Permacultura Latina America teaches the integrated and sustainable approach of permaculture in Latin America, working mostly with indigenous groups in the Amazon and training many many thousands of people throughout Latin America since 1988.
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Ali Sharif is the Project Director of Permacultura Latina America. The organization is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The permaculture approach was designed by Australian Bill Mollison in the late '70's and its methodology has traveled the globe. It is based on the connections between the combined issues of food, clean water, renewable energy, biological sanitation and dignified shelter and how they coalesce into an integrated process. Ali Sharif was born in Iran, educated in Europe and has been working in Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and Brazil since 1988 when Permacultura Latina America, under his direction, started to teach this integrated and sustainable approach in Latin America. Most of the time Sharif has lived in the Amazon working with indigenous groups. The main work is to train others in the permaculture approach of harmony and balance. To date they have trained many many thousands of people throughout Latin America with an emphasis on Brazil-- a huge and important country where the disparity in income is the largest in Latin America. The emphais is particularly on training youth with the idea that it is easier to teach young minds than have to "unlearn" old habits. These youth in turn pass on their skills. At the end, however, economics is still a crucial aspect of the success of these practices. Recorded October 2004, 27'38", http://www.permaculturalatinaamerica.org