Roberto Perez Rivero, Cuba, addresses the conference guests

It was a full day of varied talks -- varied both in terms of the content, and the background and experience of the speakers. I won't say a lot about the talks, as you are able to watch them yourselves on www.livestream.com/ipc10!

On the morrow we head to the southern end of Jordan, to the famously beautiful desert region of Wadi Rum -- where the four-day IPC10 Convergence will ensue. Unlike the conference, we won't be live-streaming the talks at the convergence, but I will be videoing as much as possible, and will YouTube them as quickly as I can after returning home. Also, because the above-linked conference videos were streamed, they are quite compressed, so not the best quality. I will re-upload those in higher quality when I get home after the events as well. When I do, I'll post links to the speakers' respective slide shows, so you can follow along with the talks better.

Stay tuned....

Princess Basma bint Ali of Jordan opens IPC10
Photographs © Craig Mackintosh

The opening of the Tenth International Permaculture Conference (IPC10) already saw Permaculture getting the attention it deserves. Over 100 people from around the world were seated to 'break bread' at the conference's opening gala dinner on the evening of Friday September 16. Aside from permaculturists from every continent, the event also drew (by our own 'subversive' design) people of influence from within Jordanian society who we hope will absorb the all-important Permaculture concepts and use their privileged positions to help permeate the kingdom's populace with them. Not least amongst these was Princess Basma bint Ali of Jordan.

Jordan is a relatively small country, bordered on the north by Syria, to the east by Iraq, and by Saudi Arabia on the east and south. To the west is Israel and the West Bank, while Jordan’s only outlet to the sea at the Gulf of Aqaba is to the south.

Jordan occupies an area of approximately 96,188 square kilometers or 37,138 square miles, including the Dead Sea, making it similar in size to Austria or Portugal.

As I mentioned in my first blog posting, I live in northern California in a Mediterranean climate. I landed at the Queen Alia Airport in Zizya, Jordan which is 32 km/20 miles south of Amman the capital and largest city of Jordan. One of the passengers on the shuttle to the hotel told me that Western Jordan where Amman is located has a Mediterranean climate with a semi-arid influence, having a hot dry summer, a cool wet winter and two short transitional seasons, right now being the beginning of the short autumn season. Amman, where the conference that is open to all is being held, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It receives about 270 mm or 32 inches of rain a year, in the winter. Amman spans 19 hills or little mountains that range in elevation from 740 to 1400 m (2035–3610 feet) .

¾ of Jordan has a desert climate with less than 200 mm or 8” of rain annually.

On the drive to the capital, we could see many olive groves along the highway, typical to many parts of the Mediterranean climate worldwide. Typically Mediterranean climates lie near 30° and 40° latitudes in the world’s north and south. Jordan lies at 32°.

A group of permaculturists from around the world spontaneously gathered for dinner tonight at the Toledo Hotel Restaurant in the Jabal Al Hussein area of Amman for what was affectionately called the Pre-Pre-Conference Dinner. Margarethe Holzer was there from Innsbruck, Austria where she works with PIA Permaculture-Academy in the Alpine Regions. She said she gets letters from people who mistakenly think she is Sepp Holzer’s wife. Narsanna Koppula from Hyderbad India, CEO of RANYA works with tribal women farmers in Andhra Pradesh. Eston Pembamoyo from Zomba, Malawi where he is Administrative Secretary of the Permaculture Network in Malawi. E-mail Eston at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Wesley Roe and Tres Wallower were there from Santa Barbara, California. Wes is co-founder of Santa Barbara Permaculture Network with Margie Bushman. Tres works with Slow Money, Santa Barbara Chapter. Long time permaculture instructor Steve Hart was there from Raglan, New Zealand. Steve is working as the Permaculture Program Manager with ACTED French Aid Agency in Islamabad, Pakistan, where floods have left huge damage. Owen Hablutzel from Los Angeles joined us too. Owen is one of the directors of PRI USA. And Magali Veillon from Lausanne, Switzerland is traveling the world visiting permaculture farms.

If you are in Amman   for the IPC10, find me to give me your thoughts about the Conference or Convergence for this blog.

Hi, I am Cathe’ Fish. I am on an airliner on my way to the country of Jordan for the International Permaculture Conference and Convergence 10. We are right now flying over the unusually parched lands of the southern United States. To the south, I can see the vast fires of Texas caused by record heat and their worst drought in recorded history.

On my way to Jordan, I stopped a few days ago in the desert city of Phoenix, Arizona to do some work. While I was in Phoenix, there was an amazing monsoon thunderstorm. It rained hard, and I couldn’t help but wonder again why all our vital rainwater is allowed to rush down the gutters and out the storm drains, away.

I was told that Phoenix, too, had the hottest August on record, and that the rains from the monsoon this summer were very scarce. When we took off from Phoenix airport this morning, I could see beige desert suburbia dotted with large green expanses of 100 or more lush green golf courses. Our priorities need to change.

I am a drylands permaculture designer and director of the Practical Permaculture Research Institute. After living and working in the Arizona drylands for 25 years, I now live in Grass Valley, California in the foothills of the Sierras. These foothills have a Mediterranean climate, rain in the winters, and totally dry summers. Water harvesting is essential.

Will these desert areas, including Jordan, where I will land tomorrow afternoon, be able to survive the future with the demands of increasing populations on already depleted water tables with rainwater rushing downhill to the sea? It’s time for the world to work on re-greening the deserts by re-vegetation and water harvesting.

I am excited about seeing the water harvesting efforts of the ancients in Jordan as well as the current applications of water harvesting. As a drylands designer, I will be blogging about Plan Jordan: Water.

It’s time that we spread permaculture’s message of water harvesting and regeneration throughout the world. hope for the future: Permaculture.

Hi, I'm Andy Goldring. I coordinate the Permaculture Association (Britain), teach permaculture and am active in my own community which is Leeds - a small city in the north of England.

At the moment I'm sitting in a barn in Worcestershire, at Haye Farm, a 'LAND learner project' (see www.permaculture.org/LAND). A group of us have met up to further develop our permaculture teachers network. Its getting colder as autumn draws in, and the apples are ripe. In seven days time I'll be very different climate and culture.

One week to go and I'm getting very excited about arriving in Jordan and taking part in the International Permaculture Convergence.

In preparation I've been asking office colleagues, trustees, teachers, designers, project leaders and our members about their thoughts and questions about the convergence.

Key questions people have asked include:

• Education work - who is doing what, how are we engaging with mainstream education?
• Research - what are people investigating, what trials are in place, how is it being documented?
• Partnerships and alliances. How are we connecting to different networks like Via Campesina?
• Agriculture. How are we working to transform industrial agriculture and preserve seed heritage?

So I'm coming with these and many more questions. I'm eager to listen, curious and interested to learn. I'm also coming with a story of what we are doing here in Britain. I'll be sharing our successes and what is working well, and reflecting on limiting factors and challenges yet to be overcome.

We want to exchange and share, and work with others to further develop this incredible global network. The IPC is a fantastic way to help move that forward.

I'll try to report back each day with a summary of what we've done, or at least some reflections on the things that made me think, smile or sit up and scratch my chin.

Next installment: Arriving!