Chapter 14

Permaculture Designers Manual by Bill Mollison

                                STRATEGIES FOR AN ALTERNATIVE NATION

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

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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

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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

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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,

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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,

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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.

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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

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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

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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,

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sheep, rabbits.

• 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.
 
 
 

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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
 

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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

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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

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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)

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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.

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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
 

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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

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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 fiscal system (an essential delusion if money is to maintain any barter value) is fading as nation states and giant corporations fail to meet their debts, and either repudiate debts or go into voluntary liquidation. In every case, the cost falls back on us. Large banks not only lose our money to start with, but make us pay for the loss. Large companies receive public subsidies (often direct cash subsidies, e.g. the sugar industry) that would make millionaires of paupers.

Fiscal (moneybased) societies give a false impression of security, which quickly falls apart every 40 or so years when inflation-which is itself due to greed-makes currency valueless. The final "inflation" is caused by the misuse of money, and is now upon us. It is seen in the collapse of the environmental system. No amount of gold or diamonds can avert, reduce, or soften the blows that nature is raining upon us, and in the final accounting, a cabbage can be worth a king's castle (or more) if it saves your life. For the last 40 years or so, money has been made by destruction of real wealth (soils and forests) and the debts are now being called in by nature herself.

Money is in itself not a resource, it represents (or should represent) a resource which lies "somewhere else". Often, however, that resource is a useless object (a diamond) which people rarely find a need for in any lifethreatening crisis, and never in any global crisis such as now threatens us. Money, in a sane society, must therefore be tied or fixed in value relative to a useful real asset; this is the very basis of fair trade in large  societies.

All money arises from the wealth of the natural world (plants, clean water, clear air, stored energy). The accumulation of unused wealth, or wealth that does not lead to the proliferation of life, is a pollution of the same nature as any unused resource. Manure and money have much in common.
Insecure people can never have enough material resources, or the appearances of security. They tend to spend this money on monuments and protection rather than in assisting nature to produce wealth. Hence, we can find them associated with addictive, ostentatious, and exploitive occupations. Some tend to erect monuments to contain acquisitions (loot) in such places as museums, art galleries, stately homes, castles, libraries, and churches. Curiously, such monuments often display natural things portrayed in paintings and objects, but in so doing use up nature (the cedar table becoming more revered than the cedar tree, the leopard-skin coat more valued than the leopard).

While natural resources fuel such "wealth", artisans and architects develop the monuments, artists decorate them, and bankers, miners, and oil people fund or value them. The erection of monuments itself becomes a reason for existence. The rich are conspicuously represented in societies devoted to monument

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but not in the area of landscape rehabilitation.

It is but a short step from worshipping inside monuments to worshipping monuments themselves (people often being more proud of their church than they are of the trees and stones which were destroyed to build it). It is an even easier step to confuse oneself with the creator, and all the easier if one adopts a belief system in which god is portrayed as a man! (Some would say this is an insult to god)

Money, however, is not intrinsically evil; it is the accumulation of money and its use to exploit others that is evil. The evil (privilege, power, stupidity, willfulness) lies within people, not within money itself. Nor is the making of money necessarily evil, providing the uses of money are creative and assist the natural world to proliferate. Thus, we can have a clear conscience on money put to earth rehabilitation.
We should develop or create wealth just as we develop landscapes, by concentrating on conservation of energy and natural resources (reducing the need to earn), by developing procreative assets (proliferating forests, prairies, and life systems), by reducing the creation of degenerative assets (roads, monuments, cities), and by constantly divesting ourselves of any surplus wealth to these ends.

Money is to the social fabric as water is to land-scape. It is the agent of transport, the shaper and mover of trade. Like water, it is not the total amount of money entering a community which counts; it is the number of uses or duties to which we can divert money, and the number of cycles of use, that measures the availability of that money. Leakage from the community must therefore be prevented and recycling made the rule.

Money itself is not a resource, and has no intrinsic value or use, but it can create categories of resources or assets, which we can identify as follows (after Turnbull, 1975):
*DEGENERATIVE: Those assets that decay, rust, or wear out: the buildings, roads, cars, furnishings, and appliances of society. Too many of these "assets" in any region will impoverish the region in the long term.

*GENERATIVE: The tools of society; those things which manufacture or process raw materials into useful products (huskers, grinders, blenders, lathes, furnaces, and so on). These do wear out, but can be used to repair each other in workshops. All groups need some of the tools of processing and repair; a wise farmer hires out or shares such tools.

*PROCREATIVE: The trees, wildlife, fish, invertebrates, mammals, and domestic livestock of a region. People who maximise a procreative asset base can support the use of some tools, and modest degenerative asSets. People who maximise the possession of degenerative assets eventually fail in their attempts to organise upkeep and repair-hence so many ruined castles and stately homes.

I would also add to the above categories:
*INFORMATIONAL: Information (education and data), plus applied intelligence makes the best use of all assets, decides balances in the asset base, assesses future trends, and foresees needs and changes. Seeds have a high information content, as do books or data bases.

*CONSERVATIVE: Insulation, dams, money re- cycling systems, good storage areas, and strategic forests to guard against erosion or desertification are all categories of conserver society assets. All these guard resources for future use, and are essential to a sustainable system.

It follows that expenditure on categories 3 to 5 conserve and create wealth in any society. If a great many wealthproducing assets are available, then some degenerative assets can be supported, but any society which spends only on categories land 2 will first pollute, and then eventually extinguish, its resource base.
Apart from the asset categories given above, careful consideration must be given by any bioregion to what is locally conserved and used (the basis of regional wealth, such as soil) and what can be exported as a trade item (surplus water or surplus manufacture). It then follows that financial institutions should themselves pay close attention to their function in that region, preventing leakages of essential resources, and expediting the export of local surplus in order to bring scarce resources into the region. Such surplus should not, however, be based on the loss of any irreplaceable resource such as soil or humus.

Above all, any financial institution should pay attention to two necessitous "foundation stones":

*AN ETHIC, expressed as a published, legally binding, and publicly known charter; and

*RESTRICTION TO APPROPRIATE RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND TRADE, in its operations (for not all financial institutions suit every objective of community).

Without ethics or restrictions, any financial institution is a danger and a weakness in a community. With sound ethics and resource usage restrictions, any financial institution can prevent leakage of wealth and the erosion of basic resources, so that it is itself an asset to community, and builds wealth for re-investment.

Financial institutions (those which deal in public funds) are of the following nature:
*Credit unions
*Credit cooperatives
*Tusts and foundations '
*Savings and loa~ banks, or associations i .Insurance agencies
*Finance companies and lending organisations .Commercial or merchant banks
*Investment brokers and stock exchanges
*Limited liability companies (risk capital)
*Trading or public companies
*Cooperatives
There are other and minor systems in use, but each of the above are now worldwide, have specific appropriate uses, and can be fairly easily understood or created by any community. The essentials of an ethical banking system is not only that it has an ethical charter and is
 

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used for appropriate assets, but that it belongs to and is  governed by the commnity it serves, and therefore is not open to distant or centralised control.

One of the more extraordinary features of many of the strategies outlined in this chapter is that they have arisen in (and been developed and applied by) poor, depressed, minority, often unskilled, and frequently "powerless" groups. Good people everywhere can take financial and developmental control of their regions, give equal service to all people, and rise from an ethical but outcast sum of minorities to be a driving force in world stability. So go to it, as the sum of minorities is  always the majority!.

In this section, we are apparently talking about : money, but keep it clear in your mind that we are
actually talking about-a philosophy of true democracy, peace, and "lifetime". Lifetime is that little space we are given to experience this world, which shapes up to, what we can imagine to be heaven, but where the  achievement of paradise is constantly set back by the "serpents" of greed, power, stupid exploitation, and war.

Time and money are often interchangeable. To control , the cash flow of our society is to control our lives. No price is too high to pay for the right to work at "right livelihood", to consume what we can help produce, to feel secure, and not only to avoid harming, but to actively assist, other people and life forms. People who steal our independence steal our lifetimes; our personal independence relies on a cooperative human society.

By changing ourselves, and living in closer harmony ! with life processes, we reduce the conflicts brought into our lives by the opposing demands of a truly sound economy and that of "unlimited growth" in the capitalistic sense; between a false assertion of human ,dominance over nature, and the certainty that we depend on all of nature; between the injunction to treat , all people as equal, and the status given to those who , consume and prosper at the expense of others; between " the tyranny of need created by gadgets and luxury, and the satisfaction of working with others to achieve our basic needs; between our natural drive to accumulate possessions, and the realisation that it is only what we share that gives us access to all necessary possessions.

THE INFORMAL ECONOMY
Barter is a common economy practiced particularly in  rural or neighbourhood areas where people are more likely to know one another. At the household level, ! people exchange garden products and plants, share, labour, and exchange goods and services. Occasionally  people may form 35 person work groups to build houses, create gardens, or clean up housework; these work  groups may be episodic, forming the pattern of a roundrobin until all present needs are met.

On a community level, or with more than 6-8 people involved, labour exchange may need to be coordinated or regulated. The Bendigo Home Builder's Club in Victoria, Australia is a group of 35 people building individual homes. They pay $') a year per family, mainly to cover the printing and distribution costs of the Club's newsletter. Each member can either be a recipient or donor of labour. The units of exchange are hours of labour, and all labour is considered equal. Using a standard labour exchange form (which is legally binding), the recipient is debited and the donor credited for every hour's work he or she performs. There is a Labour Organiser in the group to sort out the balance of payments, and to despatch labourers to a recipient (who must have at least 60 hours in credit).

A Community Barter Club also works on a system of debfts and credits, where residents offer goods, services, and skills, from landscaping to massage, from mowing to printing. Even the Club secretary or organiser is paid in credits. A credit is calculated at one hour, and the donor and recipient agree among themselves what they consider the job is worth. People are not limited to a one-to-one exchange; as the Club organiser keeps records of the debits and credits of each individual, transactions occur as long as services are desired. The Community Barter Club can be an asset for people in the community who are unemployed or underemployed, and for those who need services but cannot afford to pay cash for them.

Internal economics are greatly aided by exchange newsletters, computer services, and advertisement. These represent a good medium to swap goods in particular, with the Barter Centre charging only on a proportion of successful swaps. Several newsletters, like "Exchange and Mart" in the U.K. cope with this service. Brokerage houses now deal in large surplus barter systems for industry, using a Trade Unit (T.U.) valued at about $1, for pricing and exchange value. These can then be placed in smaller blocks for a variety of exchanges in goods and services, and are a good way to turn a large surplus of one commodity into a range of services and goods needed.

L,E.T. System:
Conventional money derives from many agencies external to a community, and circulates throughout all communities, tending to be accumulated in cities, multinational coffers, and banks supporting large investors. Community money (or credit), however, is not usable or necessarily wanted outside that community, hence circulates indefinitely in the community, providing a constantly available resource.
The LET System (Local Employment Trading System) centres in a community: every joining member must be willing to consider trading in local "green" dollars. The LET dollars carry no interest, and administration costs are charged on a "cost of service" basis. Any taxes applicable are the responsibility of members, and any member can know the turnover or balance of any other member. Every member gets periodic statements of accounts. The currency, although equivalent to legal tender, is not issued and cannot be cashed in. Green dollars are "earned" by goods or services to others, and "lost" by using services or goods. All trade, or credit

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standing, is a public act, and refers to the community as a whole. However, unlike simple barter, a member in credit can spend over the whole range of services or goods offered.

