What Is Permaculture?

Foundations

Sustainable Culture

Beyond Sustainability

Ethical Principles

Design Principles

4. Apply Self-regulation and Accept Feedback

5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services

6. Produce No Waste

7. Design from Patterns to Details

8. Integrate rather than Segregate

9. Use Small and Slow Solutions

10. Use and Value Diversity

11. Use Edges and Value the Marginal

12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change

The network
Permaculture is also a worldwide network and movement of individuals and groups that are working in both rich and poor countries on all continents to demonstrate and spread permaculture design solutions. Largely unsupported by government or business, these people are contributing to a more sustainable future by reorganising their lives and work around permaculture design principles. In this way, they are creating small local changes but ones that are directly and indirectly influencing action in the wider environment, organic agriculture, appropriate technology, communities and other movements for a more sustainable world. After 20 years, Permaculture may rank as one of Australia’s most significant “intellectual exports”.
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Foundations
Like all ideas, permaculture is founded on some fundamental assumptions that are critical to both understanding and evaluating it. The assumptions on which permaculture was originally based were implied in Permaculture One and are worth repeating.

&Mac183; The environmental crisis is real and of a magnitude that will certainly transform modern global industrial society beyond recognition. In the process, the well-being and even survival of the world’s expanding population is directly threatened.
&Mac183; The ongoing and future impacts of global industrial society and human numbers on the world’s wondrous biodiversity are assumed to be far greater than the massive changes of the last few hundred years.
&Mac183; Humans, although unusual within the natural world, are subject to the same scientific (energy) laws that govern the material universe, including the evolution of life.
&Mac183; The tapping of fossil fuels during the industrial era was seen as the primary cause of the spectacular explosion in human numbers, technology and every other novel feature of modern society.
&Mac183; Despite the inevitably unique nature of future realities, the inevitable depletion of fossil fuels within a few generations will see a return to the general patterns observable in nature and pre-industrial societies dependent on renewable energy and resources.

The conceptual underpinning of these assumptions arises from many sources, but I recognise a clear and special debt to the published work of American ecologist Howard Odum. The ongoing influence of Odum’s work on the evolution of my own ideas will become clear through the numerous references in this book, as well as the articles referred to in David Holmgren: Collected Writings 1978-2000.
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Sustainable Culture
One way to view sustainability is as a set of coherent system priorities. The following table gives a snapshot of a contrast between prevailing industrial culture, which is currently reaching a global climax, and a sustainable culture, which reflects long-range ecological realities. This set of polarised characteristics is inevitably artificial but it quickly identifies the fundamental and universal nature of the cultural shift to which permaculture is contributing.

Table: Characteristics of two cultural systems

Characteristic	Industrial culture	Sustainable culture
Energy base	Non-renewable	Renewable
Material flows	Linear	Cyclical
Natural assets	Consumption	Storage
Organisation	Centralised	Distributed network
Scale	Large	Small
Movement	Fast	Slow
Feedback	Positive	Negative
Focus	Centre	Edge
Activity	Episodic change	Rhythmic stability
Thinking	Reductionist	Wholistic
Gender	Masculine	Feminine

The dynamic balance between these polarised pairs of characteristics is a theme that can be found running through my explanation of permaculture principles.

The limitation of this concept of sustainable culture is that it suggests some stable state that we might arrive at sometime soon (by applying permaculture principles). A future in which much smaller human populations are in balance with their renewable resource base may be hundreds of years ahead, but this is no longer than the lifespan of an old tree, a well-built and well-maintained building, or some universities. Paradoxically, it is easier to characterise that low-energy sustainable culture than to explain how we get there.

This process is best visualised using the graphs of dynamic change that have been recorded and predicted for self-organising systems across many scales, from populations of microbes to economies and galaxies. Figure 4 shows such a graph of civilisational growth and predicted decline. Industrial culture and permaculture are stable only in their direction of energy use. The current cultural and economic dynamic of globalisation is one of chaotic climax and transition from growth in population and energy use to decline. The philosophical and artistic concepts of modernism and post-modernism can be loosely linked to these energetic and ecological realities. We have trouble visualising decline as positive but this simply reflects the dominance of our prior culture of growth. Permaculture is a whole-hearted adaptation to the ecological realities of decline which are as natural and creative as those of growth. The proverb “what goes up, must come down” reminds us that, in our hearts, we know this to be true. The real issue of our age is how we make a graceful and ethical descent.

