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Gaia Association and Ecovillage

Argentine Permaculture Institute

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Our philosophic principle is To Work With Nature and Not Against It, designing with humility in mind as we recognize its complexity.
We embrace the ethics of Permaculture: to Care for the Earth, to Care for the Human Being and to Share the Surplus Resources.

Specific objectives:

• To encourage the creation of ecologic projects that are feasible both economically and technically, and consider the agricultural, forest and animal-raising aspects as well as the human and educational components.

• To promote the ecologic balance of the environment by including restoration in every design we face.

• To develop agro-ecologic and eco-productive systems that require minimal external input and are extremely productive.

• To honor, recover and adapt ancestral systems in order to create sustainable sociocultural systems for the present.

• To include human shelter as an integrated component of the ecosystem and the ecological cycle of the Earth using Natural Building techniques, considering the natural patterns in the design process.

• To search for the integration of ecology into the landscape, taking usefulness and the aesthetic value into account while preserving and restoring the natural patterns.

• To establish strategic alliances with like-minded institutions, groups and networks, in order to develop joint activities.

• Advisory and Consultancy in the design, planning and implementation of rural and urban permacultural models and systems.

• Technical Advisory to state offices and private organizations to promote, develop and carry out farming projects and integral programs as well as sustainable systems.

• Permaculture training at different levels address to professionals, university students, like-minded groups and individuals.

• Development of follow-up techniques for ongoing processes.

• Landscape interpretation.
• Planning and analysis of areas. Optimal distribution and usage of the land.
• Agroforestry.
• Forest garden.
• Erosion control.
• Bio-island creation for parks, gardens and golf camps.
• Wind-brakes design for the protection of houses, farms and productive systems.
• Waste recycling.
• Grey water treatment.
• Ecological dry toilet design.
• Alternative energy systems and appropriate technologies.
• Edible garden and landscape design for urban and suburban areas.
• Integral design of ecotourism centers, ecovillages, ecological neighborhoods, etc.
• Creation of Wild life corridors. Natural reserve management..
• Facilitation of Participate Design Process for communities and NGO.

• In 1996 Gaia hosted the first Permaculture Design Course in Argentina, taught by Max Lindegger from Australia..
• Since 1998 regular courses on Permaculture Certificate Design are offered. Other advanced courses on Permaculture: in 1999 a course on Ecovillage Design was dictated by Max Lindegger and in 2000 a course on Forest Garden by Jerome Osentowsky from the USA.
• On March 2000 the IAP organized and hosted the first Latin American Congress on Permaculture “Exchanging tools for a sustainable living”.
• Free advisory service to related groups interested in the development of Ecovillages in this South region.
• Has created a open-pollinated seeds bank. Seeds are exchanged with other seed-banks and like-minded groups.
• During 1999 the IAP participated in the “New labor roles” program in agreement with the Buenos Aires City government. A group of 23 poor people from the Retiro emergency settlement were trained on urban Permaculture techniques.
• From October 2001 to the beginning of 2002, members of Camino Al Sol Association, an NGO that works with kids and teenagers in an emergency situation, were trained on Permaculture. This course was offered in agreement with PROAMBA (an international cooperation program for endangered children between Argentina and the European Union).

The Permaculture Institute of Argentina is also involved in other social projects:

NEW LABOUR ROLES PROJECT

The origin of this project was a call by the Municipality of Buenos Aires to create a joint program with NGO's in order to train unemployed people into new employment roles.

Gaia Association takes this challenge as an opportunity to offer intensive practical training on Permaculture topics to the population of Villa 31 Retiro (the slums). This training would not only improve the group's chances to obtain work, but would give them tools enabling them to transform their habitat and life conditions, grow their own food, learn aspects of natural construction, the integration of appropriate technologies, to assume a more responsible attitude within the community on issues like waste, co-operative micro-enterprises, etc.

Villa 31 is the largest slum in Buenos Aires, with a population of 11,000 inhabitants, and located 5 minutes away from downtown.

This training program lasted 6 months, with the participation of 23 people between the ages of 18 and 57 and from different nationalities (Paraguayan, Bolivian, and Argentinean from several provinces). Very few of them have had previous experience in agriculture. The main goal of this project was to inspire people whose life conditions are in extreme necessity, to believe in their capacity to develop greater self-sufficiency and to reclaim their dignity by tapping their own, perhaps forgotten, resources and capabilities.

To that effect, we facilitated the practical transmission of concrete Permaculture tools:

Garden: planning, design and implementation. Urban strategies.

Seed saving: reproduction and care of seedlings. Green houses.

Use and care of tools.

Standard and worm composting; soil improvement.

Planting and care of trees.

Recycling waste and gray waters.

Bread making and food preserving.

Principles and elements of natural house construction.

Appropriate technology:

* construction of high efficiency ovens, stoves and heaters;

* construction and use of solar ovens;

* design and construction of composting-toilets;

* organization of cooperative micro-enterprises.

The theoretical and practical training took place at the Eco-village, and the implementation at the Villa 31. We are also taking steps towards the possibility of obtaining unused lots within the city to create urban gardens. These gardens would be an example to the rest of the population, as well as an opportunity to generate a productive micro-enterprise by selling organic produce in the neighborhood.

We believe that this project could be a good model to be reproduced in other shanty towns. However, we fear for its survival because it depends on a state institution, and the upcoming change of authorities may threaten its continuity.

In any case, we believe that this model might prosper independently, by seeking alternative types of support and organization.

This experience sets a precedent to be applied in other poor neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and other cities.

And overall it is a great way to put into practice and to disseminate throughout society the principles and tools used by Eco-villages, as a concrete contribution to the current social and ecological crisis.