The senior management team of Vodafone Malta headed to Baħrija to learn about permaculture and rolled up their sleeves to help Baħrija Oasis, a living research and development ecological farm run by volunteers with the feeding of animals, composting, building tripods from bamboo for trelises and helping out in the kitchen.

Baħrija Oasis promotes permaculture systems, forestry and integrative science design and green technology with ecological land-based living through a sustainable vision. It is also a showcase for the Permaculture Research Foundation Malta, a voluntary organisation working in the field of permaculture, food security, agro forestry and creative ecology.

“It’s great that we had the opportunity to experience the principles of permaculture first hand,” said Jason Pavia.

“We saw how the oasis is a refuge for Maltese endemic species of plant and animal life and how the vibrant and thriving land is a living example of how science, sense and sensitivity can combine with nature to create a flourishing environment teaming with biodiversity,” he added.

Permaculture is a holistic design philosophy and the art and science of creating community ecosystems in which plants, animals, human beings and all forms of ecological diversity interact to produce prolific, ecologically-sound and regenerative systems that can support themselves and life indefinitely.

The focus of permaculture is to design and establish societal systems that provide for humanity’s material and non-material needs such as food, water, shelter, energy and health in a way that is symbiotic and synergistic with earth’s natural balanced ecosystems.