*1.* From Bill Mollison:
*Permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human
environments*.
*2*.From the Permaculture Drylands Institute, published in The
Permaculture Activist (Autumn 1989): *Permaculture: the use of ecology
as the basis for designing integrated systems* of food production,
housing, appropriate technology, and community development. Permaculture
is built upon an ethic of caring for the earth and interacting with the
environment in mutually beneficial ways.
*3.* "*As a system of design, Permaculture provides a new vocabulary and
pattern language* for observation and action, attention and listening,
that empowers people to co-design homes, neighborhoods, and communities
full of truly abundant food, energy, habitat, water, income, and yields
enough to share." Keith Johnson, editor/writer/webguy for the
Permaculture Activist magazine.
*4.* From Lee Barnes (former editor of Katuah Journal and Permaculture
Connections), Waynesville, North Carolina:
*Permaculture (PERMAnent agriCULTURE or PERMAnent CULTURE) is a
sustainable design system stressing the harmonious interrelationship of
humans, plants, animals and the Earth.* To paraphrase the founder of
permaculture, designer Bill Mollison: Permaculture principles focus on
thoughtful designs for small-scale intensive systems which are labor
efficient and which use biological resources instead of fossil fuels.
Designs stress ecological connections and closed energy and material
loops. The core of permaculture is design and the working relationships
and connections between all things. Each component in a system performs
multiple functions, and each function is supported by many elements. Key
to efficient design is observation and replication of natural
ecosystems, where designers maximize diversity with polycultures, stress
efficient energy planning for houses and settlement, using and
accelerating natural plant succession, and increasing the highly
productive "edge-zones" within the system.
*5.* From Michael Pilarski, founder of Friends of the Trees, published
in International Green Front Report (1988):
*Permaculture is: the design of land use systems that are sustainable
and environmentally sound;* the design of culturally appropriate systems
which lead to social stability; a design system characterized by an
integrated application of ecological principles in land use; an
international movement for land use planning and design; an ethical
system stressing positivism and cooperation. In the broadest sense,
permaculture refers to land use systems which promote stability in
society, utilize resources in a sustainable way and preserve wildlife
habitat and the genetic diversity of wild and domestic plants and
animals. It is a synthesis of ecology and geography, of observation and
design. Permaculture involves ethics of earth care because the
sustainable use of land cannot be separated from lifestyles and
philosophical issues.
*6.* From a Bay Area Permaculture Group brochure, published in West
Coast Permaculture News & Gossip and Sustainable Living Newsletter (Fall
1995): *Permaculture is a practical concept which can be applied in the
city, on the farm, and in the wilderness.* Its principles empower people
to establish highly productive environments providing for food, energy,
shelter, and other material and non-material needs, including economic.
Carefully observing natural patterns characteristic of a particular
site, the permaculture designer gradually discerns optimal methods for
integrating water catchment, human shelter, and energy systems with tree
crops, edible and useful perennial plants, domestic and wild animals and
aquaculture. Permaculture adopts techniques and principles from ecology,
appropriate technology, sustainable agriculture, and the wisdom of
indigenous peoples. The ethical basis of permaculture rests upon care of
the earth-maintaining a system in which all life can thrive. This
includes human access to resources and provisions, but not the
accumulation of wealth, power, or land beyond their needs.
*Characteristics of Permaculture:*
*Permaculture is one of the most holistic, integrated systems analysis
and design methodologies found in the world.*
* Permaculture can be applied to create productive ecosystems from
the human- use standpoint or to help degraded ecosystems recover
health and wildness.
* Permaculture can be applied in any ecosystem, no matter how degraded.
* Permaculture values and validates traditional knowledge and
experience.
* Permaculture incorporates sustainable agriculture practices and
land management techniques and strategies from around the world.
* Permaculture is a bridge between traditional cultures and emergent
earth-tuned cultures.
* Permaculture promotes organic agriculture which does not use
pesticides to pollute the environment.
* Permaculture aims to maximize symbiotic and synergistic
relationships between site components.
* Permaculture is urban planning as well as rural land design.
* Permaculture design is site specific, client specific, and culture
specific.
†Source: Pilarski, Michael (ed.) 1994. Restoration Forestry. Kivaki
Press, Durango, CO. pp. 450.
*The Practical Application of Permaculture is not limited to plant and
animal agriculture,* but also includes community planning and
development, use of appropriate technologies (coupled with an adjustment
of lifestyle), and adoption of concepts and philosophies that are both
earth-based and people-centered, such as bioregionalism. Many of the
appropriate technologies advocated by permaculturists are well known.
Among these are solar and wind power, composting toilets, solar
greenhouses, energy efficient housing, and solar food cooking and
drying. Due to the inherent sustainability of perennial cropping
systems, permaculture places a heavy emphasis on tree crops. Systems
that integrate annual and perennial crops-such as alley cropping and
agroforestry-take advantage of "the edge effect," increase biological
diversity, and offer other characteristics missing in mono- culture
systems. Thus, multicropping systems that blend woody perennials and
annuals hold promise as viable techniques for large-scale farming.
Ecological methods of production for any specific crop or farming system
(e.g., soil building practices, biological pest control, composting) are
central to permaculture as well as to sustainable agriculture in general.
*Since permaculture is not a production system, per se, but rather a
land use and community planning philosophy,* it is not limited to a
specific method of production. Furthermore, as permaculture principles
may be adapted to farms or villages worldwide, it is site specific and
therefore amenable to locally adapted techniques of production. As an
example, standard organic farming and gardening techniques utilizing
cover crops, green manures, crop rotation, and mulches are emphasized in
permacultural systems. However, there are many other options and
technologies available to sustainable farmers working within a
permacultural framework (e.g., chisel plows, no-till implements, spading
implements, compost turners, rotational grazing). The decision as to
which "system" is employed is site-specific and management dependent.
*Farming systems and techniques commonly associated with permaculture
include agro- forestry, swales, contour plantings, Keyline agriculture
(soil and water management), hedgerows and windbreaks, and integrated
farming systems such as pond-dike aquaculture, aquaponics,
intercropping, and polyculture.* Gardening and recycling methods common
to permaculture include edible landscaping, keyhole gardening, companion
planting, trellising, sheet mulching, chicken tractors, solar
greenhouses, spiral herb gardens, swales, and vermicomposting. Water
collection, management, and reuse systems like Keyline, greywater, rain
catchment, constructed wetlands, aquaponics (the integration of
hydroponics with recirculating aquaculture), and solar aquatic ponds
(also known as Living Machines) play an important role in permaculture
designs.
Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
Is it OK for me to publish everyone's definitions of permaculture, with
credits,
somewhere in my various web resources, probably the PermacultureWiki?
LL