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♤ Bill Mollison, an Australian ecologist, and one of his students, David Holmgren, coined the word
“permacul-ture” in 1978. It is a contraction of “permanent agriculture” or “permanent culture.”
♤ It is defined as a design system for creating sustainable human environments. It uses 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.
♤ A central theme in Permaculture is the design of ecological landscapes that produce food. Emphasis is placed on multi-use plants, cultural practices such as sheet mulching and trellising, and the integration of animals to recycle nutrients and graze weeds.
Characteristics
♤ It is one of the most holistic, integrated systems analysis and design methodologies found in the world.
♤ It can be applied to create productive ecosystems from the human- use standpoint or to help degraded ecosystems recover health and wildness.
♤ It can be applied in any ecosystem, no matter how degraded.
♤ It values and validates traditional knowledge and experience.
♤ Incorporates sustainable agriculture practices and land management techniques and strategies from around the world
♤ It is a bridge between traditional cultures and emergent earth-tuned cultures.
♤ It promotes organic agriculture, which does not use pesticides.
♤ It aims to maximize symbiotic and synergistic relationships between site components.
♤ It’s design is site specific, client specific, and culture specific