PERMACULTURE DESIGN INDEPENDENT STUDY - TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, 2022
With Professor Michael Lee Poy
Wa Samaki Ecosystems, created in 1997, offers a working example of a Permaculture operation producing cut flowers for the local market, organic food for our household consumption, wildlife conservation, watershed rehabilitation, Permaculture Design Courses, workshops and volunteer and internship opportunities.
This land-based program invited OCAD U Undergraduate students to an 9-day workshop from October 8 - 16, 2022, to Freeport Trinidad (Trinidad and Tobago). Students were invited to work in collaboration with Wa Samaki Ecosystems, an 11-acre permaculture designed and operated farm. Students were guided through the core ethics of the program: Care for the earth, people, and community. These ethics provide a framework for the principles that foster a regenerative relationship between land and people and are instrumental in designing and developing sustainable human settlements and institutions.
Students investigated the permaculture-designed Wa Samaki site and applied the principles through a variety of exercises on topics that include mapping/leveling, companion planting, foraging, landscaping, soil remediation, energy cycling, climate change, ecosystems, biogeography, wildlife restoration, water conservation, forest/trees, recycling, etc.