Episode 66: Permaculture and Development with Chris Evans and Morag Gamble

Sense-Making in a Changing World

In this episode of Sense-Making in a Changing World I'm talking with Chris Evans. Chris been living and working entirely in the permaculture development world for over three decades.
His work in Nepal is inspirational and has influenced many programs globally. He fell in love with Nepal way back in 1985 when he was living there as a volunteer for community forestry programs. But he realised soon that that international development models weren't actually working. That's when he discovered permaculture and enrolled himself in a permaculture design course with Bill Mollison.
Since completing the course, he's helped to adapt permaculture to the Himalayan context and brought learning opportunities to thousands of small farms, creating demonstration centres, local curriculum and resources, school programs , leading permaculture courses, training the trainer courses, and also helping with the establishment of barefoot trainers who go as needed to the villages to help build resilience in farming communities.
I met Chris 25 years ago at a Permaculture Conference and recently visited him and his partner, Looby McNamara in England. Looby has also been a guest of this show and their daughters have also joined in as guests on a Permayouth festival. They live at Applewood Permaculture Centre on the Welsh border.
I'm so grateful for the chance to dive more deeply into the work that Chris does in permaculture development in this podcast. There are so many valuable lessons in this conversation. I hope you enjoy it just as much as I did.
I'd like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I'm meeting with you today and pay respects to their elders past present and emerging. I'm here on the unceded lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people and on the banks of the Moocaboola [Mary] River.
MORAG GAMBLE
Permaculture Education Institute - teaching permaculture teachers
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This podcast is an initiative of the Permaculture Education Institute.
Our way of sharing our love for this planet and for life, is by teaching permaculture teachers who are locally adapting this around the world - finding ways to apply the planet care ethics of earth care, people care and fair share. We host global conversations and learning communities on 6 continents.
We teach permaculture teachers, host permaculture courses, host Our Permaculture Life YouTube, and offer free monthly film club and masterclass.
We broadcast from a solar powered studio in the midst of a permaculture ecovillage food forest on beautiful Gubbi Gubbi country. I acknowledge this is and always will be Aboriginal land, pay my respects to elders past and present, and extend my respect to indigenous cultures and knowledge systems across the planet.
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