What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a design system based on ethics and principles which can be used to establish, design, manage and improve all efforts made by individuals, households and communities towards a sustainable future.
Permaculture brings together sustainability sciences, ethics, environmental principles and just plain common sense into one overall guide for living.
The main features of permaculture can be summarised as:
- A system for creating sustainable human settlements by integrating design and ecology
- Synthesis of traditional knowledge and modern science, applicable to both urban and rural situations
- Taking natural systems as a model and working with nature to design sustainable environments which will provide basic human needs as well as the social and economic infrastructures which support them
- Encouraging us to become a conscious part of the solutions to the many problems which face us both locally and globally
Permaculture Principles
Permaculture is a philosophy based on 12 design principles. For a good introduction to the 12 principles, take a look at David Holmgren's website or watch the video below :
There are many books on permaculture, get started by reading a free e-book called "Essence of Permaculture" - a summary of permaculture concepts and principles taken from "Permaculture: Principles & Pathways - Beyond Sustainability" by David Holmgren.
