Permaculture
Permaculture is a holistic design approach that emphasizes sustainability by integrating ecological principles into the creation and maintenance of human settlements. Originally coined in Australia by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the mid-1970s, the term has evolved to encompass both permanent agriculture and permanent culture, acknowledging the need for comprehensive societal change towards sustainability. The core tenets of permaculture include caring for the earth, caring for people, and sharing surplus resources, guided by principles such as thoughtful observation, fostering interconnections, and prioritizing local, renewable resources.
Practitioners of permaculture utilize a range of methods to design systems that mimic natural ecosystems, enhance biodiversity, and minimize waste. This approach is adaptable to various settings, with designs tailored to the unique needs and resources of each locale. The movement has grown into a global network, promoting education and community through local groups and international gatherings. While permaculture is often associated with urban agriculture and ecological restoration, its broader aim is to re-establish human relationships with the natural world. Although it has faced criticism regarding the scientific validation of its techniques, permaculture continues to evolve as a dynamic practice focused on sustainable living.
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Permaculture
Permaculture is a holistic design approach based on ecological principles aimed at creating more sustainable human settlements. Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren coined the term in the mid-1970s to refer to permanent agriculture, an alternative agricultural system sustainable over the long term, which they explained in their 1978 book Permaculture One. As their thinking evolved they broadened the meaning of permaculture to include permanent culture in recognition that more than agriculture has to change if humans are to live more sustainably. Although initiated in Australia, permaculture has grown into a worldwide movement focused on creating and maintaining consciously designed landscapes, communities, and social systems that mimic natural processes.
Overview
Permaculture is guided by a set of principles for creating urban and rural habitats that are resilient, regenerative, and productive. The tenets of permaculture include caring for the earth, caring for people, and sharing any surplus generated back into the system . The key principles include extended and thoughtful observation versus extended and thoughtless action; fostering interconnections by considering the relationships between elements in an integrated system; harnessing and storing energy and materials; favoring the use of local, biological, and renewable resources; producing no waste; cultivating diversity; using the least amount of energy for the greatest amount of effect; designing systems that are supported by multiple functions and functions that are supported by multiple elements; using small-scale intensive systems; and creatively responding to and using change.
Though permaculture can be manifested in various ways, there are several general methods and techniques that can represent the movement. For example, permaculture views natural ecosystems as functional systems of agriculture; a mature forest is a layered community from the canopy to the rhizosphere, and its productivity is tied to its diversity and interconnection. Ecological guilds of mutually beneficial organisms are recognized and used to improve the system and reduce the need for artificial inputs, such as pesticides. Permacultural designs often use geographic principles such as environmental zones and the edge effect to promote efficiency.
While people often equate permaculture with urban agriculture, natural buildings, and restored native landscapes, it is not exclusively a set of tools for landscape design, but a broader approach focused on supporting and building relationships between elements, including integrating human society back into the fabric of living ecosystems. The ethics and principles are intended to be transferable and applicable in any setting, however permaculture design is site- and context-specific, responding to the needs, resources, and potential of each individual locale and its inhabitants. Hence, practitioners of permaculture are often eclectic in the methods they employ, taking inspiration from nature, science, and indigenous knowledge, and creatively combining old and new ideas and practices.
Permaculture has expanded since the 1970s into a global movement through a loose network of local, national, and international groups of people. Mollison and Holmgren intended the vision of permaculture to be shared by others throughout the world by having students of permaculture become its teachers. They founded the Permaculture Institute USA in 1997 to foster the spread of the philosophy and to develop the movement's standards of professional practice. The organization's goals are focused on education and the creation of a community of permaculture practitioners and allied groups.
To become a permaculture design consultant, individuals typically complete a permaculture design certificate that includes a standard international permaculture curriculum, but also varies according to the teacher and context. Also, many communities across the globe have formed local permaculture groups that sponsor workshops and speakers on topics applicable to developing and maintaining permaculture systems, and there are regional, national and international permaculture convergences, or gatherings. Grounded in democratic ideals, permaculture is a constantly evolving practice and movement focused on finding creative ways to live more sustainably.
Permaculture has been criticized by some observers, mainly due to the lack of scientific studies of the effectiveness of permaculture techniques compared to the claims of their proponents. Some of this criticism has come from within the permaculture community, by those who feel statistics on the productivity and financial feasibility of permaculture projects needs to be recorded in order to achieve mainstream acceptance among farmers. Others have objected to more specific elements within permaculture,for example claiming that the "food forest" is inherently less productive than traditional farming or gardening.
Bibliography
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