WHO WE ARE

MAÏA PERMACULTURE

We are a non-profit cooperative

We use integrated systems design thinking and permaculture ethics to promote nature-friendly, regenerative. lifestyles.

To realize our goal, we design rural and urban spaces as living systems, empower people in permaculture design principles their applications in our daily lives, and offer tools for nature education.

We want to provide a holistic approach centered in Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share. Our dream is to design slow, light and participatory solutions to harmonize with nature and increase respectful human relations.

We want to sow the seeds of regeneration and resilience by:

designing sustainable spaces based on permaculture;
empowering agents of transformation, both through training and nature experiences;
facilitating facilitating participatory processes to promote community transformation.

The origins of Maïa

Academia de Permacultura Íbera’s 2022 Annual Gathering in Orduña

In 2021, the seeds of Maïa Permaculture “sprouted” in Mayi Lekuona’s head while living in Japan. By then, and after 18 years living abroad, Mayi intended to return to the Basque Country and achieve a right livelihood by integrating her ecological knowledge and personal experiences and skills to build a meaningful career in line with her values.

At this time, she met Ivan Tellaetxe, who was also working in his Permaculture Design Diploma at the Academia de Permacultura Íbera. Ivan had his own project called “Lurpeko” where he worked on public spaces’ design and renaturalization and nature education projects in a public school.

As soon as she returned to the Basque Country, Mayi started offering permaculture design services and conferences in the Bidasoa region. Being geographically closer, friendship among Ivan and Mayi grew quickly. Thus, they began to collaborate on different projects: designs for the Academia, different rewilding projects in Urduña, Hedera Association, etc.

From this fruitful and natural collaboration came the idea of joining forces to develop a cooperative project and thus continue promoting, together, a regenerative world respectful of the land and people.

MEET THE TEAM

Mayi Lekuona

B.Sc Biology
M.Sc Oceanography
Dip. Applied Permaculture Design
Diploma Mentor at the Academia de Permacultura Íbera

I’m a Basque permaculture designer with a passion for ecology, environmental conservancy, education and zero waste movement. My curiosity and eagerness to learn have lead me to very diverse experiences.

I first discovered Permaculture in 2010, while studying in Quebec, Canada. And, as a Basque woman, as a biologist who had studied all sorts of environmental systems, and as a person who was really concerned about the impact of Humans on this planet, I immediately felt connected to it. After obtaining my Permaculture Design Certificate and my Advanced Certificate in Social Designs, I decided to enroll in the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design.

If you would like to know more about my journey on the Diploma with the Academia de Permacultura Íbera (AcaPI) and see my portfolio for the diploma, click HERE.

After 18 years living in Brittany, Bordeaux, Scotland, Canada and Japan, I am glad to come back to my roots and eager to contribute to developing a resilient and regenerative society, here in the Basque Country.

Ivan Tellaetxe

Lawyer-Economist
Pedagogical Aptitude Certificate (CAP)
Gaïa Education Sustainability Diploma
Dip. Applied Permaculture Design
Mid-Mountain Guide

Until I was 29 years old I studied and worked in the world of finance. But then, I decided to abandon that path and begin to reconnect with my inner self by traveling on foot and, learning to live in natural, rural and community spaces.

Pedagogy has always been part of the concern of my inner child, and Nature, the habitat in which I live and walk with people of all ages. Now that I am part of the Maïa Permaculture project, I accompany pedagogical processes and aim to bring back nature to urban and rural spaces through permaculture design.