Green Gaia Project - Permaculture design and projects

mission

Mission Statement

Our passion and life path is to turn the earth into an abundant paradise again.
What we do is not merely our work; it is our life.

In Green Gaia Project, we dedicate ourselves, both as a team and individually, to make it our mission to create positive strategies and activity towards a productive, sustainable and just world.

Fundamental to this is our awareness that humans are an integral part of Nature, and not apart from Nature.

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We work with the client as colleagues and support system, so that almost invariably a level of friendship unfolds.

Working with individuals, NGO’s, companies and corporations, governments, orphanages, communities and more, in urban and rural situations, and diverse socio-economic circumstances, through most climatic regions of the world.

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We welcome you to contact us and have a chat on ideas, questions, solutions, your dreams – for a small family farm or a food system that needs to feed thousands, land that needs care and repair, or a vision for holistic paradise retreat or community that needs to be refined and defined. Whatever, let’s talk.

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projects

A selection of past Projects

These are only a sample of some our projects. We have done projects, work and consultancies plus teaching events in Australia, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Nepal, Indonesia, Philippines, Argentine, Spain, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Eritrea, Nigeria, Slovakia, Romania.

If you have any questions, want to see other projects or would like to know more detail on any particular project, please contact us.

Greening Arunachala, south India

1989 – 1998. Tiruvannamalai, India. Instigated through the Rainforest Information Centre,supported with funding from the AustralianGovernment, WWF, Threshold Foundation, andNew Society. The sacred mountain of Arunachala transformed from a barren mountain to rich forest. Wasteland around the town was reforested. The biggest temple nursery in India established, school and village projects instigated, and a 10-acre demonstration farm set on what was previously total wasteland.

Green School, Bali, Indonesia

2007-8. Kulkul Campus, Sibang Kaja, for John & Cynthia Hardy. (John Hardy jewellery) Master plan Development, Design, Implementation and Oversight, with the the intention to create a beautiful sustainable campus integrated with the school syllabus, to ensure students are conscious of their relationship to place and the responsibility involved.

Hindupur, Andhra Pradesh, India,

2015-2016. Integrated 1-acre polyculture greenhouse including Aquaponics, hydroponics and earth based cultivation in a self-sustaining recirculating system. Design complete 2015, implementation 2016.

Bali Turtle Island Development, Indonesia.

2008-2010. Serangan Turtle Island. Consultancy, design and implementation for Cherie Nursalem Ex. Director of GITI group. Barren land turned green within 4 years. Design,
Consultancy and Implementation.

Argayall resort, La Gomera, Canary Islands

Transformed from unproductive mango monoculture to hugely diverse, productive and beautiful polyculture garden, creating intimacy and space in a tightly settled community and guest resort. Design, consultancy, implementation.

Russia

2006-7. Private Businessman Alexander Brodowski, Tula and Muram Districts: Design and Consultancy for low-maintenance high production commercial pig-rearing and diverse polyculture.

France, Limousin

2015. Water management -Design and implementation for La Roseraie de Sacha, a spiritual community, the creation of a lake both for productivity and associated water management of the whole 25 hectares, plus extensive consultation on strategies for achieving a harmonious, productive and ecologically healthy estate.

Romania

2013. Lvandea, via Teius, design, consultancy and implementation.

Ramana’s Garden Rishikesh India

2011. Food production garden for orphanage children and organic restaurant. Education and support involving the children in process.

Eritrea

2011. NewTREES International Development, Switzerland. Project involving education and consultation, with focus on raising nutritional standards and household productivity, and developing diverse polyculture systems.

Nigeria

2011. SONED, Berlin, Germany – project involving education (first Permaculture Design Course in Nigeria) and consultancy to support household sovereignty over food and personal autonomy.

D-Foundation NGO

2010. Sarnath, Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Consulting and strategy development for improving year-round productivity

BHU (Benares Hindu University) – Institute Of Agricultural Sciences, Varanasi, India, 2010. Permaculture presentations.

Tibetan Community in Exile, India

2003. Tibetan Sustainable Living Project – with support from Rainforest Information Centre and Australian government. Education, consultancy, advisory to Tibetan government in Exile. Tibetan sustainable Living report a 150-page document was presented in the UN and Australian government.

Pakistan

May – November 2011. ACTED, Paris-based NGO, Sindh and Islamabad. Project involving consultancy, education and use of permaculture as a strategy for creating resilience and survival productivity in communities blighted by frequent episodic drought and flood extremes.

PLAN International South East Asia:

1992 – 1994. Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines: consultation on integrated community projects in many districts throughout SE Asia; course and workshop facilitation, design and strategic planning for regional transformation from solely child sponsorship to community development.

Italy – Pignano, Tuscony

2007-2008. Property of Sir Mr Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital, ex board of director member of Google. Design and Consultancy, with focus on water management, including swales, lake creation, erosion control.

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our-service

Our Services

We offer a broad array of solutions and innovative ideas in the field of sustainability and organic farming and water management.

