STRATEGIES FOR AN ALTERNATIVE NATION

Chapter 14 of Permaculture Designers Manual by Bill Mollison

He who desires but acts not. breeds pestilence.
(William Blake, Proverbs of Hell)
The head does not ask for flowers while the belly lacks rice.
(Indian proverb)

14.1 INTRODUCTION

The pragmatic and practical approach to the main body of this work largely omits reference to those visions or beliefs classifiable as spiritual or mystical; not because these are not a normal part of human experience, but because they are arrived at as a result of long contemplation or intense involvement with the mysteries that eternally surround us. We may "dream" understanding, but it is something we cannot demand, define, or teach to others; it is for each of us to develop.
There are things that nobody else can help us with, but in a book written to help people make real-Iife decisions, to build new landscapes, to regenerate damaged forests, and to lighten our load on earth, the present need is for clear and practical approaches.

In the preceding chapters, well-tried and common- sense techniques and strategies of earth restoration have been described and figured. All of this comes to naught if we, as a people, continue to invest in arms and destruction, to permit land abuse, and to fail to tackle the social and political impediments to reclaiming desertified and abused lands, or even to prevent the poisoning of land. Thus, (be following sections give strategies for change in the social and economic areas of society). These strategies may, in fact, be of more assistance to real change than the skills of land management, for society has far more competent farmers and engineers than it has ethical bankers or lawyers whose work relates to curing or preventing (not just treating) social and environmental problems.

First we must learn to grow, build, and manage natural systems for human and earth needs, and then teach others to do so) In this way, we can build a global, interdependent, and cooperative body of people  involved in ethical land and resource use, whose teaching is founded on research but is also locally available everywhere, and locally demonstrable in many thousands of small enterprises covering the whole range of human endeavours, from primary production to quaternary system management; from domestic nutrition and economy to a global network of small financial systems. Such work is urgent, important, and necessary, and we cannot leave it to the whims of government (always short-term) or industry as we know it today.

We know how to solve every food, clean energy, and sensible shelter problem in every climate: we have already invented and tested every necessary technique 'and technical device, and have access to all the biological material that we could ever use.

The tragic reality is that very few sustainable systems are designed or applied by those who hold power, and the reason for this is obvious and simple: to let people arrange their own food, energy, and shelter is to lose economic and political control over them. We should cease to look to power structures, hierarchical systems, or governments to help us, and devise ways to help ourselves.

Thus, the very first strategies we need are those that put our own house in order, and at the same time do not give credibility to distant power-centred or unethical systems. In our present fiscal or money-run world, the primary responsibility that we need to take charge of is our wealth, which is the product of our sweat and our region, not representable by valueless currency.

There is no need to stress that we are imperfect

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people, living in an imperfect world; "Do not adjust your vision, reality is at fault" (graffiti), so that many strategies given here are starting points rather than endpoints. However, there is so much damage to ecosystems-hence so much rehabilitative work to do-that we will be employed in good works for a few generations to come. In several generations (if we are allowed this time) we may have achieved a truly free world of international affinities, but we always start where we are.

In this chapter, therefore, I will try to set out the currently sucessful social strategies that enable a small group or a region to define problems and to solve them locally.

14.2
ETHICAL BASIS OF AN ALTERNATIVE NATION
 

People without an agreed-upon common basis to their actions is neither a community nor a nation. A people with a common ethic is a nation wherever they live. Thus, the place of habitation is secondary to a shared belief in the establishment of an harmonious world community. Just as we can select from all extant ethics and beliefs those elements that we see to be sustainable, useful, and beneficial to life and to our community. It would appear that;.Sustainable societies emphasise the duties and responsibilities of people to nature equal to those of people to people; that any code relates equally to other lifeforms and elements of landscape. To conduct oneself only in terms of response to other people gives a potential to evade responsibility for damage inflicted in the total resource base, and thus utlimately to others. Beneficial behavious involves managing natural systems for their own, and our, long-term benefit, not for our immediate and exploitative personal gain. The American Indians (Irequois nation) frame this as a "seventh generation" concept: that our decisions now are carried out in terms of their benefit or disadvantage to our descendants in seven generations' time about 100 years ahead). This helps explain why we always found tribally managed lands to be rich in natural life resources, and why we have managed to ruin much of the resources we inherited.

• As people, we need to adopt an ethic of right livelihood, for if we bend our labour and skills to work that is destructive, we are the destroyers. We lay waste to our lives in proporation to the environment. Although socities for social responsibility are rapidly forming, we need to expand the concept to social and environmental responsibility, and to create our own financial and employment strategies in those areas. We should not be passive workers for established destructive systems, but rather we can investors in life. We cannot profess or teach one ethic, and live  another, without damage to ourselves and to common t resources.
•  We must always study and learn as part of a total  integrated system framework, conscious of how our knowledge and actions permeate all systems. It is in the, fragmenting of knowledge into unrelated disciplines that we can plead ignorance of effects; but we are always responsible for the distant effects of our actions, and in fact should work for foreseen benefits.
• We need to develop conserver socirties, with this conservation achieved by close attention to recycling, the avoidance of waste, and to very durable technologies so that their use is prolonged. Similarly, it is unwise to abandon satisfactory older forms of technology even if we install improved forms and processes; just because we develop anew windmill for electricity, we should not allow a dependable older grain mill to sink into disrepair. Because we can uSe a forage harvester, it doesn't mean we should lose the  skill to use a scythe on steep slopes.       Part of being conservative is to concentrate on developing a mosaic of small, well-managed,       and effective systems. Such modest systems are unlikely to cause  widespread upheavals or to be  subject to external or unethical control.
• Meaning in life is lost by striving after status and future glory; It is gained and realised by actIon towards a common ideal, in serving the whole according to our physical, mental, educational, and revelationary (understanding) capacities. It is never enough to mean well  ("fair words plant no cabbages"),rather, it is necessary to ensure that it gets done.
• Security can be found in the renunciation of ownership over people, money, and real assets; insecurity and unhappiness arises as a result of trying  gain, keep or protect that which others need for  periods of legitimate access. A lending library enables , people to help themselves to information; a locked-up  book collection is useful only to the person who owns it.
• If an ethical and responsible community can establish a durable, dependable, and waste-free resource base, then leisure time (time to express our individual capacities) becomes a plentiful resource. We will have gained time for life. While leisure is inevitably  available for enrichment of cultural life, and to an extent for recreation, emphasis on spectator recreation is just another way to waste the time gained; we then see the professionalisation of arts, sciences, sport, and even education as spectators replace actors.

We should therefore resolve to gain time to evolve ever more effective ways to assist systems or people. It is only when others feel secure that we need not guard our environments, so that the very best preparation for security is to teach others the strategies, ethics, and practices of resource management, and to extend aid and education wherever possible.

I do not, in my lifetime, or that of my children's children, foresee a world where there are no eroded soils, stripped forests, famine, or poverty, but I do see a way in which we can spend our lives towards earth repair. If and when the whole world is secure, we have won a right to explore space, and the oceans. Until we have demonstrated that we can establish a productive and secure earth society, we do not belong anywhere else, nor (1 suspect) would we be welcome elsewhere.

14.3 A NEW NATIONS

The "United Nations" today is neither united nor represents nations; it is like the oft-quoted "moral majority", which is also neither of those things! Many true nations, such as the Iroquois confederation or any tribal alliance with a common ethic, are not represented by such a body, nor are whole nations such as the Basques, Tartars, Kurds, Palestinians, Hawaiians, Hopi, Tibetans, Pitjatjantjara, Misquito, Aranda, Basarwa, Herrero etc etc etc.

Most nations in the United Nations repress a majority of peoples on earth. Talking with Thomas Banyaca, a Hopi messenger of his people, it became clear to me that we need anew concept of "nation" , and anew representative body to speak for them. We start by defining a nation as a people subscribing to a common  ethic, and aspiring to a similar culture. Such nations may not have a common land base, or language, but do have a common ethic, minimally;

• To care for the earth; to repair and conserve;
• To seek peace, and to guard human rights every where; and
• To invest all capital, intelligence, goodwill, and labour to these ends.

At present, many thousands of organisations, affinities, tribes, bioregions, and spiritual and
non-government organisations aspire to such beneficial  ends; in every continent, a majority of people-the ethical majority-want peace; a clean and forested earth; a cessation to torture, malnutrition, and oppression; and aright to work towards these ends.

It would take very little additional organisation for these groups to meet together, count their numbers, and recognise each other's rights. There are, for instance, far less paid-up or active members of political parties or oppressive societies now than there are organic gardeners whose life works seek peace and plenty. As groups discuss, and accept, the minimal ethic above, they they can quickly proceed to recognise each other.

Such initiatives have in fact cmmenced in the Amerindian groups subject to national (i.e. political) oppression in both North and South America. Throughout the world, groups are talking of issuing
their own passports, or adopting world citizen status- given a common aim. Perhaps the first move to a new body of nations united in earth care .are the bioregional , and tribal congresses that are occurring today.

Unlike the present United Nations, we do not need a world centre, or paid administrators, but can instead meet as affinity groups (e.g. in alternative economic summits, bioregional congresses, tribal conferences, garden and farm design groups) to deal with our specific areas of interest, and to make these affinities global in scope. By avoiding centralised administrations, we avoid power blocs, and by avoiding tax funding, we avoid inefficiency. Fees for a regional secretariat would arise from an annual fee forwarded by participant groups.

Once continental groups and some global groups have allied, these congresses can increasingly bring in less informed or more remote groups to share resources in an humane alliance; after all, global seed exchanges, technology groups, gardening forums, and regional groups already meet and are increasing in cooperation. A concept of a global nation is, in fact, very well developed in such groups, and the idea of war or oppression across race, language, or territory is anthema to those allied in good works. The advantage of such alliances is that even isolated people can find global affinities; this is not necessarily true of regional organisations.

14.4
ALTERNATIVES TO POLITICAL SYSTEMS

Systems of government are currently based on self- interest, economic pragmatism, belief, impractical theory, and power-centred minorities (religious, military, capitalist, communist, familial, or criminal).
Almost all such groups set up competitive and ) "adversary-orinented" systems.

We need to set about, in an orderly, sensible, and cooperative way, a system of replacing power-centred politics and political hierarchies with a far more flexible, practical, and information-centred system responsive to research and feedback, and with long- term goals of stability. And we need to do this in an ethical and non-threatening way, so that the transition to a cooperative (versus conflicting) global society is creative (not destructive).

The world needs a new, non-polarised, and non-contentious politic; one riot made possible by those in situations that promote a left-right, black-white, capitalist-communist, believer-infidel thinking. Such systems are, like it or not, promoting antagonism and destroying cooperation and interdependence. Confrontational thinking, operating through political or power systems, has destroyed cultural, intellectual, and material resources that could have been used, in a life-centred ethic, for earth repair.

It is possible to agree with most people, of any race or creed, on the basics of life-centred ethics and commonsense procedures, across all cultural groups; it matters not that one group eats beef, and another regards cows as holy, providing they agree to cooperate in areas which are of concern to them both, and to respect the origins of their differences as a chance of  history and evolution, not assessing such differences as due to personal perversity.

It is always possible to use differences creatively, and design to use them, not to eliminate one or other group as infidels. Belief is of itself not so much a difference as a refusal to admit the existence of differences; this easily transposes into the antagonistic attitude of "who is not with me is against me" , itself a coercive and illogical attitude and one likely, in the extreme, to classify all others as enemies, when they are merely living according to their own history and needs.

