9th Annual Permaculture Design Course, February 10th through 22nd, 2014 February 10th through 22nd, 2014

Place: Maya Mountain Research Farm San Pedro Columbia, BELIZE

Instructors: Albert Bates, Marisha Auerbach, Nicole Foss and Christopher Nesbitt with local guest instructors.

Cost:USD1250/Belize$2500 includes organic farm fresh meals, all course materials and expeditions*, comfortable accommodation in the farm, and a certificate of Permaculture Design upon completion of the course.

For Details, or to register, please contact Christopher at info(a)mmrfbz.org.

Through lecture, discussion, small groups, site visits and hands on experience, participants will gain the tools to create sustainable, ecologically based homes, farms, businesses and communities. Tucked into the foothills of the Maya Mountains, two miles up river from the village of San Pedro Columbia in southern Belize, Maya Mountain Research Farm is a working demonstration farm and registered NGO that promotes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technology and food security using permaculture principles and applied biodiversity.

With over 25 years of organic management and conversion from an abandoned cattle and citrus farm to a polyculture, MMRF is one of Central Americas oldest permaculture farms. Students will get a chance to see decades worth of design work applied at this venue. A fun video of the 2009 PDC is here, and some footage from the 2010 PDC on Mexican TV, in Spanish is here, and here.

Teachers: Albert Bates is a former lawyer, paramedic, graphic artist and author of eleven books on energy, environment and law, and produced two films on ecovillages. He is the founder of the Ecovillage Network of the Americas and was active in the creation of the Global Ecovillage Network. He has lectured and universities and government agencies and worked on natural buildings, village infrastructure, and permaculture landscapes on 6 continents. He has been teaching permaculture design courses since 1994.

Marisha Auerbach has been actively practicing, studying, and teaching Permaculture in the Pacific Northwest for over a decade, specializing in food production, biodiversity, seedsaving, ecology, and useful plants. Her practical experience has been gained from living and working in both urban and rural locations. She currently teaches permaculture courses at Oregon State University, Pacific University, Bastyr University, and Portland Community College. Marisha works with many organizations including The City Repair Project, Aprovecho Education Center, Lost Valley Education Center, Fertile Ground Community Center, and Planet Repair. Marisha holds an advanced certificate in Permaculture Aid Work and has participated in permaculture projects from the forests of Vietnam to the Rocky Mountains of the United States to the stressed conditions of Haiti. She can be found online at www.herbnwisdom.com.

Nicole Foss is Senior Editor of The Automatic Earth, a big-picture website. Since January 2008, she and her writing partner have been chronicling and interpreting the on-going global credit crunch as the most pressing aspect of our current multi-faceted predicament. The site integrates finance, energy, environment, psychology, population and real politik in order to explain why we find ourselves in a state of crisis and what we can do about it. Nicole is also an international speaker on energy and global finance. She has lectured in hundreds of locations across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and has made many media appearances in a variety of countries. In addition, Nicole has been involved in teaching on permaculture design certificate courses in Central America and Europe. Prior to the establishment of The Automatic Earth, Nicole was Editor of The Oil Drum Canada, where she wrote on peak oil and finance. She also ran the Agri-Energy Producers' Association of Ontario, where she focused on farm-based biogas projects, grid connections for renewable energy and Feed-In Tariff policy development. While living in the UK she was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where she specialized in nuclear safety in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and conducted research into electricity policy at the EU level. She also has significant previous experience practicing as an environmental consultant. Her academic qualifications include a BSc in Biology from Carleton University in Canada (where she focused primarily on neuroscience and psychology), a post-graduate diploma in air and water pollution control, the common professional examination in law and an LLM in international law in development from the University of Warwick in the UK. She was granted the University Medal for the top science graduate in 1988 and the law school prize for the top law school graduate in 1997.

Christopher Nesbitt is the founder and director of Maya Mountain Research Farm. He is a farmer, and a pioneer in tropical agroforestry and permaculture, having lived and studied agriculture in Belize since the mid 1980s. He has been engaged in agroforestry, permaculture, renewable energy through his work on the farm and elsewhere. Christopher worked for Green & Blacks, an organic chocolate company, from 1997 to 2004 on issues related to organic certification, Fairtrade certification and extension. He was a founding member of Belize Organic Producers Association and has worked as a consultant for the Government of Belize’s Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries Department. He represented Belize in workshops in Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala. He installs photovoltaic and photovoltaic/wind hybrid systems in protected areas, schools, village level photovoltaic water pumps, and teaches agroforestry.

A scholarship for this Permaculture Design Course is being offered by Maya Mountain Research Farm in memory of Anne Bulford. Anne Bulford graduated from Antioch College, was active in organic agriculture in Ohio, working at Ohio Ecological Food and Farming Association, and died in November, 2008 of cancer. She has two boys, Peter and Skyler, who live with Annes mother, Sally. Applicants must be Belizean working in agriculture anywhere in Belize or the communities adjacent to the Maya Mountains in Belize, and a farmer, extension officer or community leader. To apply, please contact Christopher Nesbitt with a description of the work you are doing, and a resume or CV and explain why you would like to participate in this course.

*Fees for entry into National Parks or Archeological Reserves must be paid by the students.