PAL began its activities in South America with its first projects in Ecuador in 1989. In the Andes a bilingual education school was created in Cayambe and on the coast in San Lorenzo a series of community programs were developed around the nucleus of a permaculture farm model which has since become a regionally important seed bank. In the Amazon work with the Huaorani has been the subject of a prize winning book and numerous articles in magazines such as the New Yorker. Our students have been the recipients of the Rolex Award and numerous Community Service awards.

The non-profit institute ALLPA was founded in 1998 to facilitate indigenous permaculture projects in the Andes. In 2002 the first indigenous graduates participated in the Ecoversidad Program of the Mollison School in Brazil and today are working to establish small educational centers in their own communities. Allpa is also leading a project to save one of the last areas of equatorial cloudforest in the Paso Alto Range of the Choco-Andes bioregion.

The origin of planetary seed divesity began with women gathering and collecting seeds.

Quechua girl in Andean food forest.

Erosion control: building earth banks on contour.