Food Sovereignty and Permaculture in Cuba

The Ecology Center and Eco Cuba Exchange invite you to a special presentation by Cuban permaculturist,

--Roberto Perez Rivero--
Representative of the Cuban NGO, the Antonio Nunez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Humanity
and featured in the internationally acclaimed film, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Food Sovereignty and Permaculture in Cuba

Roberto Perez Rivero is the Environmental Education and Biodiversity Conservation Program Director of the Cuban NGO, the Antonio Nunez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Humanity, the oldest environmental organization in Cuba. Mr. Perez has also served as their Project Officer on Urban Agriculture and Environmental Programs, Publishing Editor, and teacher of Environmental Education, Sustainable Agriculture and Permaculture. He has a Graduate Degree in Biology from the University of Havana and studied Community-based Resource Management at the University of St. Francis Xavier, Nova Scotia, Canada. Since 1999, Mr. Perez has traveled extensively in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, southeast Asia, and the United States, presenting Cuba’s approach to sustainable living in the face of declining petroleum and other nonrenewable resources.

In 2006, the World Wildlife Foundation, using a combination of the UNDP Human Development Index (health, education and shelter indices) and the Carbon Footprint (carbon use per capita), determined that Cuba was the only nation in the world living sustainably. How did this small, poor island nation achieve this distinction?

Mr Perez will talk about Cuba's progress and struggles in sustainable agriculture and sustainable living, especially in the last twenty years since the dissolution of the Soviet bloc. If you have not yet seen the film, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, in which Mr. Perez is a featured interviewee, we highly recommend that you do so prior to attending the presentation. The film is less than an hour in length and is available, in its entirety, at the website below. The first ten minutes focus on the issue of peak oil in general, followed by 50 minutes of interviews with the Cuban environmental policy makers and practitioners, including Mr. Perez, who have brought about this dramatic evolution toward sustainability in Cuba.

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
http://www.vimeo.com/8653921


For more information on this presentation, please contact: Beck Cowles, beck [at] ecologycenter.org or 510-548-2220 x 233

For more information about the Bay Area tour of Roberto Perez Rivero, please contact:
Pam Montanaro, Eco Cuba Exchange, a project of Global Exchange
pam [at] globalexchange.org or 510-318-4910 http://www.ecocubaexchange.org