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Permaculture Is A Set of Design Principles Centered On: Resilient

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Permaculture is a set of design principles centered on whole systems thinking simulating or directly

utilizing the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems. It uses these principles
in a growing number of fields from regenerative agriculture, rewilding, and community.
With its system of applied education, research and citizen-led design permaculture has grown a
popular web of global networks and developed into a global social movement[citation needed].
The term permaculture was developed and coined by David Holmgren, then a graduate student at
the Tasmanian College of Advanced Education's Department of Environmental Design, and Bill
Mollison, senior lecturer in Environmental Psychology at University of Tasmania, in 1978.[1] The
word permaculture originally referred to "permanent agriculture",[2][3] but was expanded to stand also
for "permanent culture", as it was understood that social aspects were integral to a truly sustainable
system as inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka’s natural farming philosophy.
It has many branches that include, but are not limited to, ecological design, ecological
engineering, regenerative design, environmental design, and construction. Permaculture also
includes integrated water resources management that develops sustainable architecture, and
regenerative and self-maintained habitat and agricultural systems modelled from natural
ecosystems.[4][5]
Mollison has said: "Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of
protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor; and of looking at
plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system."[6]
The 12 principles of permaculture most commonly referred to are first described by David Holmgren
in his book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability (2002). They include:
Observe and Interact, Catch and Store Energy, Obtain a Yield, Apply Self Regulation and Accept
Feedback, Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services, Produce No Waste, Design From
Patterns to Details, Integrate Rather Than Segregate, Use Small and Slow Solutions, Use and Value
Diversity, Use Edges and Value the Marginal, and Creatively Use and Respond to Change.

Contents

 1History
 2Core tenets and principles of design
 3Theory
o 3.1Twelve design principles
o 3.2Layers
o 3.3Guilds
o 3.4Edge effect
o 3.5Zones
o 3.6People and permaculture
o 3.7Domesticated animals
o 3.8Vegan permaculture
 4Common practices
o 4.1Agroforestry
o 4.2Hügelkultur
o 4.3Natural building
o 4.4Rainwater harvesting
o 4.5Sheet mulching
o 4.6Intensive rotational grazing
o 4.7Keyline design
o 4.8Fruit tree management
 5Trademark and copyright issues
 6Criticisms
o 6.1General criticisms
o 6.2Agroforestry
 7See also
 8References
o 8.1Bibliography
 9External links

History[edit]
Several individuals revolutionized the branch of permaculture. In 1929, Joseph Russell Smith added
an antecedent term as the subtitle for Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture, a book which sums up
his long experience experimenting with fruits and nuts as crops for human food and animal
feed.[7] Smith saw the world as an inter-related whole and suggested mixed systems of trees and
crops underneath. This book inspired many individuals intent on making agriculture more
sustainable, such as Toyohiko Kagawa who pioneered forest farming in Japan in the 1930s.[8]
In Australian P. A. Yeomans' 1964 book Water for Every Farm, he supports the definition of
permanent agriculture, as one that can be sustained indefinitely. Yeomans introduced both an
observation-based approach to land use in Australia in the 1940s and the Keyline Design as a way
of managing the supply and distribution of water in the 1950s.
Holmgren noted Stewart Brand’s works as an early influence to permaculture.[9] Other early
influences include Ruth Stout and Esther Deans, who pioneered no-dig gardening, and Masanobu
Fukuoka who, in the late 1930s in Japan, began advocating no-till orchards and gardens and natural
farming.[10]

Bill Mollison in 2008.

