PermaCorps Int has been following the work of “Garbage Warrior” Mike Reynolds and the Biotecture team in Haiti:

If you’re in the S.F. Bay Area please be sure to make it to an amazing benefit June 2nd for Kleiwerks International.  Kleiwerks is one of the key Permaculture oriented re-development groups in Haiti focused on natural and vernacular building, operating in partnership with local Haitian organizations.  PermaCorps International supports the work of Kleiwerks and other regenerative design based organizations. Get involved quickly and easily by visiting our volunteer page or contacting permacorps(at)gmail.com.

Support Kleiwerks and Permaculture in Haiti

ONE NIGHT ONLY
After three months in Haiti, Kevin Rowell, Program Director of KleiwerksInternational, is returning to the Bay Area. Sustainable reconstruction strategies for Haiti have been the apple of his eye, and he and his teams are just getting started.

OUR FUNDRAISING EVENT
Please come out and show your support at our fundraising event! The evening begins with a presentation on the unfolding situation in Haiti, followed by an overview of our projects, and a raffle and silent auction of fabulous local goods and services. We’ll then head next door to Gather, the Bay Area’s greenest restaurant, who has offered to donate 20% of the bar proceeds to our good work!

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2nd
–> 6:00-6:30: Meet & Mingle
–> 6:30-8:00: Presentation, Project Overview, Raffle & Auction
–> 8:00-til late. Eat, GIVE, Drink, GIVE and Be Merry at Gather!

SPONSORSHIPS & AUCTION CONTRIBUTIONS
If you’re interested in sponsorship at the $200+ level, or donating a raffle/auction item, we will smother you with praises, hugs, and acknowledgments. Please contact: Rachelle Padgett, Benefit for KI Event Coordinator – info@synthesisinteriorsandcolor.com — 415.606.1909.

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
-> Big thanks to our friends at West Coast Green for their outreach.
-> Synthesis Events for organizing the evening.
-> Gratitude to Gather for a portion of the evening’s proceeds.

• Asqew Grill
• The 2 Bandits
• Cherry Hoops
• The Coldest Winter
• The Cookie Department
• DeBoer Architects
• Design Avenues
• Earthsake
• Gioia Pizzeria
• Numi Tea
• Slow Burn Glass
• Synthesis Interiors & Color
• Tai Power Seeff Photography
• Vitality Bodywork
• Wasabe Vodka

by Evan Schoepke of PermaCorps International

The massive earthquake of Jan 14th 2010 that crippled the infrastructure of Haiti and claimed the lives of thousands hasn‘t destroyed the spirit of the Haitian people or their will for the social, economic, and ecological regeneration of their country.  Permaculture oriented first and second responders from all around the globe have answered the call to work alongside local Haitians and aid in the reconstruction efforts wherever possible and for as long as needed. From natural building reconstruction to alternative technology permaculture is making it’s presence felt for the long term recovery of Haiti.

There are currently 1.3 million people homeless and over 300,000 are children making sanitation a matter of life and death in Haiti. Andrew Larsen, Rodrigo Silva, Nicole Klaesener-Metzner and Hunter Heaivilin have been working diligently in Port Au Prince on critical sanitation needs especially in the areas around orphanages and hospitals.  Educating Haitians on how to build and maintain composting toilets has proven a huge success in reducing the threat of spreading infections.

Marisha Auerbach is a PermaCorps for Haiti advisory board member who worked in northern Haiti in an area near Limbe on a permaculture relief project focused on local food security and ecological regeneration. Marisha and her close friend and fellow NW permaculture educator Kelda Miller joined Rosedanie Cadet of Helping Hands Noramise and traveled to the outskirts of Limbe, Haiti along with other US volunteers.  This team worked with Haitians in the surrounding community on building the foundations of a no-till permaculture food forest that will aid in the restoration of the local soil quality, food diversity, and overall ecology of the area.  In all regions of Haiti food security is a critical issue as it has been difficult for families in the countryside taking care of internally displaced relatives to meet their basic needs while also planting crops for the future.  Currently, the torrential rains make this a even more challenging as precious limited topsoil is often washed down stream due to extreme deforestation.   The Limbe team helped plant breadfruit, guava, papaya, mango, cacao, coffee, citrus, pumpkins (joumou), spinach (zepina), okra (gumbo), melon (melon), tomatoes (tomat), onions (zonjion), carrots (karot), etc, as well as, set up swales to harvest water and stop sheet flow from washing away vital soil nutrients .

