International Permaculture Design Course - Sao Paulo, Brazil

Instructors: Brock Dolman  and Tony Andersen
Cost: $450.00 (see www.icp8.org )
Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil

The International Permaculture Design Course is one of the four events of the International Permaculture Convergence and it provides a unique opportunity for host country students to receive a permaculture design course taught by prominent international teachers.

The IPC8 Design Course is on schedule for May 4th-13th in the bairro of Grajau (pronounced gra – ja – oo) in the periphery of Sao Paulo. It will take place at the project center of Project Anchieta which is a local NGO managing an education and nutrition program for bairro children. Anchieta has been blessed with a remarkable donation of a parcel of 20 hectares (45 acres) of land that has springs on it, good soil and even a tiny bit of Atlantic rainforest left. Although the land is surrounded by bairros the goodwill that the project has generated has protected it from encroachment which is common practice.

The larger objective of the 72 hour course is to produce a comprehensive design for this land that can be used as a working blue print for a proposal to develop the property as a Sao Paulo Green City program capable of large scale organic food production for the city and the generation of local jobs. Significant seed funding from the Avina Foundation has been prioritized for a follow up program to create a significant scale urban permaculture program.

The course will be in presented in English and translated to Portuguese. The two teachers will be Brock Dolman from the USA and Tony Anderson from Denmark. Certificates will be presented upon completion of the course. The course schedule will be emailed to the participants in the
next week. There will be evening activities and the favela musical groups will perform.

Twelve internationals and eight Brazilians from elsewhere in Brazil have already signed up for the course and there will be twenty local scholarships granted. There is space for 10 more and anyone interested should get in touch very quickly. This is permaculture on the ground and making a little bit of history. For more information go to the 8th International Permaculture Convergence's website at www.ipc8.or