Quinta do Vale da Lama

Project Type

Project Summary

An educational institute and a demonstrational working farm aiming at providing the food for its residents, students and guests while improving the land as we go.

Project Description

Permaculture Institute of Vale da Lama is an educational institute and a demonstration site for sustainable and self reliant living in Algarve.

On the west bank of Ria de Alvor tidal estuary, midway between town of Odiaxere and beach of Meia Praia, a 42 ha farm that was farmed intensively for most of the 20th century, left fallow for most of a decade, and is now being cultivated the Permaculture Way.
From "bird's eye" perspective, the project can be seen as composed of 3 distinct parts, corresponding to 3 sub-projects:


- Casa Vale da Lama: on the high-ground (above canal), an Eco-resort accommodates up to 40 guests in sustainable comfort;


- Campo do Vale: on the lowlands adjoining tidal estuary, a Children's Summer Camp & Environmental Education Centre provides recreational & educational experiences in the context of a Natura 2000 conservation area;


- Bio-intensive gardens: on the agricultural land lying between Casa Vale da Lama and Campo do Vale, a Pedagogical Garden that both feeds & teaches us how to feed ourselves.

A hybrid team of 9 live-in Permies and up to 15 guest workers inhabit the site, with help from a small-but-mighty team of animals and employees and friends of the project from the local community and abroad, all working to develop both the land and themselves, by cultivating symbiotic relationships.

These 3 sub-projects, though far from fully-realized (see Roadmap below) are all established (debt-free) and running under independent governance, well on their way to achieving shared goals of fulfilling most basic needs (i.e. food, water, energy) from onsite resources, while achieving net reductions in carbon output and net gains in human satisfaction year-upon-year. We know that Well-Being (i.e. People Care) and Nature-Conservation (i.e. Earth Care) are not mutually-exclusive pursuits; indeed, by understanding the web of life and working with natural relations (i.e. practicing Fair Share), instead of fighting them, we can sustain ever-increasing levels of both biodiversity AND cultural richness in and on our grounds. This is Permaculture as we understand it… And we are getting to the point of understanding enough about it (knowing full well how much we have yet to learn!) we have decided to begin teaching it in earnest.

The core Permaculture team (Farmer, Teacher, Administrator, and Owner -all natives (save the last) with total of 6 PDCs to their credit) is working on a program that should, in the course of the the PDCs and Internship programs, to prepare some 100+ students/interns per year, with the theory & practical experience they will need to get their own Permaculture projects off on a sustainable footing. In light of the good work being done by Permaculture Research Institute in Australia, and considering the need for such a centre of excellence in the this part of the world, we are now running regular PDCs, internships, teacher trainings and short courses and workshops.

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