Introduction
The work on my projects starts in a time of globalization, where the need of re-localization, re-connecting with nature and protection of species is increasing.
“Think global, act local”
Following the message of this quote, I started to work in the last few months towards ecological regeneration of human and agricultural systems by implementing my local micro-projects. Ecological regeneration is a very huge topic where one can start everywhere. Supported by many Learning Intentions and bigger visions I just jumped into my projects. The following Core Report explains my different projects in order to shift our world towards ecological regeneration.
Notes about context (optional)
The permaculture demonstration site (PaLS) is located next to the community "Lebensgarten Steyerberg" in Northern Germany. The landscape surrounding the community is very flat with a lot of industrial agriculture, biogas plants, and wind energy going on. It is mostly a monocultural landsape, designed for profitability and economic growth.
At PaLS and in the community many people contribute to ecological regeneration, aiming to increase biodiversity, for example by growing diverse plants, building habitat for wild animals, keeping bees, increasing soil fertility and ecological building. They start on a local level to achieve local change. One weekend a month there is a communal working assignment, where the people of the community are asked to help in the permaculture area.
The PaLS area, once a big field of industrial agriculture, has been decontaminated over several years until the official beginnings of the project in 2007. On the area there is an intensive and a much bigger extensive managed zone. The intensive zone is a vegetable growing area with multiple rows of fruit trees, berries and herbs in between. The extensive zone contains a suntrap, an area with an experiment on earth magnetism and Terra Preta, a herbal hut, pasture for two horses, a place for bees (under construction) and the permaculture area for kids (coming this and next year).
Project levels (see picture =>)
I decided to organize my projects on different levels and divided the levels in meta-, meso- and micro-levels. Each level represents a project I am working on. The meso-projects consist of many micro-projects, which can be chosen very adaptable as long as they contribute to the meso-project in a some way. My three meso-projects are actively contributing to the meta-project. All my micro-projects have an individual design approach, because the needs are very different. Breaking down my meso-projects into smaller micro-projects makes it easier for me to achieve many small goals which make up one big goal. This way I hope to become more effective in reaching my goals.
Project: Natural Bee-Keeping
I am questioning the conventional bee-keeping methods as well as the dominant conventional agriculture and I am willing to intervene in these dominant patterns by showing alternative practices.
This includes for example:
- growing plants with high nutrient-value for insects
- looking for alternative bee-keeping methods (treatment of pests, types of hive)
- focussing on the needs of bees, not on the demands of humans
Because of my increasing interest in bees and the necessity to support them in their current situation, I decided to devote myself to the meso-project “Natural bee-keeping”. In this project I am working for the ecological regeneration of natural systems as well as looking for appropriate natural bee-keeping methods. My goal is to collect best-practices and after that to support and encourage people to do the same and be more sensitive with our environment.
Here is a list of micro-projects presented in this OP:
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design (and implementation) of a biotope for bees
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learn about "resistant bees" (theory & practical experience)
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learn more about conventional bee-keeping (theory & practical experience)
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weaving a "Sun Hive"
Macro-meso-micro-projects
Design Process: Appreciative Inquiry (see picture on the left)
Without any deep knowledge in design processes I started looking for an appropriate design framework for my meso-projects. After a short research I decided to try the "Appreciative Inquiry" (AI) design framework for my three projects, because the positive approach appealed to me. Nevertheless the positive core was challenging at times, because I had no real idea where to integrate the negative but realistic problems that are facing the world. All in all I tried my best to integrate positive subjects as well as challenges and used AI as a leading design framework for my meso-projects. To read more about the design framework itself, feel free to have a look at the Supporting Evidence.
Project: Practical Building Skills
In the meso-project “Practical building skills” I want to collect alternative long-term and everyday solutions. Most conventional human-designed systems are very expensive and cause pollution of our environment. There exist so many alternative ideas in building and everyday tools and most people do not even know about them (e.g. compost toilet, greywater management, passive solar usage in houses or solar dryers). To decrease every persons ecological footprint these are valuable solutions. My first micro-project is to be actively involved in building an earth-sheltered greenhouse (passive solar) which is being built at PaLS this year.
Here is a list of the micro-projects presented in this OP:
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beginning of the construction of an earth-sheltered greenhouse (practical experience & theoretical knowledge) → experience report & implementation steps
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taking leadership in supporting the group
Project: Soil Building
In the meso-project “Soil building” I dedicate myself to the urgent issue of soil with the focus on building soil. Soil - as our basis of life - is threatened by enormous degradation through human activities. I am questioning a lot of common non nature-oriented practices such as monocultures, pesticides, big machinery, no proper water management, etc. It is time to increase people's awareness of this living organism. With that project I want to gain practically applied soil building skills and knowledge to then apply it by myself and spread the knowledge in order to treat the soil future-compliant.
Here is a list of my micro-projects presented in this OP:
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cultivating indigenous microorganisms (IMO)
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gain knowledge about mulching
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set up a Terra Preta heap