Most human communities function in relation to a long-term sustainablility only because they do differ from others; what is possible to an Inuit (Eskimo) is not possible to a forest pygmy. Thus, it is not differences in themselves that are important; it is how all groups relate to the basic rules of the local ecology that permit them to function on a long-term basis. Belief, like religion, is a basically private and non-global characteristic, and should not be subject to comparisons. On close examination, we "believe" in those systems that enable us to behave without guilt, with respect to our resources and our own culture.

It has long been apparent that our current political, economic, and landuse systems cannot solve such long-term and worsening problems as soil degradation, ground water pollution, forest decline, the spread of poverty, unemployment, and malnutrition (or its extreme, famine). Despite good scientific prognoses and assessments, effective ground strategies are lacking. The temporary nature of political systems is an impediment to effective action. We could describe all western political systems as those of competing belief elites; whether they are self-described as communist, socialist, capitalist, or democratic, they all function in ways which are essentially short-term.

By their nature, political systems seek to impose a policy control over as wide an area of influence as possible, are power-centred (not life-centred), and are often composed of very few families or (in the case of royalist and feudal societies), one family. Thus, the continuing and long-sustained programmes necessary to reverse forest loss and soil decline are usually sacrificed for the short-term policies of an elite maintaining power. It was said of a recent prime minister of Australia that his national policies all worked to maximise profits from his farm!

"The argument for simplicity is never a political argument...when people practice it in their lives... they don't even need any politics." (Manas, 17 act 1984). This same statement also refers to the adoption of an ethical basis to action, to the placement of money and resources, and to the determination to act in accordance with one's beliefs. All of these can occur independently of political change, and can be long-term (life-long) personal actions of great effect. That is, people can act independently of political theory (which rarely, if ever,covers the questions of ethics, simplicity, local autonomy, or life-oriented action). Such changes in people come about by education and information, and when enough people change, then political systems (if they are to survive) may follow, or become as irrelevant as they now appear to be in terms of real solutions.

For this reason, the place to start change is first with the individual (oneself), and second in one's region or neighbourhood.

THE RIGHT NOT TO BE IN DEBT.

Some of the most charming and climatically appropriate houses on earth are built without bank  loans, architects, metals, concrete, or contractors.However, in every case they are built in areas where trade unions, building surveyors, health officials, and local or state governments do not impede the home builder or the community providing shelter for themselves. While Chile (as an economic system guided by "experts") accumulated a $12 billion foreign debt in 1985, poor people, acting without loans, together built at least $11 billion housing in slum areas by local cooperation without incurring any foreign debt. Why is this the case?

Stone, mud, bamboo, round timbers, rope, thatch, and even baked brick and tiles, are the age-old durable building materials of mankind. All can be locally produced if energy from community forests and people is provided. Even cement and mortar can be made if needed using kilns fired by wood, as can pottery,bricks, and roof tiles. None of this needs money if people work together.

The real cause of a lack of shelter (as with food) in any country is not that of finance, but of restrictive practices by a regulatory bureaucracy. Moreover, state or private ownership (versus community ownership) of forests, small mines, and lands is devoted to state or corporate profits to support a largely urban, leisured class of bureaucrats, which denies these basic biological and earth resources to the very people who work to produce or mine them.

We have had "national service" to fight wars, but I cannot recall any but sustainable tribal societies that require every man and every woman to help shelter and feed themselves. Curiously, we are drafted to kill strangers, and denied the right to preserve life; no armies are created to build houses, grow potatoes, or plant forests for the future; unemployment for others is preferred by those who choose power as a method of exploitation.

In very recent societies, our basic "right" is to vote,form unions, protest, or go to law (i.e. to support
professional classes). Truly basic rights to grow or protect forests, to build a shelter, grow food, or provide water from our roof areas are commonly denied by local or state regulations. Effective local group action restores the true basic rights, which are those of personal responsibility for our sustenance on earth, and to earth itself. While "natural law" demands a fair return for every gift received, the laws of power demand gifts without thought of return-this is called "economic growth" and means unlimited resource exploitation and the concomitant exploitation of people.

The wealth of any area lies not in banks or cities, but in those basic resources, skills, and natural systems developed by its peoples.

POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS.

There are two ways to ensure the political changes which will bring ecological changes. The first is to mobilise ground support in every electorate where a candidate of any party takes a stand on good ecology, or against nuclear and polluting industry; and the second is to form a local Ecological or Green Party, or a  bioregional group.

This would be an easier task if all intentional groups affiliated, and subscribed to a common policy; it is difficult for a small group to evolve a total policy in isolation, and a common policy statement sums up the skills of all groups. Common policy always leaves room , for local issues, but gives strong principles for guidance in those issues. As well as a guiding ethic, the broad aims of such a party are (as stated in Planet Drum, P.O.Box 31251, San Francisco, CA 94131, USA): ecological, socially egalitarian, grassroots democratic, and , non-growth. In Germany and other European countries, the Green Party has increasing support and representation, with 23 federal and 48 state seats by 1983. The Green Party's address is Die Grunen, Bundestag, Bonn, West Germany. In the USA, International Green Party, 113 29th St., Newport Beach, California 92663.

EVOLVING A NEW POLICY BASE.

A common global policy can start with a general ethic as stated in the beginning of this book; it can then proceed to specific policies, for specific cultures, regions, and landscapes. To structure such policies, we must search out working solutions (e.g. we know that Singapore has solved most housing funding problems, that some towns are energy and food self-reliant, and that many problems have already been solved in other areas or at other times). Thus, the structure under which we should gather common policy is:

• Define what is seen to be the problem or concern: give weight to priorities on a scale from 1-10.
• State intent of policy for your region; what it is intended to do {the principles of this policy).
• Collect strategies that have been proven to work; this really means a set of case histories.
• Frame a set of policies based on all successful strategies.

Overall, set policy priorities in rough order, weighted for urgency, public cost or loss of wealth, general or global spread of the problem, long-term effect, and threats to basic resources or life systems. Do not, in the first place, try to frame policy on purely local or trivial matters, unless as a case history applicable to a broad principle.

14.5
BIOREGIONAL ORGANISATION

A bioregional association is an association of the residents of a natural and identifiable region. This region is sometimes defined by a watershed, sometimes by remnant or existing tribal or language boundaries, at times by town boundaries, suburban streets, or districts, and at times by some combination of the above factors. Many people identify with their local region or neighbourhood and know its boundaries.

There is an obvious conflict between the need to live in a region in a responsible way (bioregional centrality) and the need to integrate with other people in other places (global outreach). We need not only to "think globally and act locally", but to "act and think globally and locally".

The region is our home address, the place where we develop our culture, and take part in bioregional networks. Through global associations and "families of common interest" we cross not only the regional but also state and national borders to set up multicultural alliances.

Just as bioregions need a federal congress periodically, so do they occasionally need global congresses; societies or families also need global meetings to break down the idea of defended regional boundaries to humanity. Ethics and principles of self-governance, interdependence, and voluntary simplicity or restriction of human numbers on earth still apply at regional and outreach levels. Intermarriage, visits, mutual trade and aid, skills exchange, and educational exchange between regions of very different cultures enriches both. This is the antithesis of "integration" (bureaucratic genocide) that is promulgated by majority groups who disallow language use and cultural life to minorities. In particular, reciprocal education values both sets of knowledge and world concepts, and respects others' lifestyles.

Tribal maps often defined bioregions very well; totems and "skins" (clan groups) of tribes might take, as their totemic mothers, a particular tree or animal, which itself was limited in distribution by the sum of topographic and climatic factors. Other groups occupied ecologies of grasslands, stony deserts, swamps, or mountain ridges. Today, minority language groups (Saamen, Basque, Pitjatjantjara) claim territories that are ancient, and specific to their life mode. Obviously, cities break up into different, often occupational or income, districts, each with its own dialect and ecology, consumption spectrum, and morality. The acid test of a bioregion is that it is recognised as such by its inhabitants.

Ideally, the region so defined can be limited to that occupied by from 7000 to 40,000 people.Of  these, perhaps only a hundred will be initially interested in any regional association, and even less will be active in it. The work of the bioregional group is to assess the natural, technical, service, and financial resources of the region, and to identify areas where leakage of resources (water, soil, money, talent) leave the region. This quickly points the way to local self-reliance strategies.

People can be called on to write accounts of their specialities, as they apply to the region, and regional news sheets publish results as they come in. Once areas of action have been defined, regional groups can be formed into associations dealing with specific areas, eg.:

• Food: Consumer-producer associations and  gardening or soil societies
• Shelter: Owner-builder associations
• Energy: Appropriate technology associations
• Finance: An "earthbank" association

And so on...for crafts, music, markets, livestock, and  nature study or any other interest. The job of the bioregional office is complex, and it needs 4-6 people to act as consultants and coordinators, with others on call when needed. All other associations can use the office for any necessary registration, address, phone, and newsletter services, and pay a fee for usage.

Critical services and links can be built by any regional office; it can serve as a land access centre, operating the strategies outlined later under that section. It can also act as leasehold and title register, or to service agreements for clubs and societies. More importantly, the regional office can offer and house community self-funding schemes, and collect monies for trusts and societies.

The regional office also serves as a contact centre to other regions, and thus as a trade or coordination centre. One regional office makes it very easy for any resident or visitor to contact all services and associations offering in the region, and also greatly reduces costs of communication for all groups. An accountant on call can handily contract to service many groups.The regional group can also invite craftspeople or lecturers to address interest groups locally, sharing income from this educational enterprise.

Some of the topics that can be included in the regional directory are as follows. These can be taken topic by topic, sold at first by the page, and finally put together as a looseleaf notebook (volunteers enter local resource centres and addresses under each category; the system is best suited to computer retrieval). The following Resource Index for Bioregions has been compiled by Maxine Cole and myself for the Northern Rivers Bioregional Association of New South Wales, Australia.

The primary categories are as follows:
A. Food and food support systems
B. Shelter and buildings
C. Livelihoods and support services
D. Information, media, communication, and research
E. Community and security
F. Social life
G. Health services
H. Future trends
I. Transport services
M. Appendices (maps, publications of the bioregion)

All of the above sections can contain case histories of successful strategies in that area.

CRITERIA: Practical resources (people, skills, machinery, services, biological products) essential to the functioning of a small region, and assisting the conservation of resources, regional cash flow, the survival of settlement, employment and community security. (Security here means a cooperative neighbourhood and ample, sustainable resources for people.)

CATEGORY A -FOOD AND FOOD SUPPORT SYSTEMS.
Criteria: Native and economic species, organic and biocide free, products of good nutritional value.
Al. Plant resources
1.1 Nurseries and propagation centres, tissue culture, sources of innoculants, mycorrhiza.
1.2 Plant collections and botanical gardens, economic plant assemblies, aquatics.
1.3 Research institutes, horticultural and pastoral agencies.
1.4 Seed sources and seed exchanges.
1.5 Native species reserves and nurseries.
1.6 Demonstration farms and gardens, teaching centres, workshop conveners.
1.7 Government departments and their resources, regulations.
1.8 Voluntary agencies involved in plant protection, planting, and propagation.
1.9 Skilled people., botanists, horticulturists.
1.10 Publications and information leaflets of use in the region, reference books, libraries, posters.
1.11 Contractors and consultancy groups: implementation of plant systems, farm designs.
1.12 Produce: products and producers in region, growers.
1.13 Checklist of vegetables, fruits and nuts which can be grown in the region, and species useful for other than food provision .

