This short course begins with an account of some of the most pressing issues facing rural indigenous communities in Guatemala based on feedback from our farmer training programs. We then look at some of the common mistakes we have seen NGO’s make in their agriculture programs and explore how Permaculture Design can help address these problems. We stress the importance of cultural understanding in field of development work and explore intersections between new practices and traditional ways. Neal is from an Irish family with a background in dairy farming. He has worked in agricultural projects all over the world, including Australia and Colombia. He came to Guatemala to study and write a thesis on the relationship between permaculture and traditional agricultural practices of the Mayan people. He has been here since, working on many different Permaculture projects, before starting his own Permaculture farm, Granja Tzikin, with his two partners. He now manages his farm and farm to table restaurant, teaches in the Atitlan Organics permaculture teachers guild and work as a designer and consultant with Regenera.

If you've decided to get started beekeeping, this course is for you. In 4 live Zoom sessions, you will learn essential steps in setting up your apiary, preparing your equipment, and successfully getting your new best friends into their home. We will also cover essential early hive checks to ensure success.

This 2-session course, offered live by Zoom with expert beekeeper Charlotte Hubbard, will review considerations for anyone thinking of starting beekeeping - including cost, location, time, and other challenges; what equipment you really need to keep bees in Michigan for your first season, and how to go about making it a reality. 

The course will address the importance of understanding power relationships between Global North and Global South territories in order to contribute to environmental and social justice and how Mesoamerican Permaculture can provide some guidelines for this. (Instructor bio not provided, so use this): The Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura – IMAP) is a non-profit organization based in Guatemala. It was founded in 2000 by a group of local people concerned by the serious environmental, social and cultural problems affecting the nation. They established an ecological education center to promote permaculture techniques, local biodiversity conservation, production of organic food, and a seed bank that strives to reconstruct the Mayan seed heritage.

This course will introduce participants to the bridge between Indigenous people, biodiversity, and traditional knowledge as pillars for food sovereignty, locally and globally. It will present the crucial role of Indigenous people as guardians of biodiversity and natural resources, and will demonstrate how these elements are connected to our daily life, and how they ensure food security for humankind. Rony Lec is one of the world’s leading experts in permaculture and Mayan ancestral knowledge. Rony has spent the last 20 years teaching and implementing permaculture throughout Central, South and North America focusing on promoting food sovereignty and preserving biodiversity for the survival of Indigenous communities. Through his extensive work with Indigenous communities on traditional ecological knowledge, seed saving, native plants, local/global food movements, livelihood security, and the interaction between communities and the environment, he has made a key contribution to the empowerment of Indigenous people around the world. Rony is a co-founder of IMAP.