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| The GreenHand Field School Program |
Sustainable Village Development Training in Lamsujen, Lhoong, Aceh Besar
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| Project Background |
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The devastating earthquake and tsunami of December 26, 2004 literally wiped much of Aceh's west coast off the map. Half a million survivors are still living in crowded barracks and moldy tents, having lost their homes, families, possessions and livelihoods. Roads and bridges were washed away, leaving many communities isolated.
For Aceh's Internally Displaced People (IDPs), food security remains a priority issue. The home gardens, rice fields and fruit trees that once fed Aceh's coastal villagers have been destroyed and many people are left without the means to earn money for food. FAO estimates that 70% of the farmland on the west coast has been affected by the tsunami with up to 20% of this permanently damaged or under water.
Affected communities are beginning to strategize how to regain their self-sufficiency. Many need to learn new skills to produce food in the new landscape, restore damaged soils, replant their home gardens and re-establish agricultural systems.
The GreenHand Field School (GHFS) is a program that was initiated by IDEP and a local Acehnese NGO, Yayasan Green Camp. It provides a hands-on education facility based on a live-in model farm where participants can learn to grow food intensively in a sustainable manner through wise land management practices. This project is designed to help tsunami survivors assist themselves in rapidly achieving aid independency. The GHFS Village Development program helps coastal villages achieve food security and rebuild their livelihoods while protecting the environment. We believe that if reconstruction is implemented using sustainable principles, communities will recover quickly, creating permanent prosperity for the survivors and future generations. The aim of this sustainable development program is to assist IDPs in achieving permanent positive change to increase their capacity to help themselves, becoming self-reliant so that these changes flow on to future generations.
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Who Will Benefit from the GreenHand Field School Program?
Direct Beneficiaries:
- At least 1150 villagers (aiming for 50% female participation) who will learn to ensure food security and better nutrition within their own environment at the Center.
- Villagers who will receive training from 'Green Hands' in their own villages.
- At least 180 Green Hand trainers (50% women) who will teach permaculture skills at the Center and also travel to teach in remote villages.
- The villagers of Lamsujen, who will be involved in building and maintaining the Center.
- The women of Lamsujen, who will be paid to cook for the staff and students of the Center and to sew uniforms, beekeeping outfits etc.
- Operators of the local industries will be assisted to upgrade the quality of their methodologies with the aim of developing an export-quality sustainable industry.
- Staff, contractors and local NGO members who, through working closely with the Center, will develop best practice work skills, enabling them to go on to perform valuable roles in the future sustainable development of the province of Aceh.
It is hoped that with the skills learnt and developed, the 'GreenHands' may find employment opportunities in their local government or other international agencies or organizations
Indirect Beneficiaries:
- Villagers who will learn the skills taught at the Center by returning Course graduates, on the 'each one teach one' principle
- The rural communities of Aceh, who will benefit from improved food security through the ongoing activities of Center Trainees
- The future Organic and Sustainable industries of Aceh, who will benefit from the increased community awareness of sustainability issues as promoted by the Center and all its activities.
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| GreenHand Mission Statement |
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| To design and construct ecologically and economically sustainable projects in all areas of human activity in consultation with participants. To assist individuals, farms, communities, companies, organizations and nations to modify their activities to be constructive rather than destructive to the environment. To design and implement systems maximizing quality of life while minimizing damaging impact on natural systems. To promote permaculture ethics, care for the earth, care for the people. |
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| What is Permaculture? |
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Permaculture is an internationally recognized system of sustainable agriculture based on the concept of creating "Perma nently sustainable Agri culture" as opposed to many current unsustainable farming practices. Permaculture incorporates and addresses all aspects of human activity and people's relationships with the natural environment.
A Permaculture system integrates sustainable organic food production, energy generation, water conservation and environmental management with house and village design, along with economic development. The design method focuses on working with natural systems rather than against them, minimizing waste and pollution while maximizing yields from low energy input.
