permaculture

["Laurence Gaffney" <lgaffney@bigpond.com>]

Thank you Lawrence London (Digest, Vol 96, Issue 8) for posting this paper:-
http://www.agrobiodiversity-diversitas.org/Jackson%20et%20al%202010_COSUST38.pdf
 

I notice that reporting Jackson in the Newsletter of the University of 
California Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program (Vol. 20, 
No.2, Summer 2008) it says:- 
"The main reason we care about this biodiversity loss is not only because of 
the aesthetic, ethical or cultural values, but also because it could have 
numerous far-reaching - and often unanticipated - consequences for our 
life-support system," she said.

Jackson noted that one of the most worrisome possibilities is a reduction in 
the capacity of natural and managed ecosystems to deliver ecological 
services, such as production of food and fiber, carbon storage, nutrient 
cycling and resistance to climate and other environmental changes. 

"Assessing the role of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, and 
understanding how to conserve and use biodiversity as a management tool for 
sustainable agriculture, are major scientific challenges of our time," she 
said.

http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/newsltr/v20n2/SA_v20n2.pdf

Permaculture would/should come under the heading of managed ecosystems I 
think.

The Jackson et al. 2010 paper in the introduction says:- 

"For ecosystems to remain functional and healthy, they must have the capacity 
to respond to unforeseen change. This requires keeping a number of options 
open, even if such a strategy is inefficient and suboptimal in the here and- 
now. Maintenance of future options requires preparation for uncertainty, and 
for quick and agile adaptation, given the rapid pace of change. We use the 
term 'sustainagility' to emphasize the importance of developing strategies 
for adaptive capacity and transformability that consider tradeoffs at 
multiple scales. This is in contrast to simply sustaining the present 
conditions or systems through increased resilience, that is, the capacity of 
a system to experience shocks while retaining essentially the same functions 
and structures.

Also on Page 82:-

"The concept of ecosystem services has helped to bring ecosystem issues into 
the realm of policymakers, but it emphasizes utilitarian,  anthropocentric 
perspectives, and leaves intrinsic values and option values poorly 
represented."

This raises issues for consideration within Permaculture Design, perhaps 
particularly so for "Urban Permaculture".

Laurence Gaffney