A2. Animal resources
2.1 Breeders and stud or propagation centres, artificial insemination, hatcheries.
2.2 Species collections, including worms and like invertebrates.
2.3 Fish breeders and aquatic species.
2.4 Useful native species collections and reserves, potential for cultivation.
2.5 Demonstration farms, e.g. free range, bee culture, workshop conveners, teaching centres.
2.6 Government departments and their resources, regulations.
2.7 Voluntary agencies and animal protection societies.
2.8 Skilled people, farriers, vets, natural historians.

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2.9 Contractors (shearers, etc.) and consultancy groups, farm designers.
2.10 Publications, posters, libraries for the region
2.11 Produce: species and suppliers in region.

A3. Integrated pest management (lPM)
3.1 Insectaries and invertebrate predator breeders and suppliers of biological controls.
3.2 Suppliers of safe control chemicals, traps.
3.3 Information sources on IPM.
3.4 Pest management of stored grains and foods.
3.5 References and libraries.
3.6 Checklist of common pests and predators, and safe pest control procedures.

A4. Processing and food preservation
4.1 Suppliers of processing equipment.
4.2 Food Processing Centres (FPCs).
4.3 Information sources on food processing and preservation.
4.4 sources of yeasts, bacterial and algal ferment materials.
4.5 Processed-product producers in region.

A5. Markets and outlets
5.1 Local markets.
5.2 Delivery services.
5.3 Export markets and wholesalers.
5.4 Urban-rural co-op systems, direct marketing.
5.5 Retail outlets.
5.6 Market advisory skills and groups, contract and legal skills.
5.7 Roadside and self-pick sales.
5.8 Market packaging and package suppliers, ethical packaging systems and designs .
5.9 Annual barter fair.

A6. Support services and products for food production
6.1 Residue testing services for biocides, also nutrient, mineral and vitamin content (food quality control).
6.2 Soil, water and leaf analysis services for micronutrients and soil additives, water analyses, pH levels.
6.3 Hydrological and water supply services (dams, domestic water), design and implementation.
6.4 Fence and trellis suppliers and services, cattle grids and gates.
6.5 Suppliers of natural fertilisers, mulch materials, trace elements, soil amendments.
6.6 Farm machinery, garden and domestic tool suppliers (see also processing), appropriate and tested equipment, fabricators and designers, repair services, hire and contract services.
6.7 Land planning services.
6.8 Glasshouse, shadehouse, food dryers, suppliers, and appropriate materials.
6.9 Lime quarries and sources, stone dusts, local trace mineral sources, regional geological resources.

CATEGORY B -SHELTER, BUILDINGS.
Criteria: Energy-efficient house design and non-toxic materials only
B1. Construction materials
1.1 Timber growers and suppliers, community timber plantations.
1.2 Stone and gravel, earth materials.
1.3 Plumbing and piping, drainage, roofing.
1.4 Bricks and concrete products (tanks, blocks, etc).
1.5 Tiles and surfaces, paints (non-toxic)
1.6 Furniture and fittings.
1.7 Tools and fasteners, tool sharpening services and repairs, glues and tapes.
1.8 Library and research resources.
1.9 Current state of housing in the region (numbers seeking housing, rentals available).
1.10 Sources of toxins and unsafe materials in buildings, appliances, furnishings, paints and glues; high voltage equipment.

B2. Energy systems
2.1 Home appliances for energy conservation and efficiency, energy saving and insulation.
2.2 Hot water systems, solar systems.
2.3 Space heating and house design for the region. 2.4 Power generation systems for region: current
and proposed.
2.5 Appropriate technology groups, research centres and demonstrations.
2.6 Designers of low energy home systems and buildings.
2.7 Sources of information, publications, trade literature, library resources.
2.8 Reliable contractors and builders.

B3. Wastes. recycling
3.1 Sewage and greywater disposal {domestic).
3.2 Compost systems and organics.
3.3 Solid wastes disposal and collection (boxes, bottles, plastics).
3.4 Occupations based on waste recycling.

CATEGORY C -LIVELIHOODS & SUPPORT SYSTEMS.
Criteria: Concept of right livelihood or socially useful work. Durable and well-made items.
C1. Community finance and recycling
1.1 Barter and exchange.
1.2 Small business loans.
1.3 Community banking and investment systems.
1.4 Land access systems, commonworks, leases, trusts.
1.5 Legal and information services.

C2. Livelihood support services
2.1 Small business service centres.
2.2 Skills resource bank: business, legal and financial advisory services, volunteer and retired people.
2.3 Self-employment {work from fulfilling regional needs: job vacancy lists).
2.4 Training courses in region.

C3. Essential trades. and manufacturing services and skills
3.1 Clothing and cloth (spinning, weaving).
3.2 Footwear and accessories, leatherwork.
3.3 Basketry and weaving, mats and screens.
3.4 Functional pottery.
3.5 Steelwork, fitting and turning, smithing and casting, welding.
3.6 Functional woodwork.
3.7 Engines and engine repairs.
3.8 Functional glasswork.
3.9 Paper recycling and manufacture, book trades, printing and binding.
3.10 Catering and cooking (food preparation).
3.11 Draughting and illustrating services.
3.12 Soaps, cleaning materials.

CATEGORY D -INFORMATION SYSTEMS, MEDIA SERVICES, COMMUNICATIONS AND
RESEARCH.
Criteria: Essential community information, aids, and research
D1. Communications networks
1.1 Regional radio and C.B., ham radio .
1.2 Regional news and newspapers, newsletters.
1.3 Audio-visual services, photography, television, film
1.4 Business and research communications e.g. fax, telex, modem, card files, computer, journals, libraries, graphics, telephone answering services.
1.5 Computer services and training.
1.6 Libraries and collections of data in region.
1.7 Maps.
1.8 Bioregional groups and contacts-local and overseas.
1.9 Standard documents and data sheets available via the bioregional centre.

CATEGORY E -COMMUNITY AND SECURITY.
E1. House and livestock security,
1.1 House siting.
1.2 Neighbourhood watch.
1.3 Cattle and livestock watch.
E2. Fire volunteers and reports (4 wheel drive clubs).
E3. Flood (cleanup, rubber duckies).
E4. Bush. cliff, beach rescue services.
E5. Communication systems.
6.1 Report centre.
6.2 Emergency communications.

CATEGORY F- SOCIAL LIFE.
Criteria: Assistance for isolated people to meet people of like mind
F1. Introductory services.
F2. Think tanks.
F3. Expeditions.
F4. Work groups.

CATEGORY G -HEALTH SERVICES.
Criteria: Basic preventative and common ailment treatment, necessary hospitalisation, accident treatment, local resources
Gl. Medical and Pharmaceutical services.
G2. Surgical and hospitalisation services.
G3. Gynaecological and midwifery services. home birth support.
G4. Profile of morbidity in region. life expectancy, infant mortality, causes of death. ailments in order of importance, under:
4.1 Accidents & injuries; infectious diseases; addictions & drugs.
4.2 Genetic and birth defects; nutritional problems.
Note: until the above listing is made, no region can assess health priorities.

CATEGORY H -FUTURE TRENDS & POTENTIAL THREATS TO THE REGION (AS A SERIES OF RESEARCH ESSAYS).
HI. Sea level rises. greenhouse effect.
H2. Ozone depletion.
H3. Water pollution and biocides; radioactives and chemical or waste pollution.
H4. Financial collapse; recession.
H5. Implications for policy making.

CATEGORY I -TRANSPORT (SEE ALSO CATEGORY H).
II. Barge and sea systems.
12. Draught animal systems.
13. Joint or group delivery / cartage.
14. Innovations: local fuels and new sorts of vehicles.
15. Transport routes. bikeways.
16. Air and ultralight craft. blimps.

CATEGORY M -APPENDICES.
Maps -Bioregional map
Geological
Plant system
Soils
Sources and references to maps, suppliers Regions, parishes,
Land titles
Access and roads
Reserves and easements
Rivers and water supplies
Note that if essential services are listed, deficiencies noted, and leaks of capital detected, then there is immediately obvious a category of "jobs vacant". If, in addition, there is a modest investment or funding organisation set up (itself a job), then capital to train and equip people to fill these gaps is also available. When basic needs are supplied locally, research and skills will reveal work in producing excess for trade this excess can be as information and education to other regions. Bioregionalism is an excellent concept, given the  irrational land use systems and land divisions developed by the present power structures. However, it is rarely an achievable reality, unless enough people gather in one area and manage to attract a sufficient number of like people to achieve a viable internal economy and trade infrastructure, together with the community common funds that make such enterprises possible.

And that is the secret of success: assembling sufficient commonsense people in one area. If we are one isolated a biodynamic gardener in a district of contract vegetable growers or graziers trained in chemical agriculture, we find both the practice and infrastructure support of the isolated system difficult; there may be no one to talk to, let alone share resources with. On the other hand, as land titles in a region are bought out and occupied by any group who share an ethical philosophy, so the shops, markets, processing centres, equipment, and , support services for the new economy become  worthwhile and available.

As much as "the will to do" indicates health in the individual, so an increasing biological resource indicates health in the community. Every bioregion should monitor tree cover, wildlife, seaweed beds, bird colonies, species counts, and productive cultivated land at regular intervals. If these have increased in yield and maintained in species, the area maintains health. If no increase, or a decrease, is evident, something is wrong and should be immediately assessed for correction.

It is only the increase in the variety, quantity, and health of natural systems that indicates the health of any area. Where species disappear, trees or fish die, farmland and forest yields are reduced, and species lists simplify, there is trouble, and a degenerative effect is operating. A "life census" needs to be compiled every 2-5 years, and some data needs continual records, as absences are harder to detect than presences. Modifications to habitat can result in a constantly increasing biological resource, both qualitatively and  quantitatively.

 Every region needs to act as a curator and refuge for some critical life elements of allied regions, so that  absolute loss of species is unlikely short of global catastrophe. In some land trusts, it is this biological-environmental accounting which sets the basis for the "economic rent", and (in the event of a degenerative trend) even the basis for continuing in occupation and use of the land.

14.6
EXTENDED FAMILIES

Chiajen (the family): The family is society in embryo; it is the native soil on which the performance of moral duty is made easy through natural affection, so that within the family circle a basis of moral practice is updated; this is later widened to include human relationships and society in general.
(From The I Ching)

The concepts of village and bioregion refer to a base or home area, but today many people travel about. Many societies extend as close affinity groups across many nations, thus forming a non-national network. Such groups develop a familial, rather than a competitive or conflicting, inter-relationship. With a common interest and ethical base, cooperative interdependence supplants competition. A "family" of this type, with 1 ,000 or less members, can ally with like groups to create a tribe, and 20-40 such tribes form a nation. Families, unlike many societies, have child care and the welfare of their members at heart.

Such families already exist in Europe, with small groups living in a scatter of households and locations across many existing national boundaries; some have existed for 18 or more years, and members report individual satisfaction with a larger support group. In practice, any person has 3-5 close friends (who change slowly over time), a support group of 30 or more acquaintances, and resource access to the whole system. A familial system of shared ethics can:

•  Keep in touch via a registrar and news service;
• Co-invest in family property development and joint enterprises
• Rationalise reources for most efficient sharing of space and equipment;
• Develop a series of social contacts via visits;
• Care for the children as one group, and set up a fund for their needs;
• Widen the cultural and support base for households.

