The topic of the day was social permaculture.

Bioregionalism is the unit of self-sufficiency. We cannot be self-sufficient at the household level. In a bioregion, people have different skills (dentist, construction, farmers,…) The size is 100-10000 people. A city has several bioregions: the association of residents as informal networks.

Our aim is:

• a stable bioregion
• reduce import/export, which is impoverishing (e.g. migration of labor)
• need political, financial and communication units
• network all organisations (the important ones should have more links. If a node is cut (e.g. by government) the system keeps working)

Setting up of bioregions:

• make an inventory of local resources
• create an ethical directory
• start a local economy (LETS,…)

The next topic was land access. The land access should be granted. Some land access strategies are: the oxfam model, community supported agriculture, city as farm, farm and garden clubs, WWWOOF, tourism as land access, plan for climate change, lease not shorter than 5 years.

The final topic of the day was how to make income from our land. There are endless possibilities, but some principles are:

• be ruthlessly realistic about your strategies
• work on short and long term strategies (set goals, develop indicators), fill market niches, produce quality goods, start small
  

We started the day speaking about disasters, which are extreme negative events that affect a whole community. Following the ethics, we should:

• save lives first, then property
• make full disaster plans
• use precautionary principle: if there may be a risk, it will certainly happen

Our design aims are:

• to reduce extent or intensity
• to endure or avoid
• to prepare for several disasters (2 most likely than one)
• to apply zones and sector planning

Any disaster can have natural or cultural causes, and is the trigger for a secondary disaster. Floods are a natural disaster, that can lead to epidemics. Hunger is a cultural disaster, that can lead to migration. Other disaster may be: fire, earthquake, nuclear, oil spill, economic,…

On our site, we should be prepared to face disasters. For this, we can select the 2 main ones likely to occur, and make a disaster profile:

• cause
• frequency (how often)
• predictability
• intensity
• time to onset (what kind of warnings)
• duration (how long it lasts)
• primary and secondary consequences
• scope of impact (range)
• destructive potential
• controllability (planning, how prepared we are)

Before any disaster, we should:

• decide who stays, who leaves (children, elderly people,…)
• emergency supply
• safe place
• escape routes
• hygiene
• teams (define tasks: who takes care of who)

During the disaster we should consider:

• food (dry food, nuts, carbohydrates)
• health (stay active, play)
• water
• warmth and light
• communication

After the disaster, we should be aware of:

• water filtering (boil during 10 minutes)
• children
• wash buildings before occupying them again
• house the most needy first
• total visibility of received aid
• rebuild to better withstand

We then had a session an aquaculture. The reasons to raise fish are proteins, biodiversity, biomass, water storage. Our aim is to restore and increase the fish stocks wherever possible.

It’s important to create good conditions before putting the fishes, therefore our pond should:

• be 2m deep in the middle
• have a pH 7-9
• have productive/edible water plants
• have refuges
• 1/3 of the pond should be covered by water cleaning plants

In the afternoon each group works in their design project for Valldaura Labs.

Today we talked about the Zone 4. it’s the zone where we put the restorative forest. The products of this forest can be summarized with the seven F’s: food, fuel, fodder, fruits, flowers, fibers, and fertilizers.

In permaculture, 40% of the site should be under forest cover, either productive forest, or untouched forest (zone 5). Each tree’s harvested product should last as long as it took to grow, which means that we don’t want to burn a 200 old oak, but rather use it for furniture. For firewood we can use trees that have the ability to coppice (resprout), like Casuarina, Eucalyptus, willow,…

A slope greater than 20 degree should be forested, and if we have a good access we can put a restorative forest there. If the slope is greater than 45 degrees, we should have an untouched forest because it’s too steep to work in.

A food forest has 7 layers:

• canopy trees
• fruit trees
• bushes
• herbs
• ground cover
• roots
• vines

also in the tropics we have an extra palm layer.

When we start with a new forest, to accelerate succession we should plant N-fixing trees and pioneers. Fencing the area, or at least the best trees, is important in the early stage, otherwise wild animals may damage it. If the soil is bare, cover it with living mulch. Once there is enough shade, we can add few animals.

We got useful information on how to start designing.

First, we start we zone 5: in all boundaries, along all rivers, in tops of mountain, on slope greater than 45 degrees and along roads.

Then we continue with the other zones for example in zone 4 on slopes greater than 20 degrees, then zones 1 and 2 and finally at the end we do zone 3, which will get greater yields and stability of production (farming in clearings)

Finally we came to zone 5, which has several important functions:

it’s a model we can observe and imitate

• climate moderation
• erosion control
• biodiversity
• slow long release of water
• wildlife corridor: allow genetic evolution/adaptation in times of climate change. Also it’s a species refuge.

When we want to start a forest on a site invaded by weeds, we need to take action, especially minimum disturbance techniques:

• start on the outside, remove weeds and replace them immediately with good species.
• Throw seed pellets from top
• use branch cover: branches with seeds are placed on ground. The seeds will eventually germinate
• hydromulch

Finally we had a client interview with  Nuria to know about what they want from the site.