The Great Work W herever you are in the turned the compost, experiencing We need to shout this from the roof- world, I like to imagine joy when you saw how many worms tops. Right now, the funds needed to that you got down on your were wiggling their way back into address climate change are swirling knees today and touched the soil. the fertile heart of the pile. in a vortex of highly paid consultants You found the Earth soft because If you recognise this scenario then who endlessly debate what to do. of the organic matter, the love and you know how to sequester carbon This financial capital needs to flow care that you, your family and your and are on the forefront of mitigation to the individual and the collectivised community have lavished on it. I see and adaptation to climate change. farmers, gardeners and landscape you spreading straw or wood chips All the paper climate agreements, restorers who, through their efforts for mulch to enrich the soil and financial finagling and virtual actions to increase soil carbon, increase maintain the moisture. You added in the world aren’t worth as much the height of vegetative canopies yesterday’s vegetable waste and as your compost pile and garden. and protect biodiversity are leading 4 permaculture No. 85 www.permaculture.co.uk  Permaculture all photos © 2015 Kosima Weber Liu (EEMP) unless otherwise stated Award winning filmmaker, John D. Liu, describes how earth restoration can help us grow a collective consciousness that will ensure our future, and the practical steps we can take to do this of Our Time... our species’ efforts to mitigate and As I begin to write this, I’m in and FORM Ghana. I’m really happy adapt to human induced climate Egypt to participate in a regional to be writing to you and hopefully change. Imagine what we could do forum organised by International this will be the first of many essays if we engaged people worldwide Union for the Conservation of Nature that will live on these pages. As they in restoring the Earth’s ecological (IUCN). I’ve arrived from Ghana, say here in Egypt: “Insha’Allah” or function? If we paid people who where we started the documentation “by the Grace of God”. badly need the work, like the home- of the first Forest Stewardship less or refugees, to grow soils and Council certified plantation forest Above: replant denuded hillsides. There is in West Africa, together with col- John Liu with a local water expert on the a role to play for everyone on the leagues from the COMMONLAND Loess Plateau, China, 15 years after restoration Earth in ensuring the survival and Foundation, the Environmental began (left). John Liu and crew filming the sustainability of human civilization. Education Media Project (EEMP) Loess Plateau’s restoration (right). www.permaculture.co.uk No. 85 permaculture 5  Permaculture though, more and more people have begun to understand that we have degraded the Earth, that natural systems are dynamic and that in the Anthropocene epoch these systems reflect our consciousness. It’s become clear to me that the principles of permaculture align closely with the requirements for ecological function in Earth ecosystems. Permaculture helps us make our community landscapes more resilient. Ecological restoration brings back natural ecological regulation on a planetary scale. Ultimately this knowledge will affect every aspect of human society, it’s simply a matter of time ... and the sooner the better. “Working with – instead of against – nature, Billions of People Prefer Peace the Chinese government turned the dusty In October of 2014, I wrote a short Facebook post about the increasing eroded hills of the Loess Plateau into level of violence in the Middle East.1 In that short essay I posited that if a healthy landscape.” there were hundreds or thousands willing to join in violence, there must be millions or even billions of people who prefer peace. The response to this was overwhelmingly positive. An ambitious and growing community immediately began self-organising to ‘Grow Peace Through Ecology’ in Jordan by working to collaboratively build a Research, Training and Innovation Centre for Ecological Restoration. A young Danish student, Robert Senftleben, has been at the centre of this group and is relent- lessly determined to move from the theoretical to physical.2 Regardless of, or perhaps because of the degree of difficulty, many are feeling they need to do something to change the cycle of violence and From Paradise to Desert Why did the lands where agriculture suffering. It is intriguing to consider The land between the Tigris and began degrade? Is it inevitable what would happen if we were to Euphrates rivers, the birthplace of that human activity must cause the infiltrate all available moisture in the human agriculture, is known as the destruction of the Earth’s natural region? What would happen if we were ‘fertile crescent’. In western religious systems? Could our ancestors be to restore natural fertility to soils? cosmology these lands have been called providing us with clues with which What would happen if we brought ‘The Garden of Eden’, ‘Paradise’, and we can solve the mystery? back biodiversity? Could natural ‘The Land of Milk and Honey’. For the last two decades I’ve been ecological function be the missing Looking today at the brittle, hyper- studying and documenting eco- factor that has led all other efforts to arid landscapes, it is difficult to system function and dysfunction on find peace in the Middle East to fail? reconcile the barrenness with the a planetary scale. On China’s Loess The fundamental question that lyrical names that come to us across Plateau I witnessed that it is possible then emerges is, how can we restore time. This presents a fascinating to restore large-scale degraded it? This is where permaculture has puzzle requiring ecological forensics. eco-systems and from this realization a leading role. A significant and How could the difference between a growing vision of planetary restora- growing number of people are what ancient people saw and described tion has emerged. These ideas at first teaching themselves and others how and what we see today be so huge? attracted little attention. Gradually to grow biologically healthy and 6 permaculture No. 85 www.permaculture.co.uk  Permaculture diverse soils rich in organic matter. continents and I have no doubt that Eye Opening Dedication They are learning that increases in functional ecological systems are The presentations at the IUCN organic material and microbiologic much more productive than dysfunc- Regional Knowledge Sharing Forum communities in the soil also retain tional ones. You cannot erode the for the Middle East in Egypt are vastly more moisture, especially when fertility, hydrological regulation and continuing as I write. The parti- constantly covered by perennial kill the microbial communities that cipants are speaking in Arabic, but vegetative growth. These same build the Earth’s living soils and the text is in English so I can more people are learning to grow closed expect to have more