The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia

I am an ecology teacher at a small international school in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. My two main scientific interests are insects, plants and their relationships. This translates very nicely into a specific permaculture research area, which I have been working on for a few years now.

I have been reading about things that fit in with the permaculture framework for nearly 10 years now, but only got formally introduced to the area of permaculture 2 years ago. I was fortunate enough to have a chance to attend a PDC with Mustafa Fatih Bakir in Thailand in March of 2012.

Currently I teach a PDC at the school I work at to high school students. In addition to the PDC we also have a lot of school projects going on. For example, we just finished converting a shipping container into a greenhouse where we will be doing trials between different soil types, working on growing some subtropical fruits here in the cold temperate zone, and also throwing in a bit of aquaculture to top off the student learning.

In January of 2013 Calvin Lawrence and I founded Silk Road Permaculture. This is the first permaculture organization in Kyrgyzstan and we are already working on doing some consultancy for different groups. We are hoping to help local orphanages become more self sustainable, help do land reclamation in areas destroyed by mining companies, and do a food project for a group of people living above 4000 meters. Plus in 2 years, we plan on having a full fledged development farm up and running near Bishkek where we will offer PDC courses, internships, and employment to different local groups (as well as foreigners)

To visit our website, please visit

www.silkroadpermaculture.org