic Waste Water Systems - Legislation?

On the list of climate actions any home with a garden can “easily” engage in, we’d like to see the topic of Domestic Waste Waters; how to avoid them and how to reuse them in our immediate landscapes; for food resilience, for wildfire prevention, for shelterbelts for biodiversity and so on.

The NBS of reedbeds or other phytopurifying installations are well known solutions already for working with grey waters. WET-lands or leeching fields can also take higher levels of “contamination”. Vermicomposting toilets work, and in combination with a secondary and terciary purifying process (aquatic plants in gravel beds + woodchip bowls or channels in combination with vegetation) provide a nutrient rich water source for our foodscapes, firebelts and biodiversity hedges.

Project Aims

We feel there is a need for awareness raising of these Nature Based Solutions on a domestic scale as well as a lack of transparency in legislation in these matters.

Therefore we would like to take time to list European and maybe also global legal frameworks that allow to reuse domestic waste waters in our gardens and under which circumstances.

We want to identify and document case studies and free up funds to conduct proper research such as laboratory tests on effluents of maturing and mature systems and/or soil irrigated with these effluents.

Ideally we can give anyone working with water professionally the jumping board they need to back up their often innovative (to the ears of some) solutions in front of administrations or their clients, especially now that we are living a general time of droughts and floods in many areas of the globe.

Funded with 876.15 GBP through emergent festival

STATUS : COMPLETED

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Team

Aline VaMo, Kinga Milankovics

Reporting Officer: Aline VaMo

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Area

Prototyping, Emergent festival, Next Steps project

Objectives

April 2023

1. Survey:

1. During the 2 months survey we gather information about already existing material online in the form of infographics, articles, documents, professional services and projects in favour of using the NBS mentioned above and document the resources found in a NextCloud folder and spreadsheet with links.
2. During this stage we also search for legislation and list interesting resources or research papers mentioning such legislation in a spreadsheet and NextCloud folder.
Analysis: During this 2 months’ phase we go through the materials found and identify the top 3 case studies, the top 3 legal frameworks to work within and the top 3 habits to adopt for optimal reuse of your domestic waste waters
Design: In the last phase of again 2 months we will edit the data and the raw material, and pour it into an informative, professional looking, educational slideshow presentation that can be shared online.

OUTCOMEs

September 2023 Update

So far we have started a database that is open to the public and which we hope you can can add resources to: https://cloud.perma.earth/s/Xx4ZWSZ9ReoTMDD

We are working on pouring the key findings and case studies of this Emergent Festival funded project into a shareable presentation format, which should be ready by the end of October, as per the “Next Steps Project” outline for this edition of the festival.

resources created

1/ Database of Resources (legislation in different languages, case studies, forums, information, books, training and more) – (hoping this link works as a collaborative document for anyone visiting the project webpage)

2/ Presentation of findings, as per objectives – 3 legal frameworks in the spotlight (EU in the end), 3 case studies, 3 top recommendations for the home

contact links

contact@perma.earth

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Permaculture Places in the Metaverse

by charliewilson | May 30, 2023

Permaculture Places in the Metaverse

Research into and development of permaculture-themed virtual 3D worlds for the open source Mozilla Hubs platform.

Funded with 612.30 GBP through emergent festival

STATUS : COMPLETED

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Team

Rakesh Rootsman Rak, Ewan Findley, Jemma Findley

Reporting Officer: Ewan Findley

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Area

Prototyping, Emergent festival, Next Steps project

Objectives

Phase one: research & planning (May-Jun 2023)
- Identify affordances, limitations and potential for the Mozilla Hubs platform
- Explore and identify suitable permaculture themes and concepts based on the above
- Develop these ideas into more detailed virtual world plans
Phase two: Development (Jul-Aug)
- Build the worlds defined in 1.3 (above) using open source tools such as Blender and Spoke
Phase three: Publishing and Launch (Sep)
- Publish the developed worlds with a Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0 license using Spoke
- Share this via CoLab Slack, newsletter and website article
- Present and demonstrate the world(s) to permaculture educators at the in-person Educators Gathering in September 2023 organised by the Permaculture Association. This will be demonstrated on phone, desktop and VR headset, along with an introduction to the Hubs platform and the metaverse as a concept.
Ongoing: learning & reporting
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- Updated aims due to lack of funding through the Emergent festival –
- The project can continue as planned within this budget. Proposed work within this budget is as follows:
  Jemma, Rakesh and Ewan have two 1.5 hour meetings (total 9 hours work at suggested hourly rates).
  Rakesh 3 x 25h = £75
  Jemma 3 x 25h = £75
  Ewan 3 x 22h = £66Total £216
- These meetings will cover the first two items from phase one:
  Phase one: research & planning– Identify affordances, limitations and potential for the Mozilla Hubs platform
  – Explore and identify suitable permaculture themes and concepts based on the above.
- By the end of this the outputs will be;
- – notes documenting the process
  – recordings of the sessions that can be shared with CoLab and our educator and permaculture networks
- The remaining budget will be used to edit the notes and recordings to make sure they are useful for distribution for others to learn from.Ewan 0.5h x £22 = £11I will seek further funding for continuation of the work, with the aim to complete a usable prototype for testing and sharing.