Nathanial Mulcahy the founder of World Stove based in Italy has been in country for over two months teaching Haitians how to build pyrolictic cook stoves that are extremely efficient, create little air pollution, and produce carbon rich biochar from biomass fuels. These amazing stoves (sometimes decorated and made from salvaged materials) are being distributed as quickly as possible to communities in need.  Nathan hopes to work with permaculturalist in the near future on joint education and installation efforts to provide technical knowledge to Haitians on best practices about how to use biochar coupled with composting and other permaculture techniques such as water harvesting for local agro-forestry projects.  It is Nathan’s hope that by building these stoves not only will many Haitians be employed, but that also the biochar produced will boost the soil fertility in the areas around affected communities immensely. Kevin Rowell of Kleiworks who is working closely with Jeffree Trudeau of the World Bamboo Organization and other large NGO‘s on natural building reconstruction wishes to see the world stove be a feature in every ecologically rebuilt home in Haiti.  This is just a small sampling of the permaculture work being done in Haiti to find out more about how you can help support permaculture oriented long term reconstruction efforts visit our volunteer page.

Marisha Auerbach is a PermaCorps for Haiti advisory board member and has been working in northern Haiti in an area near Limbe on a permaculture relief project focused on local food security and ecological regeneration.  Marisha and her close friend and fellow NW permaculture designer and educator Kelda Miller joined Rosedanie Cadet of Helping Hands Noramise and traveled to the outskirts of Limbe, Haiti along with other US volunteers.  The team worked with local Haitians in the surrounding community building the foundations of a no-till permaculture food forest that could aid in the restoration of the local soil quality, food diversity, and over all ecology of the area.   Nourishing local foods are essential to the well being of people everywhere and to the planet and to this end the team planted breadfruit, guava, papaya, mango, cacao, coffee, citrus, pumpkins (joumou), spinach(zepina), okra(gumbo), melon (melon), tomatoes (tomat), onions(zonjion), carrots (karot), etc.  PermaCorps Int intends to support and collaborate on more projects just like this for the long term recovery of Haiti.  Look for more detailed updates from Marisha and other PermaCorps team members soon and please support the Noramise project and their mission for a sustainable local industries in Haiti.



Image from the US Permaculture Institute

This article has been cross posted from Treehugger.com you can see the original article here.

3/7/2010

When most people think of disaster relief efforts, meeting immediate needs — food, clean water, blankets — comes most readily to mind. But as Haiti continues to recover from the devastating earthquake that struck near its capital city of Port-Au-Prince almost two months ago, a growing number of environmentalists are re-envisioning “disaster relief” as something that can provide hope for the future, not just a hot meal and somewhere to sleep. Their tool of choice? Permaculture.

“Without a doubt resources and expertise are moving en mass to Haiti, but beyond this temporary relief, what will sustain this nation of 10 million people when it’s left in an even poorer position than ever before?” writes Evan Schoepke (AKA Gaia Punk), the editor of the Punk Rock Permaculture E-zine. “This is where permaculture design comes in, with an adaptable and ever evolving tool kit that can be of vital assistance in disaster relief and the long recovery period to follow.”

Permaculture in War Zones and Disaster Areas
Permaculture, short for “permanent agriculture,” is a way of designing and maintaining “agriculturally productive ecosystems that have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.” That might sound a little hippie-dippy, but its essence of working with what the land offers and using everything it produces is profoundly practical, as Gaiapunk’s short history of the technique’s deployment in war zones and disaster areas shows.