Production, as time spent by members in service to others, is thus never limited by the lack of money. Businesses can charge federal currency for spare parts, and green dollars for labour. Price is agreed upon by the individuals, and reported in to the LET centre by the consumer. ."Foreign" goods are thus more expensive, and local components increase; local businesses thrive. Charities and local farms benefit greatly, as charity donors can see their funds as likely to return to them. Anyone who wants work can offer services; they need not wait for "jobs" .As only members can trade with each other, the community account is at all times balanced. In effect, any member (by working or selling) issues their own currency, and could return any community to full employment. An ideal member has many transactions, but accumulates modest debits and credits. See under Resources at the end of this chapter for addresses.

Finally, the informal economy includes purely volunteer labour, exchanges of gifts, and taking responsibility for a certain community project or area. For example, convivial treeplanting on community common areas should be a part of every household's responsibilities. This may well be achieved by the "adoption" of a few acres of community forest by a household. Other community projects can be helped along by volunteer efforts, gifts of materials, and gifts of time as advisors or entertainers.

THE FORMAL ECONOMY
"Formal" means that goods or services are conducted under a legal umbrella, and are regulated by accounting procedures. Exchange can still take place, but it is accounted for in terms of stocks or services. Such formal economics are necessary where people (managers) act hJr a group of members or mvestors, and not just for themselves or their households. Legal procedures must also be followed by selfemployed people or family businesses, where cash is received for goods or services rendered or offered publicly.
A community may have at least these formal structures

• Cooperatives
• Community savings and loans
• Small businesses service office
• Investment funds for special projects
• Leasing company or system

Coopratives
A cooperative is a group of people acting together for the benefit of members. It is a legal entity with limited liability, and perpetual succession (no dissolution for individual gain). It has several principles:
 

• Open membership (open to all who can make use of the services and will accept the responsibilities of membership).
• Democratic organisation (members participate in decisions affecting the cooperative, with affairs to be administered by people elected by the members}.
• Strictly limited interest on share capital (fair but limited award for capital and restricted influence of people holding share capital).
• Surplus or savings out of the operation of the cooperative belong to members (with members to decide on the use of the surplus, whether to develop the business, to provide common services for members, and/or to distribute among members according to the degree of involvement in the cooperative).
• Education (cooperatives should provide education for members, officers, employees, and the public on principles and techniques of cooperation).
• Cooperation between cooperatives (encourages the development of more cooperatives)

The worker--cooperative centred around Mondragon, in the Basque region of Spain, are worthy of note. In less than 30 years, 96 workercooperatives, employing 17,000 worker-members, have emerged. Each person is required to invest about $5,000 when joining. This can be borrowed from the bank or obtained by installments deducted from wages over a two-year period. Of this investment, 20% is a contribution to collectively owned funds, and 80% is for the purchase of an individual shareholding or capital account (which is normally not drawn upon by the worker except bn retirement, death, or in cases of extreme hardship). In this way, a co-op can partially fund itself, with generous help from the cooperative bank.

The Mondragon cooperatives have several features:

1. 10% of the profits must be returned to the community for public services. 20% of the profits are held as capital reserves, and 70% are distributed to workers, although not all of this is available for withdrawal until a worker leaves the cooperative, at which point all of their financial interest in the business must be withdrawn. The worker is, in effect, "loaning" the cooperative the money, and so receives interest.
2. A cooperatively run bank oversees the functioning of all new cooperatives in the group, finances new cooperatives (up to 90%}, and offers expert managment skills.
3. No redundancies in the cooperatives-workers are retrained and new jobs found in other expanding co-operative groups.
4. The ratio of the lowest to the highest paid person is never greater than 1 :5.
5. An annual meeting of all workers in a particular enterprise elects both directors (managers) to run the business and a social council (union) to negotiate with directors on work conditions, pay, education, etc. The meeting observes the principle of one worker, one vote.
6. Each cooperative averages about 200-300 worker-owners; large numbers become too impersonal, and large cooperatives are divided into smaller independent units.
7. The community has cooperative schools, hospitals,

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a university, housing, health and welfare services, a technical research laboratory, super-markets, banks, and computer centres; all of these are cooperatives, and schools earn part of their costs by contract to manufacturing cooperatives.

Unlike the Mondragon cooperatives, which are usually appliance manufacturing factories, a small community cooperative might have three categories of membership, as below:

1. Worker-owners: These manage the cooperative, and are split into "management" and "union" groups. They contribute a set amount of capital into the capital fund, of which a percentage can be withdrawn should the worker depart. Only the worker-owners have a vote. Managers are elected, and are responsible to the rest of the group; they can also be sacked!
2. Corporate members: These are the primary producer, manufacturing, or public service associations. They are the users of the store cooperative in that their products are sold there, and/ or they receive bulk supplies through the store for their business. They also pay a joining fee to capital funds. They may cooperate together for group insurance purposes. Voting powers can be allotted on the basis of involvement.
3. Households: Basically consumers, each household pays a nominal joining fee, goods are bought at a discount, and an annual dividend is received for the bulk purchases over the year. There is no vote.
Cooperatives also involve sharing, achieved by spreading the skills needed for anyone job over more than one person (rotating jobs); by having near equality in shareholding; and by being able therefore to assess how others are coping with a job. Cooperatives have a greater demand on the energy and time of their workers-there are often planning or assessment sessions after working hours. However, productivity in such cooperatives is very high, and incomes or profits correspondingly high.

Even in cooperatives, the functions of management (supervision, administration, accounting, and assessing) and worker representation (unions) are necessary, but unlike privately owned businesses, the whole workforce are shareholders, and all vote for people to fill these positions. Thus, the work force has total control over the composition of representatives, rather like a bioregion.

In fact, a bioregion is a sort of multi-cooperative, where smaller groups take on specific services, thus specific responsibilities. Nobody "represents" a bioregion or cooperative in the ungovernable sense that elected politicians "represent" their electorate (i.e. every "representation" or policy decision of a coopera-tive comes from the ground up; whereas almost every politician makes purely personal decisions over avast range of policy and expenditure-and that is "manage. ment out of control"). In fact, today's governments are not only in themselves irresponsible, but they often fund secret and far more irresponsible agencies,
responsible to nobody!

Community Savings and Loans
A worthwhile goal of any community would be to keep the money saved and earned in the community cycling within itself. The only way to do this is to establish fin~ncial and economic systems onsite, such as a credit union, revolving loan fund, or local currency.

Credit Union

Anyone who belongs to an identifiable group of 30 or more people can start a credit union. The purpose or charter of this credit union can be to fund local or neighbourhood self-reliance. A community credit union can pay all routine accounts of a household; some credit unions even have a cheque account service. Credit unions or friendly societies can set aside 10% of income to satisfy instant requests for money from depositors; larger sums can be withdrawn at short notice-often within a week. Friendly societies handle health and insurance.

The credit union can carefully assess loan applications. Money borrowed in order to save money is soon repaid, and so is safe to lend. Thus, money advanced for gardens, fuel conservation, energy generation, or for appropriate vehicles and appliances is soon returned. The savings (in time) exceeds the cash borrowed; from then on, the borrower has some spare capital. Usually, money borrowed to save energy is amortised over periods of from 2-7 years.

The Revolving Loan Fund

The basic principle of a revolving loans fund is that people put in $500-5,000 capital at a nominated interest (from 010%) into an established financial institution, and this is then loaned out to new businesses within the community. The group in charge of administering the loan checks references, offers advice, and .acts on the recommendation of people who will service the loan (usually a skills or research group of volunteers, some of whom may take part in, or service, the business).

This can be called a loans trust, credit union, finance cooperative or enterprise fund pool; it can include barter, a labour exchange, a regular fair or market, and it needs an open register of local skills and resources, well displayed. Such a modest fund can operate out of a house or old shop front, or from a counter in an established food co-op or cooperative business.

On average, informed and concerned people will initially contribute a few hundred dollars, just "to see a good thing go". This is enough; others will have good ideas about small essential services and businesses, and the research group can be very busy researching and publicising "leaks" of money from the area, so that under or unemployed people can start up services and supplies to stop these leaks, e.g. Does the area make its own bread, yoghurt, sausages, shoes, clothes, pots and paper? Does it reuse its waste wood, glass, metal, paper, or organic wastes? Does it provide a wide range of services from haircutting to legal advice? If not, jobs are open and funds to start them are available! Loans, at low local interest (6-11% is fair) are made, and every.

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borrower must be a contributor (active investment). The skills group help to sclect equipment, test markets (presale of products is ideal), train young entrepreneurs in bookkeeping, and find resources and materials. Very few of such publicly needed, publicly funded and publicly open businesses fail. Everybody is self interested in their success!

As confidence in the local f.und grows, loans can start to cover energy-saving house additions, insulation, or new well-designed housing, small vehicles, small fuel supply technology, and land purchase for approved projects. Even so, funds subscribed may always exceed demand (businesses are slow to develop), so the fund managers should always be ready to fund the start-up of mort advanced money systems such as investment advisors in ethical trusts, local insurance and banking, and a local "mint" to print a district currency of non-inflatable money, which in the end is also non-interest bearing.

Every place where this has started (and since 1980,. there are dozens or hundreds of funds, currencies, barter fairs, and investment trusts established to build a sustainable future) has benefited. Imports are greatly decreased, local employment rises rapidly, good products {and security) are available, and community morale is enhanced.

Thus, community savings and loans associations are appropriate for reducing community and household costs, and freeing more capital into the'community, which leads us to the S.H.A.R.E. and C.E.L.T. systems of "wealth-producing" loans. These are revolving loan funds that provide capital to community-based groups, enriching the community and forming a strong support base for the businesses established.

S.H.A.R.E. stands for Self Help Association for a Regional Economy. It is a local nonprofit corporation formed to help encourage small businesses that are producing necessary goods and services for the community (in this case, the Berkshire area in Massachusetts, U.S.A.). It works in conjunction with a local bank in the area. Members of the community can become S.H.A.R.E. members, which means they open a S.H.A.R.E. joint account with the bank. They receive only 6% interest (but this means small loans can be given out at 10%, interest). The person receiving the loan must first collect references from people who know them as responsible and conscientious. They must show that the proposed business will attract customers from the community or even from outside the community. By doing this preliminary work, the borrower gets to know many people, and the community has a keen interest in seeing that the business succeeds.

C.E.LT. .stands for Community Enterprise Loans Trust, a New Zealandwide charitable trust to promote and support small businesses and cooperatives. C.E.L.T. helps people form and run cooperatives and other enterprises by providing advice, running training sessions so that people can learn cooperative business skills, and by providing loans.

C.E.L.T. services are funded by subscriptions from the 'public ($5), by donations, and by government special schemes. Education and other work is funded by the interest from deposits and loans. C.E.L.T. accepts cash deposits, and lends out to enterprises working closely with them until they are on their feet.

Depositors receive from 0-12% interest per year depending on the amount of time the money is in the account, and whether the depositor wants interest paid. The borrowing criteria is that the entrepreneur must be willing to work closely and regularly with CELT during the loan so that a business has the greatest chance to succeed. CELT has now achieved the status of a bank, and can offer services such as a bank offers.

