Permaculture Design Course
26th Jan - 8th Feb 2020
What is it?
Project Bona Fide’s annual Permaculture Design Course (PDC) is a 2-week hands-on training experience in permaculture design principles and practices. Our courses offers the standard PDC curriculum with a special emphasis on forest gardening in the tropics.
Although the course is held in a tropical setting, many of the techniques will transfer directly to any climate. Students will receive resources and plant lists for many climates as part of their course content.
This 14-day course is ideal for anyone interested in taking an active role in building a regenerative future, as well as anyone with a focus on agriculture, architecture, ecology, gardening, landscaping, experiential education, or community development. NO prior permaculture experience is necessary.
At the end of the course, all participants will receive a certificate of completion of 72 course hours plus 20 additional hours of skill-building workshops and hands-on work experience.
What’s included
All meals during the course are included. Dinner the night before the course starts and breakfast the morning after the course finishes too. Food is a mix of local cuisine, farm-fresh food, and a variety of tasty treats at our favorite local cafe. Weare happy to accommodate dietary restrictions- let us know of any before you arrive.
Accommodations - we have limited space available in the PBF dorms and camping spaces. All the sleeping facilities are rustic, open-air, cabañas with bunk spaces. Bedding and mosquito nets provided. These spaces fill up quickly. Farm spots are filled on first-come-first-serve basis. Please indicate in your registration form if you would like to be considered for this option.
If you are looking for more private, upscale accommodations during the course, there are several guesthouses on the property available. The guesthouses are less than a 5-minute walk from the area where the course is taught. All of the guesthouses include a queen bed, desk and chair, private bathroom and shower, with hammocks, and breakfast served each morning. Some have hot water and volcano views. These suites are also filled on a first-come-first-serve basis. These are a great way to see permaculture design in practice in a thriving tourism business.
Otherwise students will stay at a local, family-run hostel in the town of Balgüe called Así es mi Tierra. They have hosted our PDC participants for several years and are very accommodating to our guests’ needs. We generally rent the entire facility from them for the course, and most participants will be staying in 2-person rooms unless a private room is requested. The hostel is located right on the lake-- perfect for swimming and recreation. This lodging is included in course costs for all nights of the course, plus the night before the course (Saturday, February 5th) and the night the course finishes (Friday, February 18th).
Project Bona Fide
Project Bona Fide is an internationally recognized 26-acre demonstrative permaculture site that has been in development for almost 20 years. Located in Balgúe, Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua, Project Bona Fide has become an important center for education and community development. The project has been featured in various permaculture publications including “Sustainable Revolution”.
Our infrastructural systems include natural buildings built with local materials, terraced vegetable & medicinal plant gardens, an extensive nursery, seed bank, mature fruit and nut orchards, food forests, native timber forestry, timber bamboo plantings, water-catchment systems, drip irrigation and ferrocement technologies, renewable energy systems, and composting toilets.
Past and present Project Bona Fide community collaborations include providing educational opportunities in ecological agriculture, community reforestation efforts supported by our seed bank and nursery, local seed and plant exchanges, a community center and breakfast program, and backyard gardens and cob ovens. The developing site, interwoven with the support we have received from our local community, allows Project Bona Fide to be fertile ground for cultural exchange on the island and beyond.
The Instructors
Chris Shanks Agricultural Director & consultant, Living Systems Solutions
Chris has had a lifelong passion for the natural world and her patterns. During his time at university he was introduced to many ideas and concepts concretized into different fields of Ecological design and Natural sciences. In 1999 he was introduced to Permaculture Design by Ben Falk. Since that fateful time Chris has passionately pursued a life of work, design, self-study and right livelihood by teaching, practicing and creating businesses that espouse the principles and ethics of Permaculture Design.
Chris has practiced Permaculture Design year after year faithfully on his home site, Project Bona Fide and Selvista Guesthouses since late 2002. He was a young junior teacher and part of Bona Fide’s first PDC in 2003, an apprentice teaching with Douglas Bullock, trained by Bill Mollisson himself.
Chris has taught over 30 full Permaculture Design courses, founding PDC programs at Project Bona Fide, Nicaragua, The Island School, the Bahamas and Rancho Mastatal in Costa Rica. Chris has been fortunate to lead/guest teach at sites in Thailand, Hawaii and at the Green School/Kul-Kul farm in Bali, Indonesia.
Chris’ primary expertise lies in the tropics and encompasses all manners of site design from homestead to institutional scale. Chris has built and advised in the design and build of many farms, eco-boutique hotels, BnBs and educational institutions all over the tropical belt of the world.
Chris in addition has extensive ethno-botanical plant knowledge, Permaculture Business Development skills as well as water systems and self reliance skill sets.