In Kosovo in 1999, permaculturists set up a large camp for war refugees that included a water-capturing system, passive-solar strawbale buildings, gardens to provide food, and composting toilets to safely and productively process waste. And during the early-’90s oil embargo in Cuba, Australian permaculture experts traveled to the Caribbean island and helped set up market gardens, worker cooperatives, and public transportation. “Little to no pesticides or fertilizers were employed, and catastrophic famine was avoided,” Gaiapunk writes. “This partnership has continued to be highly successful and now some of the most experienced urban permaculture experts in the world come from Cuba.”

Healing the Landscape and Providing Livelihoods
Geoff Lawton of the Australian Permaculture Research Institute recently spoke toWired.com about the possibilities for permaculture projects in Haiti to help “rehabilitate the landscape and provide sustainable livelihoods,” especially much-needed local food production:

In Port-au-Prince, there are many solutions that can emerge, including the restructuring of built infrastructure in a way that creates hard-surface water runoff aimed at productive urban gardens; creating a microclimate through the recycling and redesign of the landscape; and implementing biological cleaning of urban grey- and blackwater waste.

In a country where natural resources and biodiversity were already dangerously depleted before the earthquake, Lawton says, “getting a fast result would be a powerful way to inspire local people to extend and replicate the permaculture model.” He suggests identifying some suitable water-harvesting areas at high points in watersheds so the basic force of gravity can be used to bring irrigation and nutrient flow to poor-quality growing lands.

Composting Toilets: A Solution for Sanitation, Food Security
Another one of Lawton’s suggestions, creating high-quality compost out of organic waste for growing food and medicinal plants, was the focus of efforts started before the earthquake, but is even more crucial in its wake. Even before the January quake, CNN reported that “UNICEF estimates that 70 percent of Haitians do not have access to ‘safe drinking water and adequate sanitation,’” a problem only compounded after the disaster. In addition, a severe lack forest cover makes the land extremely vulnerable to erosion and topsoil loss.

Two American women profiled by CNN looked at those two problems and saw one solution: poop.

Sasha Kramer and Sarah Brownell, the founders of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), have been working in Haiti to improve both sanitation and agriculture by installing composting toilets that reduce water contamination and provide high-quality fertilizer for farmers. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the former is an even more urgent need, while the second offers some hope for Haiti’s future recovery.

“I know that the idea of surviving this disaster is like a miracle and then the idea of Haiti being able to climb up from a place so dark seems too distant to contemplate,” blogger Nika at Humble Garden writes. “Once the person is out of immediate danger and is left standing with nothing, no assets, nothing but other survivors around them, they need to find a way to rebuild, regenerate, and boost their resilience so that they become embedded in a community that provides current and future needs.” Permaculture, it seems, could be an important part of that effort.

See more info about the work that PermaCorps Int is promoting here.

Nat at WorldStove just recently shared some exciting news about their work in Haiti to provide truly appropriate and sustainable cooking and heating technology.

A partnership of the WorldStove, LLC (“WS”), the International Lifeline Fund (“ILF”) and a private Haitian enterprise called HSSA Energy and Biomass (“HSSA”), the Lifeline to Haiti Project (“LHP”) seeks to help Haiti help itself through the current disaster and beyond by providing fuel-efficient, carbon negative stoves that will alleviate the food and clean water needs of thousands of Haitian families who were rendered homeless by the earthquake. At the same time, LHP will lay the groundwork for a long-term, self-sustaining initiative that will combat deforestation, poverty and diseases attributable to open fire cooking.

The Problem: Throughout Haiti, 95% of the population relies on wood or wood derivatives (i.e., charcoal) for cooking. This cooking method has ravaged the environment, which has lost literally 98% of its forest cover, and has retarded the living standards of Haitian families, who typically spend 20% of their meager income on charcoal and/or hours of their time collecting wood. The indoor air pollution that is caused by open fire cooking is hazardous to health and explains why acute respiratory disease is among the leading causes of death for Haitian children.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, the fuel problem has become dire and is exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. Owing to the disruption of supply lines to the capital, there is virtually no charcoal to be found and people have been looting furniture from collapsed buildings. The masses, who cannot afford wood or charcoal, have no means to cook their food or boil water.