In the late 1960s, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren started developing ideas about stable
agricultural systems on the southern Australian island state of Tasmania. Dangers of the rapidly
growing use of industrial-agricultural methods sparked these ideas.[11] In their view, these methods
were highly dependent on non-renewable resources, and were additionally poisoning land and
water, reducing biodiversity, and removing billions of tons of topsoil from previously fertile
landscapes. They responded with a design approach called permaculture. This term was first made
public with their publication of their 1978 book Permaculture One.[11]
Among some of the more recognizable names who received their original training within Mollison's
PDC system would include Geoff Lawtonand Toby Hemenway, each of whom have more than 25
years experience teaching and promoting permaculture as a sustainable way of growing food. Simon
J Fjell was a Founding Director of the Permaculture Institute in late 1979 and a teacher of the first
Permaculture Design Course, having first met Mollison in 1976. He has since worked internationally
and is currently listing a major social enterprise on NASDAQ.
By the early 1980s, the concept had broadened from agricultural systems design
towards sustainable human habitats. After Permaculture One, Mollison further refined and
developed the ideas by designing hundreds of permaculture sites and writing more detailed books,
such as Permaculture: A Designers Manual. Mollison lectured in over 80 countries and taught his
two-week Permaculture Design Course (PDC) to hundreds of students.[citation needed] Mollison
"encouraged graduates to become teachers themselves and set up their own institutes and
demonstration sites. This multiplier effect was critical to permaculture’s rapid expansion."[12]
The permaculture movement also spread throughout Asia and Central America, with Hong Kong-
based Asian Institute of Sustainable Architecture (AISA),[13] Rony Lec leading the foundation of the
Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (IMAP)[14] in Guatemala and Juan Rojas co-founding the
Permaculture Institute of El Salvador.[15]

Core tenets and principles of design[edit]


The three core tenets of permaculture are:[16][17][18]

 Care for the earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. This is the first
principle, because without a healthy earth, humans cannot flourish.
 Care for the people: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their
existence
 Fair share: By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to further the above
principles.[19] This includes returning waste back into the system to recycle into usefulness.[20] The
third ethic is referred to as Fair Share, which reflects that each of us should take no more than
what we need before we reinvest the surplus.
Permaculture design emphasizes patterns of landscape, function, and species assemblies. It
determines where these elements should be placed so they can provide maximum benefit to the
local environment. Permaculture maximizes useful connections between components and synergy of
the final design. The focus of permaculture, therefore, is not on each separate element, but rather on
the relationships created among elements by the way they are placed together; the whole
becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Permaculture design therefore seeks to minimize waste,
human labor, and energy input by building systems, and maximizes benefits between design
elements to achieve a high level of synergy. Permaculture designs evolve over time by taking into
account these relationships and elements and can evolve into extremely complex systems that
produce a high density of food and materials with minimal input.[21]
The design principles, which are the conceptual foundation of permaculture, were derived from the
science of systems ecology and study of pre-industrial examples of sustainableland use.
Permaculture draws from several disciplines including organic farming, agroforestry, integrated
farming, sustainable development, and applied ecology.[22] Permaculture has been applied most
commonly to the design of housing and landscaping, integrating techniques such
as agroforestry, natural building, and rainwater harvesting within the context of permaculture design
principles and theory.[citation needed]

Theory[edit]
Twelve design principles[edit]
Twelve Permaculture design principles articulated by David Holmgren in his Permaculture: Principles
and Pathways Beyond Sustainability:[23]

1. Observe and interact: By taking time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit
our particular situation.
2. Catch and store energy: By developing systems that collect resources at peak abundance,
we can use them in times of need.
3. Obtain a yield: Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you
are doing.
4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: We need to discourage inappropriate activity to
ensure that systems can continue to function well.
5. Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of nature's abundance
to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources.
6. Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us,
nothing goes to waste.
7. Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and
society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.
8. Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships
develop between those things and they work together to support each other.
9. Use small and slow solutions: Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones,
making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.
10. Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes
advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.
11. Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most
interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive
elements in the system.
12. Creatively use and respond to change: We can have a positive impact on inevitable change
by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.
Layers[edit]

Suburban permaculture garden in Sheffield, UK with different layers of vegetation