Beyond Sustainability
The lack of any reasonable definition of sustainability has left it open to the inevitable appropriation by the corporate spin doctors. But even the most genuine and useful sustainability concepts including Permaculture contain an ambiguity about sustainability as a state or a process. Once we accept the reality and magnitude of energy descent, we begin to ask what “sustainability”, “sustainable systems” or “sustainable system design” might mean. Even the idea of permanence at the heart of permaculture is problematic to say the least.

For any human culture to be considered sustainable it must have the capacity (proven only with historical hindsight) to reproduce itself down the generations while providing human material needs without cataclysmic and long-term breakdown. If it is energetically impossible for high energy society to be anything more than a pulse in the long run of human history, then it cannot, by this definition, be sustainable, no matter how much we shuffle the technological deckchairs. In articulating permaculture as the principles and pathways beyond sustainability, I am suggesting that we need to get over our naïve and simplistic notions of sustainability as a likely reality for ourselves or even our grandchildren and instead accept that our task is to use our familiarity with continuous change to adapt to energy descent.
From the mountain peak
When we picture the energy climax as a spectacular but dangerous mountain peak that we (humanity) have succeeded in climbing, the idea of descent to safety is a sensible and attractive proposition. The climb involved heroic effort, great sacrifice, but also exhilaration and new views and possibilities at every step. There are several false peaks, but when we see the whole world laid out around us we know we are at the top. Some argue that there are higher peaks in the mists, but the weather is threatening.

The view from the top reconnects us with the wonder and majesty of the world and how it all fits together, but we cannot dally for long. We must take advantage of the view to chart our way down while we have favourable weather and daylight. The descent will be more hazardous than the climb, and we may have to camp on a series of plateaus to rest and sit out storms. Having been on the mountain so long, we can barely remember the home in a far-off valley that we fled as it was progressively destroyed by forces we did not understand. But we know that each step brings us closer to a sheltered valley where we can make a new home.
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Permaculture Principles
The value and use of principles
The idea behind permaculture principles is that generalised principles can be derived from the study of both the natural world and pre-industrial sustainable societies and that these will be universally applicable to fast-track the post-industrial development of sustainable use of land and resources.

The process of providing for people’s needs within ecological limits requires a cultural revolution. Inevitably such a revolution is fraught with many confusions, false leads, risks and inefficiencies. We appear to have little time to achieve this revolution. In this historical context, the idea of a simple set of guiding principles that have wide, even universal application is attractive.

Permaculture principles are brief statements or slogans that can be remembered as a checklist when considering the inevitably complex options for design and evolution of ecological support systems. These principles are seen as universal, although the methods that express them will vary greatly according to place and situation. By still developing extension, these principles are also applicable to our personal, economic, social and political reorganisation, as illustrated in the Permaculture Flower.

These principles can be divided into ethical principles and design principles.
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Ethical Principles of Permaculture
Ethics are the moral principles that are used to guide action toward good and right outcomes and away from bad and wrong outcomes.

Ethics act as constraints on survival instincts and the other personal and social constructs of self-interest that drive human behaviour in any society. They are culturally evolved mechanisms for more enlightened self-interest, a more inclusive view of who and what constitutes “us” and a longer-term understanding of good and bad outcomes. The greater the power of human civilisation (due to energy availability) and the greater the concentration and scale of power within society, the more critical ethics become in ensuring long-term cultural—and even biological—survival. This ecologically functional view of ethics makes them central in the development of a culture for energy descent.

Like design principles, ethical principles were not explicitly listed in early permaculture literature. Since the development of the Permaculture Design Course, ethics have generally been covered by three broad maxims or principles:

&Mac183; care for the earth
&Mac183; care for people
&Mac183; set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus.

These principles were distilled from research into community ethics, as adopted by older religious and cooperative groups. The third principle, and even the second, can be seen as derived from the first.

The ethical principles have been taught and used as simple and relatively unquestioned ethical foundations for permaculture design within the movement and within the wider “global nation” of like-minded people. More broadly, these principles can be seen as common to all indigenous tribal peoples, although their conception of “people” may have been more limited than the notion that has emerged in the last two millennia. This focus in permaculture on learning from indigenous tribal cultures is based on the evidence that these cultures have existed in relative balance with their environment and survived for longer than any of our more recent experiments in civilisation.

