In these days of increased concern over food security, resource scarcity and deteriorating ecosystems, the system of design known as permaculture is an important part of finding sustainable solutions.

Permaculture is much more than organic gardening. Some believe it is one of Australia’s greatest intellectual exports, because it has helped many people worldwide to design ecologically sustainable strategies for their homes, gardens, farms and communities.

So, what is permaculture? Environmentalist Paul Hawken talks about ‘the movement that has no name’ or ‘the other superpower’. This is a global fast growing and dynamic environmental and social justice movement of millions, working often unnoticed at the edges of society, to bring lasting and positive change. Permaculture is very much a part of this movement.

In the early 1970s, Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren developed the idea of permaculture and also ran the first courses, known as the Permaculture Design Certificate or PDC. Since then, permaculture has spread around the world to more than 160 countries and people can study for PDCs in many locations, cultures and languages.

The genius of Mollison and Holmgren’s work is that it brings together an understanding of natural ecosystems, traditional small-scale mixed agriculture, low impact technology, community development and social justice into an interconnected dynamic system of design principles for creating self-sustaining human settlements. Permaculture is about looking at the whole in all its complexity, and making connections. It is through the complexity of the systems we work with, that we can achieve productive relationships, harnessed through careful observation and responsive, thoughtful design.

Early in its development, permaculture focused on agriculture and food systems, but its design principles have now been applied in diverse ways to urban food production, suburban gardens, farms, communities, larger bioregions and even social systems. The principles used to develop permaculture systems are based on a three-part ethical ecological and social justice framework as follows:

∗ Care of Earth: Provision for all the well-being of life systems;
∗ Care of people: Provision for people to access those resources necessary to their well-being and;
∗ Share the surplus. This is sometimes re-stated as ‘return the surplus’ or ‘reinvest the surplus’.

Every problem has a solution

Though it is based in science, permaculture equally nourishes and supports vernacular, or ‘everyday’ wisdom, encouraging people to adapt permaculture to their own culture as well as trusting their intuition.

Yet many of us in industrialised countries have lost confidence in our ability to take care of ourselves, our families and our communities. We buy almost everything and make almost nothing ourselves. Many communities struggle with isolation and are not able to meet the needs of their members or solve their own problems.

We have become used to relying on technological solutions to our problems, which are often disconnected from culture and community. Because of our faith in technology, we tend to ignore the price we pay for the mess so often left in its wake. Our reliance on industrial agriculture over the past 50 years has left soils infertile, water storages and ecosystems devastated, and many people without the knowledge to grow their own food or build their own shelter.

Permaculture Pioneers: Stories from the New Frontier tells the very personal stories of 25 Australian permaculturists, male and female, old and young, who are inspired by permaculture to work for a more sustainable world.

People usually think of pioneer species in ecosystems as ‘weeds’ or ‘pests’. They are those resilient plants and animals with the unique qualities that allow them to thrive in a degraded ecosystem and help to prepare it for other species to follow. The writers in this particular book are also pioneers, a remarkable and diverse group of people who have all chosen to work towards a sustainable future through the practice of permaculture. Like many others, they recognise the need for a deep transformation of cultural and personal values from being high consumers to values based on social justice and ecological sustainability.

Their stories offer all readers, not just permaculturalists, something we can all learn from that comes from real life achievements as well as many mistakes and challenges. One of the reasons permaculture is becoming so popular is the common sense (or as some have said, ‘un-common sense’) of its ideas and approaches, which can almost seem revolutionary these days.

For example, if you have too many snails in your garden, then the problem is not really too many snails, but not enough ducks to eat them. As Bill Mollison says, if we put some ducks into the garden we not only help restore balance and bring the snails back to lower numbers, we also add to the benefits by having some meat, eggs, feathers, manure, clearing up fallen fruit, controlling grass and weeds and other pests such as insects.

[quote quote=”If you have too many snails in your garden, then the problem is not really too many snails, but not enough ducks to eat them.” type=”image” image=”4116″ ]

Instead of seeing snails as a problem requiring energy and unsustainable measures such as poisons, a permaculture approach says that too many snails means the system is out of balance. Instead it can be an opportunity to stimulate rethinking the design to be more productive. As Mollison puts it, ‘the problem is the solution’.

From the insights of co-originator David Holmgren’s and others who have been involved in permaculture for many years, to an inspiring younger generation, the writers in Permaculture Pioneers show us a range of ways of working in permaculture. They are all ordinary people struggling to make sense in a world of fears about food security, peak oil, climate change and ecosystem disruption. Contributors explain how permaculture offers everyone a way to stop being fearful and start being positive and pro-active, and provide readers with strategic and practical skills to work on solutions.

One of the book’s key messages is that ordinary folk do not have to wait for experts and governments to lead. The experiences of the Permaculture Pioneers illustrate that we can all be courageous and amazingly creative. We all have the tools to empower ourselves, rather than simply being dragged along in a flow we cannot escape.

The great eco-theologian, Thomas Berry, wrote that we have reached a time in Western history where our progress towards an ‘ever improving’ human situation has instead brought us to waste-world rather than wonder-world. Permaculture is an attempt to create that wonder-world, with eyes wide open.

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Permaculture Pioneers – Stories from the New Frontier, edited by Kerry Dawborn and Caroline Smith, is available for purchase online here. All royalties from the book are being donated by the editors and contributors to the Permaculture Pioneers Fund, to be used to support appropriate permaculture projects in Australia and overseas.