Layers are one of the tools used to design functional ecosystems that are both sustainable and of
direct benefit to humans. A mature ecosystem has a huge number of relationships between its
component parts: trees, understory, ground cover, soil, fungi, insects, and animals. Because plants
grow to different heights, a diverse community of life is able to grow in a relatively small space, as
the vegetation occupies different layers. There are generally seven recognized layers in a food
forest, although some practitioners also include fungi as an eighth layer.[24]

1. The canopy: the tallest trees in the system. Large trees dominate but typically do not
saturate the area, i.e. there exist patches barren of trees.
2. Understory layer: trees that flourish in the dappled light under the canopy.
3. Shrub layer: a diverse layer of woody perennials of limited height. Includes most berry
bushes.
4. Herbaceous layer: Plants in this layer die back to the ground every winter (if winters are cold
enough, that is). They do not produce woody stems as the Shrub layer does. Many culinary
and medicinal herbs are in this layer. A large variety of beneficial plants fall into this layer.
May be annuals, biennials or perennials.
5. Soil surface/Groundcover: There is some overlap with the Herbaceous layer and
the Groundcover layer; however plants in this layer grow much closer to the ground, grow
densely to fill bare patches of soil, and often can tolerate some foot traffic. Cover
crops retain soil and lessen erosion, along with green manures that add nutrients
and organic matter to the soil, especially nitrogen.
6. Rhizosphere: Root layers within the soil. The major components of this layer are the soil and
the organisms that live within it such as plant roots and rhizomes (including root crops such
as potatoes and other edible tubers), fungi, insects, nematodes, worms, etc.
7. Vertical layer: climbers or vines, such as runner beans and lima beans (vine varieties).[24][25]
Guilds[edit]
A guild is a group of species within which each provides a unique set of diverse functions that work
in conjunction or harmony. There are many forms of guilds, including guilds of plants with similar
functions that could interchange within an ecosystem, but the most common perception is that of a
mutual support guild. Mutual support guilds are groups of animals, insects, plants, etc. that work well
together. Plants may be grown for food production, draw nutrients from deep in the soil through tap
roots, are nitrogen-fixing legumes, attract beneficial insects, and repel harmful insects. When
grouped together in a mutually beneficial arrangement, these plants form a guild. See Dave Jacke's
work on edible forest gardens for more information on other guilds, specifically resource-partitioning
and community-function guilds.[26][27][28]

Edge effect[edit]
The edge effect in ecology is the effect of the juxtaposition, or placing contrasting environments on
an ecosystem. Permaculturists argue that where vastly differing systems meet, there is an intense
area of productivity and useful connections. An example of this is the coast; where the land and the
sea meet, there is a particularly rich area that meets a disproportionate percentage of human and
animal needs. This idea is played out in permacultural designs by using spirals in herb gardens, or
creating ponds that have wavy undulating shorelines rather than a simple circle or oval (thereby
increasing the amount of edge for a given area).[29]

Zones[edit]

