PAL USA
Permacultura America Latina

IPA Brazil
Instituto Permacultura
da Amazonia (IPA)

Carlos Miller
A trilingual, US-trained biology graduate and nationally-respected environmentalist, Carlos’s international experience includes work with the Smithsonian, Conservation International and WWF in Washington. Carlos returned to his native Brazil in 1992, transforming the now prominent Fundacao Vitoria Amazonica into a leading, Amazonian-based NGO. In 1997, he founded IPA and currently acts as the Avina Foundation coordinator for northern Brazil.

Ali Sharif
A senior student of Permaculture’s founder, Bill Mollison of Australia, Ali was born in Iran in 1953, and educated in England and Italy. A man who "makes things happen," Ali founded PAL in the USA with the mission of expanding permaculture into Latin America. He has established more than 26 projects on three continents, and been involved at every level of their development. Ali’s particular expertise lies in tropical agroforestry systems and in the design and construction of aquaculture systems. He has presented at the Bioneers Conference and Sustainable Resource Conferences on several occasions, and currently coordinates the Permaculture movement in Brazil.
ahmadalisharif@yahoo.com

Thérèse Williams
Administrative Director
Thérèse joined PAL’s executive office in 2004 bringing organizational skills from thirteen years in gallery administration and sales, including eight years at the Gerald Peters Gallery. She was the sculpting assistant to cowboy artist Vic Payne, personal assistant to photographer Robert Stivers, and organized all aspects of the 1997 Santa Fe Art Auction. She is on the board of the Tatenda Music Center and is also a musician in their marimba band Trillium. Born in St. Louis, MO, Thérèse was a recording artist at age eleven, performing original compositions on her album "Dandelions". She is the agogo player in the Santa Fe Brazilian percussion band Samba Fe. She is currently writing her father’s biography, "Down By The River" the story of the late St. Louis jazz pianist Jimmy Williams and his fifty-year musical career that blossomed at the heart of the Gaslight Square jazz scene in the late ‘50’s and early ‘60’s.

OPA Costal Brazil
Organization of
Permaculture and Art

Isabela Coelho
Isabela is a Brazilian teacher, performing artist and activist; US graduate in International Affairs. After attending a Permaculture course at IPEP, Isabela began combining her professional work in education and arts with Permaculture. She conceived and directed Circo Agua Viva, a project of environmental awareness through circus arts with underprivileged children in Bahia, Brazil. She is a founding member and co-director of OPA .

Yarrow Schley
Yarrow is a permaculture designer and licensed massage therapist. Since 1996 he has worked with PAL throughout South America and has also worked with environmental education programs for children in the USA. Yarrow is co- director and co-founder of OPA (Organization of Permaculture and Art). He is currently establishing an urban permaculture and arts center in Salvador, Brazil.

El Salvador
Karen Inwood came to El Salvador in 2000 to help build the Permaculture Institute and is now its Executive Director. Born in South West England, she has a professional background in community development and studied permaculture and Ecovillage living at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland.

IMAP - Guatemala
Rebecca Cutter-founder IMAP
Rebecca, born in Northern New York and trained as an educator in art and design traveled to Guatemala in 1996 where she dedicated two years to the development of the grassroots organization, Ija’tz. After receiving permaculture training she applied her skills and energy to the organization of women in natural resource management as the national coordinator of a solar oven project on the heavily deforested Pacific Coast of Guatemala. Rebecca helped found the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute in 2000, served on the board for four years and now coordinates its Program for Institutional Strengthening. In May, 2005 she will present her thesis on women’s leadership, and graduate with a masters degree in Sustainable Development from the School For International Training, Vt.

IPEC Central Brazil
Instituto Permacultura
e Ecovilas do Cerrado (IPEC)

Andre Jaeger Soares
Andre Soares is a trilingual teacher, natural builder and permaculture designer. He founded the Permaculture Institute of Queensland and in 1997 returned to Brazil to work for the recently organized UNDP permaculture program. As national coordinator for the program he taught 2000 designers through out the country. In 1998 he co founded IPEC and in 2002 co founded the Mollison School for Sustainable Studies.

Lucy Legan
Lucy has worked in community development for more than 15 years with Aboriginal
communities, womens groups, young people and farmers.
Since arriving in Brazil she has co founded both IPEC and the Mollison School for Sustainable Studies where she remains as director. She has authored a nationally selected prize winning environmental education guide which is being considered for introduction into state schools.

ipec1@terra.com.br

IPEP South Brazil
Instituto de Permacultura e Ecovilas da Pampa

Joao Rockett
Joao is a teacher, gardener and regionally noted builder. His design of a ‘popular house’ is being considered by the Brazilian army for mass replication. Joao was the inspiration behind the Bionatur seed company which gained prominence as a credible alternative to hybrid and genetically modified seeds. He founded and is the current director of the Instituto Permacultura e Ecovilas do Pampa in 1991.
ipep@permacultura.org.br

Allpa / Ecuador

Jeff Mecham - Director
Jeff is an forester and permaculture designer. He has been working in Ecuador since 1991, primarily with Andean Quichua communities. More recently he has established the Instituto Permandina to develope a permaculture training program and association for young indigenous leaders. He is a diplomate of the Permaculture Institute of Australia and a recipient of the Community Service Award.
allpa@accessinter.net

Valentina Benavides is a multilingual social communicator, educator and cinematographer with extensive experience in popular education, nutrition & food preparation as well as community development in Ecuador.

RedPal Peru
Limber Cabrera Gongora - Director
Limber was born and lives in the Peruvian Amazon in the small town of Yarinacocca. He studied agriculture in the Suiza Superior Institute and later switched to videography. At a later date he completed a leadership training course in the Permaculture School in Pirenopolis in Brazil. His involvement with indigenous organizations began with Bemana – a Shipibo group and later CECA the Amazon Culture Center. In 1999 he co founded RedPal Peru a Shipibo organization formed around the PAL permaculture projects engaged in sustainable community development in the communities of the Ucayali River. kbreragl@hispavista.com

IMAP - Guatemala
Ronaldo Lec Ajcot-founder IMAP Ronaldo Lec Ajcot , a Maya Kaqchiqel, was born in 1971 in San Lucas Toliman Guatemala. In 1990 he was forced out of the country because of the violence of the civil war. In 1994 he received a BA in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Peace Studies from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. In 1996, after returning to Guatemala, he hosted the first certified Permaculture Design Course in the region sponsored by Permacultura America Latina (PAL) as part of the search for alternative agriculture practice. He then adopted permaculture as a tool for the revitalization of local agricultural lands, culture and environment. In 1997 he hosted a permaculture course from which a community organization, the Associacon Ija’tz was formed to begin the regional restoration of land. This structure appropriated the experimental farm as their agro-ecological center and he continued as director of the program. In 1999 he resigned from the Associacon Ija’tz to devote himself to the creation of his vision for the Mayan people by creating the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (IMAP) where he is now director.

Juan Nelson Rojas
Juan was born in Sonsonate, El Salvador in 1958. After qualifying as an industrial electrician, he became involved in the trade union struggles of the 1980´s. Forced into exile by the brutal military regime, he spent 4 years in Mexico and then 8 years in Australia. It was there that he studied permaculture as a useful tool for the rebuilding of the country following the peace accords of 1992.
He is currently working as a coordinator for the Mesoamerican Convergence on Sustainable Development in January 2006. He will also be teaching permaculture courses throughout Mesoamerica for the entire year.