Low Impact Development Making a Positive Contribution

This is the information on the project in Wales that I first came upon in a youtube about the Lamis ecovillage project.  I am proposing that little ecosettlments could be proposed in otherwise protected land such as riparian and other important watershed areas in this county that are the current responsibility of various water and conservation agencies and that by putting people in the landscape in this way we can advance sustainability goals, hasten regeneration while providing protection for habitat.

My proposal would additionally provide livelihood, shelter and food.  While the structures and infrastructure constructed would be un-permitted and low impact the overall project would nonetheless be self-monitored using science based tools and reviewed by agencies to insure that the plan is working to provide a positive contribution, extremely low inputs and substantially according to plan.

The following excerp from transcript of that video

Welsh Assembly is one of the few governments in the world to have made a legal commitment to sustainability.  As a result of this commitment Pembrokeshire County Council adopted something called policy fifty-two in 2006 which was intended to provide for eco small holdings in previously protected open countryside on the basis that they make a positive environmental social and economic contribution.

Paul initially formulated his proposals for the land mass project in direct response to this policy but still the council didn't make his life easy. Three years two rejections and thousands of planning application papers later the lamis project was given the green light in the summer of 2009.  The opportunity that we are celebrating here at lamis is now available across the whole of Wales because the the Welsh Assembly government see that actually the way forwards in terms of sustainability to get people back onto the landscape working the land in that way the landscape becomes more productive the landscape becomes more diverse and we can take more carbon out of the atmosphere

This is a PDF guide from the Pembrokeshire County Council that helps applicants apply for this.  This is a very useful 19 page read that covers many of the questions that may come up in discussions with policy makers.  It is true that Wales is a much more rural culture than California and to some degree issues like defining livelihood and economic contribution my be incongruent with levels accepted in Wales owing largely to our absurd economy and lifestyles.  This will no doubt have to be addressed.


This is a link to a planning software that Pembrokeshire recommends and could be integrated into the reporting of restoration efforts that agencies would like to see. With a  tools like this our project would be putting a low tech low impact farmers in the riparian landscape but providing a very sophistocated tech to report out that could provide substancial proof of concept in just 4 or 5 years.