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The author declares that the information contained in this book is correct and complete tothe best of his knowledge, and disclaims any liability for whatever inaccuracies oromissions. It is up to the reader to do their own research and reach their own conclusionsin any case of doubt. The concepts and ideas presented herein refect the author’s pointsof view. The design ideas contained in this book are primarily for illustrative purposes,and not universal or infallible formulas. Nothing substitutes common sense and practicalexperience. The author disclaims any responsibility associated with the results orconsequences of the inadequate application of the ideas contained in this book..

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2018, Cássio P. Octaviani

Why this book?

There is something very wrong with this world. Humankind has a bigproblem in its hands. Of course it’s not just one problem—the problems aremany, problems all around. But one in particular, doubtlessly the biggest of allproblems, is the subject of this book: we are ridding at full speed towards thetotal destruction of life on planet Earth. Seriously! Our civilization is totallyunsustainable; with the fatal combination of overpopulation, overconsumption,addiction to growth, irrational use of resources, disregard for nature, etc., we aredestroying the very basis that sustain life in general, human life included, on ourplanet.

You know, when you look at people individually, it may look like there’snothing wrong, like they’re just taking care of themselves and their own lives—working, looking after their families, pursuing their dreams… But, when youlook at humankind as a whole, it seems like we are determined to destroy thelast forest, to pollute the last river and sea, to bring to extinction the last lifeform except for those which are directly useful to us. Certainly, any supremelyintelligent extraterrestrial visitor wouldn’t have a diferent impression of us.

Now clearly we humans too are but living beings, and depend upon thevery same resources as all other species to survive. Therefore, as we pollute thewaters, destroy soils and wreck biodiversity, we are bringing about our owndestruction. Worst of all, the vast majority of people seem just completelyunaware of this terrible fact! The whole matter seems like a great taboo, never tobe touched. You can watch television your whole life, listen to the radio, read allthe papers and magazines, and you’ll most likely never see any discussion on this.Neither in schools or even universities do people talk about this! Althoughmatters concerning sustainability are often brought up, it is always in a vague,evasive way, never even scratching the depth and urgency of the problem.

Surely there are people who are aware of the severity of our currentenvironmental and civilization crisis and its terrible implications for the future ofmankind and life on Earth. However, even those, maybe because of inertia, orbecause they can’t see a viable alternative, normally just keep on behaving justlike all other people; in other words, they continue tied to the predominantparadigm of our society, and awareness alone doesn’t seem to be enough to makepeople stop being part of the problem, and change into being part of anysolution.

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This book therefore has two main goals: frst of all to bring to the collectiveconsciousness the severity of the current global environmental crisis and theterrible implications of the unsustainability of our civilization, in a clear andobjective way beftting the importance of the matter. Secondly, but not lessimportantly, to propose solutions to the problem, to discuss practical propositionsof viable alternatives to this path to self-destruction that we’re on. In this sense,the permaculture alternative is presented, which I believe to be the mostpromising way for the preservation of life on Earth and the making of a worldthat is not only sustainable, but also healthier, more balanced, fair and happy.

I don’t claim here to have all the answers, or ofer a simple and defnitivesolution to all problems. There is still a lot to be learned and developed for theconstruction of a sustainable society, and we are still at the beginning of thisjourney. What is most important at this moment is to try to make more peoplestop and think, raising awareness over what we’ve been doing to our lives andour home; to get more people to realize the dark, predatory, destructive face ofour civilization, and get together taking the challenge of rethinking, reinventingour society so that it is no longer a menace to the natural world on which wedepend. It is surely a colossal task, but at the same time the most worthwhilechallenge of all that may exist. After all, at stake are the continuity of our ownexistence, as well as that of all other life forms that inhabit our planet.

