Ipema

IPEMA is a Permaculture Institute located in Ubatuba, a city by the coast in southeast Brazil. It has been acting since 1999 in conscience building and qualifying people in the areas of permaculture, ecovillages and related activities. The courses are taught in a way to stimulate open discussion and brainstorming, searching for creative, original and appropriated solutions to social, economical, enviromnental and political problems.

IPEMA features a Permaculture Internship Program tailored specially for foreigners. We can also arrange oriented visits to our facilities.

More about IPEMA

In IPEMA buildings are built with recycled wood, clay, sand and local sustainable materials. We use a regional Brazilian technique called Pau a pique which combines bamboo, clay, sand and natural fibers. Our water comes from the river that runs in the property and is used for cooking, drinking and bathing. We use 100% renewable energy (a water turbine generates our electricity). We use composting toilets and one toilet with biological filters and wetlands; we cook on a wood stove, which also heats up the water for the shower; we have zero emission of waste (everything that comes in the property stays in the property) and all waste water/gray water is treated and reused for food production. Our solid waste is sorted and separated for future use and we compost every organic matter including human waste.

The Institute is located in the city of Ubatuba, state of São Paulo, in the Atlantic Rain Forest, with rivers and small waterfalls, lots of trees and thick vegetation. The climate is very rainy (3500 mm annually) and humid all year long, the temperature ranges from 11 °C (51.8 °F) to 32 °C (89.6 °F). The winter months are supposed to be the driest ones.