The developed nations are not the only ones wrecking land and destroying the environment. Lack of education and desperation for short term survival causes subsistence farmers in the developing nations to wreak havoc on natural eco-systems. Slash and burn agriculture, land clearance, cutting trees for fire-wood and charcoal production are leading to wide-scale deforestation in many areas. Meanwhile over-population leads to over-stocking with animals and over-grazing, with subsequent loss of vegetation and soil erosion, which in turn reduces the land’s productivity. A vicious cycle. After a few years of mono-cropping maize on a newly cleared patch tropical forest, the farmer must move on, until the entire landscape has transformed from highly productive natural forest to a barren, eroded landscape, surfaced by a mineral soils and incapable of retaining moisture. Watersheds lose their capacity for self-regulation resulting in seasonal cycles of drought and flood. Silt washes into the rivers and clogs up lakes, choking the coral reefs in shallow tropical oceans. Increasingly floods and mud slides are smashing human settlements as weather patterns become more  and more schizophrenic due to global climate change.

In Africa the seasonal weather patterns which play out the rhythm of the agricultural calendar to which agrarian societies have been accustomed since prehistoric times are beginning to lose their beat. People are suffering as a result. In Ethiopia in 2009 UNICEF and other aid agencies proclaimed that hundreds of thousands and even millions of children were facing starvation due to the failure of rains in southern and eastern parts of the country:

LINKS
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam_in_action/emergencies/ethiopia_drought.html
http://www.unicef.org.uk/emergency/emergency_detail.asp?emergency=47
http://www.savethechildren.net/australia/what_we_do_programs/emergencies/ethiopia_drought_appeal.html

The stories echo the memories of the last Ethiopian famines of the 1980s. The bizarre irony is that Ethiopia is in fact one of the most abundant and fertile lands on earth, and should really be feeding not only itself but the whole of Arabia and half of Africa too! Due to its astonishing ecological diversity while there may well be a drought in some lowland areas, grain may well be in abundance 50km up the road. So when thousands of tons of grain are shipped in from across the oceans to be distributed in sacks branded with the stars and stripes it is questionable if the relief organizers have really thought out the most beneficial way in which the relief funds could have been spent. Or could it be that promoting the long term self sufficiency and independence of the benefactors is seen as less important than getting rid of the excess from the over-production western agro-industrial machine, its gluttonous consumption of inputs propped up by subsidies from the very same governments and institutions which are preaching the dogma of market liberalization to the rest of the world.

Changing weather patterns and the loss of their means of production – the fertile top-soils of virgin forests and natural grassland systems – mean the farming communities of Africa and else-where in the developing world are struggling to produce for their own needs. To add to this the changing global climate in playing havoc with the seasonal patterns to which the forefathers of these societies have become accustomed. Here too a reassessment of the people’s approach to production and consumption is necessary. And, as for the over consumptive, over productive west, here too Permaculture provides the answers.

In Africa, Permaculture is about sustaining life and livelihoods. Permaculture addresses needs not wants. It is about finding solutions to everyday problems. For many it is about being able to put food on the table and provide for the needs of the family and move out of vicious poverty and malnutrition. It is often a question of survival in a world that is determined to make Africans follow a development path that is based on foreign value systems, irrelevant processes and external high energy dependent inputs. Permaculture provides education that is more relevant to the local situation.