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I dedicate this book to planet Earth

Contents

Why this book? ................................................................……..................... i

Part I – The Environmental and Civilization Crisis

1. A History of Unsustainability …...........……………....................................…... 3

2. Current State of the World …............................................................…........ 7

3. The Environmental Crisis ......................................................................... 24

4. Projections for the Future......................................................................... 38

5. A State of Planetary Emergency ...............................……......................... 49

Part II – The Permaculture Alternative

6. Time for Change.....…........................................………................................ 53But what is permaculture?History of permaculture

7. Permaculture Ethics and Principles ...................….................................. 61Permaculture EthicsPermaculture Principles

8. Water in Permaculture ..................................…......................................... 93Water in rural situationsWater for the houseWater in the city

9. Rural Permaculture ..............................…................................................ 119SoilsParticularities of the humid tropicsParticularities of the semiarid tropicsProximity and intensity zonesEstablishing a rural permaculture project

10. The Permaculture House .......................……........................................ 189Permaculture house designNatural building

11. Ecological Sanitation .........................……............................................. 213Ecological sanitation techniquesEcological alternatives for urban sanitation

12. Energy ..........................…..................….................................................. 24313. Urban Permaculture .....................…..................................................... 24914. The Permaculture Lifestyle .......……….................................................. 26715. Communities in Permaculture ......……................................................. 27516. Learning Permaculture .......……………................................................... 28717. Consultancy and Service Provision in Permaculture .....……............. 30118. Proposition for a Global Transition ...................................…............... 309

19. Conclusion............................................................................................. 319

Part IThe Environmental and

Civilization Crisis

Part I – The Environmental and Civilization Crisis 1. A History of Unsustainability

1A HISTORY OFUNSUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability is kind of a fashionable word today (actually, it may havebecome out of fashion already!). This word has been so abusively used lately thatfor many people it may have come to mean absolutely nothing in particular.Businesses assert to be committed to sustainability; politicians just throw theword randomly in their discourses like some sort of magical word. School booksand television programmes present the subject in such a superfcial, vague andpatchy manner that end up leaving the impression that there’s nothing really toworry about.

But really, what’s that all about, and why is it important? Looking up in adictionary can be little enlightening: “Sustainability. n. The property of beingsustainable.” Where sustainable is something capable of being sustained.

Now, what does it have to do with us? Why is that important tohumankind?

Our civilization is totally unsustainable, because with a fatal combination ofoverpopulation, overconsumption and irrational resource use we are consumingvoraciously the very resources that are necessary to the continuation of our ownlife.

We live on a fnite planet, with fnite resources; from plain mathematicallogic, continual consumption of the resources will lead to their exhaustion. Oncethe resources that support life are gone, obviously there will be no more means

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to support life. That will mean the decline of humanity and, possibly, itsextinction, dragging in its wake a big part of the complex life on the planet.Many scientists believe that, at the current rates of resource consumption andenvironmental destruction, that outcome will come about real soon.

Now, go ask people what they understand for sustainability, and youprobably hear something like “preserving the natural resources so the futuregenerations may have a good quality of life”. So they just completely fail torealize it goes much further than that, that it is actually a matter of survival forthe future generations—they just take survival for granted, which is a seriousmistake. In other words, the vast majority of people completely fail tocomprehend the true dimension of the human unsustainability problem. That isbecause such comprehension is only possible through a broad and thoroughanalysis of what’s going on with humanity and the planet, looking at adequatespace and time scales—something that is hardly ever done or seen. Therefore, onthe following pages, let’s try to do that analysis.

A brief history of human unsustainability

A simple historical analysis will reveal that the origins of humanunsustainability traces back to the birth of civilization, and that each milestoneof the development of our civilization is associated with an aggravation of thatunsustainability, leading to the current global environmental crisis.

Our ancestors millions of years ago were totally subjected to the forces ofnature, just like any other living species: climatic factors (e.g. extreme cold),geographical obstacles (seas, mountains, deserts), water and food availability,predators and disease kept the frst hominid populations at balance with theenvironment, limiting their size and distribution. However, as they evolved, ourancestors started acquiring the notable ingenuity that sets us apart from the restof the animal world, leading to the development of the frst technologies. Thatlargely came to defne what it means to be human.

With the development of the frst tools around 2 million years ago, the frsthominids began their climb toward the top of the food chain: hunting becameeasier, as did defending against predators. Because they allowed the fabricationof clothing and shelters, tools were also instrumental in the expansion of theprimitive man to other environments, once uninhabitable.

The control of fre over 100 thousand years ago was the next milestone ofparamount importance in human history, allowing even further expansion tocolder regions, better protection against predators and an increase in foodavailability through cooking. Fire was also widely used as an essential part ofhunting strategies and for the wholesale transformation of the environment tofacilitate movement, settlement, etc.

