permaculture

[Daniel.Donahoo@dhs.vic.gov.au]

Michael et al.

i appreciate your work and ideas. and by no means claim any relevance in
the scheme of 'permaculture intelligensia' or even as a developed
permacultural practicioner...but i have some concerns about your ideas that
'seem like permaculture'...

i think that we must realise that permaculture is a form of 'system
design'. there are many different types of system design - some
permaculturalists have explored combining different systems with
permaculture as part of their practice - i think of darren doherty's work
on broadacre farsm using some traditional ag forms, permaculture and
yeoman's keyline design systems.

however, i do not think it is the way something is designed that makes it
permacultural - it is the ethics and principles that drive the innovative
design that make permaculture what it is

by taking the idea of 'zones', which is a common form of a method of system
design (though often explained slightly differently) and applying it to
other social, financial, spiritual, personal etc. syetms that you describe
is not necesserily permaculture. it may be - but surely the governing
principles and ethics that guide the design is what will make it
permacultural - not just the zoning...which is a more pragmatic way of
segmenting things.

again - i would direct anyone to read David Holmgren's new book - far from
simply establishing an idea, i would argue David Holmgren was very young
when he began to fomulate his concepts of permaculture and is now at a
point where he gives a far more detailed and broad reaching understanding
of how the ethics and principles apply to the design of systems....

your arguement seems to rest heavily on the idea that the 'zone' concept is
the core of permaculture, i think it is much more than this that makes
permacultural systems design so significant and to not acknowledge the
complexity of the design system is to again limit it. however, permaculture
is more than just the design of gardens and food forests and i think this
is something that all permaculturalists are becoming more aware of and
exploring in their roles within mainstream society.

cheers,

dan d





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