Membership in a family of shared ethical values does not conflict with any other membership or duties, and is mainly a matter of organisation of a family registrar and some common funds. Such families need to define each adult as an individual, with a right to the essentials of their own space (bed and work space), garden, and occupation. As nuclear family households are a minor part of modern societies (13-18% of all  households), households based on friendship, or work affinity, or designed for students, single, or elderly  people, are needed.

Like land ownership, the ownership of people is an illusory aim. Some couples can tolerate years of close work, but many might prefer a slightly more independent existence, close to but not necessarily living with each other.

In particular, children need a wider alliance and support group than just one or two parents. People can find "aunts and uncles" to take part of the responsibility for children in any such extended family, and if the children have a common fund (like their own credit union) for basic needs, then their care at a basic level is assured. They also have more than one household to relate to, or to visit or dwell in when educational needs  change. Families can, for instance, maintain a student dormitory near secondary or tertiary institutes, whereas at present many rural families have no such facility to send children ages 12 or over when they need or request higher education.

People can feel, and sometimes are, trapped in the  nuclear family or the "compound" family of blood relatives who may share no ethical or interest base. At times, traditional extended families grossly exploit (in particular) younger women, as household serfs, or are exploited by indolent members. Blood relationship is no guarantee of freedom of choice, or fair dealing. Besides, as people grow and age, they develop differing needs for space and -relationships, and other (intellectual or interest) factors call for different personal relationships.

Many of us have been locked in to unsatisfactory work or personal relationships, or too much alone in the context of nuclear family "ideals" , which in real societies are for the few. It is good to be able to visit, stay with, and cooperate with a few households and to form new relationships as needed; it is also necessary to have the freedom to choose new work alliances.

In the extended family, problems such as lack of shelter, land access, access to capital and services, deserted or neglected children (or adults), transmission of infective diseases, and population control can largely be dealt with by internal behaviour on some ideal of (dynamic) stability. By selective recruitment, skills and resources can be acquired, or developed by education and group capital investment. Funds can be established as follows:
.COMMON ENTERPRISE FUND: the family fund, held in 2-3 places and convertible to a variety of currencies, and managed by a few individuals as a J full-time job. All savings and contributions are  accounted to individuals, and available as loans as for any credit union or revolving fund, across all currencies and regions.
.ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP FUND: invested and the interest used. This services the registry, newsletter, and pays part or full-time wages to a collator.
.CHILDRENS'  PERMANENT FUND: all adults (age 17 or over) contribute $50 to this fund, with additional gifts encouraged. The fund is managed with the Common Enterprise Fund for essential  child-oriented ventures or for education. This is a non-returnable fund. Each mother or mother-to-be would encourage 5-6 support people to contribute donations, and agree to help in other ways. Until age 12, parents can apply for loans, and thereafter (until age 17) the children can themselves apply, after which they are cognised as adults.
 .SPECIAL VENTURE FUNDS: to be raised by proposal, open to groups or individuals, and handled by the Common Enterprise Fund administrators for  such group ventures as a shared house, boat, overseas programme, or business.

It is probable that some (or all) members could run one or more enterprises to fund a charity or "trust-in aid" programme for areas of need. Given such basic financial tools, secondary needs are to rationalise resources as a type of real estate service and resource listing internally, so that all members can assist others as producers, consumers, trustees, or by land, appliance, and shelter rationalisation.

As some ideal, groups of 30 or so people could gather in core regions (with some outlier households) and so make travel locally an easier affair. Meta- networking (tribe to tribe) enables such higher-Ievel organisations as travel and accommodation nets to be set up on a global basis, cash to be transferred to areas of need, and larger joint enterprises developed.

As for the touchy subject of population control, taking group responsibility for a very few children sometimes cures the urge to breed, and those who want more than two children are far outnumbered by those who don't, so that where children are not seen as a "future insurance"-as in very poor rural families- the population can soon achieve a steady state. The schematic of Figure 14.1 gives the basic parameters for both steady-state and out-of-control or declining populations. A registry can therefore inform people of the balances in sex ratio and age structure, and recruitment in the late stages of enrolment can be adjusted to give a fair balance of sex-age distribution. It does not matter, of course, if perfect balances are not achieved, but resources remain plentiful only if people remain relatively few.

Given an extended family, a bioregional network locally, and some form of common work opportunity, any individual is assured of access to resources, capital, cultural exchanges, and good work. We need not only fixed villages and bioregions, but open corridors to other regions, other people, and across nations.

As I see it, conflict arises on "national" boundaries that are fixed or disputed. A web of. multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-occupational families and global nations obliterates these "defended territories" and suits peaceful lifestyles. The framework for such nations already exists; it remains to give those frameworks the mechanisms that create true interdependence via anew type of extended family.

We all value cultural and environmental diversity-or the world would become one vast Toyota-Coca Cola-McDonald-Hilton monoculture. Thus the concepts of unique bioregions, intact language and culture, and cross-cultural enrichment is central to a permaculture of human resources, and an ecumenical global nation.

14.7
TRUSTS AND LEGAL STRATEGIES

Trusts in the public interest are the legal basis on which churches, universities and many schools, research

)
establishments, some hospitals, many public services, aid programmes, and charities rest. Few people realise how many, and how varied, are the trusts that serve them in one or other way. About 18-20% of businesses may also be non-profit trusts owned or operated by the charitable trusts that benefit from (are beneficiaries of) them.

It is quite possible, even sensible, to completely replace the bureaucracy of public services with a series of locally administered trusts, and Holland (in particular) largely supplants expensive paid public services (burdened as they are with heavy salary and capital costs, and .liable to inaction, self-interest, and executive inefficiency) to publicly formed trusts (called stichtings). In the case of any small country, such trusts can run all public operations, and the "government" becomes simply a way of conveying tax capital back to the regions via local trusts. However, trusts can also  self-fund via non-profit businesses to become foundations, fully equipped with their own income  sources.

Trusts are usually formed, operated, and staffed by people (often initially volunteers) motivated to perform one or other public duty, or who seek to assist a defined or special group in need. Such trusts often have names including the words: church, foundation, institute, communion, school, congregation, charity, bureau, trust, or even company. When the trusts are formed to trade, they can take or own any business name that suits their work; such businesses are administered by a trustee.

Trusts are formed just to conduct businesses and trade, giving away their profits annually to named beneficiaries. If the beneficiaries are individuals, such gifts are taxed as private income; if the beneficiaries are charitable trusts or churches, the gift is not only not taxable but can be tax deductible to any giver. Trading, or "unit discretionary" , trusts are also known as  non-profit corporations (not to be confused with for-profit organisations).

Many large companies set up, and to some extent fund, non-profit organisations or even charitable trusts as a means to reduce taxable income, to carry out educational services, or to obtain public goodwill; some businesses tithe to worthy trusts that they believe in (a tithe is usually a tenth of income, but in practice ranges 4 from 5-15%).

Legally, a trust body consists of a TRUSTEE and and document or TRUST DEED, registered with the public ompany registrar. There are many good reasons to  make the trustee a private company, as directors of such  companies need to be few in number (3 or 4 are E enough), can appoint others if one dies or resigns, and  can be anonymous. A company does not die, unlike its directors, and the small group of trustees can act quickly and decisively without reference to the cumbersome and often uninvolved "board of directors" that some trusts have appointed. It is wise to restrict   directorships of a trustee company to those who are e very active in trust affairs, and preferably live close to each other in one region. Such a set-up is diagrammed in Figure 14.3.

Should any person wish to set up a trust, the very first thing to do is to closely define the purposes of the trust, the group to whom it will apply ("all the citizens ...of Australia" or "those suffering from spina bifida"), and to instruct a lawyer to draw up the trust deed and to register this and the trustee company.

It is usually possible to buy a copy the trust deeds of other ethical organisations, and to use these as a model for a local trust, so reducing legal costs. Some law societies service ethical trusts at no charge for their time.

Any trust can have (unregistered, no cost) an ASSOCIATION of volunteers, aides, or clients who can publish a newsletter and generally assist the trust in its affairs.

It is also very wise for any charitable trust to establish a non-profit trading (business) trust to help finance its activities, and this trading trust can refund costs to volunteers, pay wages, and gift profits to the charity or to any other charity. Thus, if the charitable trust is TRUST A, and the trading trust is TRUST B, the system as a whole works as per Figure 14.4.

The trust deeds state not only the purposes of the trusts but in addition the "will" of the trust is usually included, leaving its assets to an allied trust if this trust completes operations, closes down, or fails from lack of interest or of funds. Also, the trust deed gives an estimate of the duration of the trust; if this is intended to be "forever" , then legally the statement is likely to be , on the lines of "until 21 years after the death of the last descendant of Ming emperors" or some such legally indefinable period.

Trusts are durable, efficient, easy to administer, and of great public service; everybody should be associated with one! There are several small independent but cooperative Permaculture Institutes and allied groups , in existence which have associated non-profit trusts operating businesses to fund them; in this way, many trusts are independent of gifts or grants, and become self-reliant for funds. It is estimated that France has 100,000 public interest groups, each with its own areas of interest and subscribers, and that about 10,000 form up annually; one can only suppose that others also fade out, their work redundant or completed.

As so few (dedicated) people can operate a trust effectively, it is far better to set up many such local trusts than to risk the power-centred inefficiences of a monstrous hierarchical system, such as some religious sects and foundations have become. These are essentially fossilised and no longer of relevance to ordinary people. Every dissenter or group of dissenters should therefore set up trusts to promulgate their own views, or form an independent trust in a cooperative network of like trusts.

Unless the formation of trusts is a common practice in a particular country, very few lawyers can set up (or even know about) trusts. They often give bad advice to groups, setting up litigious or cumbersome systems,

giving endless trouble and necessitating agreement among many people (an end which is, in practice, impossible to honestly attain), and which involves distasteful accomodations and compromises, explicit or hidden. Therefore, a careful search for the right lawyer is essential (corporate lawyers are often knowledgeable about trusts).

Other simple legal structures necessary to companies, cooperatives, credit unions, public investment trusts and so on are all well-outlined in company law, have excellent support services, and are routine arrangements. A good accountant to lay out the bookkeeping and give advice is necessary, as is an efficient office manager to communicate with the trusts's target population.

14.8
DEVELOPMENT AND PROPERTY TRUSTS
(Appropriate to village development, land rehabilitation)

No investment in glamour stocks (coal, oil, uranium, city properties, paper pulp, agrochemicals, mining) is likely to yield anything to us but more pollution and to hasten global collapse. The evidence on acid rain alone (well documented) will convince any more person that further " progress and development" will cause social and environmental upheaval.

We need to turn our money resources to truly rehabilitative ends. We accept the need, therefore, for accelerated reafforestation, the preservation of existing forests, sane village development, and the rehabilitation of eroded and misused lands.

In forming a development trust, our aims are not just financial, but also ensure community survival by community involvement. With good management and skillful work, there is no reason why this should not also pay for itself, or show a financial advantage to investors. It is an invaluable experience to model such a property trust, and to teach others how to follow any successes that we achieve.

A property trust purchases real estate for improvement, lease, or rental on behalf of many small investors who cannot afford to individually own or develop such properties. By improving properties so purchased, their value increases, and (under present rulings) taxation is not incurred on that increase in value if the property is held for 10 or more years, nor is the trust itself taxed on its income from investors. A "small business centre" can be a property trust. Many such trusts concentrate on city office properties or rural monocultures; we can  concentrate on other aspects of property investment, as outlined herein for village development, or land  rehabilitation systems.