Of course, in our attempt to live an ethical life we should not ignore the teachings of the great spiritual and philosophical traditions of literate civilisations or the great thinkers of the European Enlightenment and since. But in the long transition to a sustainable low energy culture we need to consider, and attempt to understand, a broader canvas of values and concepts than those delivered to us by recent cultural history.
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Design principles
The scientific foundation for permaculture design principles lies generally within the modern science of ecology, and more particularly within the branch of ecology called systems ecology. Other intellectual disciplines, most particularly landscape geography and ethno-biology, have contributed concepts that have been adapted to design principles.

Fundamentally, permaculture design principles arise from a way of perceiving the world that is often described as “systems thinking” and “design thinking” (See Principle 1: Observe and interact). Other examples of systems and design thinking include:

&Mac183; the Whole Earth Review, and its better-known offshoot the Whole Earth Catalogue, edited by Stewart Brand, did much to publicise systems and design thinking as a central tool in the cultural revolution to which permaculture is a contribution
&Mac183; the widely known and applied ideas of Edward De Bono fall under the broad rubric of systems and design thinking
&Mac183; as the academic discipline of cybernetics, systems thinking has been an esoteric and difficult subject, closely associated with the emergence of computing and communication networks and many other technological applications.

Apart from the ecological energetics of Howard Odum, the influence of systems thinking in my development of permaculture and its design principles has not come through extensive study of the literature, but more through an osmotic absorption of ideas in the “cultural ether” which strike a chord with my own experience in permaculture design. Further, I believe many of the insights of systems thinking that are difficult to grasp as abstractions are truths that are embodied in the stories and myths of indigenous cultures.

Permaculture principles, both ethical and design, may be observed operating all around us. I argue that their absence or apparent contradiction by modern industrial culture does not invalidate their universal relevance to the descent into a low-energy future.

I organise the diversity of permaculture thinking under 12 design principles. My set of design principles varies significantly from those used by most other permaculture teachers. Some of this is simply a matter of emphasis and organisation; in a few cases it may indicate difference of substance. This is not surprising, given the new and still emerging nature of permaculture.
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Principle 1: OBSERVE AND INTERACT
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Good design depends on a free and harmonious relationship to nature and people, in which careful observation and thoughtful interaction provide the design inspiration, repertoire and patterns. It is not something that is generated in isolation, but through continuous and reciprocal interaction with the subject.

Permaculture uses these conditions to consciously design our energy descent pathway.

In hunter-gatherer and low-density agricultural societies, the natural environment provided all material needs, with human effort mainly required for harvesting. In pre-industrial societies with high population densities, agricultural productivity depended on large and continuous input of human labour. Industrial society depends on large and continuous inputs of fossil fuel energy to provide its food and other goods and services. Permaculture designers use careful observation and thoughtful interaction to reduce the need for both repetitive manual labour and for non-renewable energy and high technology.

Thus, traditional agriculture was labour intensive, industrial agriculture is energy intensive, and permaculture-designed systems are information and design intensive.

In a world where the quantity of secondary (mediated) observation and interpretation threatens to drown us, the imperative to renew and expand our observation skills (in all forms) is at least as important as the need to sift and make sense of the flood of mediated information. Improved skills of observation and thoughtful interaction are also more likely sources of creative solutions than brave conquests in new fields of specialised knowledge by the armies of science and technology.

The icon for this principle is a person as a tree, emphasising ourselves in nature and transformed by it. It can also be envisaged as the keyhole in nature through which one sees the solution.

The proverb “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” reminds us that the process of observing influences reality and that we must always be circumspect about absolute truths and values.
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Principle 2: CATCH AND STORE ENERGY
Make hay while the sun shines.

We live in a world of unprecedented wealth, resulting from the harvesting of the enormous storages of fossil fuels created by the earth over billions of years. We have used some of this wealth to increase our harvest of the earth’s renewable resources to an unsustainable degree. Most of the adverse impacts of this over-harvesting will show up, as available fossil fuels decline. In financial language, we have been living by consuming global capital in a reckless manner that would send any business bankrupt.

We need to learn how to save and reinvest most of the wealth that we are currently consuming or wasting, so that our children and descendants might have a reasonable life. The ethical foundation for this principle could hardly be clearer. Unfortunately, conventional notions of value, capital, investment and wealth are not useful in this task.

