Create your own micro eco-world to learn to survive and adapt by adaptnepal

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Pitch

Go back to the Nature and try to learn to adapt! Create a holistic ecological system that will sustain and you can also survive within it.

Description

Summary

1. Rural people are suffering from water/food scarcity due to climate change thus leading to migration and overpopulation in urban areas. The people are seeking the ways for adaptation. 
2. The proposal is about developing a living condition within a limited space where one family or an individual can survive, understand the Nature and learn on how to adapt to the limited resources.
3. It's about introducing and maintaining simple to understand but hard to apply elements of climate smart agriculture and technologies (like collect rainwater and use in everyday life, apply ecological sanitation products, farming variety of indigenous crops and vegetables, etc.).
4. It's about testing oneself to simple challenges and adventures, learning to develop strategies for survival, and exploring any possibilities for living in the Nature's mercy. 
5. It's about trying to leave less negative foot print on the Nature and discouraging urban consumerism and producing/recycling the food in optimum quantities so that they can be sustained and regenerated within the micro-eco-system.
6. It is about the development of an ecological garden-farm with creation of sustainable, healthy and harmonious living condition in collaboration with rural people for several mutual benefits.
7. It's also about contributing to scientific action research on climate change adaptation. 
8. The project development period is 2 years and beyond that the project will sustain by itself. 
9. The project will support for knowledge generation and management system for sharing among the rural and urban people. 
10. The project will also support to establish economic linkage between the urban people and rural livelihood by motivating the rural people for adaptation with initiation of home stay service .
11. The site for the small scale garden-farm is located in Chitwan district of Nepal. 
12. The project is replicable to other areas not only for climate change adaptation, but also for community based economic development in harmony with the nature and culture.  

What actions do you propose?

1. Establish an ecological garden-farm in a rural setting where I can grow a variety of fruits, vegetables and crops as well as I can live within the premises by leaving least possible negative footprint to the nature.
2. Documentation of the adaptation process since beginning and demonstrate the real-time practice and audio-visual materials to the public where it can influence positively and contribute for the nature conservation movement at micro-scale.   
3. Showcase my own example of living and growing food for subsistence to encourage the people for doing similar things so that the cumulative negative footprint to the nature becomes less and less. 
4. Encourage and support the rural people to design and practice the garden-farming and home stay systems based on the example of my project. Invite and encourage urban people to support for the garden farm and rural people by helping them to sustain the farm and home stays.  
5. Gradually institutionalize the development and operation of the garden - farm as a scientific and community based platform for learning and sharing on adaptation to climate change.

Who will take these actions?

1. I have already started the preparation for design and management of the small ecological garden – farm (with land size = 1.5 Ha). I will further invest my time and resources for development and functioning of the garden-farm to its full capacity so that I can sustain it and will be able to survive within it.
2. I will design and manage a knowledge sharing mechanism to display the adaptation process and micro-eco-system to the people who are interested in it. The project will greatly benefit from my team member fellow who is a Climate Change Adaptation Expert. I will also seek and apply practical suggestions from other relevant experts and friends in my professional network. I will also communicate with government institutions about this project and seek support from them for their ideas on how to make the project best model for illustration of climate-smart agriculture practice and technologies.
3. Ultimately, I will be demonstrating the cost-effective facilities for living with water and food security systems which will be in harmony with the Nature. I want to show that the solutions are already there in the rural context. I will work towards establishment of an evidence-based adaptation system that discourages urban consumerism and encourages the rural  setting and local resources which are adequate for sustainable living.   

Where will these actions be taken?

The ecological garden-farm will be established in Chitwan district of Nepal. The site is located on a small hill top with small settlements of ethnic people having a diversity of culture and traditions. The proposed garden-farm is in rural setting. The garden-farm will be developed and operated in harmony with the rural livelihood by respecting the local people’s culture and promotion of community development and adaptation initiatives. 

What are other key benefits?

1. The ecological garden-farm will be developed as a Center of Excellence. The rural people of the surrounding communities will get part-time employment opportunity in the farm. Initially, they will get practical training and some financial support to establish eco-home- stay facilities and services for the guests visiting the garden and exploring about the rural beauty and culture. The urban people can visit the garden for learning on how to best survive and adapt by optimizing the resources available in the locality. They can also get a place to sit and relieve from the urban stress. The learning and adapting process will be documented and shared to interested people, academia, research-community and school children.
2. The employment generated for the rural people will strengthen dynamic and economic relationship between rural and urban people. It will also serve as a strong basis of integrated economic development through rural – urban cooperation for climate change adaptation practices.

What are the proposal’s costs?

1. The cost of the garden-farm development will be based on the needs to establish it as a knowledge sharing and demonstration center. The cost of the land and basic amenities are not included as the development costs. The project cost estimate consists of the following components only:
2. Development of a demonstration trail to showcase a variety of wild/indigenous plants and climate smart and adaptation technologies (rainwater harvesting, wastewater re-use, bee-keeping etc.) – it will require approx. 5,000 USD
3. Construction of a training/workshop/lecture hall for audio-visual sharing about the experience and processes of local adaptation with technical details – it will cost approx. – 10,000 USD (the facility will be constructed by applying local construction technologies and materials as much as possible)
4. Support for training and establishment of community based eco-home stay systems and services – it will be linked with the sustainability of the garden-farm and local peoples’ engagement in the farm (about 10 families at the beginning) – it will require approx. 5,000 USD at the initial stage.
5. Provision of technical expertise for the design and development of an access and demonstration trail within the ecological garden-farm and establishment of scientific data base required for the knowledge sharing system – it may cost approx. 5,000 USD
6. Provision of additional human resource to documenting the whole process of development and facilitation during the visits of guests – approx. 5000 USD (that sum will also include budget for some light refreshment for school children visiting the garden – farm)
7. Total estimated budget = USD 30,000

Time line

1. The development process will complete within first year of the project. During the second year, the garden-farm will be commissioned and provided partial technical support for its operation. 
2. Within the first year, there will be investment for the scientific resources, physical components (the demonstration trail, training hall and display information) and knowledge and information management system will be carried out.  
3. Within the second year, there will be further investment for community trainings, managing garden-farm tours, testing information sessions and documentation. The community trainings will include support and capacity building for home stay systems and establishment of community – farm engagement plan.
4. After two years of the support, the project will run with the established systems and linkages between the garden-farm and community based home stays that mutually collaborate each other.

Related proposals

My proposal has some concept linkage with the following proposals:

1. Proposal for  Anticipating Climate Change in the Pamir Mountains by  lauriea

Generations working together: Elders, farmers, children and adaptation

It is more related to bringing the local stakeholders into one forum for learning and sharing whereas my proposal aims for creation of a physical and socio-economic adaptation model for replication and real-time use of the facility and services that is open to public for observation, testing and learning.  

2. Proposal for  Rural resilience by  tcatta

China’s rural-urban intensification. Envisioning the habitat of the future

The proposal is for better understanding rural - urban physical systems for the harmonious planning and design considering their historical contexts.

My proposal has a task to design a rural garden - farm for the rural people. The garden - farm appropriately designed can be transformed into a sustainable habitat for the future generations. 

References

http://www.ecologicalgardening.net/

http://www.bbeorgnz.squarespace.com/

http://www.patternliteracy.com/courses/permaculture-design-course-faq

http://www.worecnepal.org/publication/transformation-traditional-village-eco-village

http://www.fordnepal.org/Eco_Village_Project

http://www.fao.org/climate-smart-agriculture/72612/en/