....

Pitcairn is probably the most fertile environment on the planet - so
the 'biological' aspects of Permaculture, in this case, is not the
issue.

BC: Thanks, I hadn't realized the climate until I followed your
weblink to the 'bountybay' expedition.



The real issue, is positioning the 'value-proposition' of creating the
world's first 'nation-state model of sustainability' to the
Pitcairners ...without, in the process, indulging in a kind of
ideological imperialism.

BC: I worship, but haven't practised, the grassroots organizing
concept of knocking on doors and asking folks what they want and need;
asking them to join in working together for what that group would
democratically agree is firstmost, asking them to allow facilitaton,
to consider training in working together well as equals, etc.
Rodale Institute has a Community Renewal workbook that gives a
step-by-step plan for reaching into one's community that seems well
done.


The benefits may be self-evident to middle-class, tertiary educated,
New-Age Westerners; perhaps not so obvious to everyone else.

Therein lies the challenge.

BC: At first it seemed flippant, but more and more I wonder if NT's
'Get them online.' might be the best way to allow the chance to learn
of opportunities, if done right. Our social groups help us, as
individuals, make sensible choices - web access in a public place
might help a community guide individuals to use the web in ways that
preserve the community and the individual, physically and ethically. I
guess I'm thinking about a library. Permaculture books could be
donated - Pitcairners could read them if they wanted to.
Have you chatted with cousins there, beyond the chief guy? I wonder
what their thinking about the recent population changes there.
With land constrained there, and with the distance, I think of trying
to gather sea products - In Japan, pink salmon are nurtured when
young, then let out to sea to fatten. Two years later they return to
their natal stream, where the water flow has been diverted through a
cannery. Here eggs and milt are harvested, brought to a hatchery
upstream, continuing the cycle of fishing without fuel, nets, motors
or boats. There are other migrating fish, some more tropical, as I
remember. I keep wondering about the chances of getting extra iron
into fish that are going out into an iron-poor sea to feed, which
might help them as well as the production of that area of the sea
itself - iron concentration is _extremely_ low in these areas, near
half a microgram per kilo of seawater, if I calculate right, and the
iron that might 'leak' out of supplemented birds and fish could
nourish their next meal, making that meal possible. - it is the
limiting nutrient, so small amounts could yield large productivity
increases, and the ocean can quickly use any extra - everything else
is set to go.
I also think of trying to reach to customers in the neighborhood;
round-the-world sailers could re-provision there, buying dried fruit
and nuts, pressed oils, canned or dried fish. If they can afford a
boat, they can at least afford to buy a bunch to resell later on.
Here big questions would be how many land there now, and how many
more would if they knew about such a thing.

BC: Is water, or water quality limited? (It sure looks green and
verdant.) There are machines which use waves to pump water through
reverse osmosis filters, to get fresh from salt, and windmills might
help with this and power in general. I've heard of work on a wind
machine design that would pump air with a very simple structure, so it
would be economical, reliable and easy to fix.
How about a Pitcairn site for an Outward-Bound rustic boarding high
school, or a trauma recovery center?

BC: What do Pitcairners want now? Would they prefer to be part of the
French Polynesian community? Easter Island seems as close, too, a
connection to Chile. Perhaps national boundaries mean little so far
from the nations' centers. Would they want to learn frecnch and
spanish, to ease visiting their neighbors?

Brian Cady