Inappropriate concepts of wealth have led us to ignore opportunities to capture local flows of both renewable and non-renewable forms of energy. Identifying and acting on these opportunities can provide the energy by which we can rebuild capital, as well as provide us with an “income” for our immediate needs.

This principle deals with the capture and long-term storage of energy, that is, savings and investment to build natural and human capital. The generation of income (for immediate needs) is dealt with in Principle 3: Obtain a yield.

The icon of sunshine captured in a bottle suggests the preserving of seasonal surplus and a myriad of other traditional and novel ways to catch and store energy. It also reflects the basic lesson of biological science: that all life is directly or indirectly dependent on the solar energy captured by green plants.

The proverb “make hay while the sun shines” reminds us that we have limited to time to catch and store energy before seasonal or episodic abundance dissipates.
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Principle 3: OBTAIN A YIELD
You can’t work on an empty stomach.

The previous principle focused our attention on the need to use existing wealth to make long-term investments in natural capital. But there is no point in attempting to plant a forest for the grandchildren if we haven’t got enough to eat today.

This principle reminds us that we should design any system to provide for self-reliance at all levels (including ourselves) by using captured and stored energy effectively to maintain the system and capture more energy. More broadly, flexibility and creativity in finding new ways to obtain a yield will be critical in the transition from growth to descent.

Without immediate and truly useful yields, whatever we design and develop will tend to wither while elements that do generate immediate yield will proliferate. Whether we attribute it to nature, market forces or human greed, systems that most effectively obtain a yield, and use it most effectively to meet the needs of survival, tend to prevail over alternatives. A yield, profit or income functions as a reward that encourages, maintains and/or replicates the system that generated the yield. In this way, successful systems spread. In systems language these rewards are called positive feedback loops that amplify the original process or signal. If we are serious about sustainable design solutions, then we must be aiming for rewards that encourage success, growth and replication of those solutions.

The original permaculture vision promoted by Bill Mollison of growing gardens of food and useful plants rather than useless ornamentals is still an important example of the application of this principle. The icon of the vegetable with a bite taken shows the production of something that gives us an immediate yield but also reminds us of the other creatures who are attempting to obtain a yield from our efforts.
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Principle 4: APPLY SELF-REGULATION AND ACCEPT FEEDBACK
The sins of the fathers are visited on the children unto the seventh generation

This principle deals with self-regulatory aspects of permaculture design that limit or discourage inappropriate growth or behaviour. With better understanding of how positive and negative feedbacks work in nature, we can design systems that are more self-regulating, thus reducing the work involved in repeated and harsh corrective management.

Feedback is a systems concept that came into common use through electronic engineering. Principle 3: Obtain a yield described the feedback of energy from storages to help get more energy, an example of positive feedback. This can be thought of as an accelerator to push the system towards freely available energy. Similarly, negative feedback is the brake that prevents the system falling into holes of scarcity and instability from overuse or misuse of energy. Organisms and individuals adapt to the negative feedback from large-scale systems of nature and community by developing self-regulation to pre-empt and avoid the harsher consequence of external negative feedback.

Self-maintaining and regulating systems might be said to be the Holy Grail of permaculture: an ideal that we strive for but might never fully achieve.

Traditional societies recognised that the effects of external negative feedback are often slow to emerge. People needed explanations and warnings, such as “the sins of the fathers are visited on the children unto the seventh generation” and “laws of karma” which operate in a world of reincarnated souls.

In modern society, we take for granted an enormous degree of dependence on large-scale, often remote, systems for provision of our needs, while expecting a huge degree of freedom in what we do without external control. In a sense, our whole society is like a teenager who wants to have it all, have it now, without consequences.

Much of the ecologically dysfunctional aspects of our systems result from this denial of the need for self-regulation and feedback systems that control inappropriate behaviour by simply delivering the consequences of that behaviour back to us. John Lennon’s song “Instant Karma” suggests that we will reap what we sow much faster than we think. The speed of change and increasing connectivity of globalisation may be the realisation of this vision.

