Sustainable Living, Practical Learning

It is important to understand that the indigenous people know more than many of us about sustainability, but with the advent of globalization and the continuous attacks on their traditional way of life, the knowledge is being lost or invalidated. In that sense, permaculture often brings people back to what they used to know, validates their cultural practices, and introduces methods that are effective in today’s world. For indigenous people, forests used to be their cultivated garden, where fruit, medicine and food were abundant in their carefully managed and mapped environment. With the loss of indigenous lands, deforestation and pollution, those practices no longer work. Permaculture introduces techniques for reforestation, community organizing around land issues, methods of building soils and creating productive environments within the existing land management patterns.

Several projects were initiated in Ecuador after introduction of permaculture in 1992 by Scott Pittman, Bill Mollison and Ali Sharif.

Madre de Selva and San Lorenzo Women’s Coop

San Lorenzo was the primary project of the Permaculture Institute of Ecuador and was developed by Ali Sharif of Permacultura America Latina as a seed center for tropical fruit trees from around the world.  At one time there were more than 400 varieties of fruit trees represented at the Madre de Selva Center.  Many permaculture apprentices worked there over the years to create a very vibrant and critical example of biodiversity. 

There was a group of landless single mothers in San Lorenzo who organized gardens along the right of ways in the city in order to provide nutritious food for their children.  These groups were very active in creating a farmers market and a poultry raising co-op.  The new mayor of San Lorenzo made the big mistake of ordering that the women’s gardens be removed from public lands, only to be met with a very large group of women with machetes ready to defend their livelihood and their children’s health.  The mayor wisely decided to change his mind from opposition to support. 

Multi-lingual Permaculture Course in Esmeraldas

The first Ecuadorian permaculture course was held in Esmeraldas; it had over a hundred students from all over South America, North America, and Europe. The course was simultaneously translated into five languages, not counting the indigenous speakers. Native people of the Huaorani, Quechua and Shuar nations sat next to descendants of black slaves, Spanish-speaking locals, and European and American learners. This course was convened on the ancestral lands of the Mamallacta Family. 

The Mamallacta family is respected for its contribution to the preservation of the traditional knowledge about plants, tropical rainforest and healing.

Huaorani Center in the Amazon Basin

Moi, a Huaorani Indian from the Amazon Basin, had become quite famous after the book by Joe Kane ‘Savages’, of which he is the central figure. He is a warrior of his small tribe ‘that defended their territory against hell-bent oil companies, dogged missionaries and starry-eyed environmentalists’ (from Joe Kane). The book tells the story of how the Huaorani attempt to vault from Stone Age to Petroleum Age on their own terms.

Moi attended most every permaculture course given in the region, and as a result he received three permaculture certificates over the years. It was never clear why Moi was so taken by permaculture, except that he loved the talent show, held at the end of every course, and always put on paint, feathers, and danced with his spear.  Many of the participants looked a little alarmed when confronted with this true warrior of the Huaorani people. 

Tiger Batallion Course

The Tiger Batallion of Ecuadorian National Army were participants in one of the permaculture courses in the Ecuadorian Amazon.  The army grows its own food and had an intense interest in permaculture.  It was ironic that they were also the primary defenders of the petroleum workers against the indigenous people who were also participants in the course.  This course was held on an agricultural experimental station that was working on alley cropping and cover crops for tropical ecosystems.

Permaculture methods were received in the most rewarding fashion, in that the participants would leave the course and immediately put the information to use. Ecuadorian educational events signified the real beginning of establishing permaculture in South America. Classes revitalized brewing understanding for the need for change. Students, already active in their communities, went onto becoming teachers, organizers, writers, practitioners, leaders and preservationists in the framework of the worldwide movement for sustainability.