He loves dogs, all types of berries and is an aspiring pirate/sailor
“I met Chris during my PDC at the kulkul farm in Bali last year and it was quite possibly the most memorable learning experience I have been a part of. Chris’ way of teaching is very direct, applicable and easy to understand. He makes it quite fun to learn about not just permaculture but anything that happens in our little blue planet. His resilience and fierocity in making a difference with one small thing at a time is evident with how he presents his knowledge and how he carries himself with each student encounter. If you want to be inspired, I highly recommend taking his pdc no matter where in the world it may be.”
Course Format
The course begins with an intensive introduction to the principles, philosophy, and ethics of permaculture design: what is permaculture, how it is applied, and the main design and thought paradigms used. Course participants will be introduced to the Project Bona Fide farm systems and facilities as a teaching and demonstration tool.
The next several days will be dedicated to specific aspects of permaculture design, including water systems, energy use and efficiency, natural building, and agroforestry. These course days will include lectures, on-site examples, and hands-on experience putting all of the information into context. Several hours in the afternoon are dedicated to skill-building workshops and more intensive work projects on the farm. The end of the course brings everyone together in a final group design project that is presented on the final day of the course.
The course spans 14 full days, and includes a half-day or full-day of free time to relax or explore the island about halfway through the course.
A typical day:
7:30 AM Breakfast at the hostel/farm 8:30 AM Arrive at the farm, daily intro 9:30 - 10:45 AM Break (Coffee and farm fresh snacks) 11 AM - 12:30 PM Class time 12:30 - 2:00 PM Lunch, free time to relax/read/study 2 - 3:30 PM Class time and field exercises 3:30 - 5:30 PM Work projects and/or workshops (ex. Compost making, plant propagation, fermentation, natural medicine) 6:30 PM Dinner at local café 7:30 - 9 PM Evening session (lecture, slideshow, movie, group work)
Prices
The standard course price is $1575 USD.
This includes 3 meals per day for all 14 days of the course, as well as dinner the night before the course and breakfast the morning after.
Lodging on the farm during the course, including the night before the course
All course materials and fees
Airfare is NOT included.
Expats are offered the course with a $375 discount (total price of $1200 USD)
Citizens of Central America are offered more than a 50% discount (total price of $750 USD).
There are also limited partial and full scholarships available for citizens of Central America. Contact bonafidecourses@gmail.com for details.
Upgrades to comfortable guesthouses here at La Bambouseraie are optional with limited availability. Contact us for options..
Couples receive a 10% discount.
$100 Early Bird discount for registering before Sept 30th 2019.
How to Reserve your spot
To reserve your spot in the course:
1. Complete the online registration form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScbmv0lsibwhGiGNTmT9ULwSOLPgJvi1iC3ETzSTqN0XDD5wQ/viewform
2. Submit a deposit of $500 USD
Your spot will only be reserved after Project Bona Fide has RECEIVED the $500 deposit. Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email from bonafidecourses@gmail.com.
Remaining tuition balance is due by January 1st, 2020. Failure to pay the full tuition balance by this date may result in losing one’s spot in the course.
You may submit a tuition payment by bank transfer, PayPal, or Venmo.
If a participant cancels or withdraws from the course...
Special circumstances with travel this year mean that ALL DEPOSITS are subject to a FULL REFUND should you decide to cancel.
We also HIGHLY RECOMMEND booking fully refundable flights in the case that we cannot run the course or the course does not fill.
Lastly, flights are still more accessible and affordable through Liberia, Costa Rica. We can help coordinate private travel to/from Ometepe from Liberia airport.
For current travel requirements to Costa Rica and Nicaragua see Travel Requirements.
contact bonafidecourses@gmail.com with any further inquiries
Packing List
● Comfortable clothing that you can move around in
● Long-sleeved shirt and long pants for sun/bug protection and those random nights were it gets a little cool
● Light rain gear
● Covered shoes or boots, as well as sandals/flip flops
● Hat, sunglasses and sunscreen
● Towel or sarong
● Bathing suit (there are great swimming holes on the island, and we’re located in the center of a huge lake.)
● Toiletries, shampoo, conditioner, soap (biodegradable if and when possible)
● Bug spray (optional - chemical free if poss)
● Water bottle to refill from our local, spring source
● Headlamp or flashlight (very, VERY useful!)
● Something comfortable to sit on in class, ex. Crazy Creek-type chair or sleeping pad
● Notebook and pen/pencil
● USB drive for uploading electronic resources at the end of the course
There are two scholarship positions available for the course for Central Americans.
Please write to us @ courses@projectbonafide outlining:
Whether full or partial scholarship is required
If/whom you are sponsored by
Why you want to participate in this course
What you plan to do with the course certificate upon completion
Interests
Formal education history
Work experience
Where you’re from
If housing and food will be required