The Gaia hypothesis of the earth as a self-regulating system, analogous to a living organism, makes the whole earth a suitable image to represent this principle. Scientific evidence of the earth’s remarkable homeostasis over hundreds of millions of years highlights the earth as the archetypical self-regulating whole system, which stimulated the evolution, and nurtures the continuity, of its constituent lifeforms and subsystems.
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Principle 5: USE AND VALUE RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND SERVICES
Let nature take its course

Renewable resources are those that are renewed and replaced by natural processes over reasonable periods, without the need for major non-renewable inputs. In the language of business, renewable resources should be seen as our sources of income, while non-renewable resources can be thought of as capital assets. Spending our capital assets for day-to-day living is unsustainable in anyone’s language. Permaculture design should aim to make best use of renewable natural resources to manage and maintain yields, even if some use of non-renewable resources is needed in establishing the system.

In restoring the balance between renewable and non-renewable resource use, it is often forgotten that these “new ideas” were the norm not so long ago. The joke about the environmentally aware person using a solar clothes dryer (washing line) is funny because it works on the very recent nature of much of this takeover of functions by technology and fossil fuels.

Renewable services (or passive functions) are those we gain from plants, animals and living soil and water without them being consumed. For example, when we use a tree for wood we are using a renewable resource, but when we use a tree for shade and shelter, we gain benefits from the living tree which are non-consuming and require no harvesting energy. This simple understanding is obvious and yet powerful in redesigning systems where many simple functions have become dependent on non-renewable and unsustainable resource use.

Permaculture design should make best use of non-consuming natural services to minimise our consumptive demands on resources and emphasise the harmonious possibilities of interaction between humans and nature. There is no more important example in history of human prosperity derived from non-consuming use of nature’s services than our domestication and use of the horse for transport, soil cultivation and general power for a myriad of uses. Intimate relationships to domestic animals such as the horse also provide an empathetic context for the extension of human ethical concerns to include nature.

The proverb “Let nature take its course” reminds us that human intervention and complication of processes can make things worse and that we should respect and value the wisdom in biological systems and processes.
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Principle 6: PRODUCE NO WASTE
Waste not, want not
A stitch in time saves nine

This principle brings together traditional values of frugality and care for material goods, the mainstream concern about pollution, and the more radical perspective that sees wastes as resources and opportunities.

The industrial processes that support modern life can be characterised by an input–output model, in which the inputs are natural materials and energy while the outputs are useful things and services. However, when we step back from this process and take a long-term view, we can see all these useful things end up as wastes (mostly in rubbish tips) and that even the most ethereal of services required the degradation of energy and resources to wastes. This model might be better characterised as “consume–excrete”. The view of people as simply consumers and excreters might be biological, but it is not ecological.

Bill Mollison defines a pollutant as “an output of any system component that is not being used productively by any other component of the system”. This definition encourages us to look for ways to minimise pollution and waste through designing systems to make use of all outputs. In response to a question about plagues of snails in gardens dominated by perennials, Mollison was in the habit of replying that there was not an excess of snails but a deficiency of ducks.

The earthworm is a suitable icon for this principle because it lives by consuming plant litter (wastes), which it converts into humus that improves the soil environment for itself, for soil micro-organisms and for the plants. Thus the earthworm, like all living things, is a part of web where the outputs of one are the inputs for another.

The proverb “waste not, want not” reminds us that it is easy to be wasteful when there is an abundance but that this waste can be the cause of later hardship. “A stitch in time saves nine” reminds us of the value of timely maintenance in preventing waste and work involved in major repair and restoration efforts.
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Principle 7: DESIGN FROM PATTERNS TO DETAILS
Can’t see the wood for the trees
The first six principles tend to consider systems from the bottom-up perspective of elements, organisms, and individuals. The second six principles tend to emphasise the top-down perspective of the patterns and relationships that tend to emerge by system self-organisation and co-evolution. The commonality of patterns observable in nature and society allows us to not only make sense of what we see but to use a pattern from one context and scale to design in another. Pattern recognition, discussed in Principle 1: Observe and interact, is the necessary precursor to the process of design.

The spider on its web, with its concentric and radial design, evokes zone and sector site planning, the best-known and perhaps most widely applied aspect of permaculture design. The design pattern of the web is clear, but the details always vary.

Modernity has tended to scramble any systemic common sense or intuition that can order the jumble of design possibilities and options that confront us in all fields. This problem of focus on detail complexity leads to the design of white elephants that are large and impressive but do not work, or juggernauts that consume all our energy and resources while always threatening to run out of control. Complex systems that work tend to evolve from simple ones that work, so finding the appropriate pattern for that design is more important than understanding all the details of the elements in the system.

