Intensive Permaculture Workshop for peasants of Montes de Maria region and students of the UTB
A rich experience funded by the World Wildlife Fund and the UTB
This workshop was made possible thanks to funding from WWF's Russell E. Train Education for Nature Program (EFN), which enables organizations to train communities on local and regional conservation issues.
The region of Montes de Maria comprises 15 rural municipalities located in the provinces of Bolivar and Sucre in Colombia. This region is part of the Caribbean Coast and has a tropical dry forest ecosystem. Half of its territory belong to the Choco - Darien Region.
For decades, this region was considered the “food pantry” of the Caribbean region, due to the fertility of its soil and the hard work of peasant communities from different ethnicities which attended to the food requirements of urban centers like Cartagena, Barranquilla and Sincelejo. At the beginning of 1990, the armed conflict that shook the whole country, had a special and sharp effect over this region: massacres, land grabbing, rupture of the social fabric and displacement of the rural population to the misery belts of the big cities. The forced abandonment of peasant land favored a massive purchase of rural properties for industrial production of monocultures and mining extraction.
Today, following the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2016, some peasant communities are willing to return to their towns but have to carry out their work under conditions of disadvantage since they count with none or very scarce state support in terms of access to credits to purchase land, supplies, tools and training. All these difficulties prevent small scale farmers, for instance, from building efficient water accumulation systems and drive them instead to practice agricultural techniques such as land burning or clearing, which gravely impact the ecosystem reducing soil fertility, drying freshwater natural sources and the native forest.
Despite the difficulties, the territory of Montes de Maria is characterized by the resilience of her inhabitants and their love for their way of life and for the land. That is why some peasant communities are searching for new paths that allow them to stay in the territory and continue their labour but making a strong emphasis in establishing farming practices that protect the ecosystem, that get young people excited and that offer higher yields in the short and long term. Some of these communities research and experiment with agroecological methods, preservation of native seeds, protection of freshwater sources and solar fuelled irrigation systems. Such communities are eager to get access to knowledge and to develop farming systems that break the cycle of assistentialism and progressive degradation of the ecosystem; they want to be independent, prosperous and they want to establish a spirit of care and respect for the land.
Given the difficulties faced by the peasant communities, not only to produce food, but also, to protect the ecosystem that surrounds them, we decided to set in motion the teaching and experimentation of Permaculture in the region.
For that we applied to a grant given by WWF's Russell E. Train Education for Nature Program (EFN), and we proposed a workshop to teach and apply the principles, techniques and systems of Permaculture in farming lands of small and medium scale peasants of Montes de Maria to offer them new farming methods based on and boosted by the practice of the preservation of the natural environment.
The proposal to carry out the workshop at the campus of the Universidad Tecnologica de Bolivar, situated at the outskirts of Cartagena gave us the possibility to use gather peasant leaders from different points of the vast region of Montes de Maria, to learn from their tradition and new experiences in the path of sustainability and also, to experiment on farming techniques and water systems in a land plot that will become a demonstration site.
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| Luz Elena, a farmer from Puerto Luna, the teacher, Juan Sebastián, Josefa, a farmer from La Suprema, Juan Carlos, a farmer from Los Palmitos, Mauricio, the gardener, Joel, a Political Sciences and Law student from San Jacinto and Gerlis, from Camarón. |
During 7 days, a group of small farmers fron different municipalities of the Montes de Maria region, 4 students of the UTB and one gardener of the university attended an Intensive Permaculture Workshop led by Juan Sebastian Blandon, a young teacher who is a member of the Permaculture Institute Ná Lu'um, Which is creating a very interesting network of workshops and demonstration farms from Argentina to Mexico.
During the practical sessions of the workshop we learnt how to find the contour lines inside the area where the orchard will be established.
Following the design of the zones we began to trace and dig swales which will hydrate the vegetable beds in the orchard when the rainy season comes to its peak.
The swales had to be checked for depth and level.
We used a hose to check the level of the swales.
