Little Miss Itchy Feet

“Small” projects of “normal” people are changing the world for the better – such as a seed grow project in Quito. (c) The Permacyclists

“Ecowarriors”, that´s how the belgian-US-couple Anne and Dave call people like Eufemia or like the self-sustainable-community The HAUS project in Houston or like the founder of an illegal, but fair farmers market in Ecuador: Not big organisation, but normal people like you and me who understand that they can change the future for the better with small project like planting trees. On their monthlong (bus)trip from New York to the RIO+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Anne and Dave are searching for examples how to change to world for the better and are doing the same with their project Permacyclists.

The idea to search for ecowarriors as amateurs with video cameras, lenses and computers was born on the road in Mozambique. Since 2009, Anne and David were traveling for 16 months through 12 countries in Africa, watching beautiful and less beautiful things on the 12.300 km-roads. In January 2011, they decided to participate in the RIO+20 Summit. “That also meant that we needed to leave the bikes behind”, explains Anne, “because we could not manage to bike all the distance while making movies and still get to Rio in time for the Summit. Leaving the bikes behind was the toughest decision we took and we have been missing them dearly ever since…

Anne and Dave are talking about their projects, e.g. in Bogotá: (c) The Permacyclists

“After long discussions we decided that we were looking for small, grassroots, local, low-budget, socially conscious, functioning without substantial NGO or governmental aid solutions to environmental problems in as many different themes as possible and that could be replicated in other parts of the world”, Anne and the ex-journalist Dave know exactly what they are interested in. To find these projects, that´s part of the challenge, because you need help from experts of the region. Via social networks but also projects themselves or organizations such as 350.org, ATD Fourth World or The Earth Charter, the Permacyclists get in touch with new interview partners.

After that, usually before we get into a country, we shoot a lot of emails”, they describe the process – which they underestimated in the beginning, “only part of those will get a response and of that, only one or two we will go and film.” And Anne adds, “The hardest thing for us is to work in a different culture. We love Latin America but it’s a very different way of working (email, time etc) so that definitely adds to the stress!”

The initiators of the projects love to spread the word as much as Anne and Dave do. (c) Marcelo Logarzo/ The Permacyclists

The original plan to do a documentary about their journey and the project changed into seven short movies about several actions, which get published on the website and presented to the public in cities like  Bogotá or Panama City. They have the material for about eight more movies and six articles are waiting to be done. “Our plan would be to film something like 4 or 5 other projects in Argentina and Brazil”, so Anne about their future, , “after that, we are not excluding the possibility of filming other projects in the U.S. and in Europe after we leave Rio. Our objective is to cover over 15 different environmental problems/themes (like water, deforestation, transportation, energy, etc.) and to offer one or more solutions to each of them.”

People who like to change the world exist everywhere. (c) The Permacyclists

They know that these solutions could not change everything, but the world travelers want to inspire people to think differently.  “Our hope is that after visiting our site, people who are intrigued about a solution will click on the different links we provide and then start doing research on their own”, the ex-lawyer Anne knows her definition of success – a long with “world fame, a million dollar and the Peace Nobel prize”, she adds as a joke. “Everything is on the internet, but before someone wants to sit down to watch a 20 minute long home-made how-to video on youtube, he needs to know what he is looking for. Our hope is that when our website will be complete with all the videos and texts, it will be providing that service.” All the information on the web is for free and should be used like it was already done by Transition Movement, TreeHugger.com and The Atlantic Magazine in the US. ” We want the whole world to be inspired by Eufemia who is reforesting  Chiapas (video #6) or by Paul who builds co-ops in Texas (video #2) just like they have inspired us”, says Anne who plans on doing a book or a movie with her husband on their experiences.

The main challenge is the ignorance of the people all over the world. (c) The Permacyclists

It´s a long, hard path – not only because of the challenge of working together as a couple or because it´s strenous to travel with all the equipment and hard to make movies as amateurs. “We often wonder when we receive very little reaction to our videos or articles why we are doing this”, admits Anne, but adds immediately: “But when someone like Eufemia who has faced so much adversity in her life – a poor woman from rural chiapas with only basic education, who has received death threats for her work, and whose own brother was murdered doing the same thing she is doing -  can do so much for the planet, then what excuse do the rest of us have? We have never had to face the kind of adversity that she has. Even our worst days are nothing compared to what she has been through, and if she can fight on then so can we!”

You can find more about the Permacyclists on their Website,  and .

First published in german, tripwolf , 13th February 2012.

Dieser Beitrag wurde auch auf Biorama veröffentlicht.