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| GreenHand Strategy |
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GreenHand training teaches villagers to create a detailed physical and social map of the village and its land. To help understand what we are starting with and where we want to end up, Permaculture divides the landscape into five zones. For each zone, the GreenHand program provides a set of design strategies so that communities can develop their villages using locally available resources, best practices and skills.
Permaculture zones are set out as follows:
- Zone 1 : The home or family garden
- Zone 2 : The village
- Zone 3 : The small farms on the edge of the village
- Zone 4 : The semi-wild land surrounding the village
- Zone 5 : The conservation or wild zone
By understanding this zonal system, villagers are better empowered to decide where different activities best begin and end. Zonal analysis also helps prioritize development strategies to ensure people achieve basic food security as soon as possible without hindering pressing reconstruction needs.
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| GreenHand Principals for ecological & economically sustainable development |
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- Co-operation, not competition
- Elements in a design must be multi-functional.
◊ A mulberry tree produces; fruit,
silkworm food, animal fodder, erosion control
and fast growth for shade
- Catch and store energy.
- Always obtain a yield. Get something back for your effort
- There should be no such thing as waste. Pollution is just an unused resource
- Use energy-efficient systems
- Use integrated rather than segregated systems.
◊ Use the weeds to feed the chickens and the chicken manure to feed the worms
which are eaten by the chickens.
- Use small-scale systems. Large projects are just a collection of smaller, manageable projects.
- Use edges and margins. Every fence is a trellis. Use roadside plantings.
◊ Edges of ecosystems often provide the greatest opportunity for growth
◊ Maximize production and minimize energy and maintenance inputs.
Always aim for the most production for the least work
- Use edges and margins. Every fence is a trellis. Use roadside plantings.
- Maximize production and minimize energy and maintenance inputs. Aim for the most production for the least work
- Make things pay.
- Use succession and evolution for living systems.
◊ What can I produce now while my systems are growing?
- Work smart not hard.
- Work with nature not against it.
◊ Don't change the land to suit the crop, change the crop to suit the land.
- Use natural patterns.
◊ Planting on contours minimizes erosion and pest control.
- Quality is economy. A well-made tool outlasts many cheaper models.
- Demonstration is authority. Working models are the best teachers.
- Use elements in a system for the highest purpose.
◊ Don't use the drinking water to flush your toilet.
- Build only what you can maintain, maintain what you build.
- Personal responsibility:
◊ each person on this planet must take personal responsibility for his/her impact on our world.
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| GreenHand Ethics are Permaculture Ethics
- Care for the Land, Care for the People
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The future of rural people is linked with the condition of the land. If people enrich the land, the land will enrich them in return. To achieve a sustainable result in village development, people must learn to operate from a set of ethics.
These ethics are:
- Care for the earth and everything upon it
- Care for the people
- Distribute surplus wisely
- Place limits on consumption and population
These ethics ensure the land that sustains us is repaired, cared for, and improved for all generations of Acehnese to live off and prosper from. With these ethics and the development techniques in this manual, the Acehnese people can have a self sufficient and ecologically sustainable economy. This will improve the lifestyle, health and culture of this country. Using local resources and a 'step by step' approach, people can grow their way out of crisis and aid dependency towards prosperity. |
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| Key Project Sponsor
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 UBS, one of the world's leading financial firms, has kindly donated funds to the Green Hand Field School through their Tsunami Relief Fund.
UBS Tsunami Relief Fund donations concentrate on projects that address specific medium and long-term rehabilitation efforts in the areas affected by the disaster. Within this remit, UBS focuses on particular fields in order to ensure maximum impact and a sense of identity with the supported projects. By selecting the same themes that are also used for UBS's longstanding Community Affairs programme in the Asia Pacific region, they hope to enable partnerships to extend, in some cases, beyond tsunami relief efforts in the long term.
 Click here to download this project report which details the program’s
establishment and development in its first 1 1/2 years of operations as
supported by UBS. During this initial period 53 Acehnese graduated from
Training of Trainers, and over 758 people from throughout the region were
trained in various aspects sustainable recovery. |
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