The management group obtains backing from investors (via a public prospectus) to float a Property  Trust on the investment market. The prime purpose is to give every person a chance to do more than object to or protest inappropriate land sales to overseas investors, land misuse, and poor planning, and to  invest in saving critical or endangered national  resources (such as wildlife and forests), while actively; rehabilitating eroded lands.

In the first trust of this type, the aim can be to stop accepting investors at $2-5 million, which will develop a property or properties as listed in the prospectus. A low unit price ($100) enables even poorer people to invest; a single unit can be held by a partnership, society, or other corporate group so that even less money need be contributed per person in order to assist (e.g.) unemployed people. There need be no limit to the number of units held by any person.

 Unlike other property trusts, investors should be given every opportunity to involve themselves in their
investments via on-site work, consultancy, leaseholds, tree nursery supply, preference in sales of titles in villages, access to products or services, and (controlled) recreational access to lands and buildings. The trust can inform investors of any opportunity for their involvement at any level from volunteer or recreational use to paid consultancy, building, or in leaseholds available.

Funds can be used for the following:

• To set up the trust deed and management company;
• To pay for the work of the trustee;
• To pay management a retainer for their work; and
• To pay for normal running costs of the trust, including office expenses, printing, bookkeeping,   accounting, valuation, and the travel of management to properties.

The precise amount so used should not exceed 4-8% of funds (based on figures from other property trust expenses), and the remainder is devoted to the purchase and development of properties as outlined in the prospectus. Costs reduce as trust income grows.

Any surplus or unused funds accumulating in the trust can be invested in ethical systems, including housing cooperatives, inventory for development projects, and shares in ethical businesses.

The specific project areas in which ethical trusts operate are:

• Purchase of threatened wildlife and forest habitat (usually with a specific plant or animal group in mind). Managed for the aims stated in a specific prospectus.
• Purchase and development of eroded, salted, deforested, or misused land for rehabilitation.
• Development of an energy-efficient, sustainable village on trust lands, for sale as developed, or pre-sale to raise capital for development.
• Special interest/ group developments such as trout fisheries, aquaculture, or seed orchards for lease or sale.
• Bioregional development as purchase of community resources in a specific region(s) for use by residents, community groups, trust unit holders, or by residents buying trust properties in that area.
• Purchase of selected properties for assisting developing countries (overseas outposts).
• Bioregional clean energy systems or clean transport methods.

The way such trusts stage development and show a return is as in Figure 14.5.
 

14.9
VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT

As individual designers gain field or applied skills in house, energy system, and property design, and as ethical investment comes of age, the idea of "client work" can be joined to that of earth repair, and to real estate development. In order to do this, finance managers need to join forces with good managerial or design groups. The whole development group thus evolved can then purchase lands, capitalise them, and get them in order as a complex of lake, forest, and village settlement. We need well-designed villages today more than any other enterprise: villages to re-locate those soon-to-be-refugees from sea-level rise, villages to house people from urban slums, and villages where people of like mind can find someone else to talk to and to work with.

Villages can pool their surplus or current financial resources in a developmental credit union, and create land titles to sell in order to develop public service facilities. Nobody need pretend all problems are solved-conspicuous consumption can still ruin the idea of energy self-reliance--but with good management, the plan that follows comes very close to a sane village development.

An intentional village should have a group ethic acceptable to all who come there. Ethics, if shared,
 

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discussed, and acknowledged, give unity to groups, villages, and nations, indicate a way to go, and control our use of earth resources. They can be reflected in our legal, financial, domestic, and public lives.
 The aims of a sensible village group might be to:

• REDUCE THE NEED TO EARN, by developing food, energy, and shelter self-reliance;
• EARN WITHIN THE VILLAGE IF POSSIBLE, reducing transport and travel needs; thus to recruit people who could fill most essential village occupations, or who are self-employed;
• PRODUCE A SURPLUS from services to others, thus maintaining a strong economy and outreach potential;
• PROVIDE MANY OF THE NON-MATERIAL NEEDS of people, perhaps of children in particular, by devising meaningful work, relevant education, and a rich natural environment; and
• COOPERATE in various enterprises and small associations.

A village can provide PRIVACY in homes and gardens; ACCESS TO TOOLS as leased, rented, or easily accessed equipment from computers to tractors; ENTERTAINMENT from local folk groups to video cassettes; CONSERVATION as a village wildlife, water, and forest reserve, and RECREATION in the near environment. It can also provide the BASIC LIFE ESSENTIALS of shelter, food, and energy.

No isolated or scattered group of people can self provide for the above, but it is probable that about 30 to 200 houses can support these services and basic facilities, especially if there is planning for cooperative funding. What is easy for a group may be impossibly stressful for a nuclear family. It is possible for a group to provide many services, and for many people to earn a living in so doing.

It is quite practical to create such new villages without much initial capital in the actual development phase. This can be achieved in these ways:

• By receiving a gift of land to a land trust, intended for village development.
• To find suitable land for sale, and to take out an option to buy from the owner, dependent on pre--sale of the idea to buyers.
• To work on tribal or trust lands already communally owned.
• T o work with an investor or finance group to purchase land for village development, and to stage the development.
• To convene a group which wants such a village and use their capital to stage a village development.

The first few of these options presume a developer, are faster, and probably easier than the last option. All, however, need careful forward planning. The development may give considerable profit (but that is not guaranteed). In fact, fair or normal profits can be used to benefit both people and land, can give young or poorer people titles, and can rehabilitate landscapes otherwise neglected.

As a guide, 30% of titles available should cover (in value) all land and development costs, so that surplus titles are available for community access, profits, gifts, labour equity, and new project development. Land should be priced to local real estate values, and only very poor management would then show a loss on development.
For example! for 100 titles in the village:
Development Stage:

• 60% are sold by the development group to a village group at best prices (30% of that covers all costs, and actually sets the land price);
• 30% are given to the village group for later use;
• 10% are allotted by the developers as labour equity to such people as surveyors, earthmovers, landscapers.

Village Trust Stage (the titles given to the village group by the developer):

• 20% are sold by the village trust to fund village projects, and can be sold at lower (50% or less) value to low-income families;
• 10% are reserved for sale to crucial new recruits, e.g. medical, computer, energy-producing people.

       OR

• 10% issued on easy terms to low-income families;
• 20% sold to finance village services.

SITE CRITERIA FOR VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT
There are a variety of locations that can be used for village development:

• TYPE 1. In a city block or suburbs.
• TYPE 2. Adjoining an existing village.
• TYPE 3. Within a part-vacant village.
• TYPE 4. Isolated from any existing integrated settlement.
• TYPE 5. On the site of a pre-existing but now vacant or destroyed village.
• TYPE 6. As a new suburban development.
• TYPE 7. Specialised settlements on coasts or near wilderness.

All need a different real estate and planning approach, so that Type 2 and Types 4 to 6 are probably outright purchase or option systems; Types 1 and 3 are part of a gradual takeover or buy-in system over some years; and Types 2 and 6 may have both factors operating at once, i.e. some land is purchased for development, while older village resources are also purchased for use. Type 4 is the pioneering or kibbutz approach and needs the most intensive planning, especially for water resources, access to market, and specified enterprises.

Type 2 is probably the easiest to plan and administer, and allows a whole graduation of involvement and committment. It also attaches to pre-existing essential services, although these are unlikely to be as useful or appropriate as those indicated here. Purchase of existing homes and lots results in little delay in the pioneering stage.

While the site choice may be very much influenced by opportunity, a criteria that is essential is that any village should be able to catch, store, reticulate, and clean up its own water supply. It is also advantageous  that wood, wind, solar, or high-pressure water is available for energy production, and that clear ideas of  how clean energy can be obtained, or developed and maintained, is part of the design.

Likewise, road, rail, boat, and not-too-distant air access are also advantageous for trade and travel.
Computer and telecommunications will enable most villages to be in a data network, but real--object trade needs transport.

 Finally, one cannot stress too much the factor of mixed ecologies. Any village which has access to or can develop forest, aquatic, marine, agricultural, and market areas has many more options open to it than a village marooned in a simple ecology.

 Procedural Stages to Follow
I. Formation of a group or location of a site.
2. Arrange site option or purchase terms. Options are cheaper, often as little as, e.g. $50 per year for several  years if the price offered is about 20-30% of the  developed site value. The seller may retain a house title on the land if so required, and the price is then discounted.
3. Obtain an "agreement in principle" from the local shire or planning authority, establishing:

• Road type needed, e.g. gravel or sealed;
• Number of allottments allowed in the cluster or per acre;
• What services the developer must provide;
• The stages of development, if the shire requires building to be completed in stages.

4. Do careful sums, establishing prices based on roading, water supply, and sewerage.
5. Prepare a detailed and careful site plan and proposal for the village.
6. Convene, by advertisement, prospective customers  and obtain firm commitments. Issue the    proposal and site plan.
7. Obtain sealed permission for subdivision from the local authority.
8. Sell to prospective buyers, using a trust fund for road, water, and site preparation.
9. When costs are cleared, decide on future projects from profits and skills gained.
There are various ways to finance the process:

• Developer has all funds for survey and plans.
• Developer raises funds for proposal from investors.
• Potential buyers form a trust account to purchase and develop the land.

Some mix of the first two is possible, with trust funds established by the developers. These funds can be released when the development is fully approved by the shire council, and roading and services can be installed at those stages that may be demanded by the shire or region.

There are appropriate legal structures for a village.The developer needs to set up a trust (Trust A)-a land bank-to hold commons (village land) for the common good and for later development. Here, the developer acts as a foundation director (settlor), and should retire as soon as the site has 10-12 residents, who then assume directorship of the trust lands and cash assets for the village (about 3-4 directors are enough).

Residents should, as early as possible, set up a separate unit discretionary trust (Trust B) for trading operations. Such trusts are currently immune from company tax; they also reduce family tax and enable a wide variety of enterprises to be initiated by one organisation.

The essentials of Trust A are that it holds assets for the public good, does not take risks, and leases or rents to Trust B, which does trade and take risks, and has Trust A as one of its beneficiaries. Trust B can duplicate or triplicate itself to accommodate new enterprises and to insulate from risk those successful operations which may later develop. It can also handle financial systems such as leasing and lending units.

Although cluster and strata titles give privacy, negotiability, and autonomy to individuals and families, and titles and houses can be resold, traded, or given to Trust A, it is necessary to set up a land trust if only to administer the common lands, recreation reserves, and sites for future structures such as schools, restaurants, machine shops, or primary production.

In fact, as soon as possible after the developers pay land and developmental costs, they should seek to have village trustees elected. As the current costs of such trusts are minor in the total, and as they are so useful in planning and in income-earning, they should be part of all new village design. It is superfluous and unwieldly to have any more than 3 or 4 trustees for each trust, although small sub-committees can also be allotted part of any specific project work, and other people can contribute their special skills.

The developmental group works best as a small core of 2-4 people, each with special skills such as real estate, design, planning, or law. Surveyors, road builders, builders, and landscapers are usually locally available for such projects. (Although these may also be developers, some contractors will work for equity in the project either as village occupants, or for resale at a later date.)

The development group should hand over a site design and user's manual to the directors of Trust A, who can display and circulate the initial design, record changes and modifications, and keep clear the essential land areas for productive use. Of course, all initial designs are made to be changed. The challenge is to change the design for the better! A design gives a starting point, not an end point.