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The primitive man lived like that, as a hunter-gatherer, for tens or hundredsof thousands of years, up until the development of agriculture about 10,000years ago. Although the population numbers remained relatively constantthroughout that period, the hunter-gatherer man was able to spread to allcontinents and bring to extinction several animal species, notably largemammals, by overhunting.

The next big step of mankind toward unsustainability (and possibly themost notable one) was the development of agriculture, an event that isindivisible from the birth of civilization itself, about 10,000 years ago.Deforestation for the expansion of agricultural and grazing land put anunprecedented pressure on the environment, starting the anthropogenic (i.e.caused by man) desertifcation of the planet. From nomads the societies becamesedentary, and ever more sophisticated technologies were developed that gaveunprecedented power to their possessors, allowing for the rise of empires thatprogressively subdued or destroyed more primitive societies, spreading throughthe planet, practically extinguishing tribal peoples and societies and settingcivilization as the norm.

The Industrial Revolution of the 18th century saw the fast paceddevelopment of industrial technologies, with growing mechanization and fossilfuel use, giving the human impact on the environment a new dimension. Thepopulation growth rate skyrocket, and the world saw industrial pollution for thefrst time. The rural exodus begins, causing the growing concentration of theworld’s population in cities. All that meant a sharp aggravation of the humanunsustainability.

The 20th century and the Oil Age

The 20th century saw remarkable events which profoundly impactedhumankind and the environment. In medicine, the development and growingapplication of hygiene concepts, sanitation technologies and the discovery ofdrugs (particularly antibiotics) and vaccines, caused a sharp decline in childmortality rates and increased life expectancy worldwide, thus contributing to anincrease in the population growth rate. The discovery of petroleum as a cheapand abundant source of highly concentrated energy allowed for an extraordinarydevelopment of industrial production technologies, agriculture and transportfrom the late 19th century onwards, with sharp intensifcation through the 20thcentury. Oil also came to be used as a raw material for the production ofcountless products, such as fertilizers, plastics, solvents, surfactants, fabrics,paints, pesticides, etc. The rise of industrial farming takes place, which is basedon chemical fertilizers, pesticides and mechanization, bringing along terribleconsequences for the environment. Industrial and petrochemical pollution alsocause progressive environmental deterioration. Mechanization reached extreme

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levels, increasing production output while reducing human labour use—workwas now done by the machines, utilizing the energy contained in the fossil fuels.The rural exodus process intensifed, leading to a growing urban concentration ofthe world population, with many cities now having a population of severalmillion people. This period is also notable for its extremely high levels ofmobility, both of people and goods, while oil’s immense capacity to do work andversatility as a raw material contributed to a dramatic technological revolution,leading to the excessive production of industrialized goods, giving rise toconsumerism. This period also saw the rise of big multinational corporations andglobalization.

The Oil Age is therefore marked by industrialization, demographicexplosion, urbanization, consumerism and globalization. The period is alsoassociated with an extraordinary increase in natural resource consumption, wasteand environmental degradation and pollution, all of which continue to grow untiltoday, resulting in the current environmental crisis.

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Part I – The Environmental and Civilization Crisis 2. Current State of the World

2CURRENT STATE OF THE WORLD

We are in the middle of a global environmental crisis, unprecedented in itsmagnitude, severity and nature, and a crisis that gets worse every day. Problemsinclude:

• Terrestrial ecosystems destruction (e.g. deforestation).

• Soil degradation, erosion, desertifcation.

• Air pollution, greenhouse efect, acid rain, ozone layer depletion.

• Water pollution, with marine and fresh water ecosystem destruction; oceanacidifcation.

• Water cycle disruption and water resource deterioration.

• Species extinctions and biodiversity decline, worldwide.

All those problems are intimately linked, and the central cause to all ofthem is just one: human activities. Although they have physical manifestations inthe natural world, those problems can’t be seen as merely physical problems tobe solved by “environmental problems experts”. They have historical,economical, social, political and technological roots, and are basically aconsequence of the way we live and the way we see the world. Moreover, the

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consequences of this crisis will be sufered by our whole civilization—we’ll reapwhat we’ve been sowing, weather our actions are conscious or not. Therefore,any analysis of the current environmental crisis cannot be made without takinginto account our society as a whole; in other words, to analyse the environmentalissues as for their causes, characteristics and possible solutions, one has tounderstand and consider the social issues that give rise to them.