productivity. or less understand what is going on. canopy, multi-storey polyculture You may have short-term gains This region is seriously challenged by food forests. These perennial systems from artificial inputs, but over the complex ecological, psychological, align human systems with nature long term you collapse the system social, economic, and political and have an entirely different result and have nothing. This is broadly problems. Syria, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, than continuing to practise Neo- illustrated in the Middle East and Yemen and Palestine are just a few of lithic agriculture or our current toxic Mediterranean biomes and we have the places that have been discussed industrialised agricultural model. proof that even these historically here. It is eye opening for me to The massive yields and producti- degraded landscapes can be restored meet so many scholars, officials and vity from well managed, biologically if you know how to do it. activists who are dedicating their diverse, ecologically functional We must all be grateful to Geoff lives to working on the ecology of smallholdings are also shattering the Lawton and other pioneers who are the region. Yet they don’t think they myth that destroying natural fertility showing that there is nothing funda- are special, for them it’s normal, and hydrological regulation with mentally wrong with the Earth, the because this is their home. We industrial agriculture is somehow landscapes are simply reflecting need to realise that we are all inter- more productive than optimised either our ignorance when they are connected and that degradation perennial organic agriculture degraded or our understanding with anywhere on the Earth affects us all. systems. I have been searching in all how they function. We must also At the COP20 in Peru, an Indige- realise that we need everyone on nous Ecuadorian leader refused to Far Left: Earth to learn about and accept this shake my hand and I was worried Part of the Loess Plateau in China, during point of view in order for humanity that I had somehow offended him. and after restoration. to survive and become sustainable. But then he put his hand on my shoulder and told me to do the same and he said: “My Earth is Your Earth.” Then he embraced me and said: “My Spirit is Your Spirit.” Then he embraced me from the other side and said: “My Heart is Your Heart.” Then he took both my arms at the elbows and looked into my eyes and said: “We Are Working Together.” Now that’s a greeting. It is amazing what can be done through pure intentions. Together many people are beginning to share a vision of the World with intact ecosystems. A new society will be built with this trust. We have to have faith. Emerging from experiences worldwide for some decades and over the last half-year in Jordan is a growing participatory Global Earth Regeneration Alliance that is showing how to engage everyone in this, ‘The Great Work of Our Time’. More and more people can instantly understand the need for Research, Training and Innovation Centres for Ecological Restoration and can imagine them growing up wherever the land is Left: A Loess Plateau farmer whose livelihood has been restored along with the land. www.permaculture.co.uk No. 85 permaculture 7  Permaculture degraded. These centres can be fully Change is Difficult ourselves. When we join together to functional, transparently governed, As the endgame of this unsustainable take up this challenge we are living participatory communities that merge era plays out, many people are standing the change we want to see on the the personal interests of individuals on the sidelines. Their intelligence, Earth. Valuing and restoring the Earth’s and families with the broader societal imagination, energy and abilities are natural systems is what all who are need to transition from a wasteful and needed to move to the next level in alive today are called to do. It is the ultimately suicidal way of life to one human consciousness. We need to meaning of our lives. It is our privilege, where everyone on Earth is engaged choose to act together as a species on our joy, and our responsibility. It is in ensuring food security, and hydro- a planetary scale and we have every- ‘The Great Work of Our Time’ logical and climate regulation. thing we need to do it. Those who Acknowledging what is real also understand this must do this first John D Liu made the documentaries means turning our backs on what is and the rest will follow. By joining Green Gold, Prix Italia award winner, false. We are at the end of an era that together we can stop enriching those and Hope in a Changing Climate, will be known mainly for its waste, who flagrantly value the accumu- named the best ecosystem film at the pollution, materialism, wanton lation of material things over the International Wildlife Film Festival. violence and foolish addiction to health and well being of all life and He is currently Director of the Envir- fossil fuels. It can be frightening to move to enriching the Earth and our onmental Education Media Project change but, when you think about lives, increasing fertility, protecting (EEMP), Visiting Fellow at the what we are leaving behind, change biodiversity and removing forever Nether lands Institute of Ecology can be seen to be a very good thing. toxic substances from the soil, air (NIOO) and the Royal Netherlands We need to change so many things. and the water. Together we can build Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) This is our chance. Not only can we energy efficient, passive solar, Earth and Ecosystems Ambassador at the address climate change and make architecture homes and make these Commonland Foundation. To hear our food systems healthier and more available to everyone. This is our his lectures and read his papers see: resilient, we can and must remake chance to ensure that everyone is https://knaw.academia.edu/JohnDLiu human society and economy to be employed to ensure the survival and fair for everyone. This is being sustainability of human civilisation. Watch John’s films at permaculture. recognised and this knowledge can Because it is possible to restore the co.uk/videos: Green Gold: empower people all over the world, Earth’s natural ecological systems, http://tiny.cc/green_gold_video engaging their creativity and giving we are required to do it. This is not Hope in a Changing Climate: their lives meaning. a job ... it is work. This work doesn’t http://tiny.cc/changing_climate enslave us to make money to stay on 1 You can find the original message at: Below: the treadmill of consumption. It frees The new lake at Tamera ecovillage, Portugal, www.facebook.com/innovationcenters us to spend our lives doing what we which has had a very restorative effect on know is best for the Earth, for human 2 Learn more about what is happening at: its surroundings. The site before (inset). civilisation, for our families and for http://greendeserts.wordpress.com © Tamera, www.tamera.org © 2011 Simon du Vinage 8 permaculture No. 85 www.permaculture.co.uk