Size of Villages
Human settlements vary in their ability to provide resources, to develop a high degree of self-reliance, and in their alienating or(conversely) neighbourly behaviour according to population size and function. At about 100 income-producing people, a significant financial institution can be village-based; at about 500 all people can know each other if social affairs are

organised from time to time.

At 2,000 people, theft and competitiveness is more common, and sects set up in opposition-the 'ecumenial alliances" are lost. Perhaps we should start small, at about 30 or so adults, build to 200-300 people, and proceed slowly and by choice to 500, then "calve" into new neighbourhoods or new villages.

However, alliances of 200-500 household-size hamlets can make a very viable manufacturing or trading alliance and maintain a safe genetic base. Many tribes of 200 or so confederate to alliances of 4,000-7,000 in this way, share special products by trade, or arrange out-marriages. Thus, pioneer villages can seek alliances with others for the common good.

The Mondragon Cooperatives of Spain at first grew large (3,000-5,000), but later reduced to cooperatives of 300-500 to preserve the identity of every individual. Nevertheless, a group of such small cooperatives can make any vehicle or machine if each produces apart, and this is in fact organised by the smaller cooperatives in the Mondragon system.

In my view, the neighbourhood factor-knowledge of each other's names-is a primary factor, and has proved to be a major factor in survival in disaster, as assessed (e.g.) in the 1967 Hobart fires, where casualties in "anonymous" areas and commuter suburbs were many times higher than in neighbourhoods where people knew and cared for others.

Land Allotment and Village Infrastructure
Infrastructures for energy, commerce, and land allotment are an integral part of a self-reliant village. Few villages own all of these, however, and new villages need to reserve off land and areas for future  priority development of both structures and primary product areas. A general plan of these resources must be published for all participants.

The following areas can be reserved for future use:

• School, seminar, and workshop rooms, computers, library, artwork, some crafts areas.
• Food processing centre, cafe, coffee shop, home baked goods, some commercial or surplus sale products.
• Noisy/oily work, woodwork, metal-work, machine shop, repairs, bulk fuels and oils, grease, air pump, vehicle service.
• Retail shops (including plant nursery retail), reception for visitors.
• Dairy and dairy processing centre.
• Domestic livestock ,housing, chickens, goats, pigs,
• Methane generator and ferment tanks, sewage, sullage, biomass conversion systems and water clean up. All sites for energy and water provision are public reserves.
• Glasshouses, commercial crop, and special crop.
• Camp area for casual visitors (toilets and showers); can be a youth or student hostel.

Some community tools are needed for the site at large:

• Tractor -slasher (fire control)

             -posthole borer (fencing)
             -trailer
             -chisel plough/soil conditioner
              -chipper (biomass and mulch provider,fire control)

• Tow truck (mulch and goods}
• Van (goods}
• Back-pack slasher (blackberry and brush}

In workshops, essential tools such as drill press, lathe, radial-arm saw, welder, planer or thicknesser, and router can be available on lease or time share. Trust B can undertake a charge on any tools, accounting for replacement cost, wear and tear, fuel or power, and a service charge.

In planning, first designs should be for water and energy, then access, then dwellings and other
structures. Next, landuse can be indicated, and finally legal, social, and financial systems discussed for the place and time.

Dwellings need to be of varying types:

• Family homes (individual or trust ownership; 2-5 bedrooms);
• Singles quarters (flats with strata title; some guest accommodation, 1-2 bedrooms);
• Elderly and hospital quarters (strata and community trust title; single and double bedrooms);and
• Terrace housing where appropriate.

A mix of such housing provides much more for needs and age differences than does the traditional family home. Every village could maintain one empty strata title for emergencies such as family break up, or to stage people in to permanent housing.

Recently some American towns have enacted ordinances to force buildings to comply with a 60%
self sufficient space heating requirement. Every house built today can be close to 100% efficient by design alone, at no extra cost in construction. Solar hot water systems are now routine installations, and photo-voltaics almost so. That is, energy needs are solved mainly in the home by a combination of good design and hardware. However, energy can be generated in other ways, and site allowances should be made for this.

The very modern "urban' planning" where city or town sectors are designated as industrial, commercial, residential, or recreational are in fact the very antithesis of good planning for transport energy conservation, and bear little or no relationship to the zonation of function and available time around a settlement or house, as outlined in Chapter Three.

Wherever possible, life, work, and recreation should be integrated in a dwelling; not only are households better informed, children less alienated, and adults less isolated from social contact, but the need for complex transport systems is eliminated. We have a great deal to learn from older cities, which evolved in an energy conservative environment; cities such as Florence and Vienna, older parts of Berlin, and almost every village that functioned before 1930. In all such settlements, the cultural, crafts, trades, commercial and domestic functions were integrated. Old city blocks in Berlin have housing over street level shops on the sunny side, trades and work in the easily accessible interiors of hofs that penetrated and opened up the ,centre of the block, and a market or supply depot close to this assembly.

Such integrations are conducive to the development of complementary skills in the neighbourhood. In Istanbul and India trades may well be grouped in streets or market areas, so that both new materials, assembly, and sale are facilitated (and branches of each craft allotted, or adjusted to production by demand), but the total market or neighbourhood contains all trades except those based on rare resources or needed only on a regional basis.

Young people growing up in such an environment have a capacity to use many materials, or to make whatever they require, as a result of the informal everyday association with the' open shops' that are the hallmark of small tradespeople, and where neighbours and family come and go the workplace itself. Davis (California) is one modern town where energy-conserving legislation is in place, and people are encouraged to conduct all non-polluting businesses from their homes; and where bikeways are available throughout the settled area. Elsewhere, "zoned" industries create vast traffic problems, and the separation of people from services.

How is the land not attached to dwellings to be allotted? The following categories are of use in villages everywhere:

• Land for recreation, trails, and walks.
• Water storages and reserves, energy sites. .Productive land for food: livestock, orchard, nursery, greenhouses.
• Forested areas (fuels and timbers).
• Reserves for wildlife and flora;conservation areas.
• Easements, wayleaves, roads, and public utility allotments.
• Commercial areas for retail, manufacturers, offices, professional services, common markets.

Family dwellings and their 0.2-2 ha lots can accommodate some of these, but in miniature. Many homes are in fact commercial premises for home services and industries; many store their own roof water, provide much of their food from the garden, and may contain recreational assets. However, a larger site plan does allow more convivial access to land, some commercial crop potential, significant forests and ponds, and access and utility easements.
 
  Public access and service centres  owned by the village, such as food processing, freezer, and laundrette facilities not only provide a part-time income for a resident but sharply reduce the energy needs for each house to provide and maintain such facilities, and provide a wider district resource.

An even greater saving is realised by a modest tractor-tool-truck hire services, in which Trust B leases these infrequently used assets to residents as needed. Infact, a sensible village would closely investigate the advantages of a total vehicle leasing system, fleet purchase and insurance, local maintenance, and bulk fuel supply.

Village Energy
Coupled with domestic energy conservation, modest power units can supply small villages or regions with their energy, an can certainly be started by the same protest groups, who rightly oppose giant coal, nuclear, oil-powered, centralised and polluting energy systems.

Like any other enterprise, a diverse approach is recommended, with energy from wind, tide, river, solar and methane used where appropriate. Table 14.7 on energy conversion efficiency has been complied from several sources. It includes primary conversions (gas to several electricity) and secondary conversions (waste heat to high grade gas). However, mechanical efficiency is perhaps the least important concept for people, and is relevant only if:

• The process is non-polluting, or relevant to the place.
• The technology is socially acceptable, and locally begin.
• The cost is affordable, and a mortises under 10 years.
• The technology can be locally produced and maintained.

  Finally, no matter how efficient a technology may be, if it lays waste to or destroys the basic quality or quantity of soil, water, or clean air, then it must be rejected, as this is the "economics of extinction". For this reason, I have not included fission processes with radioactive by-products, coal as now used, or mineral " petroleum beyond initial or transition use.

Financing Public Services
When all titles sell, the monies generated by the sale of " the 30% of titles vested in the village trust would ensure a very large interest yield annually for village development. This would, in effect, build fences, terraces, and eventually schools, workshops, and alternative energy systems.

At about year 5 of development, when residents have a clear idea of future needs, the capital itself can be
 

used to install wealth-producing assets for employment in the village (glasshouses, computers, machinery). By allotting 30% of sites to the body corporate (Trust A), the developers ensure that:

• All necessary public services are funded;
• Residents, over a period of 20 years, have effectively paid nothing for land; and
• As soon as sales exceed 60% of total titles, either capital or interest for public services is available.

The trust can use this asset in many ways, but would be most effective in ensuring either conservation of energy or business development on site, and in using the common wealth for increasing local productive assets If a credit union has been established, much of the trust capital can be transferred to a loans account, so that residents can draw on it at low interest for local occupational development. Conscientious use of a credit union by village residents would greatly increase capital flow to village enterprises. There may be some capital available as housing loans, but a building cooperative would be much more effective in this instance.

The result of having such capital and interest flowing in to the Trust is that village morale is greatly increased, with every resident seeing long-term plans fairly rapidly achieved. Well-managed, the capital should actually increase, giving a large annual capital for village use.

The Trust will always need income for maintenance of roads, fences, water supply, fire control, and other site factors. This can be raised from small charges for leases and loans to residents, by charging an hourly rate a 10% levy on net profits of locally-funded cooperatives. This levy is the same as that paid by the Mondragaon cooperative system to fund their banks, schools, and research facilities in Spain, and applies only to net profits of trust-funded cooperatives.

A Community Services Council at any new community or village with common lands may be elected to administer policy on publicly owned or common assets, to collect lease monies on utility plots, to administer funds for schools and medical services, and to see that rates are used in maintaining roads, water supplies, and other public services.

"Community Services" in any community can encompass the following:

• Fire control services
• Land leasing of common properties for business use.
• Public reserves and sports grounds
• Ambulance and health services; cemetery administration
• Education and educational facilities
• Community centre: use and hire
• Power and water supply
• Forest management
• Tourism/promotion (if desired)

Some of these are income-producing, some subject to state aid or tax immunity, and some are income consuming. The Services Council needs. to attempt to balance these costs, allot land and assets for income to service groups, and ensure that common property and rights are fairly assigned and well managed.

Council should be comprised of a selection of those active in the above areas, not of an uninvolved group. Each area of action can have a basically independent management sub-group, reporting to Council regularly. These sub-groups can appoint one of their number to represent that group on Council.

Council needs to meet monthly, or even more infrequently, with the sub-groups normally handling everyday business within their budget and allotted areas of operation. A Council can call for and act on submissions or reports relating to specific policies and strategies. Sub-groups can raise their own funds (as well as have access to public funds) may have an active business management role in income-producing areas, and supply workers to carry out such businesses.

Income is needed by a community for the continued upgrading of public services. There are several ways in which this may be done:

• LEVY: A yearly levy on each family or property can be collected by the Community Council. This would probably be in addition to the normal Shire Council rates, and may create a hardship on some households.
• TITHE: Individuals, groups, and businesses (including the cooperatives) can tithe 10% of net profit to the public services. All the Mondragon cooperatives do this, and so fund schools, libraries, churches, and recreational grounds. This means "rates" would be on a sliding scale, not a flat rate for everybody regardless of earning power.
• LOCAL CURRENCY: The Community Services Council print its own currency, backed up by a valuable community resource (firewood, clean bottled water) to fund projects, new buildings, etc. Local currency operations are detailed later in this chapter. A timber forest planted early on and harvested at various stages of maturity can produce most income needed for subsequent years, as it does in some modern towns which have developed social forestry.
• CHARGES: Charges by the school, community centre, and health services can be offset against costs on a "user-pays" basis for tuition, use of facilities, medical needs, etc. This is a method which should be used in conjunction with another model, as it covers only those public facilities which not everybody uses or wants; universally used services are usually pro-rated ("rated").