Southern Cross Capital Exchange Ltd, operating out of Wentworth Falls, NSW, Australia, is a nonprofit organisation that brings together those who want to borrow from specific (socially conscious) projects, and those who have money to loan to such projects. The role of the S.C.C.E .is to review applications for loans and to recommend individuals and businesses to receive these loans. It is not a bank or finance company, and so loans through the S.C.C.E. are not secured. However, they are guaranteed by the Exchange (though only if loans are made through S.C.C.E., not directly to the project). The borrowers make personal guarantees, and "guarantee circles" are set up to spread the risk (e.g. parents who want to build a school will all guarantee to pay back the loan). This sort of capital exchange format may be one way in which community schools and other socially conscious projects can become financially viable.

Local Currency

As the community gains skills in financial management, there is no reason why an internal and district economy should not be bolstered by a noninflating currency printed by the community. Already this is done by individuals and businesses who have a product or skill to sell (real value), and who print up vouchers or coupons to pay for setting up their business. For example, a publishing company sends out pre-publication order slips to people before a particular book is published. People buy or preprchase the book at a slightly reduced price, which enables the publisher to print the book (this is how the book you are reading was printed)

In another example, a restaurant (Zoo Zoos) in Washington State, USA, in transferring from single ownership to a work cooperative, needed to raise funds to buyout the owner. They printed meal vouchers, redeemable up to one year, and sold them to future customers and friends. Most people came in to eat their promised meal, but some vouchers were traded to other people for some other service in the community, and thus the "currency" starts circulatin~ as vouchers relating to a real commodity.

There are many currencies in every society, such as
 

PAGE 539 (FIGURE  14.9  EVOLUTION OF A LOCALLY-APPROPRIATE MONEY SYSTEM

PAGE 540 (FIGURE 14.10   CURRENCY

PAGE 541

promises, exchanges, stamps, coupons, vouchers, cigarettes, hugs and kisses. All are freely and legally exchanged for goods or services, which are themselves interchangeable (a song for a lettuce is a good bargain).

However, we need a redeemable, solid, real and objective currency for trade and exchange. For currency to be valid and usable, some preconditions are necessary. First, it must be backed up by areal, objective resource. Secondly, other people must have confidence in it, which is why it is backed up by a local resource and can therefore be traded. Lastly, there must be a demand for its use, and a place to exchange it for other currency so that it works as well for other people as it does locally.

Demand means that there must be a real need for some item or service lacking in the local society. Now, any community printing its own currency has these things to do:

• Find and lease a resource that can be pledged to the exchange institution as a redeemable asset. If this is timber, the currency is based on "a cord of timber, cut and stacked in the woodyard at such-and-such a place", or if clean water "a gallon of water bottled and redeemable at a certain place." This is the resenJe and gives confidence in the currency.
• Print the currency itself, preferably in a solid local material difficult to duplicate or forge elsewhere, and numbered, dated and counted. The value so printed should not exceed the value of the reserve by a factor of more than 3 times. Reserve pledges need to be publicly available and assessed. Notes can exceed reserves if used for procreative assets only (e.g. forests). Forests represent firewood, but reserves are never cut except in dire emergencies.
• Educate local businesses and banks (exchanges) in the use of the currency, which can be changed for the national currency (while this lasts) at the bank, or for other regional currencies. Post exchange rates publicly at the money exchange or bank and issue the currency to banks-
• .Start satisfying the demand (e.g. for homes) by lending the currency to builders, who can exchange it at the bank for other currency needed in trade, or locally for products and services

The bank should not itself decide uses; the commun- ity (via a set of financial, advisory or monitoring institutions owned by them) should do that. Currency should be used to satisfy real needs of the community for food, shelter, trade. As we are talking about community money, its uses need to be decided by that community.

Producers of local goods, accept local currency only; this creates a demand, and other regions must "buy" such currency to obtain local goods. Most local businesses will accept a regional currency.

Note: That if reserves are living things such as trees, wealth increases and can be created. Even if a currency was originally based on bricks, it can be used to create such biological reserves as forests over time.

To prevent hoarding, notes can be dated and anew issue us made every 4-5 years; this is also a check on unwarranted accumulation, and possible forgeries.

Wherever there is a need (for housing, roads, small businesses, farms), the dollars needed are supplied by the exchange, but the borrower or user must repay in local currency, thus creating a demand for it. Most small businesses accept the currency, and much of the local trade can be carried on in this currency. When most needs of the region are met, the currency can be collapsed. Many small towns funded their public works this way in the 1930's. The E. F. Schumacher Society, Great Barrington, Mass. U.S.A. has data on these systems, and runs one such currency (see Resource listing at the end of this chapter).

Critical personnel to attach to a revolving loans office are in the following categories:
1. Asssessor-designers: People skilled in good house, factory, and farm design, energy budgeting, and appropriate technology-the "permaculture" team, used to help assess proposals to be funded.
2. Accountants: People skilled in setting up appropriate accounting systems to monitor progress and profit in ventures, working closely with team (a).
3, Broker-bankers: People actually handling cash flow, assessing reserves, and operating the banking and insurance functions of the office.
4. Lawyer-trustees: People able to package a set of legal strategies for community or family groups, and to advise (with 2) on taxation, export-import, trust and leasing documents, labour exchange agreements, and company, commonwork, or cooperative law.
5. Real estate or realty: The office can handle the bookkeeping and serving of local industry and services, supply goods, advise, provide labour and goods exchange, and arrange legal forms. Through the designers, users can obtain help in buil9ing and land design, nursery and livestock services, and appropriate tools.

For a developed region, services such as a travel club, credit union, food cooperative (or rather, group purchase cooperative), farm club, and educational and medical services can also be provided. It must be stressed that the "revolving loans office" is not a place but a group in cooperative function. Each may operate in their own home, but all services are listed in an educational or informational newsletter and can combine where needed.

Small Bus.iness Services Centre
There will no doubt be many businesses run in any community which are not run as cooperatives. However, that should not preclude their sharing in certain commonlyused services, such as accounting, telephone services, secretaries, telex, insurance, distribution, cocataloguing of goods, group advertising, and export assistance. A small business services centre is itself a small business, now very popular and effective in India. It may be a key organisation in a bioregion.

PAGE 542

A great benefit to having many business offices located in one place is the increased number of consumers and the ability to concentrate many products in a single product catalogue. Direct marketing is a fastgrowing selling technique; it cuts out the retailer and so enables a product to be sold at a lower price than can be offered by a conventional retailer. A product catalogue is often a valuable product in itself, offering product information and advice. Many people want to support small businesses and cooperatives, and often get into the spirit of the venture when they read about individuals and businesses in the catalogue. The real saving to small businesses is shared facilities such as premises, accounting, and office services.

In addition, the possibility of a group label for products exists in a community. Although each business may be a separate entity, the label can be of a similar design, with the words " Another Product from Boon Dock" (or some such) printed at the bottom. Otherwise, each label has its own business name and information. This generates interest in the community products, which. should gain a valuable reputation for quality, durability, or taste as standards for the group label are established.

Small business service centres can offer the following facilities to businesses:

• Secretarial: Letters, prospectus, submissions, writing and presentation, filing, mail order.
• Bookkeeping. Banking, cost accounting, summary and position analyses, presentation to accountants at years' end. Billing and collecting accounts, paying bills.
• Accounting: Tax assessment, broad strategies, trust advice, plan of networking monies, common funds, trust administration.
• Legal. Legal forms, leases, representation in litigation, land and propertyconveyancy, new legal structure design, seminar services, trust structure-
• Communication: Phone, telex, fax services, photocopy, answering services, travel arrangements and despatch-
• Gift, tithe, and public service deductions. Setting up funds for aid, tree planting, and accepting gifts to aid trusts; servicing land access and investment systems.
• Education. Holding seminars, inviting speakers, and instructing new members in services and procedures; assisting neighbouring regions to set up parallel and allied services-
• Skills register. Keeping a file on key people available for special advice and assessment.
• Research services. Retrieval and basic research for region and projects.
• Lease of seminar rooms, small warehousing, equipment, office space.

In business, there is no substitute for good management, budgeting, accounting, and marketing skills. Most of what makes a successful business is the combination of human-centred values with good management, which we have listed below (paraphrasing from the findings of the book In Search
of Excellence by T. Peters and R. Waterman, 1984, Harper & Row).

1. Shared and stated values: All concerned with the company believe strongly in a set of values, often restated. Such values need to be carefully framed, realistic, and simple to remember. They are also inherent in the following:
2. Respect and encouragement: Management should give staff control of their own areas, encourage them to develop new ideas, and to follow guidelines and values rather than a rigid set of rules.
3. Reputation: The company maintains a reputation for high-quality products, service, and reliability. This cannot be stressed often enough. Most customers will deal with a firm over and over again if it proves to be reliable, rather than take a chance with a company which may be cheap, but which maintains such sloppy standards as slow service and shoddy products.
4. Lean management: Successful businesses use a simple organisational structure, a minimum of staff directing operations, and no "corporate planners" or analysts. Management is often in close contact with both producers (staff) and customers, and involved in production.
5. Action: Once a decision is made, effort is made to get it done with all possible speed. Customer reaction is then gauged in a matter of weeks or months, not years.
6. Familiarity: In expansion, or in new products, good businesses stick to what they know best (and don't expand into or acquire a business in an unfamiliar field).
In summary then, the successful business:

• states group values and maintains a sense of loyalty to those values,
• personalises services, good quality, prompt service, and reliability,
• innovates in its area of expertise and looks ahead, and
• has a lean structure, and no uninvolved staff.

Attention to current and future trends (social, climatic, economic, political) is essential for any business group, and small business centres can research on such trends; societies change according to new information, products, and materials, and businesses must change or expand with these trends.

In addition to normal business principles, the more intense and more democratic operation of cooperatives demands that co-op staff must participate in planning, seriously contributing to policy, procedures, and inno- vations. The sharing of "power" is really a sharing of responsibility; part of that responsibility is the capital risk of any enterprise.

Leasing Systems
Any cooperative or village could run a leasing service for seldom-used items of capital equipment (photo- copiers to trucks) which individuals or businesses do need on occasion.
User Pays Principle: From privately to publicly owned

PAGE 543 FIGURE 14.11  (SCEMATIC OF CAPITAL FLOW WITHIN AND WITHOUT A VILLAGE)

PAGE 544  FIGURE 14.12  (CASH FLOW OF THE VILLAGE

PAGE 545

assets (sewing machines to reference libraries), a charge sufficient to cover running costs, repairs, and replacements must be placed on that item. This may be subscription (library) or piece work (photocopier), hourly rate (computer) or miles travelled (vehicle). These charges apply equally to businesses, administration, trusts, and private groups or individuals. Persistent misuse (e.g. of a vehicle) results in a withholding period or permanent withdrawal of permission to use.

Personal Accountability Principle: This applies to any group purchases, whether public or private. The group purchasing is held totally and individually responsible for payment for any item. This is rigorously applied and holds even if I! member leaves a 8roup or the community. This principle stops "l'vegotabright idea" and a "Iet'sgetit" approach-ideas must be paid for. If the idea is a good one, it will pay itself off in time through lease. An example of this sort is if a group of five wanted to purchase a large brush chipper to create compost for themselves and to hire out to others in the community. A chipper would be purchased, and an hourly charge put on it to cover purchase, maintenance, and replacement. Eventually, if the chipper is used by enough people, it may even be possible for the original five to get a return on their money, although this was not necessarily an aim.