OUTCOMEs

Project Update September 2023

Further funds of £380 have been allocated to the project from the Emergent Festival

– Based on 17.3 hours at £22 per hour
– With additional aims now within the scope of this project:

development of a first iteration prototype virtual world that can be contributed to the commons, uploaded and used by anyone. The theme and concept for this world will come from the second team meeting.

November 2023 Update

We have successfully completed some limited R&D around how the spatial/3D social platform Mozilla Hubs might be used for permaculture people, for example in events or education. From this research a prototype 3D world was developed using the FOSS tools Blender and Spoke. The permaculture themed world includes several areas that users can navigate around including; a presentation stage, a breakout room, a campfire and a lobby. The space has been deliberately designed to be largely event-agnostic, so that it can be more easily used for a greater variety of scenarios.

resources created

A video tour of the virtual world can be watched here.

The virtual world can be found here, where anyone can use it for their own virtual gathering, or remix it using Mozilla Spoke.

Full meeting notes including a link to the first meeting in video form, can be found in this document

contact links

contact@perma.earth

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Stories to Decolonise Permaculture

by charliewilson | May 30, 2023

Stories to Decolonise Permaculture

Creating a free resource of stories about the origins and inspirations behind permaculture to aid teachers and practitioners in decolonising permaculture

Funded with 610 GBP through emergent festival

Funded with 2,518.00 GBP through diversity grant

STATUS : COMPLETED

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Team

Rakesh Rootsman Rak, Ewan Findley, Jemma Findley

Reporting Officer: Rakesh Rootsman Rak

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Area

Diversity, participation and engagement, Emergent festival, Next Steps project

Objectives

April 2023

By the end of October 2023 we will have
1. A way for people to capture electronically stories of the origins and inspirations of permaculture.
2. A process in place to verify the content
3. A way in which to share for free verified content to the public
4. Run a session for CoLab to explain how people can add content and how to use the content
5. Run a session for Permaculture Association Britain’s Educators CoP to explain how they can add content and how to use the content
6. Deliver a session on this work at the UK Permaculture convergence in September

Updated aims due to lack of funding through the Emergent Festival –

The amount allocated means we have budget for 24 hours of work, hence the first 3 parts of the project
8 – 8 – Look at what data we want to capture
8 – 16 – Create a structure to hold the data in a meaningful and flexible way (normalisation)
8 – 24 – Create a way for people to enter the initial sample content.

To complete the project we will apply for further funding from the CoLab Diversity pot.
For any shortfall, we will do crowdfunding to the general permaculture people worldwide.
We are confident we will achieve this, so this initial amount is a great way to get us up and running.

OUTCOMEs

November 2023 Update

The following objectives have been met:

By the end of October 2023 we will have
1. The initial input for stories is via the following Google forms. In the future we may move this to a baserow form.

2. The main criteria for verification is to ensure the content is a genuine story (not spam), and that it is not discriminatory or offensive.

3. We have set up a baserow database to contain the final content which can be found here

4. This was delivered on 22nd November. A recording of which can be found here on YouTube

5. This was done in person at the Permaculture Educators gathering in London on 22nd September. We received very good feedback and ideas of how to improve the work. This is also where we finalised the criteria on how to verify data.

6. This was delivered in person on 23rd September at the permaculture festival in London. It was again very well received. This is where we decided to also accept audio and video recordings, which were not part of the original idea.

Rakesh has also delivered the content to several other permaculture practitioners including his students and other key people.

We are now ready to accept stories from anyone who has a good story to tell. So look forward to hearing from you

resources created

Stories to Decolonize Permaculture video

Submit your story

contact links

rakbsub@gmail.com

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