Society

The Oil Age saw a brutal transformation of the relations of production andconsumption of goods, of power and also interpersonal relations, which shapedthe world as we know it today.

The new technologies of this age caused a dramatic increase in theproduction of consumer goods. In a marketplace ruled by the old logic ofnecessity, excess production would get stuck in the factories or stores, restrictingthe capital fux and wealth accumulation of the big companies. To remove thatobstacle, the business world learned to use psychoanalytic tools to read thedesires deeply rooted in the irrational subconscious of people, tailor-making theirproducts and discourses in accordance with that. In fact, they learned to moldour wishes according to their own convenience, creating and stimulating artifcialneeds through manipulative marketing techniques. That was the birth of modernmarketing.*

Diferently from needs, which are fnite, desires are potentially unlimited.Moreover, while the logic of necessity is primarily governed by reason, desiresare ruled by primitive, irrational impulses, which means that the masses canliterally be trained to consume continually. Thus, by shifting the focus ofmarketing strategies from needs to desires, businesses managed to lift theimpediment to the goods and cash fows. They transformed cultures based onneeds into cultures based on images and desires, cultures of consumerism. Thatprocess took place frst in industrialized countries, soon spreading to most partsof the world in the colonizing process of multinational corporations, and that wasthe key point allowing for their rise and domination of the world scene, as wesee today.

Also the world of politics learned to utilize the same techniques to shapethe behaviour of the masses. Just like businesses and their marketing techniques,politicians too, in their public relations strategies, started to use psychoanalytictools to satisfy the masses with their discourses and postures by targeting at theirrational subconscious (emotions, images), rather than rational thinking (facts,arguments), thereby managing to reach and maintain power.

The widespread application of marketing techniques shaped society as a

* For a detailed analysis of this subject, please check out The Century of the Self, adocumentary series by the BBC.

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whole, from the individual (behaviour, values), through the collective (massbehaviour) down to the very social organization and power structures. A highdegree of alienation became characteristic of our society: “being” was largelyreplaced by “having”; consumer goods were deifed, and appearances started torule over essence. To appease their consumption addictions, people started towork more and more, and to live less and less—a life of overwork, waste, debt,chronic dissatisfaction, anxiety, a feeling of emptiness, depression, came to bethe norm. Paradoxically, the more people attain their goals (of higherconsumption of goods and social status), the worse they feel, in a socialsyndrome that came to be called affluenza.

Pushed by crescent consumption “needs” created by this culture, society asa whole became characterized by an addiction to economic growth; competitionbetween people, individualism and an obsession for status intensifed. Brandswere deifed, and “urban tribes” appeared, which are groups of people that adoptstereotyped buying behaviours.

The power structures of society were profoundly afected by modernmarketing and the rise of big corporations. With their economic supremacy anda vast control over the masses, corporations became the central element, theestablished power. The state itself today is no more than a servant to the interestsof big corporations. By fnancing all sides of the electoral campaigns, bigbusinesses ensure that the government will always take care of their interests,rather than the common good.

Therefore, we live in a delusion of democracy, since that idea that peoplechoose their representatives to take care of their interests and the commonwealthdoes not in the least correspond with reality. What we in fact have installed issome sort of “dictatorship of corporations”, or corporatocracy, as politicalpower actually derives from the corporations, not from the people. The massesare manipulated to serve the interests of the establishment (i.e. the power elites).

In a corporatocracy, public policies and laws are made to ensure the highestprofts for the corporations which are actually pulling the strings, whilepoliticians keep the discourse that all is “for the good of the nation”, “for thegood of the people”, etc. Huge infrastructure works, such as roads, ports, powerplants, etc. are done primarily for the beneft of the contractors involved; citiesare planned so as to make cars a necessity, ensuring proft and power to carmakers and the petroleum industry, while public transportation in general isforsaken, deliberately wrecked as part of the same plan. The agribusiness issubsidised to boost proft from pesticide sales, for example, to the detriment ofthe environment and public health. Arms and petroleum industries pull thestrings of their “puppet-frst-world-countries-presidents” to wage warscontinuously, in which thousands of people die, just so they can proft from theweapons trade, facilitate the take over of the oil resources in the attackedregions, expand markets for their businesses, etc. Such powerful groups andindividuals make use of the mainstream media to hold a permanent

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psychological terrorism campaign that reaches virtually the whole society,covertly fostering xenophobia, racial and religious prejudice, etc., and evenemploy the strategy of faking terrorist attacks to “justify” or gain public supportfor their wars.

