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  • From: Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>
  • To: Frank <FranksFarm@aol.com>, permaculture <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: The Ethics and Principles of Permaculture Design
  • Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 21:45:01 -0400


Adapted from documents produced by Steve Diver of Appropriate
Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) http://www.attra.org/
& Albert Bates <http://www.thefarm.org/permaculture/>
via Bill Mollison's Permaculture: Design for a Sustainable Future or A
Designer's Manual.

These are quite brief and sound bite-ish, and truly require a period of
elaboration, application, and practice, but will, nevertheless, serve as
a starting point and a touchpoint for the REdesign all of us must engage
as we discover our own personal project unfoldment. Whether we have a
farm, forest, jungle,desert, village, garden, neighborhood, urban
rooftop, or asphalt lot, we all need to understand where we are...and
choose to live within the actual limits of the system (see #24 below) or
not. The unspoken Principle, often left out of these lists, is the one
that encourages us to (#35)"Get help!" Many eyes, many hands, and many
hearts must cooperate to achieve the goal of sustainable culture,
WHATEVER that is. WHAT it IS will be determined by local groups getting
together and comparing notes and sharing results.
Blessed Be.
Keith

The Ethics of Permaculture:

Permaculture is unique among design systems in that it works with a
set of ethics
that suggest we think and act responsibly in relation to each other
and the
earth. The ethics of permaculture provide a sense of place in the
larger
scheme of things, and serve as a guidepost to right livelihood in
concert with
the global community and the environment, rather than individualism
and
indifference.
1.Care of the Earth ...includes all living and non-living
things–plants, animals, land, water and air
2.Care of People ...promotes self-reliance and community
responsibility–access
to resources necessary for existence
3.Setting Limits to Population & Consumption ...gives away
surplus–contribution of surplus time, labor, money, information,
and energy
to achieve the aims of earth and people care. Permaculture also
acknowledges a basic life ethic, which recognizes the intrinsic
worth of every
living thing. A tree has value in itself, even if it presents no
commercial value
to humans. That the tree is alive and functioning is worthwhile. It
is doing its
part in nature: recycling litter, producing oxygen, sequestering
carbon
dioxide, sheltering animals, building soils, and so on.

The Principles of Permaculture Design:

Whereas permaculture ethics are more akin to broad moral values or
codes
of behavior, the principles of permaculture provide a set of
universally
applicable guidelines which can be used in designing sustainable
habitats.
Distilled from multiple disciplines–ecology, energy conservation,
landscape
design, and environmental science–these principles are inherent in
any
permaculture design, in many climates, and at many scales. The
following is a list
of these principles.

1. Relative Location: Components placed in a system are viewed
relatively, not in isolation.

2. Functional Relationship between components: Everything
is connected to everything else.

3. Recognize functional relationships between elements:
Every function is supported by many elements.

4. Redundancy: Good design ensures that all important functions can

withstand the failure of one or more element.

5. Every element is supported by many functions: Each
element we include is a system, chosen and placed so that it
performs as
many functions as possible.

6. Local Focus: "Think globally - Act locally" Grow your own food,
cooperate with neighbors. Community efficiency not
self-sufficiency.

7. Diversity: As a general rule, as sustainable systems mature they

become increasingly diverse in both space and time. What is
important is the
complexity of the functional relationships that exist between
elements not the
number of elements.

8. Use Biological Resources: We know living things reproduce and
build up their availability over time, assisted by their
interaction with other
compatible elements. Use and reserve biological intelligence.

9. One Calorie In/One Calorie Out: Do not consume or export
more biomass than carbon fixed by the solar budget.

10. Stocking: Finding the balance of various elements to keep one
from
overpowering another over time. How much of an element needs to be
produced in order to fulfill the need of whole system?

11. Stacking: Multilevel functions for single element (stacking
functions).
Multilevel garden design, ie., trellising, forest garden, vines,
groundcovers,
etc.

12. Succession: Recognize that certain elements prepare the way for

systems to support other elements in the future, i.e.: succession
planting. Build on success.

13. Use Onsite Resources: Determine what resources are available
and entering the system on their own and maximize their use.

14. Edge Effect: Ecotones are the most diverse and fertile area in
a
system. Two ecosystems come together to form a third which has more

diversity than either of the other two, i.e.: edges of ponds,
forests, meadows,
currents etc.

15. Energy Recycling: Yields from system designed to supply onsite
needs and/or needs of local region.

16. Small Scale: Intensive Systems start small and create a system
that
is manageable and produces a high yield.

17. Make Least Change for the Greatest Effect: The less
change that is generated, the less embedded energy is used to endow
the
system.

18. Planting Strategy: 1st-natives, 2nd-proven exotics, 3rd
unproven
exotics - carefully on small scale with lots of observation.

19. Work Within Nature: Aiding the natural cycles results in higher

yield and less work. A little support goes a long way.

20. Appropriate Technology: The same principles apply to cooking,
lighting, transportation, heating, sewage treatment, water and
other utilities.

21. Law of Return: Whatever we take, we must return Every object
must responsibly provide for its replacement.

22. Stress and Harmony: Stress here may be defined as either
prevention of natural function, or of forced function. Harmony may
be
defined as the integration of chosen and natural functions, and the
easy
supply of essential needs.

23. The Problem is the solution: We are the problem, we are the
solution. Turn constraints into resources. Mistakes are tools for
learning.

24. The yield of a system is theoretically unlimited: The
only limit on the number of uses of a resource possible is the
limit of
information and imagination of designer(s).

25. Dispersal of Yield Over Time: Principal of seven generations.
We can use energy to construct these systems, providing that in
their
lifetime, they store or conserve more energy that we use to
construct them
or to maintain them.

26. A Policy of Responsibility (to relinquish power): The
role of successful design is to create a self-managed system.

27. Principle of Disorder: Order and harmony produce energy for
other uses. Disorder consumes energy to no useful end. Tidiness is
maintained disorder. Chaos has form, but is not predictable. The
amplification of small fluctuations.

28. Entropy: In complex systems, disorder is an increasing result.
Entropy and life-force are a stable pair that maintain the universe
to infinity.

29. Metastability: For a complex system to remain stable, there
must
be small pockets of disorder.

30. Entelechy: Principal of genetic intelligence. i.e. The rose has
thorns
to protect itself.

31. Observation: Protracted & thoughtful observation rather than
protracted and thoughtless labor.

32. We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities.

33. Wait one year: (See #31,Observation, above)

34. Hold water and fertility as high (in elevation) on the
landscape as possible. Its all downhill from there.





  • The Ethics and Principles of Permaculture Design, Keith Johnson, 08/25/2000

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