Instructors: Christopher Shanks (US), Michael Judd (US), Andrea Calfuquir (Argentina), Hannah Roessler (Canada), Katherine Young (GB)   INTERPRETER: Christopher Fallas (Costa Rica)

Join us for an 16-day permaculture design intensive to learn about:

• Principles and Ethics of Permaculture Design
  
• Site analysis and design, from the tropics to temperate regions
  
• Landscape master planning and microclimate design
  
• Reading the landscape and pattern recognition
  
• Design for climate change
  
• Regenerative Land Management and Stewardship
  
• Water catchment, storage, filtration, and distribution
  
• Biologically based treatment of greywater and blackwater
  
• Using greywater in the landscape
  
• Natural building techniques and vernacular architecture
  
• Plant propagation and grafting
  
• Organic horticulture
  
• Medicinal plant propagation, usage and preparations
  
• Biointensive gardening and seed saving
  
• Soil rehabilitation and fertility strategies
  
• Myco-forestry and myco-filtration
  
• Orchard design and maintenance
  
• Renewable energies and biofuels
  
• Local and Regenerative economics
  
• Urban and suburban permaculture strategies
  
• Ecovillage design and community building strategies
  
• Networking within the permaculture community and beyond

The course will be held on stunning Isla Ometepe, an island of twin volcanoes in southern Nicaragua

Project Bona Fide is a 43-acre permaculture site which has been in development for nearly a decade, and has become an important center for education and community development. Infrastructural systems contain: natural buildings built with local materials, terraced & medicinal plant gardens, an extensive nursery, seed bank, developing fruit and nut orchards, food forests, native timber forestry, timber bamboo plantings, water-catchment, drip irrigation and ferrocement technologies, renewable energy systems, and composting toilets. Outreach efforts include social programs that provide educational opportunities based in ecological agriculture, community reforestation efforts that are supported by our seed bank and nursery, local seed and plant exchanges, a children's nutritional kitchen and an upcoming community center. The developing site, interwoven with the support we've received from our local community, allows Bona Fide to be fertile ground for cultural exchange on the island and beyond.

• Permaculture Design course price: $1,250 USD (does not include airfare)
  
• Deadline to apply is November 31, 2007 - $325 non-refundable deposit required
  
• Accommodations will be provided at Finca Magdalena, a local coffee cooperative
  
• Meals will include a mixture of traditional cuisine and farm foods
  
• Academic credits are often available to undergraduate and graduate students
  
• The course is taught in English and simultaneously translated into Spanish via FM-headsets
  
• Tuition helping sponsor regional scholarships
  

For more information, contact Hannah Roessler:

Visit www.projectbonafide.com to learn more about Ometepe and Project Bona Fide