Global Sustainabilty Reports
This ongoing series of reports encourages observation
of cultures around the world with the hope of seeing positive sustainable
patterns emerge, which we in our own communities might adopt.
Sustainablity is a worthy goal, but can it survive
something as destructive as war? What can a practical system like
permaculture even hope to contribute in situations as difficult
as these? And is it possible to counter powerful forces that want
and need the resources of weaker developing nations? We continue
our look around the globe with a focus this time on Cambodia and
the permaculture project trainings of Rosemary Morrow. As always,
readers are encouraged to submit their own observations for future
columns to Margie Bushman (sbpcnet@silcom.com).
I have been teaching permaculture
for nearly 16 years and during that time I have examined many other
types of sustainable living practices. I have studied biodynamics,
organic gardening and farming, systems agriculture and so on. Not
one is as comprehensive as permaculture. It has so many facets that
it is very difficult to find it all together in one place. Teaching
it in developing nations is a challenge. In effect, some things
work in some places, in some climates and with some people. Lots
of techniques fail. It can take years for sustainable practices
such as integrated pest management (IPM) to begin working. Soil
building, although a quicker process through permaculture than nature,
also takes time. But can poor farmers afford the time and loss of
crop while they wait? Who will subsidize them while they are repairing
the land from devastations such as war?
Cambodia is often called the country of the "secret war,"
where the U.S. bombed heavily without ever declaring war. War is
a serious destroyer of sustainability and social coherence, and
the genocide that 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. Neighbors who illegally cut forests, people
who traffic in women and children, and a corrupt military can reduce
respect for the law and the country's confidence in its culture
and ability to control its own future. Greedy and ruthless industry
enters the vacuum left by war, then hard-sells cigarettes, pharmaceuticals,
fertilizers, seed and a range of other non-sustainable products.
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.
Quaker Service Australia (QSA) has a long history in Cambodia,
having arrived early and served as a de facto consulate while the
rest of the world was boycotting the beleaguered nation because
the Vietnamese were occupying it and fighting the Khmer Rouge. For
some years, the QSA offered English language training because the
people, emerging from trauma and genocide, needed a common language
to confer with the rest of the world. Soon, QSA switched to offering
permaculture training projects to rural provinces. This has been
a small, and certainly step-by-step, process.
I was sent to Cambodia by QSA, where I spent some weeks discussing
the possibilities of introducing permaculture into the country.
There were talks with many organizations and finally QSA approached
the Cambodian Women's Union (later the Ministry of Women's Affairs),
which had a network that reached into all the villages from province,
to district, to commune. I asked whether some provincial staff would
like to learn permaculture in Phnom Penh and help train the trainers,
and they agreed. At this stage, there was no commitment for any
further project, but only three months later a four-week course
was held in Phnom Penh.
At the end of the Permaculture Design Course, several women asked
very specifically for permaculture training in their own province.
QSA decided to work with one of the most able provincial women's
unions, which later became the Department of Women's Affairs (DWA)
in Pursat province, and some months later ran a Permaculture Design
Course to selected staff. There were 16 district and Pursat town
staff women chosen by the director who would later train other women
and farmers in the communes and villages.
Meanwhile, another course had been asked for by Catholic Relief
Services (CRS) and participants from this course who had tertiary
agricultural training now translated key chapters of my book into
Khmer language. So those who could read now had a reference book
to refer to afterwards.
The Australian Embassy made a grant and a third course was held
and this was open to agricultural staff of other NGO's and IOs.
A sustainable agriculture center soon opened in Phnom Penh, assisted
by Japanese volunteers. However the main problem was there are no
models of permaculture in a country devastated by war. So where
to start? One condition of the training was that all participants
would design and make their own gardens before extending to farmers.
Classic permaculture items such as tire ponds and herb spirals were
not included. A tire pond where there are no spare tires and it
is bone dry and not one drop of rain falls for 3-4 months is not
useful. However meter-square beds, kitchen door beds and raised
compost piles are. And generally little effort was made to teach
specific techniques. Instead, participants were given the principles
and some strategies and then asked to develop new or to use old
techniques. So a type of indigenous adapted permaculture was developed.
Trainers were then offered assistance in making learning materials
that consisted of trainer's books, posters and leaflets. These could
be used for literate, newly literate or illiterate farmers. In this
way, the trainers really used their experience of developing a garden
and ensured they knew the curriculum.
The project started small with a one-year trial among some farmers,
then developed into a three-year project. There were millions of
problems. However, weaknesses were identified, then special refresher
courses given. Trainers learned how to monitor. Then the trainers
were asked to train other NGOs.
Later, some farmers who grew surplus food participated in a food-processing
project and were able to generate income. Today about 80% of those
farmers who learned permaculture are still practicing it. Many have
gone beyond it with new techniques and strategies. With other NGOs,
government officials and more awareness on TV and radio, the boundaries
of who learned what and where are now blurred. A very strict evaluation
was not possible, nonetheless one was attempted and the Department
of Women's Affairs in Pursat considers that the permaculture project
was their most successful for rural people.
Rosemary Morrow works as a consultant on permaculture
programs run by Quaker Service Australia in South East Asia. She
is passionate about the right of everyone to have enough food to
eat, and her life is dedicated to simplicity and the right sharing
of world resources. She lectures, writes books, and runs workshops
on permaculture in her home country of Australia, and is very absorbed
with Alternatives to Violence programs. For more articles on her
work with QSA, see www.quakers.org.au.
