Greening The Desert Project

Greening The Desert Project

The Middle East Arid Climate Permaculture Demonstration Site

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Permaculture for Pastoralists in the Jordan Valley – Part II

November 5, 2014 By Alex McCausland 28 Comments

Note: If you haven't already, you can read Part I here. A Dead Sea Valley family home with their typical front ‘lawn’. Photo © Craig Mackintosh The title may lead you to think we are talking about people who manage pasture or have access to wide areas of rangeland. In fact, we are talking about people whose parents and grandparents were nomadic pastoralists that ranged flocks of animals across vast areas of land with the changing of the seasons. Rangelands in the Middle East were traditionally … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Project Update Tagged With: Aid Projects, Biological Cleaning, Building, Community Projects, Compost, Land, Plant Systems, Soil Rehabilitation, Urban Projects, Waste Systems & Recycling, Waste Water, Water Conservation

Permaculture for Pastoralists in the Jordan Valley – Part I

October 30, 2014 By Alex McCausland 10 Comments

Awassi sheep ready to go to market (and random standards inspector) I’ve been to the Greening the Desert “Sequel” site three times now. Once was in 2011 when we were at the IPC in Jordan. Once was in 2012 when I went there to take an internship with Geoff and Nadia. This year I was able to go back there to teach a PDC myself. So I’ve seen some of the development of the site over the past three years as the trees have grown up, formed a canopy and started to alter the microclimate of the site … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Project Update Tagged With: Aid Projects, Animal Forage, Breeds, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Livestock, Urban Projects, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling, Water Conservation, Water Harvesting

Wadi Mukheris and the Wonder of Gabions (Jordan)

December 4, 2013 By Geoff Lawton 5 Comments

The year 1999 was a busy one, with the potential of Y2K and “the end of world as we know it”, with the threat of computers failing as the clocks trip over the year 2000 at start of the new millennium. For part of the year I was working as the lead permaculture consultant with a team in Louisiana, USA, on an ex-army ammunition manufacturing plant re-design into an eco-industrial park. We taught many PDCs to locals. For part of the year I was working in Macedonia after the Kosovo crisis as the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Project Update Tagged With: Gabions, Land, Storm Water, Water Conservation, Water Harvesting

Rough, Ready, But Very Real – a November 2013 Update on the Jordan Valley Permaculture Project (aka ‘Greening the Desert – the Sequel’ Site)

November 19, 2013 By Geoff Lawton 29 Comments

Project from above, featuring a garbage-accumulating fence edge Well, you would be hard pressed to find a tougher block of land -- a 400m below sea level, West facing slope, in an extremely hot, arid climate, with extremely poor, shallow highly alkaline top 'soil', covered in rocks, with a limited water supply and in a mostly Palestinian refugee-populated village. When we first started working on the site local farmers thought it was just ridiculous to even try to produce any kind of result on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Project Update Tagged With: Aid Projects, Animal Housing, Biological Cleaning, Building, Community Projects, Compost, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Energy Systems, Fencing, Food Forests, Land, Plant Systems, Soil Conservation, Soil Rehabilitation, Trees, Urban Projects, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling, Water Conservation, Water Harvesting

Greening the Desert Internship 2012 – Greener than Ever

January 15, 2013 By Salah Hammad 7 Comments

Our one month long internship at the Greening the Desert Project (the 'Sequel site') just ended. Ten students arriving from seven different countries were part of the first internship to take place at the project site in the Dead Sea Valley in Jordan. This will be a journey through pictures on what Geoff, Nadia, the interns and the WWOOFers were up to. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Project Update Tagged With: Aid Projects, Community Projects, Compost, Courses/Workshops, Education Centres, Irrigation, Urban Projects, Water Conservation

Jordan Valley Permaculture Project Update: Post IPC Happenings

November 11, 2011 By Dan Lewin 3 Comments

An aerial view of the site Although the landscape here could be seen as a model for scarcity, what there is an abundance of is rocks. The baked dusty earth barely passes for soil and during the summer there isn’t rain here for over six months. With valuable agricultural resources seemingly at a minimum, rocks can be incredibly valuable in the design of a sustainable human settlement. In the case of the Permaculture Research Institute of Jordan’s site (PRIJ), rocks have formed the main building … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Project Update Tagged With: Aid Projects, Building, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Irrigation, Land, Plant Systems, Regional Water Cycle, Soil Rehabilitation, Soil Salination, Storm Water, Swales, Terraces, Waste Systems & Recycling, Waste Water, Water Conservation, Water Harvesting

Letters from Jordan: ‘Greening the Desert – the Sequel’ Site Contrasts Against Jordan Insanities

November 8, 2011 By Craig Mackintosh 19 Comments

Staring into the eyes of the future of Jordan, one wonders how things could be.... All Photographs © Craig Mackintosh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYk21PLKGgg Al Jazeera's very recent feature of the new 'Greening the Desert' site Introduction Why did the photojournalist cross the road? It sounds like the beginning of a joke, and, in a way, it was. I was standing at a busy road in Amman, Jordan, contemplating crossing. I say 'contemplating' as there were three lanes in each direction, and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Project Update Tagged With: Aid Projects, Community Projects, Consumerism, Deforestation, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Plant Systems, Regional Water Cycle, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Soil Rehabilitation, Urban Projects, Water Conservation, Water Contaminaton & Loss, Water Harvesting

Update on the Jordan Valley Permaculture Project (aka ‘Greening the Desert, the Sequel’): “Leave All Expectations Behind”

February 19, 2011 By Christian Douglas 18 Comments

I felt fully prepared leaving for Jordan three weeks ago. Equipped with a 55ltr backpack laden with books, a compost thermometer, a dumpy level as hand luggage and a few well chosen words of advice from former patrons of the land: "Leave all expectations behind". In fact, as i remember correctly, it was to "flush them down the toilet". Within hours of my arrival it became rapidly apparent that would become the most useful thing I was to bring with me, or rather didn't bring, as the case may be. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Project Update Tagged With: Aid Projects, Building, Community Projects, Compost, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Plant Systems, Soil Conservation, Soil Rehabilitation, Swales, Terraces, Urban Projects, Water Conservation, Water Harvesting

Jordan Valley Permaculture Project – November 2010 Update

November 17, 2010 By Geoff Lawton 8 Comments

The Jordan Valley Permaculture Project (aka 'Greening the Desert - the Sequel') in Al Jawaseri in the Dead Sea Valley (lowest place on earth), continues to develop as we gradually fund the project into action with our own permaculture education programs, volunteers and funding from Muslim Aid Australia and Kids are Sweet of Wisconsin, USA. The male and female shower and compost toilet block is now reaching completion using a basic faralone design system (PDF, with others composting toilet … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Project Update Tagged With: Aid Projects, Biological Cleaning, Building, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Irrigation, Urban Projects, Waste Systems & Recycling, Water Conservation

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