Jan Martin Bang is a qualified Permaculture Designer and teacher. He was born in Oslo, Norway and grew up in England where he studied archaeology, geography, philosophy, education and agriculture. He was active in the English Cooperative and Trade Union Movements in the 1970’s. He moved to Israel in 1984 and was a kibbutz member for 16 years. Since 1993 he worked on environmental projects within the Kibbutz Movement. He represented the “Global Ecovillage Network” in Israel, and helped build up the Israel Permaculture Group, teaching the first Permaculture Design Courses in Hebrew. His work took him on extensive travels within the region, visiting ecovillages and teaching courses in Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus and the Palestinian areas.

He was a co-worker at Camphill Solborg in Norway for 7 years, where he had domestic and administrative responsibilities. He has been co-editor of “Landsbyliv” (Village Life), the Norwegian Camphill magazine, for the last six years. He was secretary of the Norwegian Permaculture Association, and has been active within the Norwegian Ecovillage Trust. He received the Permaculture Diploma in the fields of Education and Community Development from the Nordic Permaculture Institute in 2006.

He has written a book on Permaculture Ecovillage Design published by Floris Books in 2005, called “Ecovillages – a practical guide to sustainable communities”. A second book, “Growing Eco Communities – practical ways to create sustainability” was published by Floris Books in 2007. “Sakhnin – a portrait of an environmental peace project in Israel” and “The Hidden Seed – the story of the Camphill Bible Evening” were both published in 2009. He has just edited “A Portrait of Camphill” to be published this summer to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Camphill. He is currently working on several books about community and environment.

He has been connected to the International Communal Studies Association since its founding conference in 1985, and in 2010 was elected President of the Association.