Rio document: intro

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The Rio Report: Mawddach Permaculture Group

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL WALES

an outline document produced by the Mawddach Permaculture Group


1. Introduction

  1. We are a small group of individuals who have been meeting for over a year working on designing ecologically sustainable communities in our area. Our attention has focussed on various topics, with the driving force being the obvious need to change present unsustainable systems of agriculture and forestry; these damage the earth, employ fewer and fewer people and cost the British taxpayer vast sums of money.

  2. We envisage land use systems based on ecologically and environmentally sound principles. We believe it is possible to generate food production and forestry systems that would build soils and communities rather than degrade and erode them. Industry would make the best use of locally available resources and aim to provide the goods and services needed by the community. The emphasis would be on self-reliance, but there would also be trade in the export of surplus produce and locally crafted/manufactured goods and the import of goods unavailable locally.

  3. We have presented our ideas under a series of main headings. However, our work has lead us to the conclusion that sustainable communities are best understood and developed as fully interconnected systems. With this in mind, each main heading is followed by brief descriptions showing links to other headings.

  4. This document as presented is an outline only. Further details are available on all aspects of sustainable development from the contact address given on this page.

Rio 2

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