One of the problems is working with South African people whose understanding of the concept is that it means national park, not their own immediate environment. Thlolego is getting people to see that they can control their immediate environment and take responsibility for it. The government itself pays lip service to sustainability, sees permaculture as being very slow but is happy to support projects as demonstration sites. The Centre There are demonstration gardens for teaching, open pollination testing for plants suitable for African conditions. Local people want seeds when they visit and see how effective it is.
Seed saving is encouraged.
Many people have never seen earthworms, and all take a bag of earthworms with them when they leave. The area is deficient in large animals. They have started small scale animals such as rabbits and chickens, but need to upscale soon. The Natural Farming Network in Zimbabwe has published several books, one on natural control of pests. At Thlolego they found that helicopter beetles love blue so they put blue buckets of water around the grounds and the beetles dive bomb into them and commit suicide.