Consultancy

for diverse landuse situations.

Project implementation

based on years of practical experience.

Permaculture designs

No project too big or small.

Land regeneration

Solutions and wastelands regeneration.

Landscape design

And integrated systems design, read more

not only ‘classical’ Permaculture; we have a lot of experience in creating sustainable landscapes for people who are more concerned with beauty and presentation, for example, than food production.

Holistic designs

Of human habitats, including housing, eco community-building,read more

social and spiritual frameworks, all included in a truly integrated eco system.

Sustainable

Organic commercial food production.

Aquaponics

And Polyculture greenhouse designs. read more

We have recently completed a design of a ground-breaking commercial 1acre polyculture greenhouse, integrating Aquaponics, hydroponics and earth based production in a largely self-sustaining recirculating system.

Permaculture Design Courses

2 week Accredited Permaculture Design courses, read more

mostly run by John and Francesca. The courses can be offered in English, Italian and German, the three languages in which we have at least working proficiency. While we meticulously follow the internationally recognised curriculum, we facilitate with an emphasis on deep ecology, so that participants emerge from a course not only with the practical aspects of applied permaculture, but always in the context of a profound recognition of human relationship with environment, and our responsibility and capacity to create highly productive, sustainable systems.

Water Conservation

We specialise in water conservation, storage (lakes, swales, ponds), and water management.read more

We consider water as the primary element offering optimal fertility, productivity, and micro-climate manipulation potential. Failure to prioritise water leads to high soil and fertility loss, erosion, and loss of productivity inevitable in poor management.

Permaculture Retreats

Weekend introduction to permaculture, read more

developed by John and Jaman, to allow for an intensive and practical introduction to permaculture, for people who are limited in the spare time they have. These retreats have a strong emphasis on practical elements of permaculture. We also tailor courses for specialised themes.

Beauty

Is an integral quality of all the designs we create. read more

Since a sensitive and well-considered design should necessarily embody natural harmony between all the elements involved, aesthetic harmony is an almost inevitable consequence too. However, given that taste can be a very personal theme, we endeavour to ensure both needs fulfilment AND the manifestation of the clients’ dreams.

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permaculture

Permaculture and Beyond

Permaculture seeks to harmonise the individual characteristics of landscape (landform, soil, water, vegetation, animals) with the needs of the people utilising it, in order to create a system that is both productive and sustainable in the long term.

We use Permaculture as the structural framework of our work. It is NOT a series of techniques, nor an obscure cult, nor a ‘way of doing things’; it is a scientific (including social sciences) approach to creating integrated systems.

Permaculture is derived not only from ‘permanent’ and ‘agriculture’ as is often interpreted, but equally, from permanent and ‘culture’. Without an intimate connection with the local culture, including the culture of the individual, a design is unlikely to be implemented, and even less likely to be sustainable over a longer time.

While our philosophy follows principles of sustainable design, it is primarily concerned with attitude. Through recognition of the existing and potential relationships between the different elements in a landscape (landform, climate, animals, structures and people), we are able to achieve design that is beautiful, harmonious, productive and inspirational.

Who are We?

Instigators of sustainability

Both John and Jaman have a vast knowledge in in Permaculture, sustainability, earth repair and regeneration, landscape design, food production systems, polyculture greenhouse growing and Aquaponics as well as community development.

Jaman Tree

With a background in conventional agriculture, we understand the pitfalls of monoculture and chemical farming and offer a broad array of solutions to repair damaged land and move forward to a sustainable way of working with the environment.

We have done many projects around the world, including a lot of voluntary work for the underprivileged, as well as for big corporations and a variety of individuals and organisations in diverse circumstances.

Between us we have over 70 years of experience in ‘land matters’, in a variety of geographical, social and climatic conditions, thus we are able to offer solutions that perhaps may elude others.

Jaman presenting the Dalai Lama with the Tibetan project report

Also in our team is Francesca Simonetti, John’s wife who is a highly experienced doctor of agronomy, as well as other individuals, with whom we cooperate, when the need arises.

The common thread which fired up this working relationship originally was environmental and social activism in Australia, with the belief in being agents of change for a better world. Theses days they are both based in Europe and spend time in India and Australia as well.

John Button

John Button and Jonathan (Jaman) Halpern first met in 1992 in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu where they worked together n the reforestation of the sacred mountain of Arunachala and setting a permaculture demonstration farm, a sustainability project that was anchored by John and has become an icon to what is possible even in the harshest of conditions.

The mountain turned from a barren mountain to a forested landscape, full of life. Springs flow again, birds and animals unseen for decades have returned, rainfall has increased. Many had declared it was not possible.

The 10-acre wasteland 4 km away from the mountain turned in no time to a lush oasis and a thriving permaculture demonstration far, one of the first in India.

John and Bill Mollison

Since those days, John and Jaman have together and individually worked on many projects around the world, with vast experience in Europe, Asia and Australia as well as working in South America and Russia.