Permaculture zones 0–5

Zones intelligently organize design elements in a human environment based on the frequency of
human use and plant or animal needs. Frequently manipulated or harvested elements of the design
are located close to the house in zones 1 and 2. Manipulated elements located further away are
used less frequently. Zones are numbered from 0 to 5 based on positioning.[30]
Zone 0
The house, or home center. Here permaculture principles would be applied in terms of
aiming to reduce energy and water needs, harnessing natural resources such as sunlight,
and generally creating a harmonious, sustainable environment in which to live and work.
Zone 0 is an informal designation, which is not specifically defined in Bill Mollison’s book.
Zone 1
The zone nearest to the house, the location for those elements in the system that require
frequent attention, or that need to be visited often, such as salad crops, herb plants, soft fruit
like strawberries or raspberries, greenhouse and cold frames, propagation area, worm
compost bin for kitchen waste, etc. Raised beds are often used in zone 1 in urban areas.
Zone 2
This area is used for siting perennial plants that require less frequent maintenance, such as
occasional weed control or pruning, including currant bushes and orchards, pumpkins, sweet
potato, etc. This would also be a good place for beehives, larger scale composting bins, etc.
Zone 3
The area where main-crops are grown, both for domestic use and for trade purposes. After
establishment, care and maintenance required are fairly minimal (provided mulchesand
similar things are used), such as watering or weed control maybe once a week.
Zone 4
A semi-wild area. This zone is mainly used for forage and collecting wild food as well as
production of timber for construction or firewood.
Zone 5
A wilderness area. There is no human intervention in zone 5 apart from the observation of
natural ecosystems and cycles. Through this zone we build up a natural reserve of bacteria,
moulds and insects that can aid the zones above it.[31]
People and permaculture[edit]
Permaculture uses observation of nature to create regenerative systems,
and the place where this has been most visible has been on the landscape.
There has been a growing awareness though that firstly, there is the need
to pay more attention to the peoplecare ethic, as it is often the dynamics of
people that can interfere with projects, and secondly that the principles of
permaculture can be used as effectively to create vibrant, healthy and
productive people and communities as they have been in landscapes.

Domesticated animals[edit]
Domesticated animals are often incorporated into site design, ensuring the
efficiency and productivity of the system.[32]Animals, domestic or wild are a
critical component of any wild or designed sustainable ecosystem.
Research indicates that without the animal’s participation and contribution,
ecological integrity is diminished or impossible.[33] Some of the activities that
contribute to the system include: foraging to cycle nutrients, clear fallen
fruit, weed maintenance, spreading seeds, and pest maintenance. The
nutrients are cycled by animals, transformed from their less digestible form
(such as grass or twigs) into more nutrient-dense manure.[33]
Several animals can be incorporated into a permaculture system, including
cows, goats, chickens, geese, turkey, rabbits, and worms. A more specific
explanation of how the animals can be used is seen in the chicken design.
Chickens can be used to scratch over the soil, thus breaking down the top
soil and using the fecal matter as manure creating a sustainable system.
However, in the domestication of these animals, the complexity and
elegance lie in an effectiveness and efficiency of the design, including
factors like timing and habits to specific areas of a farm. For example,
animals require daily attention in a way that is much more demanding than
plants.[34]

Vegan permaculture[edit]
Vegan permaculture (also known as veganic permaculture, veganiculture,
or vegaculture) avoids the use of domesticated animals.[35] It is essentially
the same as permaculture except for the addition of a fourth core value;
"Animal Care."[36] Zalan Glen, a raw vegan, proposes
that vegaculture should emerge from permaculture in the same way
veganism split from vegetarianism in the 1940s.[36] Vegan permaculture
recognizes the importance of free-living animals, not domesticated animals,
to create a balanced ecosystem.[35] Soil fertility is maintained by the use
of green manures, cover crops, green wastes, composted vegetable matter
in place of manure.

Common practices[edit]
Agroforestry[edit]
Agroforestry is an integrated approach of permaculture, which uses the
interactive benefits from combining trees and shrubs with crops or livestock.
It combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse,
productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems.[37] In
agroforestry systems, trees or shrubs are intentionally used within
agricultural systems, or non-timber forest products are cultured in forest
settings.[38]
Forest gardening is a term permaculturalists use to describe systems
designed to mimic natural forests. Forest gardens, like other permaculture
designs, incorporate processes and relationships that the designers
understand to be valuable in natural ecosystems. The terms forest garden
and food forest are used interchangeably in the permaculture literature.
Numerous permaculturists are proponents of forest gardens, such as
Graham Bell, Patrick Whitefield, Dave Jacke, Eric Toensmeier and Geoff
Lawton. Bell started building his forest garden in 1991 and wrote the
book The Permaculture Garden in 1995, Whitefield wrote the book How to
Make a Forest Garden in 2002, Jacke and Toensmeier co-authored the two
volume book set Edible Forest Gardening in 2005, and Lawton presented
the film Establishing a Food Forest in 2008.[21][39][40]
Tree Gardens, such as Kandyan tree gardens, in South and Southeast
Asia, are often hundreds of years old. It is not self-evident whether these
tree gardens derived initially from experiences of cultivation and forestry, as
is the case in agroforestry, or whether they derived from an understanding
of forest ecosystems, as is the case for permaculture systems. Many
studies of these systems, especially those that predate the term
permaculture, consider these systems to be forms of agroforestry.
Permaculturalists may obscure the distinction of permaculture and
agroforestry when they include existing and ancient systems of
polycropping as examples of food forests.
Food forests and agroforestry are parallel approaches that sometimes lead
to similar designs.