The proverb “Can’t see the wood (forest) for the trees” reminds us that the details tend to distract our awareness of the nature of the system; the closer we get the less we are able to comprehend the larger picture.
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Principle 8: INTEGRATE RATHER THAN SEGREGATE
Many hands make light work.

In every aspect of nature, from the internal workings of organisms to whole ecosystems, we find the connections between things are as important as the things themselves. Thus “the purpose of a functional and self-regulating design is to place elements in such a way that each serves the needs and accepts the products of other elements.”

Our cultural bias toward focus on the complexity of details tends to ignore the complexity of relationships. We tend to opt for segregation of elements as a default design strategy for reducing relationship complexity. These solutions arise partly from our reductionist scientific method that separates elements to study them in isolation. Any consideration of how they work as parts of an integrated system is based on their nature in isolation.

This principle focuses more closely on the different types of relationships that draw elements together in more closely integrated systems, and on improved methods of designing communities of plants, animals and people to gain benefits from these relationships.

The ability of the designer to create systems that are closely integrated depends on a broad view of the range of jigsaw-like lock-and-key relationships that characterise ecological and social communities. As well as deliberate design, we need to foresee, and allow for, effective ecological and social relationships that develop from self-organisation and growth.

The icon of this principle can be seen as a top-down view of a circle of people or elements forming an integrated system. The apparently empty hole represents the abstract whole system that both arises from the organisation of the elements and also gives them form and character.


In developing an awareness of the importance of relationships in the design of self-reliant systems, two statements in permaculture literature and teaching have been central:

&Mac183; each element performs many functions
&Mac183; each important function is supported by many elements
The connections or relationships between elements of an integrated system can vary greatly. Some may be predatory or competitive; others are co-operative, or even symbiotic. All these types of relationships can be beneficial in building a strong integrated system or community, but permaculture strongly emphasises building mutually beneficial and symbiotic relationships. This is based on two beliefs:

&Mac183; we have a cultural disposition to see and believe in predatory and competitive relationships, and discount co-operative and symbiotic relationships, in nature and culture
&Mac183; Co-operative and symbiotic relationships will be more adaptive in a future of declining energy.

Permaculture can be seen as part of a long tradition of concepts that emphasise mutualistic and symbiotic relationships over competitive and predatory ones. Declining energy availability will shift the general perception of these concepts from romantic idealism to practical necessity.
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Principle 9: USE SMALL AND SLOW SOLUTIONS
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Slow and steady wins the race.

Systems should be designed to perform functions at the smallest scale that is practical and energy-efficient for that function.

Human scale and capacity should be the yardstick for a humane, democratic and sustainable society. Whenever we do anything of a self-reliant nature—growing food, fixing a broken appliance, maintaining our health—we are making very powerful and effective use of this principle. Whenever we purchase from small, local businesses or contribute to local community and environmental issues, we are also applying this principle.

The speed of movement of materials and people (and other living things) between systems should be minimised. A reduction in speed reduces total movement, increasing the energy available for the system’s self-reliance and autonomy.

Speed, especially of personal movement, generates high levels of stimulation that drown out the subtle and the quiet. For example, when we drive somewhere new, we are stimulated by what we see in the landscape. When we travel the same route regularly, we may notice small changes but generally we lose interest and become bored. However, if we ride a bicycle or walk over the same route, our eyes, ears, skin and noses are opened to a new world of subtle stimulation that the enclosure and speed of the car had kept from us.

The spiral house of the snail is small enough to be carried on its back and yet capable of incremental growth. With its lubricated foot, the snail easily and deliberately traverses any terrain. Although it is the bane of gardeners, the snail is an appropriate icon for small scale and slow speed.

The proverb “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” is a reminder of one of the disadvantages of size and excessive growth. The proverb “slow and steady wins the race” is one of many that encourages patience while reflecting a common truth in nature and society.
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Principle 10: USE AND VALUE DIVERSITY
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

The spinebill and the humming bird both have long beaks and the capacity to hover, perfect for sipping nectar from long, narrow flowers. This remarkable co-evolutionary adaptation symbolises the specialisation of form and function in nature.