A key element for the maintenance of this status quo is disinformation,that is, the deliberate utilization of communication and information techniquesin a deceitful way, so as to infuence the public opinion, giving a false picture ofreality through suppression or minimization of certain types of information,while strongly emphasizing irrelevant matters to serve as a distraction, tweakingand distorting facts, etc. in order to shape the masses’ opinions, sentiments andbehaviours so as to serve obscure private interests.

The mainstream media is one of the main tools employed by the system*

to alienate the masses. Radio, news outlets and magazines continually pour allsorts of nonsense: commercials, stupid flms that are completely void of anymeaningful content, articles and programmes which, although labelled as“cultural”, are in fact mere instruments to promote the deifcation ofconsumption, futility and an infnity of bizarre behaviours; sports, soap operas,talk shows, variety shows, talent shows, “reality” shows, etc. distract the massesso that they won’t think, and therefore never question the status quo. By doingthis, the media shapes the behaviour of the masses in a way that suits the

* The system is an expression commonly used to refer to the current model of socialorganization and power structure of our society ruled by the corporatocracy.

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CONTROL

DESTROY

SUPPORT

BANKS AND CORPORATIONS

GOVERNMENTS AND MEDIA

MASSES

ENVIRONMENT

CONTROL

Power structure in today’s society – corporatocracy


interests of the corporations, governments and the media itself, thereforemaintaining the status quo. That is the true essence of what is now commonlycalled entertainment.

Journalism, as normally practised, is a powerful instrument for thealienation of the masses. Although in theory playing the vital role of keepingpeople informed, serving as an essential instrument for the progress anddevelopment of people and society, in practice it’s primary aim is to sell news,that is, journalists and news agencies are interested above all in numbers—biggerreadership equals bigger money. For that reason, they focus on sensationalism(violent crime and accidents “sell well”) as well as all types of vulgar andirrelevant content, such as gossip about celebrities’ lives, distorted reports onpolitics, sports, etc. All the while, the most crucial matters for humankind, suchas the environmental crisis that threatens our own survival, are hardly evertouched. They sell disinformation labelled as information.

Because of its great penetration and infuence over the masses bothconscious and subconsciously, and therefore its behaviour, journalism is alsoconsistently “bought” by the powerful to serve as an instrument of domination,through covert ideological propaganda. As they are continually bombarded withall that immense load of useless, bizarre and misleading content, unfortunatelythe population believes to be becoming more learned and erudite, when in factthey are being distracted, manipulated.

Literature too, generally speaking, has become an instrument ofalienation. Check out any book shop and you’ll see showcases and shelvespacked with books in all sizes and formats, with shiny, glittery covers and richlyillustrated, dealing with all sorts of subjects—except anything important forhumankind. The publishing marketplace deals primarily with “best sellers” thatdon’t bring any useful or relevant information! There is no shortage of fairy tales,witches, monsters; spicy romantic stories, mystery, crime, detectives… self-helpbooks with “infallible” recipes for being happy, or becoming a leader or amillionaire… football, horoscope, adventure, scientifc fction, joke books, popartists biographies, cute puppies and kittens, etc. There are so many books on thesame subjects that makes one wonder why would anyone care to write againabout the same stuf? Behind all this apparent diversity, what you have is anextreme aridity of meaningful, relevant content for mankind. But that does serveto help keep the masses diverted.

Formal education in our society does not aim at forming free individuals,much on the contrary: the individuality is practically abolished, and criticalthinking, suppressed. Creativity is obliterated with a brutal load of information,much of which is useless and, in many cases, plain false (for example, history isnearly always taught in a distorted and glamorized way so as to foster patriotism,which itself is nothing but a kind of alienation, and a useful tool to the system).