Special coinvestment on projects can be initiated by advertisement in the community. Examples are: group water storages or energy systems, group refrigeration facilities, coownership of a fishing vessel or coastal holiday home, etc. These are not working cooperatives or businesses, but rather projects that save money or give the opportunity for a wider range of resources than if each person had to fund them individually. The investing group decides expense, location, and use
payments.

14.12
LAND ACCESS

TRUSTEESHIP OF LAND
Our own lifetimes are, in terms of soils, trees, or climate, as ephemeral as snowflakes. For a little while, we have the use of the earth, and Our time here is bounded by birth and death. Thus the very concept of land ownership is ludicrous, and we need only to use what is needed for the brief time that we are here; even I birth and death are small events in a total life pool. continuum. I

The law clearly distinguishes between ownership or ( entitlement to a resource, and the rights of the use of it.  Laws of ownership are relatively modern, and are foreign to tribal or clan law. Laws of trusteeship are ( ancient, philosophical and realistic. Ownership, in  effect, gives the titleholder (person or state) a "right to  exploit in the short term". Trusteeship governs any r resource for the very long term, with no right to exploit resources beyond essential needs, or replacement time.

The way that land passed from clan management to personal ownership is well documented; since the year 1400 or thereabouts, the methods used were as in Figure 14.14

Most of us live on lands once tribal, now "owned". Very few of us have any rights to share the resources of such land, which is either state (army), church, or corporation-controlled .

However, with the benefit of scepticism gained from hindsight, many people are working to reverse this historical trend; tribes are still forwarding their claims to common ground after 200--400 years of occupation, and thousands of people are formi11g trusteeship or~anisations to remove land from private ownerships, church, and state control, and to return it to use by! those people who live on and near the land. In fact, educated people of good will, and traditional people, have seen where ownership has ruined common resources, and are returning to the concept of taking local-stewardship of the land itself. Thus, in the evolution of land concepts, we have Figure 14.15.

Gifts or deeds of land can be vested in a tax- deductible trust for use by a specific group or the public  generally, under certain reasonable conditions; many  community gardens run this way, usually at small rental. Many people with large incomes actually benefit from tax-deductible land gifts. They can purchase and improve land, and gift it at the improved value at a, paper profit.

Essential land for local food, fuel and structural forestry, recreation, and conservation can be planned, and secured under a set of public trusts by public investment, gift, bequest, taxdeductible donation, transfer from other authorities or trusts, or outright purchase. Thus, the district secures its initial land resource. Each and every parcel of land needs 3-4 involved, active, and interested trustees, and under a legal limit, its plans and purposes should be set for the long-term for 10-50 years ahead). Some qreas will be under sports centres, some in trust to conservationists, some under lease to organise gardens and farms, and :i some reserved for educational and public bodies for public services. Community forestry on steep and rocky I lands will provide fuels, food, and buildings for the I future. Even here, every household can plant and tend an  area, and profit from or manage it; it is also an improving asset that can be sold or transferred. This  works; "public" forestry does not. Industry should grow every stick that they use by a charge on product, and investment in the community forestry owned by local households. Good models of village forestry are operating in Indian and Taiwan; poor models of public forestry are all about us.

Land trusts need be few, close to settlements, and cover all essential uses; the rest of the land can go back to natural forests or prairie. Every scrap of land in settlement should first be planned and used. Many, if not most, small towns need no other land assets. Any Isociety that develops lawns beyond those used for

PAGE 546  FIGURE 14.14 (TRUSTEESHIP OF LAND)
 

PAGE 547

recreation can support itself for wood, fuel, and building materials by the conversion of lawn s to use.

If people who really want land set up adetermined research group on "ways and means", or open an advisory centre on such methords, they would achieve their needs much faster and with far less expense than if they rely on undertaking a political "revolution" (a transfer of power), or saved their pennies, and with much greater longterm benefit to society.

Just keep in mind that there is more than enough land laready cleared for all people, and that it has long ago been paid for in labour or cash; there is really no need to buy it again, just the get the right of use. Every country has some, or many, methords to obtain usage rights.

There is usually only one title, or a few titles, nut there are probably thousands of possible rights upon any land. Think of the "ownership" as a blank canvas or empty wardrobe.We can paint on or hang up an array ofrights, and (unless we are very thorough) never fill the land space available.

Land in trust can be developed in a number of ways, and can include garden clubs, commonworks, and as leased land for specific purposes. Many have water conversation, developing forest, wildlife corridors, wetlands, and special species reserves as primary aims.

Practical warnings are not to accept land gifts that have many restrictive conditions attached; in fact, it is wise to perhaps limit acceptance to unconditional gifts. These can then be sold to purchase more suitable land, or to capitalise land elsewhere.

Secondly, unless a large cash reserve is available, each trust can only manage one area of land, and only slowly expand. Every parcel of trust land is aunique and longterm development, and if too much land is accepted, simple maintenance and land tax costs can bankrupt the trust.

Above all, a land trust should have a very clear idea of what it wants to achieve, and to set a practical time limit to do the job. All trusts need an income, and may thus need a business or trading arm. the trust can gift land to other regional trusts or associations of whocm it approves, so that local gifts can be routed through a tax-deductible trust.

Why should people give land away? Some of the reasons are:

• To continue land in its use: as an organic farm, wildlife refuge, economic botanical garden, or as an excample of good land use.
• Because people believe in trustesship: Many of us do not believe in private land ownership, but nin trust ownerships for public use under sound environmental control.
• Land is surplus to their needs, and acost: A few people own too much land (are what is termed "landpoor"), thus achieve low productivity and incur land maintenance costs. By giving some land away (especially to a tax-deductible trust) they can concentrate on a smaller productive area. Good accounting advice will often dictate that land should be creatively gifted to such a trust (i.e. it benefits the giver; this is especially true of donors who have a large income from other sources).
• As a bequest: Some good hearted older people will bequeath land, yielding up successive rights as they age, to younger landless people or to a land trust; this is I form of public bequest, and is a fairly common  occurrence to establish parks, wildlife areas, or demonstration and teaching farms. Trusts can also give Ito other trusts under a bequest basis.
  Bcause the want a village, or more people on the land: In modern times, nuclear families or individuals are socially very isolated on large farms. By establishing a land trust, they can legally encourage others to develop parts of the property, and so set up a socially rich area with multiple potential.

There are many more reasons why people gift land to  trusts, so that (generally speaking) there are more lands available than there are reliable stewards to occupy them.

As with money, land ownership and thus land usage in society is unbalanced, except where tribal land councils still exist; even in tribes, cattle or resource ownership can become unbalanced (as in Botswana, where 9% of the people own 80% of the cattle) if crops and herds cease to be tribally owned and are privately c owned on common lands.

LAND ACCESS OFFICE
People often complain that they lack access to land resources; at the same time, we live in a delinquent or devastated landscape. How do we marry needs and land resources? The establishment of a regional office (a land access office-LAO) opens up the potential for offering a set of strategies enabling better land use, and suited to the finances and involvement of people using the service. A selection of strategies follow, and can be modified for local conditions:
 

• Landlease system within urban areas;
• Garden or farm club;
• City farms;
• Towns and cities as farms;
• Farm link system; and
• Commonwork.

Land lease system within urban areas (Oxfam Model): This is particularly suited to young families in rental accommodation. The regional office posts paired lists: list A is for those who want 200-1,000 sq. feet of garden to grow food. list B comprises those people (usually elderly or absentee landlords) who will lease either vacant land or the land around their houses on an annual, renewable basis. People list themselves and, as local land comes up, introduce themselves. The LAO prepares a standard lease specifying rental (if any), goods exchange, length and type of lease, access, and the names of the parties.

Thus, many young families get legal access to garden land, on an "allotment" basis. The regional office may
 

page 548

need to map and actively seek land, and should make a small service charge for registration of leases.

 Garden or Fann Club: ,These suit families with some ,apital to invest as shares, with annual membership (shares can be sold). A farm is purchased by the club or society on a public access route 12 hours from the city. This property is designed by the club or society to serve the interests of members, whether- for garden, main crop, fuelwood, fishing, recreation, camping, commercial growing, or all of these- Depending on the aims and share capital, people can lease small areas, or appoint a manager. Rich clubs develop motel-style accommo- dation and recreational fisheries. Worker-based clubs usually develop private plots with overnight (caravan-style) accommodation for weekends. A management committee plans for the whole area (access, water, fences, rates, etc) and can be selected by the club.

Many such clubs exist in Europe, and some in Australia; they offer multiple use of one lot of land by many people. Membership in such clubs can be made ~leable or transferable, and may increase in
value over lime.

City Farms: A local group of 100 or more families forms a city farm association, and invites local, state, or federal authorities (via their local representatives) to allot from 1-80 ha (preferably with a building) to a city farm. Such invitations are irresistable to those who hold office by virtue of local goodwill or votes.

On this land, the following activities are promoted: .Demonstration gardens;

• Garden allotments (where space permits);
• Domestic animals (rabbit, pigeon, poultry, sheep, goats, cows, horses) kept and used as demonstration and breeding stock;
• Reycling centre for equipment, building materials (income-producing).
• Tool rental and access; .Gleaning operations;
• Plant nursery;
• Seminars, demonstrations, training programmes, educational outreach; and
• Seed, book, plant, and general retail sales.
• In New York alone, the "Open Space Coalition" counts 1,100 parcels of land as one or other form of city farm. The Federation of City Fanns in the UK numbers some 46 active farms, and many more groups forming at anyone time.

The essentials of a successful city farm is that it lies in an area of real need (poor neighbourhoods), that it has a large local membership, and that it offers a wide range of social services to the ,area. Many city farms become totally or mainly self-supporting from sales of goods or services, plus modest membership fees. The one essential is a long-term legally binding lease. Coalitions of such farms represent a large lobby or vote group in society, and are therefore. politically respectable!

Each city farm has a small management group, and most have numerous volunteers, or a few paid staff.

Towns and Cities as Farms: A twist on the above, which can be operated by a city farm group. There are several ways to use cities as farms-many German towns carry on an active city forestry along roads and on reserves. From 60-80% of total city income is thus derived from city forest products.

Surplus city garden or food product is collected, sorted, packaged, and retailed. Some groups collect, grade, and sell citrus or nut crop, and many provide young trees to gardeners on contract for later product off the trees. Others range sheep, duck, or geese flocks for fire or pest control. All seem to make a very good income by treating the city as a specialist farm. A processing, shearing, or like facility may be needed by the group.

Nonprofit groups often collect unwanted food from orchards, canneries, etc. and distribute them to the poor, or sell at a small profit to keep running costs down. This is known as a "gleaning" system; many thousands of tons of unwanted food is so redistributed in the USA. Givers take a tax reduction on gift to a gleaning trust (any church or public trust).

Farm Link (Producer-consumer cooperative): These are appropriate to highrise or rental accommodation in an urban area. From 20-50 families link to one or more farms in the nearby countryside. Although they can purchase and manage a property, they usually come to an arrangement with an already established market gardener. Quarterly meetings are held between both parties to work out what products can be trucked direct from the farm to the families, who use the product and can retail any surplus to others.

