Trees are so important for so many reasons. They play an active role in the water cycle, in protecting and building soils, in hosting and enhancing biodiversity, in sequestering carbon, in providing biomass and so much more. The impacts of deforestation are well-documented: erosion, soil salination, soil acidification, desertification… which lead to water scarcity, famine, conflicts, migrations… Even though most of the permanent cultures and tribes revered trees as brothers and sisters, “modernity” and “progress” encouraged and keeps on supporting forest clearing (facts not debated here). Our solution and its expectable benefits Plant trees to:
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The seek for timber and firewood, fights between British and French colonial troops and some government incentive for cash crops for Europe in the early 20th century depleted the native Dry Evergreen Tropical Forest in the region of Pondicherry. Less vegetation coverage combined with heavy rain episodes lead to massive topsoil erosion and transformed the luxuriant ecosystem of the plateau into a dry savannah. This severe degradation of the ecosystem impacted the biodiversity, reduced the water underground levels, reduced fertility, increased surface temperature, degraded the livelihoods and eroded the culture of nature stewardship of the local communities. Our solution and its expectable benefits Recycle material and use low-tech techniques to plant trees to:
"If we could only understand what a tree does for us, how beneficial it is to life on earth, we would (as many tribes have done) revere all trees as brothers and sisters." (B. Mollison) Ready for the supramental evolution? As stated on the Auroville website: “Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity.” The purpose of this article is to share some of our impressions, stories and thoughts after our short-term stay in the City of Dawn. Abstract I tend to write (too) long articles. This abstract gives you an overview of the content and the key messages from this blog post. Feel free to read the complete post 😊
In this article we describe Auroville both as Auroville describes itself as well as how we discovered it. The main lesson is that there is the theory, the words on the paper, and there are the facts, what we really experienced. Auroville is a concept in action, it is a living project, which is not achieved, and which is evolving. Some of the objectives are met, others are far from being met. This article is not a cold critic of Auroville, it is our personal examination of what the town aims to be, what it has achieved, which challenges it is going through. We detail our observations regarding the town’s structure and architecture, the relation to money, the relation to spirituality, and much more. We acknowledge that Auroville is a creation of people. From the initiators, the charismatic Mother and Sri Aurobindo, to the current heroes of the multiple projects in Auroville, everyone brings its stone to the edifice. Finally, Auroville is about spirituality, and one thing we cannot deny is that the city is full of vibrant energy, from the Matrimandir to the gardens, the streets, the projects’ sites, the hearts of the people… Many come to Auroville for a unique spiritual experience, all will find it! A journey from conventional to regenerative agriculture to feed the City of DawnIf you check Auroville’s website, you will read that “Auro-Orchard is the oldest and the second largest farm of Auroville, that grows most of the fruits and vegetables produced in the community. It also serves as the main poultry farm of Auroville. Since its inception, Auro-Orchard’s main vision was to provide food for the Auroville community. For many years, to meet the immediate needs of the Auroville community in food, conventional farming practices were used, but since 2012, Auro-Orchard is being converted into an organic farm. (…) Regenerative organic farming (agro-ecology) is now the motto of the farm.”. This article is about the recent and successful transition from “conventional” agriculture to regenerative organic agriculture. You will read about our visit of Auro-Orchard as well as Mathieu’s two-week volunteering session there. Abstract I tend to write (too) long articles. This abstract gives you an overview of the content and the key messages from this blog post. Feel free to read the complete post 😊
I volunteered for two weeks at Auro Orchard with a great team of locals, volunteers and Aurovillians. I take the time to thank everyone of them at the end of the article because it was an amazing human experience. However, the focus of the article is to share with you the successful move of Auro-Orchard from traditional agriculture methods that killed the land to respectful methods that regenerate the land. As a volunteer I could see the direct results of the transition. This ongoing success has been possible through an intransigent and straightforward strategy:
On top of that I want to salute the effort for human and social respect as well as for animals’ respect at the farm. In this regard, another part of the article relates on how the present manager is addressing human and animals’ issues at the farm. As a broader attempt to describe the farm, Laura and I have listed a few areas of development which are task management, communication and other opportunities that can clearly help the farm optimize its work and grow in the future. As usual (you can find it in most of our articles), we tend to be as objective as possible in our report on projects, which means we also provide readers with subjective remarks. Feel free to comment and give your opinion too! Enjoy the read. Mathatitu Yoga Ashram, Varkala, India While Mathieu was doing the Permaculture Designer Course (PDC) in Aranya (read his article here), state of Telangana, I was doing a one-month Yoga Teacher Training Class (TTC) at Mathatitu Yoga Ashram in Varkala, state of Kerala. Indeed, our journey in India was the chance to learn from different areas and enrich ourselves individually to share this treasures together afterwards. Actually I also want to do a PDC myself and I already booked for the octobre session in Quailsprings, California, USA. Anyway, I rather took the chance to do a TTC in India in order to nurture my passion for Yoga by learning from Indian yogis about the philosophy and roots of Yoga. Initially I never planned to become a teacher, I just wanted to do a long retreat and the TTC are the best deals for such kind of long programs. However, I realised this would help us for our trip, to find more projects to volunteer at. We realised many permaculture projects also have interest for yoga. For instance, I might teach in Laos next month in the permaculture farm we go to, which happens to also be a Yoga centre! This article aims at sharing
