Mapped, Featured and Enriched

Mapped with other Permacultural sites

After being engaged by an independent initiative to create a map of Permaculture projects around the world we submitted our details and mapped ourselves on the 'Permaculture Map'.

Its a very positive initiative which aims at making the best use of the internet as we know it. A very simple Google Earth layer showing all submitted sites related to permaculture. This creates numerous opportunities for isolated projects and even the large scale ones from responsible tourism to simply exchanging experiences on how it works in different environments.

To join the network in this ongoing project one can easily do it through this link: http://www.permaculturemap.com/

Facing the Nature Crunch - Permaculturalist style

We would also link to thank Mahira for organizing a very successful event which featured 3 permaculturalists including Peppi Gauci from Bahrija Oasis at 'Facing the Nature Crunch'.

New species at the site - the growing biodiversity

Thats it for now,

To close this blog post here are 2 new residents at the Bahrija Oasis.

A Chameleon visiting Peppi

First generation frog in the pond area found on site

PermaCulture, Thank You!

If somebody asked me why bother with permaculture. What would I reply?

The best way explain is by giving the account of my personal experience
And later with the use of testimonials

Experiencing permaculture.
There is something exquisite in practising permaculture on a regular basis. I have been lucky to get on board the Permaculture Research Foundation project funded through the YiA. This way I have guaranteed myself a front seat to an experience which is at least a year long. Though after this project finishes I am sure we will manage to build the community which any permacultural design requires.
I go in for this expereince, for the fun of it, for the curiousity and much more on those lines... But, certainly not for the belief! I was and most probably still am the sceptic of holistic living. Being a student of economics I had many reservations to how I percieved permaculture as a concpet.
Everything turned around the moment I went into the design and started hearing the wealth of knowledge being gathered through this project and seeing the social value created in the project and hearing of other similar local projects. Things are starting to tie up in my mind over the loose strands which once characterised permaculture in my mind.
Right now I can say permaculture has thought me how to appreciate. In the future I can't tell what I will say with regards to the permacultural experience on the island of Malta. But, certainly permaculture has become a reference point to my self-development.

Reviewing Testimonals
I would also like to bring together the testimonials of all the people in the past invovled in permaculture at the Bahrija Oasis. Hoepfully in a more tangible manner then as I did with my account. This is critical as community building is at the centre of any permacultural design and the Bahrija Oasis is no short of that.
For this blog I extracted a video made by Tobias a German friend whom I met in a Green Drinks Malta permacultural woprkshop at the Bahrija Oasis. Enjoy his video make over a weekend workshop.

Living Roof.Why not?

The idea of a living roof is pretty simple. Basically using the roof area as a growing medium for plants. Simple.

A living roof provides a colorful alternative to the grey urban landscape where the drab concrete is replaced by the ever changing mixes of greens. Flowers provide additional splashes of colors ,brightening up our grey boxes.

But apart from the aesthetic value a green roof provides other advantages. One can grow a small kitchen garden and herbs ( some would do quite well in our climate) There is nothing like eating fresh vegetables you grew your self. Also a green roof provides excellent insulation against cold winters and the backing hot summer sun. In fact green roofs have been used for centuries in northern countries.

Here is a few ideas abroad. Imagine looking from ones roof on a sea of green roof tops. Think about the cleaner air we would be breathing.

So way don't we see them here? The implementation is not so difficult. One could start with a small patch, a few pots with plants. So , go on. Have a go.

Ian

Relevance of Desertification for Small States

One third of the earth’s surface (4 billion hectares) is threatened by desertification, and over 250 million people are directly affected by desertification. 24 billion tons of fertile soil disappear annually. From 1991 to 2000 alone, droughts have been responsible for over 280,000 deaths; they accounted for 11% of the total water-related disasters.

Deserts in the interior continents are expanding (Sahara, Gobi, Central Asian, Mexico, North eastern Brazil) They all tend to expand. And as ice is melting and sea level rises we have the oceans encroaching from the exterior. Civilisation is slowly squeezed between expanding deserts and rising seas. It’s a little difficult to archeologically separate land degradation and desertification but two of the things that are common to the earlier civilizations that collapsed primarily for environmental reasons are deforestation and soil erosion ( Gerald Diamond writes about it in his recent book ‘collapse’ )

Apart from the geographic factor, one needs to keep in mind the standard of living of the people who are experiencing desertification in their area regardless if they’re situated in a big continent or a small island. In the small islands one is usually more careful how to manage the land, as to keep a balance. In most of the cases it is necessary for these islands to be independent and to be able sustain themselves. When compared to large continents and countries it can be said that it’s more possible for the people to migrate though it may cause trouble as well when tribes have to move to other places. Whereas with small islands it’s a different story, they are cut off from other places.

In a session held in May 2008 by the U.N. the issue of land was addressed. Concerns about land competition, drought, degradation, limited resources, and desertification, warning that development capacities are necessary to strengthen land management, otherwise the result will be a food crisis. He asserted that we must “strive to raise the voice of Small Island Developing State” because they have the least means in responding to these complex problems that threaten their existence.

Subsequent to this presentation, the Security-General’s report was introduced. The report stated that land resources are becoming more limited because rising populations create a greater demand. While many populations depend on agriculture for income, the agricultural industry has been declining for two decades. The report also found SIDS to suffer from closed economies, limited capacities, inadequate physical structures, a lack of financial resources, susceptibility to natural disasters and insufficient access to information technology.

Island-scale adaptation to prevent and reverse desertification

The prevention of desertification in small islands is direly important because of its small land area. Thus measures to combat the turning of arable of productive land into arid and non-productive are a no-no especially for small islands. Each parcel of land is especially important and must be safeguarded.

