What is Permaculture?
The first thing most people says when
I mention Permaculture is,
"what is permaculture?"
There is not a simple answer to this question, however the question needs to be addressed.
Firstly a little history
In the mid 70's two Australian ecologists, Bill Mollison & David Holmgren, started to develop ideas that they hoped could be used to create stable agricultural systems. This was in response to the rapidly growing use of destructive post-war industrial agricultural methods that were poisoning the land and water, reducing biodiversity, and removing billions of tones of soil from previously fertile landscapes. A design approach called 'permaculture' was the result, and was first made public with the publication of Permaculture One in 1978.
Permaculture has been added to by many of its practitioners. It has now evolved far beyond it’s original concept.
Each designer has the opportunity to add to its evolution even further.
Permaculture is not a static concept, like the systems it is used to design it can and should be allowed to evolve.
Permaculture has developed in three different directions,
The original design framework,
A philosophy & A Movement
My concentration on the following pages will be on the design framework
Some definitions you may find useful.
Bill Mollison’s definition
“Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted & thoughtful observation rather than protracted & thoughtless labour; & of looking at plants & animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single-product system.”
David Holmgren’s definition
"Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs"
Steve Hanson’s definition
“Permaculture is a design system for human settlements, which works with nature not against it. The system should provide for its human inhabitants while allowing all of nature to fulfil its own evolution.”
So why do I add further to this discussion with my own definition?
I am a pragmatist and I am only interested in what works and preferably what can be demonstrated clearly to work.
Bill Mollison talks of philosophy which is for the privilege of those individuals’ rich enough to spend time thinking about life and what it means. I love wisdom but true wisdom comes from experience not philosophical musings. David Holmgren talks of designing landscapes which is quite concise permaculture is about designing landscapes but in truth it’s about designing landscapes for human habitation and exploitation. Nature has already been designed so why fix that which is not broken, permaculture is about human exploitation of landscapes. I feel my definition is practical and honest, my desire here is to present permaculture in a practical manner.
Links on the top right lead to more information
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