Potential Enterprises and Occupations
It is of great advantage to analyse just how village occupants can self-employ in service to the village itself and to nearby districts. Let us presume a 50-house(100 adults) village situation. Costs are high in three areas: food, energy, and transport.

We can now speculate how residents can earn their living in the .village. Much depends on a village development credit union which is founded by the village under Trust B to serve the village needs.
 

• Food: About 20 adults can support 1 adult providing a food supply; thus, 5 to 7 families can earn a living from food provision, e.g. open air market gardens, glasshouse crop, co-op store (with local trade), domestic livestock and fishery enterprise, and a part-time livelihood from cafe, food processing, and baked goods. All surplus can be sold off to visitors or locals from outside the village proper via a village market.
• Energy Energy needs include space heating, cooking, electric, hot water, gas, and appliances. To establish energy-efficient systems, plans need to include prior excellent house design, design for the retrofit of inefficient houses, insulation, and good appliances. Most need capital to start, but almost all amortise in 3-7 years. Two to five families can earn a living from house design and retrofit, with some contract and extension work outside the village, hardware and appliance sales to the village and to the district, and installing, repairing, and tending a village energy system. Over time, some manufacturers in the village would enable a balanced trade in appliances.
• Vehicles: These are perhaps the most costly item and need a careful and planned approach, better on a village network level than on a one-village system. Two to four livings are indicated in service, repairs, maintenance of village vehicles, bulk fuel and oil supply; in growing, distilling, or fermenting fuels for engines; and in fleet lease and insurance, special vehicle lease, tractor lease, etc. Village alliances can establish special engine or chassis manufacture.
• Financial: Handling the income, loans, accounting of enterprises, and running a credit union is an essential job for a village. A computer is certainly needed, as are accounting and managerial skills. Two people could perhaps handle the financing. A community credit union, holding insurance money as well as incomes, can fund enterprises such as energy systems, glasshouses, dairies, and food processing centres.
• Medical and pharmaceutical: One or two people can offer medical and pharmaceutical services to the village or area, including prescription, massage, counselling, and local treatment. Some medications can be made and sold more widely, and specific remedies grown or manufactured. Community health should always be based on prevention of most illnesses.
• Building: For some time, a plumber-builder- mechanic can serve village establishment and later maintenance needs locally, and can produce useful furnishings and sale items for extra income., if a woodworking area is made available.

The above occupations cover the essentials of shelter,food, economy, energy, transport, and health. This I would initially fund about 20 of the 50 households, and  more as manufactures develop.

Other than the essential occupations, there are a , range of potential village enterprises. Some can be  based on land resources (glasshouse crop, special crop, cut flowers, herbs, pharmaceutical, processed dairy products, fish and aquaculture). Others can develop from local skills: teachers are needed for children, for adult education, and for applied workshops on site. Careful forward planning can yield one or two livings in workshops (craft, medical, or design). A small business service centre may be needed in the mid-term, employing 3-4 people.

Consultancy for other sites in architecture, landscape, and design is possible, as is implementation and provision of plant materials from a nursery on site, which can further develop special crop for site, fire control, bees, orchards, or forages for animals (comfrey, tagasaste, etc.) Some people may like to cooperate in an animal-breeding programme for special poultry, " pigeon, sheep, or goat breeds as a small stud.

Computer services to a network, programming, and data bases on special subjects are now in demand, and can be placed in homes. Publishing is greatly assisted by computer word processing and allied computer typesetting services.

Trade, as distribution rights, wholesale potential, import-export trade and village trade networks are yet another probable enterprise, as art! craft products from metal or wood workshops, pottery, and art. There is a modest income from guests, visitors, and site tours if the village concurs on that aspect,. and from sales to visitors and travellers in the district; educational  services and accommodation are much in demand.

All of these, and many others, need little transport.Many can operate on site, and the cooperative store would serve as an outlet, or other leasehold retailers can offer goods and services for the village. Physical therapists and paramedics, especially in massage and stress-related problems, often find plenty of customers in a rural district.

These enterprises depend on two basic factors: capital (enough money to start up and develop), and management (careful accounting, forward planning, market research and development, product development, sensible costing and staffing, correct lease and rental agreements, appropriate legal structures); thus a small business service centre is economical and necessary for 20 or more businesses.

Many small enterprises yielding products or services can pre-sell their wares for initial capital, and many others need no capital to start up, but these may need time to develop. Some small businesses (massage, paramedical) need only skills to start, while others (market garden, orchard, furniture making) need skills, capital, and time.

A careful assessment of skills and available capital will indicate priorities in any village. lncome-earning for local development is a priority, while other capital-intensive schemes (e.g. commercial pottery) need to wait. A very reliable early income can be made from information, by way of workshops and classes, although workshop income fades over time as students gain skills themselves. However, workshops yield capital for further developments locally, and a village can, in fact, develop as a special education centre if enough skilled people are attracted to that idea.

It should be the long-term aim of any village to own and operate its own employment enterprises. In past times, it was unusual for a villager to hold just one job; the banker was also a part-time barber and trader and perhaps gardener. Thus it is wise to share even simple occupations, so that individuals have occupational shares in 2-3 enterprises.

In this way, total failure is unlikely, as is unemployment. Holidays can be taken, and wet days spent on indoor work. Thus, in every occupation, job-sharing should be the rule, not the exception. Although the total village structure is complex, the work of any individual is simple, as is the case with a plant in a polyculture.

RECYCLING IN THE COMMUNITY OR NEIGHBOURHOOD
The borough of Devonport, in the city of Auckland, New Zealand, has a total solid waste-recycling system, and from this conservative endeavour manages to return a cash benefit to households (versus the cash payment or rates paid to Councils in non-recycling areas). Data is available from the borough, but there are two or three key features that make the system work:

1. The borough issues an annual calendar, colour coded, and picks up only one or other category of waste on any one day, e.g.. clean glass, metal, tyres, paper, organic waste, oils, etc. No other, and no mixed loads are collected. Thus, recycling begins with separation of wastes by the consumer.

2. At the waste disposal site, loads must also be in one category. Here, wood is sorted into useful wood (a community woodwork centre is available), firewood (issued to elderly people), and chipping or mulch wood. All organics are composted by a small tractor windrow system, and all oils are collected for re-sale as lubrication oils after filtration. Compost is sold, as is mulch, and any surplus is used to carpet a "ziggurat" (ascending spiral ramp) made of broken pipe, brick, . clay, concrete, and clean fill; as the ziggurat ascends, community organic gardens follow the fill.

The waste site is supervised, loads directed, and mixed waste sorted; saleable or recyclable items are grouped in clearly marked areas.

3. People who will not sort their waste (about 4"0) must buy a strong plastic bag from the borough (hire cost $7) which itself is recleaned for use. The charge on the bag pays for the bags, into which people separate the waste, and for the calendar; the borough also gets income from the sale of paper, glass, metals, wood, plastIcs, and compost.

Obviously, the opportunity for local co-ops to enter into recycling industries is there; many small local
industries can buy wood, glass, paper, or oils from the borough. Such examples dictate that no Council has any excuse for not recycling; not only does waste cost the ratepayers money, but there is also a vast waste disposal problem. It is up to ratepayers to elect officials who will recycle sewage and solid wastes, and to vote out waste-promoting councils, who "cost the earth"!

(FIGURE 14.8 RECYCLING: THE CHOICES- photo copy available on requeest)

EVOLUTION IN COMMUNITY
No group can achieve financial self-reliance overnight, but within 5-7 years of a determined start, a cooperative group using their creative talents can succeed in making a living for themselves and building up a strong business sector in their community. Any person can feel a sense of social cohesion and group spirit in such a situation. The danger point of "going under" is past, and now it is time to think of diversifying and disinvestment before the group gets too affluent, or too big. At some point, therefore, a decision must be taken to take some positive action (and avoid the fate of affluence):

1. To hand over to other some income-earning but superfluous (to the existing group) enterprise, and so reduce income.
2. To extend aid and services to areas in desperate need, such as those experiencing real poverty, natural catastrophe, or medical insufficiency.

Many groups put off such actions, but it is better to start them (at modest levels) very early in the whole process. There are many ethical groups and individuals who regularly tithe 10% of their gross income to such endeavours. Most of us do not have large appetites; we wish only to have a shelter, enough food, some small luxuries, money to travel, and friends. These are modest needs to achieve; beyond them lies adventure in helping others get on a firm footing. The only real security in life is a secure society of interdependent people, thus the only valid "defence" is aid to others.

Any village group can help others become more self-reliant and give sound management advice to new groups. Fiscal management, like energy management, also needs social, environmental, and ethical accounting. Money is of no use if its ends are destructive to society, life forms, or values.

Cooperative groups, communities, associations, and shared work groups fail in part to foresee and to plan for evolution. Also, more tragically, to educate their children in the basics of village systems. If any intelligent, hard-working, and ethical group pool some resources and take only a fair living wage, then they must amass spare capital in time.

As and when independent villages do achieve an identity, an ethic, and unity, beneficial connections can be made ranging from radio and land links to bulk purchase, trade, and share facilities, so that coastal, urban, arid, tropical, and primarily rural villages can access and share the resources of others on an agreed-upon lease, hire, or exchange basis.

Village coalitions can fund and operate larger , systems such as mutual investment funds for special purposes, engage in manufacturing on a reasonable scale, and exchange skills and strategies. At present, few villages have the initial sound legal, financial, and social structures to achieve this.

There is no reason why a village could not own and operate a boat, trucks, or pack animals
trade, why a mountain or urban village could not purchase and manage a foothill farm for food production, and why an inland village could not finance part of a coast development, as many villages already do in India (along the Ganges) where towns and regions own pilgrim houses for voyagers. All these strategies enrich village or regional life, and give access to a wider world; this is particularly important for children and young people.

 14.10
EFFECTIVE WORKING GROUPS AND RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
In any human group endeavour, there are practical and effective, or impractical and ineffective, ways to manage a complex system. Impractical, frustrating, and time-consuming systems are those governed by large boards, assemblies, or groups (seven or more people). These "meetings"; have a chairperson, agendas, proposals, votes, or use concensus, and can go on for hours. Concensus, in particular, is an endless and pointless affair, with coercion of the often silent or incoherent abstainer by a vociferous minority. Thus, decisions reached by boards, parliaments, and concensus groups either oppress some individuals (votes) or are vetoed by dissenters. In either case, we have tyranny of a majority or tyranny of a minority, and a great deal of frustration and wasted time.

The way to abolish such systems is to have one meeting where the sole agenda is to vote to abolish decision meetings-this is usually carried unanimously!-and another where a concensus is reached to abolish concensus-this too shouldn't take long. What do we put in place of such impediments to action?

In every group, there is work to do. This work needs to be set out clearly, as jobs or tasks. Tasks fall into two categories: those which are creative, productive, or constructive, hence pleasing, and those which are basically maintenance (domestic, office, and garden work). Of the first category, we seek volunteers to take up the tasks, and if they come forward, we ALLOT that task to them, agreeing on a timetable and stages of completion. Of the second category, we ROSTER people to do the work, laying out a worksheet and a (usually weekly or monthly) roster.