Hügelkultur[edit]
Hügelkultur is the practice of burying large volumes of wood to increase soil
water retention. The porous structure of wood acts as a sponge when
decomposing underground. During the rainy season, masses of buried
wood can absorb enough water to sustain crops through the dry
season.[41] This technique has been used by permaculturalists Sepp
Holzer, Toby Hemenway, Paul Wheaton, and Masanobu Fukuoka.[42][43]

Natural building[edit]
A natural building involves a range of building systems and materials that
place major emphasis on sustainability. Ways of achieving sustainability
through natural building focus on durability and the use of minimally
processed, plentiful or renewable resources, as well as those that,
while recycled or salvaged, produce healthy living environments and
maintain indoor air quality.
The basis of natural building is the need to lessen the environmental impact
of buildings and other supporting systems, without sacrificing comfort,
health, or aesthetics. Natural building primarily utilizes abundantly available
natural materials (e.g., clay, rock, sand, straw, wood, reeds), and draws
heavily on traditional architectural strategies from various climates across
the world. In addition to relying on natural building materials, the emphasis
on the architectural design is heightened. The orientation of a building, the
utilization of local climate and site conditions, the emphasis on natural
ventilation through design, fundamentally lessen operational costs and
positively impact the environment. Building compactly and minimizing
the ecological footprint is common, as are on-site handling of energy
acquisition, on-site water capture, alternate sewage treatment, and water
reuse.[citation needed] Most materials are sourced regionally, locally, or even on-
site. Straw bales, and various earthen masonry techniques such as adobe
bricks, cob (or monolithic adobe), rammed earth and clay-straw infill are
common choices for wall material. Roofing coverings often used include
sod or "living" roofs, thatch, and wooden shakes or shingles. Rubble trench
foundations are popular, as they do not require concrete; likewise, dry-
stacked or lime mortared stem walls are common. Natural builders also
regularly combine different wall systems in a single building, making best
use of different materials' thermal or water resistant properties, for example,
where they are most needed in the structure.

Rainwater harvesting[edit]
Rainwater harvesting is the accumulating and storing of rainwater for reuse
before it reaches the aquifer.[44] It has been used to provide drinking water,
water for livestock, water for irrigation, as well as other typical uses.
Rainwater collected from the roofs of houses and local institutions can
make an important contribution to the availability of drinking water. It can
supplement the subsoil water level and increase urban greenery. Water
collected from the ground, sometimes from areas which are especially
prepared for this purpose, is called stormwater harvesting.[citation needed]
Greywater is wastewater generated from domestic activities such as
laundry, dishwashing, and bathing, which can be recycled on-site for uses
such as landscape irrigation and constructed wetlands. Greywater is largely
sterile, but not potable (drinkable). Greywater differs from water from the
toilets, which is designated sewage or blackwater to indicate it
contains human waste. Blackwater is septic or otherwise toxic and cannot
easily be reused. There are, however, continuing efforts to make use of
blackwater or human waste. The most notable is for composting through a
process known as humanure; a combination of the words human and
manure. Additionally, the methane in humanure can be collected and used
similar to natural gas as a fuel, such as for heating or cooking, and is
commonly referred to as biogas. Biogas can be harvested from the human
waste and the remainder still used as humanure. Some of the simplest
forms of humanure use include a composting toilet or an outhouse or dry
bog surrounded by trees that are heavy feeders which can be coppiced for
wood fuel. This process eliminates the use of a standard toilet with
plumbing.[citation needed]

