Marda Palestine Permaculture Course

south west | the environment | announcement Sunday February 24, 2008 23:42 by Ed Hill

March 28 – April 4 2008

In Marda Village Salfit District, West Bank, Palestine

Join Jan Martin Bang, Murad Alkhufash, and other internationally acclaimed Permaculture instructors in Marda Village in the West Bank of Palestine for an 8-day Permaculture Fundamentals Course. Work side-by-side with Palestinian farmers as you learn—and apply—permaculture design principles and techniques that can be translated to multiple environments.

The focus of this workshop—due to extensive loss of communal Palestinian farming land and water to Israeli settlements—is intensive farming on small acreages. Topics addressed will include orchard and garden design, natural building with cob and stone, traditional Palestinian terrace construction, rainwater harvesting and graywater recycling, swales and keylines, vermiculture, composting, cover crops, bioremediation with mushroom mycelium, chicken tractors, and more. Participants can expect to learn through hands on projects including planting of an orchard and construction of a chicken coop using local soils, stone, and straw.

The Marda Permaculture Farm is located within Marda village, in the West Bank of Palestine. Marda has a population of 2,600, and lies under the shadow of the Separation Wall and one of Israel’s largest settlements, Ariel. Learn about the on-the-ground reality in Palestine—from the people themselves, rather than all those who would speak for them.

Town of Marda in West Bank

Instructors

Jan Martin Bang is a qualified Permaculture Designer and teacher with extensive experience in the Middle East, now a co-worker at Camphill Solborg in Norway. He was secretary of the Norwegian Permaculture Association, and has been active within the Norwegian Ecovillage Trust. He is currently on sabbatical leave for a year with his wife, Ruth Wilson. He has written two books on Permaculture Ecovillage Design: “Ecovillages: a practical guide to sustainable communities” and “Growing Eco Communities: practical ways to create sustainability.”

Murad Alkhufash comes from a family who has farmed the Marda region for at least ten generations. His passion is in restoring the connection between his community and the land. The people of Marda, as in most West Bank villages, have been losing their ties to traditional farming methods due to loss of land, stress of the occupation as well as pressure to transition to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Murad received his permaculture training and certification at the Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm in Tennessee and acted as an instructor at this Center for four years prior to returning to Marda Village to establish the Marda Permaculture Farm.

PLUS other internationally acclaimed Permaculture instructors.

Cost to attend the Marda Permaculture Fundamentals Course is $500, which covers food, lodging, and coursework.

For more details, and to apply, please contact:

Tami Brunk

Marda Farm International Coordinator

tamibrunk@yahoo.com

ENDS

Bristol peace activists help with olive harvest

Inside polytunnel in Marda Permaculture Project