An important premise upon which this notion is based is prevention. The ‘prevention is better than cure’ catch-phrase applies most significantly in this case. Combating desertification must be an ongoing effort bringing together all stakeholders but especially the inhabitants of deserted areas and policy makers. By working with science and through the populations of the area, much can be achieved to prevent this ecological disaster from occurring.

A key method to prevent desertification, not less in small islands, is the integrated management of land and water especially those which protect soils from erosion and salinization- which are practically the prime causes of desertification. Thus, land practices which prevent overgrazing (such as using grazing species which only consumes the top part of the grass and preventing livestock from grazing the same area repeatedly so as it has time to recover), overexploitation of plants and trampling of soils. A very important aspect of preventing desertification is a sustainable use of water use in agricultural irrigation.

Unsustainable irrigation practices can exacerbate water resources, depleting the aquifers of their water and thus turning the surrounding land into a biological desert because of a lack of water. This will be especially pronounced with the onset of climate change and its subsequent extreme weather conditions which will accentuate drought.

Some important solutions include transhumance of rangelands and well sites which involves the rotational use of these important resources, the rate of stock extracted be less than the carrying capacity of the ecosystem and diverse species composition.

The management of water is also of utmost importance and this can include traditional water-harvesting techniques, water storage and efficient water conservation measures. The latter can be especially applied during intensive rainfall episodes in preventing the water from being lost as surface run-off which also carries away the thin, fertile, moisture-holding topsoil.   

Protecting the vegetative cover is also instrumental since vegetation protects soil from wind and water erosion. A loss of vegetation can also lead to reduced rainfall.

Other measures can include:

• Mixed farming practices combining livestock rearing and cropping so as to ensure a more efficient recycling of nutrients. For example, fodder can be sowed and thus prevent the pressure of livestock on the land.
• Applying traditional technology to work with ecosystems since traditional knowledge was more in sync with natural processes.
• Turning to alternative livelihoods that are not as demanding on the land such as dryland aquaculture and tourism. 

Can we rehabilitate a deserted and arid land?

The main challenge of rehabilitation is to restore ecosystem services that have been lost. Thus one seeks to repair damages sectors of the ex-native ecosystem so that it will then have multiple benefits. This involves the efforts of a multi-tier system from the government and policy makers to the inhabitants of this area. This interlinking is vital as the process is complex and involves, amongst others, seed banks, restocking of soil organic matter and organisms that promote higher plant establishment and growth and the reintroduction of selected species.

Other rehabilitation practices include: 

• Terracing to counter soil erosion;
• Control of invasive species which can be more hardy and extract more water;
•   Nutrient replenishment;
• Reforestation

 Policies that create incentives for rehabilitation include capacity building, capital investment and supportive institutions. It is very important, as discussed above, that the community is involved throughout the whole process. 

This blog is the result of a workshop held in Bahrija Oasis between the volunteers of the Youth in Action Project 'Go with the Flow'.

Growing desertification and its evils.

What is desertification, which are its main impacts and at what rate do we risk facing these increasing pressures?

Desertification is increasingly becoming an issue which attracts the attention of the international community as it realises the interconnectedness of the environmental objectives and development ones mainly for economically poor communities. Desertification is the gradual degradation of land based ecosystems. From the point of view of agriculture the land simply stops from producing the livelihood necessary to sustain the local community.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment views ecosystems as environments supporting ecology, providing natural resources, regulating the micro environment and facilitating cultural traits of local communities. All of these in turn produce all the constituents of what forms wellbeing in a community, namely security, satisfying basic needs, health and good social relations, leading to an environment of free choice and action.

Problems arise when desertification progresses due to manmade actions over the ecosystem on which life is sustained. Main causes of desertification have been found as caused by man made activities such as:

• Over grazing of a land,
• Over consumption of scarce water resources leading some areas without water facilities and in worse cases the table water turns saline as sea water infiltrates the water table,
• & Intensive use of arable land.

Nevertheless, the urban sprawl which affect most cities around the world are also causing increased pressures on the surrounding ecosystems which are expected to cope with the dense population of urban areas. Furthermore, large-scale developments which are sought to harness the resources of the natural environment have been found to cause considerable side effects. In one extreme case, what was once a land locked (Aral)Sea in Central Asia ranging 68 thousand square kilometre of sea was reduced to 17 thousand square kilometre in 40 years. The exposed land which was once the seabed turned into a salt crust which damage extends beyond the old-sea area as winds carry the salt to nearby agricultural fields leading to the collapse of the regions ecosystem and the local fishing and agricultural communities.

Nowadays, desertification is referred to as the ‘Silent Killer’ of arid rural communities. With cross border phenomena on the increase and climate change increasing the pressures on water security the main regions suffering from or at risk of desertification are the Sahel belt, the Horn of Africa and South East Asia.

Undoubtedly the main impact of the collapse of a self-sustaining ecosystem from desertification is the growing number of human migrants due to economic and environmental reasons. In fact a term which is growing in prominence in humanitarian academics and activists is the notion of an environmental migrant. With forecasts set at 2 billion people potentially victims of desertification and 50 million at risk of severe displacement over the next 10 years, one realises the interconnectedness of development to the natural environment.

Desertification is only one example where a healthy yet possibly weak ecosystem is brought to its knees by the pressures of population growth and the desire for solely economic pursuits. An integrated fashion to development which takes into consideration the limits of the surrounding natural environment is the only manner in which desertification prone regions must look at their development. Otherwise failure not only in development but failure in conserving the natural environment will inevitably take place and life in region would halt from being.

This blog is the result of a workshop held in Bahrija Oasis between the volunteers of the Youth in Action Project 'Go with the Flow'.

Urban Organic Farming

Found this interesting clip on Treehugger showing a family not only managing to grow organic food smack in the middle of urbanised California but are on the road to being fully self sustained.
Clip