Sheet mulching[edit]
In agriculture and gardening, mulch is a protective cover placed over the
soil. Any material or combination can be used as mulch, such as stones,
leaves, cardboard, wood chips, gravel, etc., though in permaculture
mulches of organic material are the most common because they perform
more functions. These include absorbing rainfall, reducing evaporation,
providing nutrients, increasing organic matter in the soil, feeding and
creating habitat for soil organisms, suppressing weed growth and seed
germination, moderating diurnal temperature swings, protecting against
frost, and reducing erosion. Sheet mulching is an agricultural no-dig
gardening technique that attempts to mimic natural processes occurring
within forests. Sheet mulching mimics the leaf cover that is found on forest
floors. When deployed properly and in combination with other Permacultural
principles, it can generate healthy, productive and low maintenance
ecosystems.[45][46][page needed]
Sheet mulch serves as a "nutrient bank," storing the nutrients contained in
organic matter and slowly making these nutrients available to plants as the
organic matter slowly and naturally breaks down. It also improves the soil
by attracting and feeding earthworms, slaters and many other soil micro-
organisms, as well as adding humus. Earthworms "till" the soil, and
their worm castings are among the best fertilizers and soil conditioners.
Sheet mulching can be used to reduce or eliminate non-desired plants by
starving them of light, and can be more advantageous than
using herbicide or other methods of control.[47]

Intensive rotational grazing[edit]


Grazing has long been blamed for much of the destruction we see in the
environment. However, it has been shown that when grazing is modeled
after nature, the opposite effect can be seen.[48][49] Also known as cell
grazing, managed intensive rotational grazing (MIRG) is a system of
grazing in which ruminant and non-ruminant herds or flocks are regularly
and systematically moved to fresh pasture, range, or forest with the intent to
maximize the quality and quantity of forage growth. This disturbance is then
followed by a period of rest which allows new growth. MIRG can be used
with cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, rabbits, geese, turkeys, ducks, and
other animals depending on the natural ecological community that is being
mimicked. Sepp Holzer and Joel Salatin have shown how the disturbance
caused by the animals can be the spark needed to start ecological
succession or prepare ground for planting. Allan Savory's holistic
management technique has been likened to "a permaculture approach
to rangeland management".[50][51] One variation on MIRG that is gaining rapid
popularity is called eco-grazing. Often used to either control invasives or re-
establish native species, in eco-grazing the primary purpose of the animals
is to benefit the environment and the animals can be, but are not
necessarily, used for meat, milk or fiber.[52][53][54][55][56][57][58]

Keyline design[edit]
Keyline design is a technique for maximizing the beneficial use of water
resources of a piece of land developed in Australia by farmer and
engineer P. A. Yeomans. The Keyline refers to a specific topographic
feature linked to water flow which is used in designing the drainage system
of the site.[59] The essential factor in this system, the Keyline, is a level or
sloping line extending in both directions from a point or divides the two
types of relationship, always in the same vertical interval, that a valley bears
to its ridges.[60]

Fruit tree management[edit]


