Seeking volunteers for new project in beautiful Bali!

Volunteers sought to help set up new "live and learn" permaculture project to serve as a model sustainable farm in a beautiful but ecologically challenged area of Bali.

We have located a stunningly beautiful but ecologically/agriculturally depleted area of Bali, on the Bukit Peninsula, which is badly in need of restoration. We're looking for volunteers to come and help us commence this new permaculture project starting from scratch, from disused, trampled dry earth up! Anyone up for a real challenge?

With the entire area sadly earmarked for mainly large scale, inappropriate and destructive tourism development, farming families are gradually being squeezed out of their traditional lands. Many are abandoning traditional farming lifestyles to take up tourism & hospitality jobs, and eventually into more materialistic (and too-often debt-funded) lifestyles. A main aim of our project is to demonstrate the continued viability of traditional family farming, using sustainable, permaculture-based methods, to provide locals with the choice to remain on their lands, and in doing so, to preserve this unique and ecologically fragile corner of the amazing Bukit Peninsula for future generations of Balinese.

Aiming to partner with a local farming family with disused, unproductive land (lots of it here), convert it into a productive family farm and hand it back to them, over a 5 year period. We are currently identifying suitable candidate families and lands, with the project due to commence in mid April 2012.

This is a completely non-profit, self funding, community-based project, that will exist solely on the limited funds typically available to a local farming family, to ensure that it is truly viable for other low income Balinese farmers to adopt the model we create. So we'll be practising and demonstrating only permaculture-based, sustainable farming practises that are appropriate to the socio economic level of typical Balinese farmers.

We have a dire shortage of permaculture volunteers here in Bali. We're looking for enthusiastic volunteers who'd like a challenge, ready to learn by doing, level of experience not important (though we'd love the input of some highly experienced Permaculture teachers too). Be prepared to self fund. As a guide, your financial contribution should not exceed what you would otherwise spend on rent in a cheap surfie dive!

This is a beautiful part of Asia, literally a stone's throw from the most amazing, unspoilt, undeveloped white sand beaches in Bali. But the development pressure is on, and we need to help the locals find alternatives to selling out their land to more hotels, villas, housing estates and roads. Will you come and help us?

Please see our Project Profile at http://www.permacultureglobal.com/projects/873-bukit-peninsula-sustainability-project for more information and contacts.

We are starting to get some positive and volunteer commitment interest in our project now. We would like some more volunteers to join us though! This will be a great opportunity for new permaculture graduates to get hands on experience and learn by doing and sharing together with other volunteers. We'll be operating in a horizontally-aligned, peer-learning environment, helping each other to develop skills with each of us both teacher and student. Please come to Bali: live the simple life on this amazing, colorful, tropical paradise and help farmers retain their traditions and livelihoods at the same time!

After some initial success, we have now had to suspend the Project as it has proven too difficult and costly for us to obtain the necessary volunteer visas for volunteers here. We continue our permaculture in a private capacity and welcome anyone coming to Bali to contact us. Thank you.

Do you still need volunteers for your permaculture?