The farmer adjusts production to suit family needs, and as the "link" grows, the system can also accommodate holidays on the farm, educational workshops, and city help on the farm at peak work periods (planting and harvesting).

This strategy enables us to build compact urban areas while retaining farmlands that are uncluttered by settlement. The alternative (as in Australia, the USA, and increasingly in Europe) is for cities to become sprawling monstrosities of suburbs that reduce whole production areas to lawns and rotary clotheslines, and forests and trees to chopsticks and newspapers, while over-extending public utilies and creating insolvable transport and waste probiems.

The system is best developed in Japan, although scattered examples operate elsewhere for products as diverse as fish and game, wheat and firewood. Benefits are numerous:

• Producers have an assured market at a mutually agreed price set a year ahead.
• Consumers can reduce costs to below wholesale by assisting with harvest.
• Townspeople can access farm facilities; this is valuable education for children.
  The  system is convivial; in fact its main aims are to develop friendships.
   
• Consumers control quality and quantity by pre-order and stated preference.

PAGE 549

 

Commonwork systems: Any, tribe or even an individual farmer can allow mutiple land use by setting up a commonwork system, akin to the African mahisa or kivestock loan system of Botswana.

Briefly, the land area is closely assessed for earth resources, wildlife, forest and aquaculture potentioal, small and large livestock (bees to bullocks), arable land and mixed orchard, and socio-educational potentional. The local nees to primary processing, building, and consultancy or implementation servies can also be researched.

This basic design work completed, the trust or owners can advertise locally for people to run any one of these enterprises with levels ranging from that of a hobby (developing a butterfly forage system) to a fulltime occupation income (a trout farm).Proper legal saeguards (lease documents) setting out rights of use, length of lease, responsibilities of the trust and lessee, and terms of payment (adjustable, but usually 10% of gross income) are   drawn up to safeguard users. This 10% credited to the donor, forms a cpital fund together with any capital raised by the trust or the lessees (some as grants or gifts, some as business loans).The trust also needs income for maintaining services such as roads, fences, power, and to pay land taxes.

All lessees are selfemployed; land costs are minimal (their share of services) and land costs access is secure. As enterprises develop, the capital fund enables further research and development. It is ideal to plan so that any one enterprise (energy supply, bees, tree nursery) helps so supply others, as well as regional needs. More than one farm or tust can join in a commonwork system; the trust or land owners set broad conditons of sustainable use, and allot space or resources to enterprises, but the contributors to the capital fund vote in their own cash management group. Such a landuse system promises full and beneficial use of lands, and can take up much of the unemployment in a district.

However, commonworks need to be close to towns or on a public transport route, so that townspeople can

PAGE 550

participate; remote areas do not suit this system unless It is paired with a village development. Commonwork members are free to leave, sellout to new lessees, and eventually be refunded their 10%, less base main- lenanceand service costs, but plus any interest paid.

All occupations can be "open" , available to all, but a proportion of occupations (adjusted to that proportion of the society that needs such work to be available) can "beassigned to specifically disadvantaged groups at the ttlme of life or state of health where such work is perhaps the only possible useful work one can do. In Turkey, for instance, the totally blind have the sole right
to sell pigeon food in public places; this gives them an independent income. There are hundreds of such essentially minor incomes available in every society for  otherwise-neglected groups or ages.

"Livings" are occupations which return a living wage to a family. The fair assessment of these rest in family size, especially the number of dependents, base costs in the society, and frugality of the family unit. The need to earn is most reduced by a set of strategies ranging from gardens for food, efficient use of energy in house and work, shaiing of basic equipment, and membership of fbulk purchasing groups.

Although many employees (unfortunate people) are paid to do only one job, members of a common work can take up many occupations, the net return from which afford a living plus some net profit for local investment as a tithe on earnings.

In the Mondragon system, actual cash or income differentials are limited in the ratio 1 :4 or 5; that is to say, a sweeper cannot receive less than 25% of the total wage of a doctor; this is a good basis for adjusting any ethical sharing in any system. If people, via education, retraining, or selfhelp can improve their skills, their political mobility (not fixed castes) can allow them to improve their relative earning capacity, although not beyond a fair differential relative to their community.

In the concept of commonwork we have arrived at a new synthesis, a future model not only for farms but for complex small communities. Although tribal peoples had (and have) a clear idea of total
ecologies-the sum of fire, regrowth, wallaby, and pioneer fire species-arid although they had a word for this, there is no word-concept for a "total human family " ecology" beyond "a living".

In my meaning of "a living", it is the beekeeper, the ,bees, their water, flowers, pollen, propolis, and the means to make the beehives. It is a clear legal access to forage, and a registered and secure bee site; and it is the tight to sell or market product to pay for other Ijfe needs. ln fact, it is a human ecological totality, provided with abstract and real self-reliance, and sufficient to pay for any tuition, travel, health service, and insurance needed by the family accessing a living.

This right, and many similar rights, overlay all landscapes, all societies, but can only be designed to be beneficial if that society (or that segment of society who want self-reliance) entrust their lands and lives to a public-interest deed of trust, and also trust each other to carry out a function. In fact, common work systems based on a social edifice of responsibility to and for others. For a nation-state, taxes were perhaps intended to supply social needs, whereas in fact they have always been used to raise armies and enrich a minority far beyond the needs of a living; to create wealth for a few, and privelege for bureaucrats.

If taxes were not in fact so used, we would all live in a society where the need to work would be negligible, and both employment and unemployment (thus, workers and owners) absent. Employment, like suburbs and institutions such as gaols, are as modern as lawns and politics; all ancient societies of people arranged life without any of these impediments, but only by seeing life as livings, and living things as basic to life.

A short list of developmental design programs for a commonwork land trust is as follows:

• Priority 1 :: Maximise water storage by constructions of Keyline, swale, soil conditioning, ridge forestry, and broad canals or dams for diversion and irrigation.
• Priority 2: Specify forest sites and forest types, allowing specific forage forests for locally acceptable or endemic animal species-
• Priority 3: Specify crop areas for orchard and perennial crop, based on best soils, low slopes, windbreaks, and water access.
• Priority 4:: Specify complex access and trackways, critical edges for flowers, bee fodders, trellis systems, wayside crop.
• Other: Select a few caretaker house sites if necessary, and designate and stockpile earth materials if and as these are discovered in earth works. Check history and archaelogy, and keep a journal and open plan of all development.
• Probable livelihoods for 100 ha, 40 or more families: .Bees
• Poultry
• Ducks
• Fisnspecies
• Forage systems
• Fuel forestry
• Structural forestry
• Cut flowers
• Nursery
• Methane and wind et'ergy systems, solar systems (manufacture and power sales)
• Accommodation and tours
• Workshops and field days
• Training programmes
• Cooperative store
• Credit union
• Insurance
  Leasing
• Processing of raw materials to pottery, bricks, dried, pickled and smoked food products.

All of this asserts that we are not "just clerks" or "just housewives" but that we have many r()les in any free society. Our freedoms are, in fact, a choice of those chains of responsibility or social dllties with which we
 

PAGE 551

feel comfortable-not the freedom to do nothing, or to do what we like (to be self-serving)-but the
freedom to choose among occupations-the portfolio of self-expression, work or duties that we in fact
do evolve in non-hierarchical societies, villages, and tribes.

Thus, more iormal cooperatives need to include retraining, education, and work mobility for their ,
membership, or risk frustration and boredom with r work, The work factor itself can include some
proportion of time or output devoted to social services generally, so that everyone feels that they are
contributing to their society as a whole. The very concepts of employment/unemployment deny thIs
potential, and again frustrate people so that rebellion as strikes or riots follow. Guilds and unions (in
the sense {of trades) may actually reinforce this sense of irrevocable fate (no choice), as do caste
systems in India.

Thus, in bioregional networks, commonworks, and intentional villages, the individual can choose a set
of lduties and occupations that fit skills, choice, and age. A few also develop special skills and
become teachers in trades or disciplines.
 

14,13
AN ETHICAL INVESTMENT MOVEMENT

Prior to 1980, very few innovative or consciously ethical legally structured to be so) financial systems
existed; totay there are hundreds of such organisations, holding their own summits and handling, via
their  stockbrokers, in excess of 160 billion dollars annually (in the USA alone), Many other such
organisations exist JIn Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India and southeast Asia.

In 1983, the Permaculture Institute, following 'seminas with the E. F, Schumacher group in the USA,
Carted teaching in local community funding and ethical investment' "banking on the earth". Any local
group is able to set up a resource list of data from models, to invite fund managers to visit their region
to give seminars, and to adopt or devise local financial recycling systems, ethical brokerages, or
non-monetary community exchange.

 A local "earthbank" group is at first a research, 'teaching, or seminar convening organisation, but as
local money systems are established, some members obtain employment by running financial,
exchange, or barter systems. In the UK, USA, Australia, and Canada, annual seminars (in the UK
called "The Other. e mic Summit"- TOES) are now convened to hear from advisors and fund
managers, and to supply education or materials to new groups. If no such summits exist in your area,
convene one; we started with only 12 people in Australia, but 60-100 interested people and
organisations now attend these seminars, and banks, insurance companies, cooperatives, and
credit unions send representatives to assist new groups.

The rise of a large, popular, efficient set of services to livert public money to good ends (and get it
back) is a reaction to (or revulsion with) the current misuse of noney by governments, large aid
agencies, and rapacious investors whose sole motive is profit, power, or greed, This movement is one
of the truly new phenomena of this century, and its growth is exponential.

The large amount of investment capital redirected hrough ethical brokerages is the tip of an iceberg
which involves many thousands of ordinary people who are members of guarantee circles, ethical
credit mions,community loans trusts, common fund agencies or bioregions, or non formal systems of
labour and workday exchanges, barter systems, direct market systems, or no-interest, pre-purchase,
"green dollar" systems,

Moreover, existing banks, credit unions, cooperatives, businesses, and allied groups are discussing
the rewriting of their charters to include the values of earth care, people care, and the production of
socially useful or socilally sensitive) products, Some credit unions and banks already have such a
charter, and keep corporate watchdogs on the staff whose sole job it is to monitor companies for
unethical behaviour. Not only corporations but volunteer groups and consumer groups produce
monitoring publications on multinationals on a global scale, and publish "nonbuyers"
guides of the products of unethical organisations.

The negative ("non-buy") emphasis of the early years involved disinvestment in companies which:
DO NOT CARE FOR THE EARTH, producing:
 

• Pollutants and dangerous wastes, waste product as 'xcess packaging, and nonreturnable or not recyclable containers,
• Shoddy and quickly superseded products, Inrepairable items, or those lacking good servicing and spares,
• Poisons, biocides, armaments, and dangerous materials (radioactive waste, mercury, asbestos, leaded  petrol, chlorinated fluorocarbons in insulation or spray cans, radioactive paints and so on.

DO NOT CARE FOR PEOPLE, as assessed by:

• Dangerous foods or medicines,
• Have unsafe or polluted workplaces; this includes loise pollution.
• Deal in addictive substances or provide addictive ervices (alcohol, tobacco, gambling).
• Do not permit organised labour, do not deal with mployees on a fair basis, nor pay fair wages,
• Exploit people directly via slavery, bonded labour, xcessive profit margins, by forms of prostitution, racial nd sexual discrimination, or harassment,.
• Support or cooperate with regimes using torture or mprisonment without charge, dictatorships, corrupt regimes restricting voting, disenfranchising people by gerrymander, or by allowing votes only to certain groups.