The great diversity of forms, functions and interactions in nature and humanity are the source for evolved systemic complexity. The role and value of diversity in nature, culture and permaculture is itself complex, dynamic, and at times apparently contradictory. Diversity needs to be seen as a result of the balance and tension in nature between variety and possibility on the one hand, and productivity and power on the other.

It is now widely recognised that monoculture is a major cause of vulnerability to pests and diseases, and therefore of the widespread use of toxic chemicals and energy to control these. Polyculture is one of the most important and widely recognised applications of the use of diversity, but is by no means the only one.

Diversity in different cultivated systems reflects the unique nature of site, situation and cultural context. Diversity of structures, both living and built, is an important aspect of this principle, as is the diversity within species and populations, including human communities.

The proverb “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” embodies the common sense understanding that diversity provides insurance against the vagaries of nature and everyday life.
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Principle 11: USE EDGES AND VALUE THE MARGINAL
Don’t think you are on the right track just because it is a well-beaten path

The icon of the sun coming up over the horizon with a river in the foreground shows us a world composed of edges.

Tidal estuaries are a complex interface between land and sea that can be seen as a great ecological trade market between these two great domains of life. The shallow water allows penetration of sunlight for algae and plant growth, as well as providing forage areas for wading and other birds. The fresh water from catchment streams rides over the heavier saline water that pulses back and forth with the daily tides, redistributing nutrients and food for the teeming life.

Within every terrestrial ecosystem, the living soil, which may only be a few centimetres deep, is an edge or interface between non-living mineral earth and the atmosphere. For all terrestrial life, including humanity, this is the most important edge of all. Deep, well drained and aerated soil is like a sponge, a great interface that supports productive and healthy plant life. Only a limited number of hardy species can thrive in shallow, compacted and poorly drained soil, which has insufficient edge.

Eastern spiritual traditions and martial arts regard peripheral vision as a critical sense that connects us to the world quite differently to focused vision. This principle reminds us to maintain awareness, and make use, of edges and margins at all scales, in all systems. Whatever is the object of our attention, we need to remember that it is at the edge of any thing, system or medium that the most interesting events take place; design that sees edge as an opportunity rather than a problem is more likely to be successful and adaptable. In the process, we discard the negative connotations associated with the word “marginal” in order to see the value in elements that only peripherally contribute to a function or system.

The proverb “don’t think you are on the right track just because it is a well-beaten path” reminds us that the most common, obvious and popular is not necessarily the most significant or influential.
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Principle 12: CREATIVELY USE AND RESPOND TO CHANGE
Vision is not seeing things as they are but as they will be

This principle has two threads: designing to make use of change in a deliberate and co-operative way, and creatively responding or adapting to large-scale system change which is beyond our control or influence. The acceleration of ecological succession within cultivated systems is the most common expression of this principle in permaculture literature and practice. These concepts have also been applied to understand how organisational and social change can be creatively encouraged. As well as using a broader range of ecological models to show how we might make use of succession, I now see this in the wider context of our use of, and response to, change.

In Permaculture One we stated that, although stability was an important aspect of permaculture, evolutionary change was essential. Permaculture is about the durability of natural living systems and human culture, but this durability paradoxically depends in large measure on flexibility and change. Many stories and traditions have the theme that within the greatest stability lie the seeds of change. Science has shown us that the apparently solid and permanent is, at the cellular and atomic level, a seething mass of energy and change, similar to the descriptions in various spiritual traditions.

The butterfly, which is the transformation of a caterpillar, is a suitable icon for the idea of adaptive change that is uplifting rather than threatening.

While it is important to integrate this understanding of impermanence and continuous change into our daily consciousness, the apparent illusion of stability, permanence and sustainability is resolved by recognising the scale-dependent nature of change discussed in Principle 7: Design from patterns to details. In any particular system, the small-scale, fast, short-lived changes of the elements actually contribute to higher-order system stability. We live and design in a historical context of turnover and change in systems at multiple larger scales, and this generates a new illusion of endless change with no possibility of stability or sustainability. A contextual and systemic sense of the dynamic balance between stability and change contributes to design that is evolutionary rather than random.

The proverb “vision is not seeing things as they are but as they will be” emphasises that understanding change is much more than the projection of statistical trend lines. It also makes a cyclical link between this last design principle about change and the first about observation.