Some proponents of permaculture advocate no, or limited, pruning. One
advocate of this approach is Sepp Holzer who used the method in
connection with Hügelkultur berms. He has successfully grown several
varieties of fruiting trees at altitudes (approximately 9,000 feet (2,700 m))
far above their normal altitude, temperature, and snow load ranges. He
notes that the Hügelkultur berms kept or generated enough heat to allow
the roots to survive during alpine winter conditions. The point of having
unpruned branches, he notes, was that the longer (more naturally formed)
branches bend over under the snow load until they touched the ground,
thus forming a natural arch against snow loads that would break a shorter,
pruned, branch.[citation needed]
Masanobu Fukuoka, as part of early experiments on his family farm in
Japan, experimented with no-pruning methods, noting that he ended up
killing many fruit trees by simply letting them go, which made them become
convoluted and tangled, and thus unhealthy.[61][62][page needed] Then he realised
this is the difference between natural-form fruit trees and the process of
change of tree form that results from abandoning previously-pruned
unnatural fruit trees.[61][63][page needed] He concluded that the trees should be
raised all their lives without pruning, so they form healthy and efficient
branch patterns that follow their natural inclination. This is part of his
implementation of the Tao-philosophy of Wú wéi translated in part as no-
action (against nature), and he described it as no unnecessary pruning,
nature farming or "do-nothing" farming, of fruit trees, distinct from non-
intervention or literal no-pruning. He ultimately achieved yields comparable
to or exceeding standard/intensive practices of using pruning and chemical
fertilisation.[61][63][page needed][64]
Permaculture Action
Permaculture helps generate plans that are easy and cheap when it comes
to production. Permaculture allows creativity and innovation in farming. The
action of permaculture looks and all becoming consciously involved in the
process of producing and ensuring abundant food nearby, problem on
malnutrition caused by the world hunger problem will inevitably
lessen.[65] Permaculture principles in action are powerful forces to help right
the environmental wrongs of the last two centuries.[66]

Trademark and copyright issues[edit]


There has been contention over who, if anyone, controls legal rights to the
word permaculture: is it trademarked or copyrighted? If so, who holds the
legal rights to the use of the word? For a long time Bill Mollison claimed to
have copyrighted the word, and his books said on the copyright page, "The
contents of this book and the word PERMACULTURE are copyright." These
statements were largely accepted at face value within the permaculture
community. However, copyright law does not protect names, ideas,
concepts, systems, or methods of doing something; it only protects the
expression or the description of an idea, not the idea itself. Eventually
Mollison acknowledged that he was mistaken and that no copyright
protection existed for the word permaculture.[67]
In 2000, Mollison's US based Permaculture Institute sought a service
mark (a form of trademark) for the word permaculture when used in
educational services such as conducting classes, seminars, or
workshops.[68] The service mark would have allowed Mollison and his two
Permaculture Institutes (one in the US and one in Australia) to set
enforceable guidelines regarding how permaculture could be taught and
who could teach it, particularly with relation to the PDC, despite the fact that
he had instituted a system of certification of teachers to teach the PDC in
1993. The service mark failed and was abandoned in 2001. Also in 2001
Mollison applied for trademarks in Australia for the terms "Permaculture
Design Course"[69] and "Permaculture Design".[69] These applications were
both withdrawn in 2003. In 2009 he sought a trademark for "Permaculture:
A Designers’ Manual"[69] and "Introduction to Permaculture",[69] the names of
two of his books. These applications were withdrawn in 2011. There has
never been a trademark for the word permaculture in Australia.[69]

Criticisms[edit]
General criticisms[edit]
In 2011, Owen Hablutzel argued that "permaculture has yet to gain a large
amount of specific mainstream scientific acceptance," and that "the
sensitiveness to being perceived and accepted on scientific terms is
motivated in part by a desire for permaculture to expand and become
increasingly relevant."
In his books Sustainable Freshwater Aquaculture and Farming in Ponds
and Dams, Nick Romanowski expresses the view that the presentation of
aquaculture in Bill Mollison's books is unrealistic and misleading.[70]

Agroforestry[edit]
Greg Williams argues that forests cannot be more productive than farmland
because the net productivity of forests declines as they mature due
to ecological succession.[71]Proponents of permaculture respond that this is
true only if one compares data between woodland forest and climax
vegetation, but not when comparing farmland vegetation with woodland
forest. For example, ecological succession generally results in a forest's
productivity rising after its establishment only until it reaches the woodland
state (67% tree cover), before declining until full maturity.[21]

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