PAGE 552

D0 NOT SHOW A PUBLIC CONSCIENCE

• Use bribery and price-fixing.
• Operate on excessive profits.
• Monopolise resources or markets.
• Do not themselves invest in ethical groups.

As the ethical investment movement matures, however, this negative approach is evolving into a very
positive search for, and willingness to fund and support (or establish), enterprises which:

• .Assist conservation and reduce waste (not treat waste and so grow to depend on more wastes) or energy use
• Grow clean food free of biocides or dangerous levels of contaminants.
• Are involved in community reafforestation.
• Build energy conserving houses or villages.
• Produce clean transport or energy systems.
• Assist peoples self-reliance.
• Found cooperatives, self-employed ventures, or profit-sharing systems.
• Produce durable, sound, useful and necessary products.

Thus, local or bioregional funds can establish small or large enterprises necessary to that region,
using money raised by residents. Brokers or enterprise trusts can direct surplus investment to
socially and environmentally responsible industries and developments such as new, well-designed
villages. All such ethical organisations state their criteria in their legal or informal charters.

RECOMMENDED TYPES OF INVESTMENTS
Investments need to be staggered in terms of ultimate return, so that some money is always on call.
To these ends, a set of loans or investments can be scattered over short to long term enterprises, e.g.

• Short Term: Loans for draught-proofing, insula- tion, attached glasshouse, clean water tanks, trickle irrigation, and dam building. All amortise in from 1-2 yeas, some in much shorter time (one winter). Also, loans can be given to good local industries with careful management and market assessment.
• Medium Term:. Bee, chicken, and pig forage systems plus stock, large water catchments for aquaculture, irrigation; nurseries, subdivi~ions, tours and tourism, buying and selling farms after environmental rehabilitation; larger local industries or their expansion; clean power systems.
• Long Term: Town and city reconstruction or development; fuel crop and processing; small farm development; large-scale property retrofit; orchard establishment; research into new energy forms.
• Permanent: Forestry, and the purchase of natural remnant forest (shares can be traded as values increase over the long term); wildlife reserves and rainforest in good condition (as revalued property trusts,  dedicated to species preservation).

We can order investment value under some such simple system as follows:
1.  Active e.g.  a group of people investing in reafforestation, and working in that area.
2. Passive e.g. buying the products of an ethical company
3. Neutral e.g. funding a film which may have no message, ethical or otherwise.
4. Unethical e.g. retailing dangerous and persistent pesticides or herbicides.

This gives us a set of priorities based on "greatest effect and involvement". Category 4 above is, of
course, not permitted by any ethical charter, and Category 3 need be funded only when other needs
are satisfied.

We are acting at our best level and have the greatest chance of success (or least chance of failure)
when we are active workers In, and consumers of, the products or services that we fund. Within the
"active" category (1 above), we can set priorities based on local or current problems in the biosocial
context of the times. Today these would be:

Biological:

• The prevention of soil deterioration, i.e. soil creation.
• The prevention of deforestation, i.e. afforestation
• Conservation of species, i.e. creation of species reserves

Environmental:

• Preserving the quality of air, i.e. pollution control.. .Reduction of waste, i.e. recycling and elimination of waste products.
• Cleaning up water i.e. water storages and disinvestment in polluting industries.

There is no implication in the above list that any investment fund should fund industries based on
(relying on) the production of wastes.

Wherever a body of laws has been formed on the basis of the responsibility of people to their environ-
ment, a dynamic, long-maintained, and relatively harmless occupancy of the earth has resulted. I
cannot think of any better examples than the long-term tribal occupancies of deserts, rainforests, and
prairies.

But wherever a body of laws has been formed based on our "rights" to property, to protect material
resources and accumulations, and to permit destruction of the public resource, we will not only
destroy whole environments and species, but in the end ourselves.

It is already unlawful to clear forests in South Australia, to light fires in many areas, or to destroy
protected wildlife, trees, or reserves in many countries; but we can murder with impunity by using
biocides, destroy whole forests with acid rain, destroy the ozone layer, and risk sea level rise without
penalty. Many organisations are demanding that this too changes, and that those responsible are
charged with the damage, as people bereft of social conscience; we may yet live to see a class of
corporate criminals brought to book for their conscious crimes.

Auditing is the periodic assessment of the validity of any financial enterprise or investment strategy.
Whereas conventional financial systems propose a

PAGE  553

single economic criteria to such audits, I propose that we of the alternative nation apply three criteria:

1. The economic audit: "Where did the money go? Was it honestly used? Is the system economically
viable?" (The European audit)
2. The ethical audit: "Was the enterprise concerned with its ethical (people care) accounting? Did the
enterprise benefit people in the long run? " (The Iroquois audit)
3. The environmental audit: "Were the activities life-enancing? Is the earth therefore more productive in
terms of life forms? "(The Pitjatjantjara or "life increase"audlt)

Active and Passive InVestment Involvement
Many investors never see or experience the systems they fund via brokerages. As the ethical
investment process evolves, many more projects involving investors as residents, builders, primary
producers, or suppliers of goods and services can be developed Bioregional funds do, in fact, offer their
investors chance to at least define the sort of goods they wan produced in their region, at the quality
level the would prefer. As an example, the development of permaculture village does just that; the
shares (not identical units) actually fund the whole developmen including a common development fund,
a local revolving loan fund, commercial and light industrial leases; areas are also set aside for primary
producer regional markets, recreation, conservation, and energy reserves. The process of village
development has been outlined herein; in such developments every resident can be a participant at
most levels.

We should, I feel, discourage passive investment; all brokers can introduce investors and producers in
mutually supportive web. There is no inducemel greater than self-interest, and self-interest dictates that every investor should use, assist in, and consume the products and services they invest in. Investment centres should be active in person-to-person introduction-even investment parties!

Analysis of those sections of society and managed funds that prop up the whole investment system
mea identifying the source of such funds. Retirement fun (superannuation), union funds, insurance
funds, a common trust funds are all large sources of investment monies; it is wise, therefore, to include representatives of or contributors to such funds in earthbank societies, and to invite them to ethical investment conferences.

After all, why should coal miners' union funds pay for the takeover that closes down their colliery, ratther than the forest development funds that offers them, retraining as foresters (and forests will be need forever!) Only the corruption of fund managers would prevent such sensible provision for future work, and corruption cannot be exposed without investor pressure. Why should an insurance company hi money in motor vehicle manufacturers producing  unsafe or faulty vehicles? Why,should we fund oun destruction when the alternative is wide open for profitable, ethical development?

Proportional lnvestment
If one has $100, how should this be spread about to do the most good with the least risk? This is a matter of personal choice or good advice, but some sensible propositions area:

• 10% to risk ventures (new ideas, new ventures)
• 10% 20% to a local S.H.A.R.E. programme or credit union as community development funds.
• 10%20% in any existing clean public power utility.
• 20%40% in a social investment fund.
• 10% to a public interest investment (School, hospital, research centre).

Thus the risk is spread widely, home and regional assets funded, and public services supported. This
can also alter as new opportunities arise, but like self-employment, money should cover a wide
portfolio of ventures.

Investment Sources
A good many people inherit, earn, or win sums of. money from $1,000-100,000 surplus to their
present needs. They do not want to invest in their own destruction by supporting polluting or addictive industries,  and instead seek socially responsible investment. Another class of investors are members of churches and organisations which profess an ethic of peace and goodwill. These groups also need to place surplus funds in organisations which work towards their aims. Various lay bodies such as the Sierra Club, Friends of  the Earth, and organic growers have funds to place in investment for at least short periods, and cannot always trust the local banks, which invest in adversary systems or which do not reveal their investment policy publicly.

In fact, everybody who uses a bank to store money is an investor by default, and if unaware of the
bank's investment strategy, may most probably be investing (via the bank) in systems which are creating local problems or global disorder. Thus, it is necessary to l' locate or found ethical investment groups and put our money with them.

About 70% of the total "free world" investment is American, and of the 70%, the majority (or about
40% of the total) is in the hands of women, who tend to  inherit as well as save. It is obviously
important for  womens' groups to direct this money to life-enhancing ; enterprises. Thus, at least one
of our "minority" groups can invest in their own salvation, and also change the wortd, not only without losing money but in fact  getting more return from regenerative investment than  from the death system. For example, as stated in , CoEvolution Quarterly, Summer '83, p. 91, investment returns for public utilities supplying power were as follows:
                    Nuclear based stocks appreciated 24% ..
                    Mixed groups (some nuclear) 52%
                    Non-nuclear power utilities 82%
                     Dividends for those groups were 30%,59% and 81% respectively. It is now certain that socially responsible

page 554

investment pays. We can also make it cost to be socially .Irresponsible by withdrawing investments
from , ethical groups, Socially sensitive investments not  only pay better, but are basically an insurance against (rather than susceptible to) stock market crashes, as local facilities are always important in hard times, arId local investments do not crash.

As money begins to flow to regional and socially responsible funds, even those people not personally
persuaded of the need to invest in the future will have cause to think about investing in unethical
systems from which public and financial support is being withdrawn, Pursued vigorously as a strategy,
reinvestment in ethical systems can change the total direction of capital flow towards beneficial
systems.

Some Strategies for Investment in the Environment
Recently third-world debt (heavily discounted by the creditor bank as apoor investment, so that one can buy $1,000,000 of debt for $120,000 of cash) has been purchased by conservationists (via a tax-deductible trust such as the World Wildlife Fund, or one of many conservationist societies), For this debt, the trust asks not for repayment of capital and interest in hard currency, but in forest or wetland assets in the debtor country.

In this way, everybody benefits: the banks, the debtor nation, the environment, and the purchasers;
moreover  the wildlife and forest reserves so purchased can be sensitively developed for nature, tourism and research rather than being cut down for debt repayment. The whole world benefits from forests, and such benign strategies need to be operated on the widest possible scale. This is not so difficult, as almost every world  nation except perhaps Japan, Botswana (diamonds), and Nauru {rock phosphate) is today a debtor nation and few have any hope of repaying their debts-such is the stupidity of governments and banks that invest in corruption and exploitation (note that ethical funds don't share in the stock market crashes if they hold real assets that support sel!-reliance).

It is also possible to deposit funds with a tax- deductible trust, which purchases critical or species-
rich areas discounted by farmer debt or by misuse or overcutting {salted and eroded lands). By putting
aside a sum for management, income can be made from wildlife reserves, seed, or new forests. In the
case of capable farmers, they can themselves be appointed as co-managers, and many would gladly
accept this role in restoration and earth care. Many good farmers are made bankrupt by trying to
restore land to health!

Investors can do the same for a public (for-profit) trust that reassesses its share prices annually. As a
property is developed with lakes, forests, and wildlife, 80 its value increases, and the increased share
value can be traded, It is in such restoration work that management teams (some of them
co-investors, by an issue of shares for labour) can test their rehabilitation skills, as outljn~tI in this
book and elsewhere in the land restoration literature.

Company takeovers or raids are often used to enrich ruthless individuals by "assetstripping"-selling off
a public company's assets and keeping the profits, regardless of the effects on the work force or
national economy. However, the same methodology can be used by conservationminded takeover
teams, who "strip" polluting companies, and develop land and urban assets to serve the needs of the
society and of nature. Many failing logging companies have vast areas of degraded lands suited to
small forest farm operations, and would-be forest farmers would love to manage a small area of forest
properly, as would many theoreti- cal botanists and academics who have 1ong known how to develop
a forest for eternal yield, but never had the land or capital to do so.