The Short-Term Initiative: To address these urgent needs, LHP has set up a production center in Port au Prince that will produce approximately 2,000 “Lucia” emergency stoves for institutional and household use during its first month of operation alone. These super-efficient woodless stoves, which are the invention of WS, employ an innovative system of fluid dynamics and are fueled entirely with agricultural waste such as twigs, groundnut shells, rice husk and dung. At a cost that can be brought down to as little as about $6 per unit, the Lucia emergency stove will enable a woman to cook for a 5-person household using an average of just 300 grams (about a handful) of fuel per meal. Furthermore, as a result of the pryolytic cooking process it employs, the Lucia stove creates biochar – a substance that functions as a highly effective fertilizer and that can be sold on the market, thereby turning the stove into an income generator for each of its users.

All of the equipment and materials LHP needs to get off the ground have been acquired during the past week and are in the process of being shipped to Haiti (including the manufactured steel components of the stove, a plasma cutting table, sheet metal and 64 tons of pelletized fuel generously donated by Green Circle Bioenergy, Inc.). Our Haitian partner, HSSA, will provide a manufacturing/storage facility, logistical support (e.g., accommodation, food, transport, etc.) and human resources, who will be paid to help produce and assemble the stoves on site.

By the first week in February, LHP should be in position to implement phase one of the project – the distribution of institutional stoves to hospitals, schools, orphanages and the spontaneous camps that have emerged outside of Port au Prince. In coordination with other NGOs, ILF will take the lead in organizing the delivery of stoves to these institutions, training users to operate them, and monitoring the results. Following initial distribution to these priority targets, LHP will expand its efforts to include the provision of stoves to individual families, concentrating on those residing in the most hard-hit locations. During this stage, ILF will work closely with other NGOs on the ground in an effort to form reliable and efficient distribution chains.

The Long-Term Solution: By the time the situation in Haiti begins to stabilize, ILF and WS will have laid all of the groundwork and training necessary for HSSA to assume primary responsibility for the project and to become a “stove hub” – that is, a local, self-sustaining enterprise that will have the capacity to manufacture, distribute and sell the “commercial” Lucia stove for both household and institutional use in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. With the help of WS, it is anticipated that the project will ultimately become “carbon eligible.” The carbon credits thus obtained will enable the stove literally to pay for itself, such that it can be made affordable even to the poorest of Haiti’s poor.
In the end, LHP promises to create benefits for the Haitian population that exceed the investment in the project by orders of magnitude. By eliminating the need for wood as a fuel source and creating biochar, production and dissemination of the Lucia stove offers the potential to help prevent and, indeed, reverse the deforestation that has destroyed the Haitian countryside. For the individuals who are its end users, the Lucia stove will dramatically improve both their health and their livelihoods. And, finally, the manufacturing and distribution process will build local capacity – creating jobs and wealth for Haitians at the same time that they contribute to the rebuilding of their country, the restoration of their environment and the growth of their economy.

PermaCorps For Haiti has been closely following the amazing progress of World Stove on the ground in Haiti.  

Here is an inspiring update from Permacorps Advisory Board member Albert Bates:  

My friend and stove mentor Nathan is on the ground in Haiti making Lucia Stoves without the usual machined parts from Milano, just from scrap. Helps to have a Ph.D. in fluid thermodynamics. These are better than the Approvecho GreenTec clay stoves from China because they gasify rather than torrify and give pH neutral biochar on 1/3 the fuel rather than caustic ash on 1/2 the fuel. The biochar can also be used to filter water. It already filters the air through the char while the downdraft stoves burn so the indoor air is scrubbed of VOCs. Very little smoke. If you are familiar with the commercial versions of the WorldStove seeing one made from an oil drum is revelatory.

~Albert

02/22/2010 from Nat Mulcahy:

The large stove in this photo is the first 100% a Haitian made Lucia Stove and it cooks meals 200 school kids at a time the smaller stove is the household sized version.

Here you can see the inside we have both the burner unit and the fuel drying chamber (handy with the rains now here)

the artists working on the stoves insisted on making trees and birds on it AT NO EXTRA CHARGE to let people know that if they use Lucia Stoves the trees will come back to Haiti and then so too the birds!

inner turbine

A Grass of Economic and Permacultural Importance