Knowledge and skills that are essential to any human being, such as how to

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grow and prepare your own food, or do some basic maintenance in your house,are most often simply not part of the curriculum. The youth are forced tomemorize endless names and dates that are largely irrelevant, and learnmathematical operations that will never be used in their life, etc. But the fact thatwe, humans, are causing a tremendous environmental crisis that threatens todestroy life on the planet, that is never discussed. In the formal educationalsystem, no criticism of society or the way we live is ever admitted. The wholeeducational system is made up so as to ensure that the masses remain distractedand unconscious. Its job is to shape people into a homogenized format that suitsthe needs of the “market”, producing, distributing and above all consuminggoods and services, and paying taxes, without ever representing a threat to thestatus quo.

It is often said that we live in an Information Age, and really, information iseverywhere. Internet, for instance, is doubtlessly a formidable information sourcewith great potential for the empowerment of people. The problem is that, whileon one hand it contains all that is good, true and important, on the other hand italso contains all that is evil, false and irrelevant. Unfortunately, those who do notknow what to look for (regrettably most people) usually end up endlesslyspiralling down into a parallel, bizarre universe, so instead of getting wiser, theyget ever more lost.

As a result of the disinformation campaign that is installed in our society atmultiple levels and the extremely low level of consciousness and awareness of thepopulation in general, in spite of the huge availability and accessibility ofinformation, we rather live in some sort of “Modern Dark Ages” in which anextremely high level of alienation pervades humankind. It is important to pointout that that alienation is spread across all society’s strata, from the masses to theelites (including the intellectual elite), and this is a key point to the perpetuationof the system.

Lifestyle

Artifcialization

The modern lifestyle is characterized by an enormous level ofartifcialization, that is, a departure from what is natural. The majority of peoplein the world today go the whole day, everyday, without ever having any contactwith earth. They don’t even see any soil—only concrete, asphalt, plastic… Eventhose who tread on soil, usually don’t really touch it, because they wear shoesthat prevent any contact with it. Urban populations often don’t have any contactwith plants, except for the scarce visual contact with street and park trees, andgardens (lacking in many cities). They often have little contact with naturallights, spending little time outdoors, therefore being constantly exposed to

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artifcial lighting. What is more, the intense and omnipresent artifcial lightingmeans a departure from one of the most basic natural cycles: the light/darkcycle. Therefore, it is not surprising that so many people need to take drugs tosleep, and use alarm clocks to wake up—which is not without consequences tothe health of body and mind.

Contact with other elements of the natural landscape is also radicallyreduced and distorted. A view of felds, forests, mountains or the sea is nearlyalways replaced by streets and their trafc signs, billboards, buildings, fyovers,etc. Rivers are no longer part of people’s lives, as they are now disfgured,urbanized, often usurped, turned into part of the sewerage system, channelizedor even piped, buried, lost forever.

The very air we breath is often artifcialized, provided by air conditionersof buildings and vehicles—a dry and unpleasant air to which so many peoplehave become accustomed, but which remains a vehicle for allergic andinfammatory diseases to millions of people.

Contact with animals, to many people, has been reduced to a sentimentalservitude relation, weirdly mixed with a property relation, the latter madeevident by the commonplace act of buying and selling pets, the fetish for breeds(above all as a matter of fashion), insensitivity towards the intrinsic needs ofeach species, and even the performing of surgeries for the owner’s convenience,or to conform with their aesthetic preferences (again a matter of fashion). All thewhile, there is a polarization of people regarding non-pet species such as bovine,swine, sheep, chickens, etc.: while some are totally insensitive to the intrinsicvalue of those living beings, their right to life and well-being, etc., andoverconsume them as a habit to the point of developing serious health problemsbecause of that, others often incur into an exaggerated sentimentalism andhumanization of such animals, which actually shows their degree of departurefrom our natural, primitive roots.

Modern interpersonal and work relationships are also completelyartifcialized. The kinds of work most people do daily has nothing to do with theprovision of the basic human needs. If before the ordinary tasks related directlyto survival, such as hunting, fshing, planting and reaping, building shelters andmaking clothings, etc., today we often spend our lives performing the mostinsignifcant activities, with the sole objective of earning money to pay for theprovision of our real needs. This departure between what we do as work and theprovision of our actual needs generally detracts meaning from life.