By these and other methods; the public can start to go to work via the normal financial and market
procedures of the capitalist world to set their environment in order, to preserve species, and to
educate and train an effective work force in assuming control for good purposes.

TOTAL APPROACHES TO FINANCE IN SOCIETY
Margrit Kennedy (in a manuscript Toward an Ecological. Economy: money, land and tax reforms, Oct.
1987) is convinced that an interest-free financial system is not only the sole sustainable medium for
exchange, but that such a "no growth" fiscal system encourages and preserves all natural resources.
It would at one stroke abolish the condition where the third world and the poor in affluent countries
payout more in interest than it has received in loans, pre.vent the growth of a minority wealthy elite,
and stabilise resource use.

In everything we use there are hidden interest costs:. about 12% of garbage cQllection charges, 38% of drinking water charges, and 77% of social housing charges are accountable as interest. The gains go to the rich or lenders, and the losses to the poor or borrowers even though the earth may provide the wealth of their labour (the production sphere). This wealth is removed by interest charges in the fiscal or circulation sphere. Thus, wealth used by unethical investment strategies is rapidly transferred via global stock or money markets to most efficiently exploit the poor; a wry comment on the people devising or running such systems.

The gross imbalance of wealth promotes "big" spending in capital-consuming but publicly paid
investments (big dams, big power stations, big housing corporations) where governments refer the
costs to the people. In the end, only military (waste) funding can use all this misbegotten wealth. So,
sensible smallscale and cost--effective solutions are prevented or actively discouraged by
governments and fiscal managers alike.

With no or very low interest rates, people buy goods at a steady rate, and industries do not need to be
geared to cope with the fluctuations in market caused by the sw.ings inherent in a global money
supply which starves some regions and floods others with only a profit motive in mind. These goods
or services need

PAGE   555

about a 5% maintenance cost, just to pay for repairs or people to run the system. It only needs any
town, region, or nation to set up such a constant system to put right many social and ecological ills.
This was, in fact, the system tried successfully by some small Austrian towns in the 1930's
depression; as such systems strengthen and grow, so regions can stabilise and pay for all their
essential longterm resources.

At any rate, the present system is in the process of collapse, and the new barter systems are
expanding; the only question we have is if the life support systems of earth will still be intact, or
whether sanity in fiscal affairs will be delayed until no human survival is possible on a polluted earth.

14.14
FUTURES

I have borrowed, in part, from the publications of the infant world regional and familial alliances to detail (as a thematic structure) those global problems and local disturbances that will concern all of us over the next few decades. These are

.ENVIRONMENTAL DETERIORATION.
A. Desertification, under the topics of:
1. Deforestation.
2. Water balance disturbance.
3. Soil salting and collapse.
4. Overgrazing.

.POLLUTION.
A. Of the atmosphere, leading to acid rain and climatic change.
B. Of soils via chemical waste.
C. By radioactives in the soil and food chains.
D. Of inland and fresh waters.
E. Of the estuaries and marine systems.
F. Of food by biocides, radiation.

.THE EXTINCTION OF NATURAL SYSTEMS AND SPECIES.
A. By rainforest destruction.
B. By desertification of arid area borders.
C. By clearing for agriculture.
D. By draining wetlands.

.CLIMATIC CHANGES.
A. Heating of earth by ('~rhon dioxide and gaseous pollutants in the global atmosphere.
1. Rising sea levels
2. Reduction of stratospheric ozone.
3. Intensification of local ozone at ground level.
4. Acidic particles leading to acid rain.

.SOCIO-POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CON- cERNs.
A. The use of torture and imprisonment for repression of people; arrest or detention without charge or
public trial.
B. The continuous oppression of minority ethnic, language, cultural, or tribal peoples.
C. Corruption, and the misuse of public monies by selfinterest groups.
D. Replacement of crafts and skills with machines and mass production.
E. Intolerable employment; unsafe, unhealthy, waste-productive .
F. Essentially short-term solutions to long-term, chronic problems.
G. Cash resources sequestered via addiction and crime.

.DIREcrLY HUMAN CONCERNS
A. Meaningful work (employment in right livelihood).
B. Adequate nutrition.
C. Adequate and easily maintained (low-energy shelter.
D. Access to a land base for sustenance.
E. Access to finance for development.

.RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC CONCERNS
A. The perversion of science to assist war, torture, oppression.
B. The lack of common, practical translation of scientific findings to those who can use the informa-
tion.
C. The ineffectiveness of researchers in applying findings and obtaining feedback.
D. Setting priorities for research via morbidity and global analyses, and funding such priorities.
E. The monopolisation of socially useful inventions by patents, especially in seed and technology.

In everyone of the above categories, effective solutions to the stated problems exist, have beeh
applied, and have solved that problem locally or even nationally. Some are imperfect and need
adjustment, others work in the context of specific cultures or landscapes, while a lesser number are
effective across the whole range of specific phenomena. But in almost every case, "case histories" of
solutions are not locally available over the range of current problems. Any such library of solutions
needs an educational outreach. Educational programmes themselves need orientation to practical
problem-solving using successful models.

Modifying all climatic and plant data given herein is the global warming effect and stratospheric ozone
loss now expected to continue for the foreseeable future. This will mean increased air and seawater
tempera- tures, the extension of typhoons and monsoon rains away from the equator towards
Latitudes 20-25°, drier winters in western coastal and southwest Mediterran- ean climates, and a
general increase in carbon dioxide, hence increased plant growth in the semiarid areas of tropical
deserts.

As a background to any trends such as global warming, the basic llyear (22 year) sunspot cycle, and

PAGE  556

more importantly the 18.6 year lunar cycle (the latter affecting the shift north or south of cyclonic systems, the former affecting incoming radiation) will continue to determine drought and wet years. Such factors are now firmly tied to food crises and drought in most continents (new scientist 8 Oct 87, p.28)
The lunar atmospheric tide is the overriding effect, and the chief collator of such data (Robert Currie, State University of New York, Stonybrook, N.Y. USA) warns of agricultural shortages in the northern hemisphere in 1990-92. These years will be wet in the year 2009 or thereabouts. Thus, governements and farmers can plan to reduce herds, store grains, increase tree crop, enlarge or increase water storages and swales, and select plant crop species for such regular or cyclic variations. At present, Africa is in drought, and Europe in a flood cycle, every 9+ years this reverses.

It is now time to diversify bioregional resources to afford a flexible response to these changes. Such preprations may mean that several strategies need to applied including;
 

• Assessment of the local and national relief, and sea level rise effects in every region. For example, most low islands may be at some risk, while lowlying cities and coasts can be either evaculated or portected (at great cost).
• Extension of hurricane-proof housing design to Latitudes 30° north and south.
• Preparation for much hotter climactic factors both in gardens and homes (from 8-12 oC warmer in mesothermal areas, from 1-5°C warmer in the tropics), thus far greater attention to high tree and palm canopy, insulation, building ventilation, and shadehouses.
• Increases of 16-25%in ultraviolet radiation, hence a change in human activity, and clothing. Animal breeds, resistant to heat effects, need to be selected now.
• A generally more mixed ecology with many more forest components in both urban and rural areas, including species from warmer regions.
• As for future occupational changes and migrations, there will need to be far more emphasis on home gardens or city farms, specialist crop, forestry, and local processing for regional needs, as no one can ensure continued agricultural food supply or industrial crop sustainability.
• Just to halt or modify the worst aspects of the current atmospheric trends, there is no doubt that any nation wishing to survive will redirect public and private investment monies into sustainable practices, and ban many substances and industries. For example:
• Biocide residues will be disallowed in food, water, and soils, and thus only sophisticated biological controls will apply on farms. Many chlorine products will be discontinued, as well as plastics such as polystyrene.
• Padi rice and feed-lot beef will be disallowed or eliminated as major pollutants, and supplemented with less polluting alternatives (e.g. potatoes, free range beef, chicken flocks).
• Coal burning for power and industry, and fossil fuel use generally will be greatly curtailed, thus solar, tide, hydroelectric, wave, wind, and biogas systems will come into general use. "Clean" fuels will be in global demand especially solar-electric vehicles. and wind-assisted freight systems {ships and balloons, or dirigibles).
• Community forestry will be of critical importance in bioregions, cities, and in arid or salted areas.
• Farm tenure could be tied to good husbandry, not "yield", and disallowed if soil losses exceed soil creation on site, or water sources are polluted. Thus, annual cropping or plough culture will greatly decrease, and with it a host of problems.
• .Wise government will ban cattle, goats, and sheep from delicate arid or highland areas, and accept the high yields of adapted wildlife under careful mangement.
• .Any activity producing acid rain or persistent radioactives will be eliminated or minimised.
• There will need to be a global response to environmental refugees, especially from atolls, low coasts, stllaries, and coastal cities (due to sea level rises). These will need to be housed in new, well-designed, low-energy inland villages or self-reliant settlements, minimising transport and fossilfuel uses. Moreover, many of these strategies will need to start now, and many sensible people andregions are already moving in these  directions. Books such as this one will be needed for planners and designers, and general media services (radio, television, educational services) will have a key role to play in avoiding chaos and directing a well-orchestrated series of changes via positive advice and documentary education. New approaches to total bioregional policy planning by coalitions of scientists, planners, conservationist, and cooperating essential industries can replace short-term,nationalistic political processes.

Factors such as coastal seawater contamination of groundwaters, increase  flood.damage, coastal
erosion, profound changes in fisheries and agriculture, and sociall disruption are foreseen as inevitable
for a century to come, but if all the causative factors continue unabated, worse and more rapid
changes can occur over the next 30 years.

Essential industries {small steel, cement, pipe, glass. and workshop-based t enterrprises, plus energy industries  will need to be relocated inland, and extensive road rerouting plus barge or water transport services will be needed; areas that will become islands will need efficient water or air transport.
As we cannot predict effects on fisheries or crops, diverse planning will be needed to establish inland
aquacultures, forests, and gardens; economic species should be collected and preserved for future
changes.
Above all, people need now to be well-informed so that they can act for themselves, or in concert, and
we should all prepare for selfreliance and regional interdependence. As the problems are truly global,
global concerc and action will be needed.

PAGE  557

I believe that only group or community (bioregional) survival  meaningful and possible; individual survival is meaningless, as is survival in fortresses, Thus, we plan for total regions, and include all the skills of society.

The profound change we must all make is internal; body needs to realise that there is no group
to their rescue, that it is only what each of us that counts; thus, those who cooperate with others, and take on a task relevant to all people, will be above those who seek personal survival.