Diggin the swales was a very hard work, specially after the rain because the soil is mostly clay and it becomes very sticky. Fortunately, we are skillful and have strong arms.
The design for this zone included a spiral orchard. This feature turned to be a favourite of the group. The idea of using the organic pattern of the spiral to take maximum advantage of the space and the natural beauty of its shape made everyone work hard to finish it before our days at the workshop were over.
Using the soil we dug from the swales, thin branches we trimmed from the trees and dry leaves, we created mounds which will be our vegetable beds. The leaves and the branches will soon decompose creating a rich soil.
Here is the spiral orchard. There is a young nitrogen fixing tree in the middle of the spiral. In this image we can appreciate the clumps of clay of the soil. We will have to keep on feeding these beds with green and brown mulch to generate soft dark soil.
These are some of the seeds we sowed: pumpking, squash, cucumber, corn, beans. We put the beans next to the trees so the beans can climb up their trunks.
Amira, an Environmental Engineering student, makes an inventory of the fruit trees to be planted: lemon, tangerine-lemon, zapote, nispero, guanabana, caimito, papaya, pear and bleo. Some of these trees were planted close to the zone 1 orchard, some a little further, in zone 3, where the edible forest will grow.
Loraine, a Political Science student, was in charge of planting the coconut palm.
During the scorching hot hours of midday, we took shelter and learnt the theory behind Permaculture; its principles of design, of ethics and of attitude. We discussed about the possibilities offered for humans when we work with Nature and take care of her. Because most of the farmers come from communities which have had access to education in environmental methods of production, these classes helped them recognize to what degree they already practice Permaculture, and which new possibilities are there to enhance their projects.
It rained for a couple of afternoons, so we spent those hours drawing maps of the orchard at the UTB and everyone's farms back home. This was a moment for the participants to begin a design for their land plots using some principles learnt during the workshop.
Each participant explained the features of their farms. Even the students, as they come from places like El Salado or San Jacinto, where their families live and work the land. We also had the chance to talk about the problems each one faces within their farms. Some have trouble with the members of their own communities which hinders the possibilities to implement new strategies to produce more. Some have problems with the lack of water, some others, with careless neighbors who cut too many trees.
This sessions were extremely fruitful because everyone could learn from the experiences and solutions that some of the participants have found to solve similar situations.
This dialog also helped to make visible social processes already strong in two communities that could be adapted by the other participants' communities.
The participants brought maps of their farms which we could analyse using the principles learnt during the classes and some new maps including contour lines and spiral orchards were created.
During the workshop, our teacher made us begin and end each working session with a playful activity to warm up, to acknowledge the presence and role of everyone in the group and to listen to our impressions of the working hours. At the begining, these activities felt awkward and made everyone uneasy, but with the days, we all awaited these opening and closing rituals because we got to be trully interested on expressing our own thoughts and feeling and on listening to what the others had lernt that day.
The last day of the workshop we made a little ceremony, very similar to one that the indigenous people of the Caribbean mountains practice, in which every one of us gave a gift to the land and said a few words of gratitude to the soil. It was a very emotional moment that made us feel conected to the hard labor of those days, to our workmates and to that plot of land where we learnt and sweated so much.
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| Happy permacultors |
At the end of this journey we said goodbye with the hope to be reunited again and possibly to go visit each other´s farms. The participants await for reports of the progress in the orchard and await the heavy rains to see what happens with the swales.
So, what comes next for this project? In July the UTB team will be visiting the farmers to continue the dialog on Permaculture and see what principles or techniques could be implemented by the participants. Click here to look at visits to the farmers.
Meanwhile, at the UTB Farm, we will be working with Fauna Silvestre Fundación identifying the animal species that inhabit the forest of the farm. Click here to learn about it.
To characterize the vegetation of the forest, we will have the expertise of The Botanical Garden of Cartagena "Guillermo Piñeres". The result of this identification of the flora will allow us to show our community the richness of its little forest. Click here.
Finally, during the summer vacation and the next semester we will be working with a group of students and teachers in the orchard and in the wild corridor we stablished during the workshop.
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