The word permaculture is a contraction of permanent agriculture or, more broadly, permanent culture. The simplest definition of permaculture is an ecological design science -- a way of understanding and using the many ways that parts of living systems interact or work together to generate harmony or dissonance among them. Bill Mollison, the Australian founder of permaculture, calls it
a philosophy of working with rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless action; of looking at systems and people in all their functions, rather than asking only one yield of them; and of allowing systems to demonstrate their own evolutions.
A basic question that can be asked in two ways is: "What can I get from this land, or person?" or "What does this person, or land, have to give if I cooperate with them?"
Of these two approaches, the former leads to war and waste, the latter to peace and plenty.
Two of permaculture's most important principles are:
- the Rule of Necessitous Use -- that we leave any natural system alone until we are, of strict necessity, forced to use it.
- the Rule of Conservative Use -- having found it necessary to use a natural resource, we may insist on every attempt to:
- reduce waste, hence pollution;
- thoroughly replace lost minerals;
- do a careful energy accounting; and
- make an assessment of the long-term, negative, biosocial effects on society, and act to buffer or eliminate these.
Mollison advocates protecting wilderness areas from further
encroachment, rehabilitating degraded or eroded land with forests
and ground covers, and designing human living environments to
sustainably satisfy people's real needs so they don't have to
degrade their environment to survive.
Other permaculture principles with a strong ring of co-intelligence include:
The permaculture movement is widespread. Thousands of people
around the world practice it. There are textbooks, classes and
journals on the subject.
By arranging things so they assist each other, permaculture home and landscape design reduces work, walking distances and waste products. For an excellent example, check out "Making a Habitat where Everything Fits."
Bill Mollison, Introduction to Permaculture (Tagari,
Patrick Whitefield, Permaculture in a Nutshell (Permanent Publications,
Clanfield, Hapshire, England, 1993)