14.15
NO ASSISTANCE I.N AREAS OF NEED

In 1946, the ecologist Aldo Leopold (in A Sand Country Almanac, Oxford University Press) forsaw two seemingly inveitable trends; one is the exhausion of the wilderness as a resource, and "the other is the world-wide hybridisation of cultures through modern transport and communication. the question arises whether certain values can be preserved that would otherwise be lost." Thus , in developing permaculture, we have the following factors in mind;
 

• We need to cultivate or construct the resources that we use, not plunder a failing wilderness.
• All remaining genetic resources are to be preserved., as far as possible on their native sites (this includes cultivated plants)
• We need to accept that the hybridisation of culture does occur, but at the same time preserve the values in cultures that assist human happiness, responsibility, sharing, conservation, and good management. That is, need to put an ethical or value base to our actions.
• Many of us offer aid to areas of need, and there are numerous non-governnment organsiations (NGO's) at work in the area of aid; some are supported by churches, others by civil institutions, and many are groups of people organised locally; for self-help. Aid is necessary but delicate affair; some forms of aid can produce dependency, facilitate further inequities in a society, destroy or impair cultural values, decrease the yeiIds of the environment, upset delicately balanced nutritional habits, or actually destroy sustainable local ecologies or agricultural systems.

Perhaps we can approach the matter of successful aid defining what such a success would entail; by
setting criteria for judging "success" .Thus, successful aid should:
 

• Address real and basic problems of the region (nutrition, drought relief, land and resource inequality) and to recognise that political and financial action may necessary
• Devise strategies to offset the effects of such problems, and to educate a group of local people to apply trials of those strategies.
•  Assess trials for side effects and sustainablility.
• Leave a local group able to further extend or educate others in such strategies.
• Provide modest support services and monitoring; above all, to record and circulate case   histories to other non -governmen torganisations.

Problem areas are no place for fools, amateurs, or people who will not listen to others or assess
results. For example, many alkaline desert soils lack avilable zinc; whole grains and seed legumes
may exacerbate metabolic zinc loss. Thus, traditional diets need to be examined and supported if they provide sources of zinc from meats, bone, ashes, or animal testicles. Anew stove or cooker may prevent the incorporation of ashes in the diet, or a new diet 'may create a !!evere deficiency. There is no substitute for thorough analysis of soils and foods, the use of trace elements or soil additives, respect for traditional methods of food preparation, and an excellent education to accompany the project. Some of the factors that greatly assist effective aid are therefore:

• Excellent research, and excellent teaching locally; local teachers to be encouraged for the long term.
• Courtesy and respect for traditional diets and methods, cultures and languages.
• Honest, modest, and practical (achievable, affordable) advice as to trials of new systems.
• Feedback assessed, and flexibility of approach maintained (no one solution).
• Congruence jn lifestyle and advice of advisers; advisers or educators should adopt their own advice! It is also important to teach models based on successful trials, not theoretical models.
• Effort to reach all sections of society.
• .A positive, cheerful, enthusiastic approach to projects, inspiring by example.

The core of successful aid lies in modest trials, careful extension, and provision for widespread
education, so that after aid has ceased (or ended a phase) local people can continue the education process, maintain any system (financial, technological, or agricultural), andcan call for additional modest  resources if necessary.

Many problems are very long-term, and short-term aid (typical of emergency programmes) is not able to address these; drought has an 18-20 year periodicity, and needs to be coped with by food storages on good years, emergency food and forage from tree crop, pre-drought reduction of herds, widespread rainfall harve!!ting systems, and a well-informed public assisted by appropriate policy such as equable  adjustment of livestock herd size, and government aid to establish drought refuges locally for essential livestock and for people.

All these strategies need careful long-term planning, and tlrm policy implementation; these need to be in place over several decades before fine-tuning is possible. As political rule can change so rapidly, and is often repealed by opposing rulers, planning for the very long-term is possible only as a resident regional

PAGE 558

involvement. " Advisors" are short-term, and if they do not leave a corps of well-informed people, are of I ephemeral effect; even such a basic technology as a water tap needs a trades-person capable of descaling vents and reseating valves, or replacing washers over the long term.

In catastrophes, only residents are effective over the short term; it is they who need, and can effectively use, relief housing and supplies. Outside aid is far less effective except in the matter of supply of requested resources; in areas of India where drought was offset by storage of hardy crops such as ragi (a sorghum), the introduction of exotic wheat varieties has meant that ragi is often unavailable for storage. Eucalypt monoculture for rayon fibre (textiles) has obliterated many ragi fields, and in total this may add up to a deferred catastrophe. Aid-financed deep wells and pumps in the same region have enabled large livestock herds and more annual cropping at the cost of a rapidly falling water table. So "improvements" in short-term finances (to large landowners or industrialists) add up to a greatly impoverished population and environment; in short, desertification due to improvements".

Aid as Joint Enterprises
What is a joint enterprise? It is a mutual agreement,  written and legal, that two groups, one third
world (TW) and one western world (WW), work out for a mutual ethical enterprise. Accounting is:

• Financial: Most of the cash is from the WW group to establish a small manufacturing industry (seed production, craft, publishing, modest technological).The TW group supplies mainly skills and labour equivalents based on local average incomes. Jointly,costs are accounted up to product sale level, then net profits are equably split (profit minus costs and agreed-on cash reserves for future materials and expansion).
• Ethical: The product is life-enhancing and benefits  people and the global ecology-
• Social: The product does not impoverish a local resource, or benefit an already rich group. The socialeffects are consistently.assessed and accounted.

Note: All forms of accounting are assessed annually,  and the results circulated to all investors or
co-owners.

It is probable that the WW group sets up sales, ads, investment in the first place, and acts for the enterprise in their country, thus generating capital. The TW group sells locally and supplies mainly labour and skills, but also teaches skills to the WW people. Both groups set aside 10-15% of nett profit as research and develop- ment funds, or fund socially needed health and educa- tion. Trade is always reciprocal.

The long-term aim is to:

• Satisfy needs of both groups in a specific area.
• Set up reciprocal beneficial trade and travel.
• Teach others how to do this.
• See that both ends of the arrangement have their essential need supplied

Reduce the need for trade goods, and increase the information flow.

The main aim is to make friends with each other; to draw closer together socially. This is the primary
written rule "To become friends for mutual enrichment".

For example, a dryland group in the WW sends a convener to a host group in the dryland TW, and
assesses local needs, both ways. A mutual decision is reached on an enterprise, e.g. seed growing.
Both grow and exchange seed, set up a single seed catalogue and packaging system, agree to split
profits, make arrangements for reciprocal travel, and devise ways to be closer friends.

A FINAL LIMIT TO DEVELOPMENT.
Few economic systems, including those outlined in this section, give thought to some ultimate end.
Even if we do achieve the goals of global community self-management, we are as much in danger of
destroying the world by producing goods endlessly in Mondragon cooperatives, communist, or
capitalist factories, or as individuals. There are certain rules for earth care which lie beyond the
economic realm. I believe we should always tend towards minimising the spread of people and their
works on the face of the land.

When we replace agriculture with gardens, then we should close down, as a priority, the most distant
or most damaging agricultures. We can retain as land stewards the very few broadscale graziers and
managers who now use vast tracts of land or who crop huge monocultural acreages. Better still, we
can make foresters of our farmers. Some of them are already on this path.

If we close down farms and wasteproduct factories, we need to greatly enlarge true wilderness, for it is
the ultimate grace to give room on earth to all living things, and the ultimate in modesty .to regard ourselves as  stewards, not gods. ,

14.16
 REFERENCES AND RESOURCES .
Kennedy, Margrit, 1987 Toward an Ecological Economy:
Money, Land, and Tax Reforms. Ginsterweg 45, D3074, Steyerberg, West Germany.

Max Neef, Manfred, From the Outside Looking In:
experiences in barefoot economics, Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Sweden, 1982.

Mollner, Terry 1982, Mondragon Cooperatives and
Trusteeship (the design of a non-formal education
process to establish a community development
program based on Mahatma Ghandhi's theory of trusteeship and the Mondragon cooperatives),
Doctoral

PAGE  559

thesis, University of Massachusetts UsA. Copies
available for $20 + postage from The Trusteeship
Institute, Inc, Baker Road, shutesbury MA 01072 UsA. (Highly recommended reading for community
groups and organisers.)

Morehouse, Ward 1983, Handbook of Tools for
Community Economic Change, Intermediate Technology Group of North America Inc, PO Box 337,
CrotononHudson, New York 10520 UsA. (Available
from the publisher. A basic explanation of land trusts, self-management, community banking,
self-financmg social investment, and s.H.A.R.E .programs. Highly recommended.)

Peters, T., and R. Waterman, In Search of Excellence, Harper & Row, 1983. (Has principles of good
enterprise based on existing companies.)

Sale, Kirkpatrick, "Bioregionalism: a new way to treat land", The Ecologist 14 (4), pp 167-173, 1984.
(partly' on cultural, but mainly on landscape, factors: that is, an ecoregion.)

Tukel, George 1982,Toward a Bioregional Model, Planet Drum Foundation 1982, PO Box 31251, San
Francisco, California, U5A. (This short treatment sees "bioregion"
as watershed; while valid, many tribal and urban bioregions may not fit this model.)

Turnbull, shann, New money sources and profit motives
for democratising the wealth of nations, The Company Directors Association of Australia Ltd., 27
Macquarie Place, Sydney 2000, Australia. (A basic reference for a reformist economy. shann Turnbull
is involved with planning new systems. And he is an old caving companion of mine.)

Turnbull, 5hann, OPTIONS: Selecting A Local Currency, The Australian Adam Smith Club, June 1983.

For some contacts in the US (or elsewhere) I have listed below public service organisation with good
advice. They also need your input as new ideas and services, or new investment opportunities arise in
your area.

To start your own money handling, write to and get a publications list from: The E.F. Schumacher
Society, Box 76A, RD 3, Great Barrington, Massachusetts 01230. This group accumulates and
publishes on successful community financial strategies for no-capital enter- prises (pre-selling), local
SHARE programmes, and how to print your own currency, as well as other strategies. If you have
worked one of these strategies, notify them, and give a clear account of your system. This will reach
alternative people via their conferences and publications.

C.E.L.T. (Cooperative Enterprise Loan Trust): people's banking and seminars advisory services;
includes S.C.O.R.E. Service Corps of Retired Executives. P.O. Box 6855, Auckland, New Zealand.

Directory of Socially Responsible Investments, 1984 et sequ. Was $5 from The Funding Exchange,
Room A, 135E 15th St. New York, NY 10003.

L.E. T.S. (Local Employment Trading System): organised credit/debit non-currency systems. Kits,
games, software, information from: Micahel Linton. Landsman Community Services Ltd., 375 Johnston

Ave., Courtenay, B.C. CANADA, V9N 2Y2, or the Maleny and District Community Credit Union, 28
Maple St., Maleny QLD 4552, Australia.

S.H.A.R.E (Self-Help Association for a Regional Economy) PO Box 125, Gt. Barrington, MA 01230,
USA).

To report on dirty business locally or regionally, and to find out who has dirty work afoot elsewhere,
contact:
1. The Interfaith Center for Cor~orate Res~onsibilitx (I.C.C.R.1 a coalition of churches, issuing a
newsletter The Corporate Examiner, which reports on local topics and their follow-ups. They also offer
a phone advice service from their New York office (Phone: 2128702295). The newsletter is $35 per
year, 11 issues, from ICCR, Room 556,475 Riverside Drive, New York, N.Y.10115.

2. Council on Economic Priorities (non-government research). Newsletter $25 per year, 10 issues, 84
Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10011.

Good news should be remitted to:
Good Money ($36 per year, 6 issues), from the Center for Economic Revitilization, Inc., Box 363,
Worcester, Vermont 95682. This is probably the best source for investors who want to make their
money work well.

END