Wherever no volunteers appear for any task, then the group as a whole contributes a tithe to pay for the task to be carried out by a contractor (as in many trade tasks); thus all work gets done one way or another.

An essential strategy for rapid and flexible action is to limit the number of people responsible for anyone area of action or task. Some ideal number is between one and three individuals, who manage independently, but who may work to a general plan and schedule to fit in with others. Completion dates are set and notified to all people, and some form of report, diary, or plan is made public or minuted.

Thus, we can form small groups of one to three people who are responsible for management of a specific area of activity. It is a fail-safe strategy to attach occasional understudies to this small group, or to stand ready to duplicate the function if it is not being administered. (There is no more time-wasting process than that of believing people will act, and then finding that they will not.)

This "troika" approach (1-3 people per function) ensures that meetings in anyone area are few; news can come out as reports, available to anybody. It also means that no one person or group has "rights of decision" over other functions or groups. Unfortunately, despite our most devout wishes, there are very few people who can start up and maintain a function; we are lucky if we can find 6 or 7 of these in any group of 30-40 people. Thus, for all functions needing entrepreneurial skill, we need key people.

However, there are many functions (from crafts and arts to gardening and building) that do not need entrepreneurial skills, but which follow if these resources are available. Thus, many people can be involved in primary production, processing, and building if only a few can manage the essential coordination and funding.

In such a web of function, any one person can be in two or three teams, thus achieving a "portfolio of occupations". Also, each group depends on each other being in function, and this is important for group unity; we presume a shared ethic and values, which are clearly spelt out, but do not assume love, trust, or any particular form of personal diet and behaviour except in line with ethics (we are never perfect, just moving towards improvement).

I. Only in the initial planning do people need to assign or choose functions; once chosen, no group meetings for business are necessary.
2. Each group or sub-group is small enough to reach fast agreements and know of each others' movements and work.
3. No consensus beyond that of an initial ethical and value consensus is necessary; everyday decisions are made by small groups.

Certain behaviours occur at various group sizes; here are some approximate size and function groups:

• 1-3 people: Executive decision, least meeting time, greater pressure to act, fast changes possible, fast replacement of key people.
• 4-6 people: Good volunteer or cooperative group work, or work group for special single projects; good size for work exchange systems.
• 7-20 people: Function well only in social condition; can be a recreational group or team,but at 7 or so, a chairperson is needed and decisions are slow and frustrating, often creating dissent.
• 30-40 people: Acknowledged as the minimal group of people in which most human functions can be covered, and who (if well chosen) can cope with almost any type of pro
• 40-200 people: Rarely found as a group or settlement, but a good size for a regional organisation.
• 200-300 people: The basic number for genetic variability; such a group can, by careful breeding, maintain their numbers as a tribe and allow for some losses to disease. Probably the minimal human village size (called a hamlet).
• 300-600 people: About the limit at which people know every other person by name; thus, about the limit of "identity". This is the largest satisfactory size for educational or learning systems if personal attention is valued. Acknowledged to be the upper limit for successful cooperatives for real participation.
• 1,000-5,000 people: Usual upper limit of federations of tribes; a good size for a bioregional group or sub-region. Also, a village size limit. Cliques, theft and cheating common and possible; hierarchies are needed.
• 7 ,000-40,000 people: Towns, large bioregions. Chinese communes start about here. This number is not satisfactory unless broken into small cooperatives and villages. Crowds and very large audiences can reach this size, and can be difficult to control if aroused. It is about the upper limit for any real control by strict hierarchical systems.
• 15,000-10,000,000 people: Cities; mainly disorganised on every level. Effective anarchy and crime, and social isolation in many areas.

As even very small numbers of people (4-6) can be very effective, it is better to set up independent but friendly alliances of small groups than to coalesce into groups of 600 or more. Any alliance of 4-10 villages (12,000-50,000 people) can, by agreement, run a sophisticated trade and travel organisation.

Most groups start with 1-3 people, and recruit slowly. Slow or organic growth is easily coped with, while sudden influxes can be disruptive. As groups pass 30 or so in size, it may be possible to contemplate selective recruitment to make up deficiencies in skills, sex ratio, age differences, or specialties needed.

Where a very large number of people is needed for a job, a calendar is set and conveners let everybody know when and where the person power is needed. Thus, every larger group needs to delegate responsibility for work to smaller autonomous groups, who are trusted to do the job, and only replaced if they persistently fail to do so. In this way, every person who wants to work controls their work, and non-involved people have no say. This eliminates control by inactive people in tasks they are not familiar with, and nullifies power seekers.

As for dissenters, there never is any impediment to their setting up their own ideal system, and living in it; or setting up a parallel work group to show how it should be done. Above all, there is no one way to do anything. "One solution" systems evolve from the concentration of power in one or other form of dictatorship (business, government, or military).

In this way, all group meetings can therefore be social and convivial, and for information exchange. As these meetings are pleasant, we can look forward to them, and so a pleasant and informative occasion replaces a frustrating and stressful "group decision" meeting.

On a wider scale, cells of one to three people can a very large network; in this way, given occasional (every 2 years) meetings in affinities or work integration groups, attended by small autonomous groups, positive WORK-NETTING (not pointless networking) is possible. No person can force another group to cooperate, but must offer reasonable, rewarding, and fair cooperation.

Above all, no group or community need last forever; group set up to achieve certain ends can disband with clear conscience if those ends are substantially achieved. Individuals can then take on new and more current tasks, or adopt a different level of effective :action based on past experience.

No-one would deny that people are the most difficult factor in any design or assembly. It is not that people Iack the will to cooperate; it is more often that they have ot adapted those sensible legal and administrative, or social mechanisms which allow them to cooperate. At various periods of history, usually coincident with economic downturn, groups of people have left mainstream society to set up intentional communities. his phenomenom occurred in the 1890's, 1930's, and 960'5 and at various times between. The most recent 1960-1990) is also the longest period of out-migration, nd is still continuing after 20 years; it is a migration of skilled family people towards a smaller society.

Studies of such groups reveal that those who were effective adopted a set of values which ensured their continued internal and external interdependence; of those, perhaps the most important factor was that the group adopted "voluntary simplicity" as an ethic. It is no mere coincidence that there is both an historic and resent relationship between community (people assisting each other) and a poverty of power due to financial recession.

Thus, the legal and ethical basis for successful community cooperation must stress sharing, trusteeship, and modest consumption; the latter is the ,ore important, as individual power over land, real assets, finance, or group membership leads inevitably power over others, and we are back where we started. The habit of frugality is perhaps the most important of those assisting other life forms.

Like landscape planning, there are community systems which can cause more time spent in conflict than can be made up later; such errors we can still call primary errors as they will lead to constant problems and expense later. Some of them are:

• Group consensus on all decisions (tyranny of the dissenter).
• Group leadership by one or a few (tyranny of the elder)
• Rules about lifestyle (tyranny of proscription).
• Attempts to live in large group households (lack of ,privacy).
• Over scheduling of meetings.
• Neglect of income-producing activities.
• Poor financial accounting, hence poor maintenance of facilities and equipment.

The individual in the community must recognise the need to subscribe to a group fund for maintaining roads, fences, and infrastructure, or to donate work in lieu of money on a regular basis. There are no "free" machines or free lunches. The essentials to concentrate on are sound land planning, shelter, a capital base, and the development of livelihoods.

Many "communal" systems fail if very few people are legally liable for capital risk. Good ideas and equipment cost money to implement, thus all those who vote for equipment must be made equally liable to pay for it.. This always keeps the community healthy, as unused tools are expensive, but only for those who buy them! This is a lesson in modesty and responsibility. Moreover, tools on hire should completely repay their cost by charge on a piecework or hourly rate, over a period realistically estimated as half their working life (vehicles, tractors, office equipment and so on).
"Every major tool needs to be costed for running costs, repairs, and replacement plus any interest on capital. The very powerful principle here is that "everything must pay"; more specifically, in community enterprises "proposers pay capital" and "users pay costs". In natural systems this is the ;"law of return". We cannot use soils, crops. or forests without costing total upkeep and replacement, or we impoverish the common wealth. Thus, "users pay" should apply at every level of community, except for hardship or welfare services.

There are two unhappy states of human existence; the first and worst is to be defined by your community or nation as unemployed, that is to say, of no use to anyone. In a world where such a great deal of work has to be done just to repair past damage, replace forests, secure soils from loss, house people, or build local self-reliance, unemployment is an obscene concept. Where relief benefits are paid, the state rewards people to accept this role of "no work" , and in effect fines them if they work.

Secondly, it is an unhappy state to be employed, but , not free to use initiative; any person can go daily to a job, no matter how useless or boring, no matter how destructive, and be paid to be defined in a single role, e.g. as a teacher, clerk, process worker, or labourer; the worker has no say in policy, social value, hours, product quality, or environmental worth.

In most cases, other people define the lives of the recipients of relief or salaries; as all such money comes from the pool of public wealth, then all such people are, in effect, on "relief payments", just as a company supported by public subsidy is on public relief (usually our primary production systems in the western world).

The only people who are self-defined are those who are self-employed, or who work in community work cooperatives. The consumers pay for their products or services directly, and their houses, products, and choice of work is self-determined; they are only unhappy to the extent they oppress themselves! I could never understand  why people struggle to maintain a job down a coalmine, especially when their pooled capital and labour could create a forest, with all the pleasure one gets from working in the open air, and the varied work a forest provides. We can all seek for right livelihood to do work that assists in caring for the earth or other people, work that is congruent with our beliefs.

When we discuss the principle of "commonwork", or study the varied 'roles of an individual in a village, we  can see that no person is just a miner, or clerk, or banker, but that on different days one can be a banker, forester, bee-keeper, writer, printer, or carpenter. It is only the combined pressure of trade unions and monoculture industry that keeps people bound with the invisible shackles of custom to those unguarded slave camps termed industrial suburbs, with all their malnutrition, poor housing, and human suffering.

In boring work, or where people are deprived of intellectual life, emotional life may dominate and so their lives become a drama or series of dramatic events. A balanced life has all three outlets, so that contented people may spend part of their time in: physical exertion (walking, gardening, sport); intellectual pursuits (design, research, education); and emotional-sensual areas (celebration, ontemplation, love).

A healthy and balanced life consists of being able to access all such pursuits. In modern life, some time spent in primary production or in manufacture, some in service to a wider group, and some in relaxation celebration is an ideal; few achieve it. In Central Australian tribes, at every event there may be three "function" groups (independent of totems or "skins"): one group "knows" or records time-orchestrates (the intellectual); one carries out dances, increase ceremonies or activity (the physical); and one encourages, applauds, and appreciates (the emotional). Thus, every person fits a matrix of totem and function.(Figure 14.2).

14.11
MONEY AND FINANCE

In small and unified groups (tribes), what is achieved by financial systems elsewhere is achieved by a set of exchanges, gifts, obligations, and feasts; here social accounting replaces fiscal accounting and to a great extent, everybody "owes" the others. In many smaller villages, barter and exchange occurs as non-formal financial transactions, and a modest financial component is maintained only for travel and trade external to the region; symbolic wealth such as cowries are used in trade.

Only in very mobile societies does money start to replace fair dealing, objective value, and hospitality shared, and the abstract and intrinsically valueless "money" (usually cheap strips of paper or lumps of metal) replaces real goods and services. Even in fiscal societies however, barter and exchange are
developed (even by multinational firms), and formal barter centres are now also evolving locally to distribute surplus goods for real or imagined needs. Faith in the fisca