Milan Broz

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/seeptfund



This project will help to create a network of highly skilled permaculture teachers across South East Europe. They will work locally to help people build sustainable livelihoods and communities in ways that protect and enhance the rich natural environment of South East Europe. This will be achieved through a scholarship fund that will help local permaculture designers and practitioners get the skills and confidence to teach permaculture in their communities.

Background

South East Europe is incredibly rich in environmental resources and cultural diversity. But the legacy of the Soviet era, the wars of the 1990s and the financial crisis of recent years mean that the region is financially poor in relation to its western and northern neighbours. This has led to a gradual process of migration, economic stagnation and in some cases full blown economic collapse. And it has left outdated and polluting infrastructure.

Permaculture is all about solutions, positive action and hope. It’s a design philosophy that helps people to make the most of the resources they have around them to start small businesses, build efficient homes, plant productive gardens and farms and build communities - all in harmony with nature. In a region where 20% unemployment is typical, such strategies for self-reliance and community resilience are particularly important. And because permaculture promotes sustainable lifestyles, the rich natural environment of the region will be nurtured and protected.



The good news is that permaculture is becoming firmly established in the region. More and more people want to learn about permaculture and use it in their daily lives. But demand for permaculture courses is growing more quickly than the supply of teachers. More teachers are needed but there is currently nobody in the region with the skills to train them. This means that teacher training in South East Europe currently depends on teachers from other, richer countries. This makes the training too expensive for locals, even with some subsidies. This in turn is limiting the speed at which permaculture can grow and make a difference in this region.

South East Europe Permaculture Teachers Scholarship Fund

This project will establish a scholarship fund for permaculture teachers in the making. This will give some financial support to people with a proven commitment to practicing and permaculture and sharing their knowledge, and who want to take their practice to the next level. This support will allow them to attend permaculture teacher training courses delivered locally by foreign teachers. And it will ensure that foreign teachers can earn fair wages for the work they do. As the number of permaculture teachers in South East Europe increases, a regional network will emerge, allowing teachers to offer mutual support. In the longer term, local teachers will develop the skills to train other teachers, removing dependency on outside help.

Who is Involved?

This project is a partnership between the Permaculture Association (Britain) and the Croatian Permaculture Association. We already have some funding from Erasmus+ and the Gaia Trust to cover foreign teachers’ travel and subsistence costs.

The scholarship fund will be open to applicants from countries across South East Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.



If our campaign exceeds our target, we will redistribute some of the surplus to support these other permaculture teacher training initiatives:

European Permaculture Teachers Partnership (small contribution to web hosting costs)
Rosemary Morrow's 'Teaching Permaculture Teachers' (contribution to crowdfunding campaign)


How can you help?

Please back us. Even small amounts make a big difference: we’re really grateful for whatever you feel you can offer.
Talk to us: please tell us what you think about our campaign. If you have any questions, feedback, or if there’s anything else you’d like to see, please let us know. We think we’re offering some great rewards, but please tell us if you don’t agree!
And finally please share this campaign with your friends, family and anyone else that might want to support us.
Thank you for your time. We look forward to welcoming you to our partnership!

The most sustainable fact about localy produced electric energy is the fact that you will spend your energy with a lot of care, and do everything you can to reduce energy consumption. Next, if grid fails, your system still works, so your meat will stay cool in the fridge. Next, you can build your house anywhere, you don't have to look for site near common infrastructure. This means that you can inhabit much more acceptable place for living, not just following someone else decision. And with your own energy source you are "movable". Humans were living as hunters-gatherers for most of their (pre)history, and during that time they were mainly nomads. I must assume that nomadic way of life is most, if not the only sustainable way of life for people. PV panels are giving you back that movability.

We are actually managers, not the owners. Land can not be owned, but we can play a game in which we own something. The reason for this is becouse land existed before a man, and first man did not buy the land, but take it. So he never became owner, but only a user. Of course, not the only user, each part of the land has millions of users, from microscopic organisms to the human society. If you own a land, does a hedgehog need a permission to enter? If not, than why another man does? If we stick to the idea that all land must be owned by someone, than a man would have less rights than any other living organism. If a man, like Salatin, can be a good manager for huge land, that's great, give this man more land. If another is bad manager, wasting most precious resources he has, then why he still has an oportunity to buy more land? But who would decide who is good and who is bad manager? From my point of view, society. It could also be a comunity, does not have to be a nation, but it should be something bigger than a man.

Maybe, if you have enough space, you can build a reed bed inside your bathroom (any room), and fill it with a pee and other grey water. Water never leaves the house, but mulch do.

I'm from Croatia, ex. Yugoslavia, where we had quite good experiance with public/common ownership, and quite bad with private one. Everything that worked well as a public property was wasted and destroyed after being sold to private investors. I guess this has to be related to what kind of tradition you have. There must be places in the world where private investors have more responsibility then governments, so as oposites.

I've tried it last year, however it was quite late when I discovered it is edible, so leaves were a bit old, but it was still quite pleasant. I couldn't say lettuce is much more edible then linden trees. This year I plan to grow some. As I notice, below old tree there are a lot of seedlings in my garden, so now I will not pull them out but coppice them, and treat it as a shrub crop.

Welcome Duško!

This is what I built last year:


There is no barrel since stove had to be a foot thick. That's why I decided to try what I never seen before, put one pipe next to another. One is insulated, the other is not. One is heat riser, so what is the other? Anyway, it works perfectly, I had never smoke in this room, starting fire always goes smootly, even my wife likes to do it. Just want you to know. Oh, yes, the pipe goes under the stove, to confuse you

Whole project can be seen here:
http://www.perforum.info/index.php?topic=277.msg576#msg576

It's in croatian so you wouldn't get much out of text there, but there are a lot of pictures, if someone is interested how the stuff is made.

Well yes, I do have an exhaust hood.

Can rocket stove be used indoors, i.e. near the open kitchen window? I have RMH but it is not good for cooking, and also I don't want to heat my bench during summer. Rocket stove on kitchen table could be super simple solution, but I have never tried one indoors.