As it is a very important part of the trip for myself but also for the project, I also want to explain why it fits in our project: this involves a reflection about how yoga and permaculture share important principles. Finally, I give a short reflexion on the importance of spirituality in our society. “May there be more forests to grow people!” Before coming to India, we planned to volunteer at Sadhana Forest Kenya, but our plans changed. After, we planned to volunteer at Sadhana Forest India, but our plans changed again. As a result, we did not volunteer for Sadhana Forest, but Mathieu had the opportunity to enjoy the Friday-afternoon tour they offer each week to discover the project, its realizations, its vision as well as enjoy a movie and delicious dinner. This article retraces this afternoon and evening. Abstract I tend to write (too) long articles. This abstract gives you an overview of the content and the key messages from this blog post. Feel free to read the complete post 😊
What is your bull’s eye? Is the first question we were asked. Our host then explained the way that Sadhana Forest chose to lead more compassionate and conscious lives. It all started with tree planting and water management to later evolve towards a complete integrated and protracted thoughtful lifestyle that combines karma yoga, veganism, community, renewable energies, no-waste, eco-building, unschooling, compassion, gift economy… In this article I briefly talk about how French and British colonial influence as well as European military needs cleared the forest and caused the desertification of the region. We also relate the solutions implemented by Sadhana Forest to tackle the desertification and rehabilitate the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest, native to the region. Then, I focus more on how Sadhana Forest “grows people” through the promotion of a “conscious and compassionate lifestyle”. Finally, I share some of my thoughts and questions; I look forward to reading your comments and answers. Sustainable architecture in the centre of Auroville What can individuals do to tackle climate change? What role can architecture play for sustainability and resilience? I rented a room at the International House during my three-week stay in Auroville. Not only did I enjoy the room, facilities, design, solutions, location; I also enjoyed a lot learning from Manu, the architect, his philosophy, purpose and vision of sustainable architecture. This article is about the International House in Auroville and the solutions implemented on site as well as the reason, the purpose, the vision and the mission of sustainable architecture as presented on the 26th of April by Manu to young architects. Abstract I tend to write (too) long articles. This abstract gives you an overview of the content and the key messages from this blog post. Feel free to read the complete post 😊
First, we consider some solutions implemented at the International House such as the double-roof, upcycled material and dry toilets. We use Indian examples to (once again) stress the issue of human waste and the relevance of dry toilets to solve many sanitary, social and environmental problems at once. Then, we consider the importance of choosing construction material and the reason behind those choices: protect the environment and tackle global warming. We answer to the questions that follow:
Finally, we answer the question “What solutions are available to achieve sustainable architecture?” When building a house, prefer sustainable construction material and techniques. One great solution is to farm construction material, i.e. plant trees and transform mature trees into permanent functional elements. With this choice, you make a real difference: for each 100 m2 you sequestrate 6.5 tons of CO2 equivalent. One should not wait for governments and big corporations to react: solutions are available, and people can have a real impact; go from passive follower to active builder! The landscape is quite steep at Lake Bunyonyi Ecovillage. Thus, planting in terraces requires important effort to work the ground for potato plantation. Moreover, potato harvesting is also work-intensive as one must dig out the potatoes from the ground. On top of that, the gardens are quite far from the kitchen which adds some effort to the process between collecting and transporting before preparing the food. Finally, the available place between the houses of the ecovillage is limited. Our solution and its expectable benefits Use locally-available material, simple technics and tools to build Potato Towers to:
From desert to seed preservation How can sustainable horticulture, reforestation and biodiversity transform pebbles into a flourishing productive garden? If you check Auroville’s website, you will read that Pebble Garden is “A garden area of a quarter acre devoted to Seed Conservation. It was created by an intensive process of soil building, using select pioneer species to create biomass in-situ in raised beds, and today supports a plant collection of more than 100 endangered traditional vegetable varieties from all over India - root crops, herbs, perennial and wild food crops, medicinal plants and flowers. These varieties are ideal for home use and home gardens. ‘A Garden for Everyone’ is an outreach initiative to share these hardy plant varieties, which have performed well on this wasteland, with home gardeners and subsistence farmers throughout India. They are shared within known organic farmers’ collectives via organic fairs, seed melas and through personal contacts and references. A place of continuous learning, Pebble Garden also has a charcoal/wood vinegar production plant and conducts research on in terra preta.” If you want to read more about the Pebble Garden, this article retraces the visit of the Pebble Garden and shares some of the techniques implemented there as well as the great stories and anecdotes counted by Bernard. Permaculture Design Course (PDC), Aranya Farm, Hyderabad, Telangana, India |
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