The interhuman relationships have become more and more competition orself-interest relations, and less and less spontaneous, voluntary cooperationrelations. Personal relationships have gradually been replaced by virtual pseudo-relationships: in a world ruled by appearances and illusions, more and morepeople ditch their real lives and relationships for flms and TV series—muchmore comfortable and convenient, full of “adventure and emotion” (thoughfalse), and free from any level of exposure or risks. Most people “know” far

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more television celebrities than actual, real people, much in the same way thatthey know far more corporate logos than animal and plant species. Internetsocial media took that artifcialization of relationships to new heights: peopletake on a virtual “second identity”, merely based on appearances, bearing little orno relation with their reality, often having many more “friends” there than in reallife—most of whom they will never actually meet.

Humans have evolved as an integral part of nature, over a period ofmillions of years, and this departure from what is natural is an extremely rapidand recent phenomenon. That being put, it comes as no surprise that thisartifcial life style that we have today creates a serious confict with our veryessence, leading to chronic dissatisfaction, internal tension, depression,unhappiness and poor health.

The modern lifestyle is also characterized by overdependence,overconsumption and excessive waste.

Overdependence means that the individual completely depends on anenormous number of non-natural factors for their survival. The modern man,diferently from their primitive ancestors and even the peasants of not so longago, has no way of providing for any of their needs directly. Instead, they dependcompletely on their job (or in some cases government welfare programmes) toget money to pay for that provision. They depend on the car or public transportto get to work; on money to buy food and all the rest, and on the supermarket toget that stuf, while the supermarket and shops and stores depend on agriculture,industries and transport systems, etc. They also depend on the water supplysystem, otherwise they’d die from thirst, etc. This total dependence on complexartifcial human systems reduces the individual resilience, and society resilienceas a whole. This has in fact been a frequent factor contributing to the collapse ofpast civilizations.

Overconsumption: the modern lifestyle is inextricably marked by a muchhigher level of natural resource consumption than would be necessary for humanlife, compared, for example, to what it used to be before the IndustrialRevolution. Running water, electricity and fossil fuels, once unavailable, aretoday used indiscriminately, at huge environmental costs; food is overconsumedby more than half of the world population (while millions of others starve, bythe way), which is causing an obesity pandemic; industrialized goods such asclothes, accessories, home appliances, toys and even vehicles pile up in homes.In such consumerism culture typical of our modern society, people often buyloads of things they don’t really need and often can’t even aford, but they buy allthe same just because they can’t resist the urge implanted in them by marketing—the so-called impulse buying. Not rarely, that becomes an addiction: the personbuys things compulsively in an attempt to fulfl an existential vacuum created bya meaningless life, which often leads to debt and, in fact, an aggravation of theirpsychological condition.

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Now, excessive waste goes hand in hand with overconsumption, and alsowith the subconscious concept that natural resources are infnite. It is oftenjustifed based on convenience, or a deeply distorted notion of cost-beneft thattakes into account only costs in terms of money, and benefts from a selfshperspective, without any regard for negative efects that may be brought about tothe environment, the future generations and even life in general on Earth.

Waste is everywhere. Water waste, energy waste… things that are thrownaway in spite of still working perfectly, or broken but easy to fx.

When we talk about waste, there are two points that deserve specialattention. The frst is waste of food—according to FAO (Food and AgricultureOrganization of the United Nations), about a third of all food produced globallyis wasted. Losses occur at all steps, from production on farms, through totransportation, storage, processing, at retail, down to the end consumer’s home,where there are losses due to excessive and disorganized buying, inadequatestorage, and fnally the horrible habit of thoughtlessly disposing of food leftovers,which is caused by an apparent incapacity of many people to plan the amount offood they should prepare, or put in their dishes, or because they are too lazy tokeep the leftovers for the next meal; for disregard or even ignorance about theintrinsic value of food, something that should be sacred, and also about theenvironmental problems associated with all that waste. All that is sometimesaggravated by an imbecile culture that considers food waste as something normalor even “elegant” (“a sign of abundance”). Thus, every day an amount of foodthat would be enough to end world hunger with a wide margin is converted towaste without ever being consumed by anyone.

The fact that so much food is wasted also means that enough food couldhave been produced using a much smaller land area, much less water, energy,fertilizers, etc.—in other words, at much lower environmental costs.

The other point that deserves to be highlighted regarding excessive waste isplanned obsolescence, the strategy widely used by industry in which products areliterally made not to last very long, thus forcing buyers to purchase the samegoods over and over again. This can be achieved in many diferent ways: makingproducts with inferior materials, or suboptimal component layouts which causeexcessive wear; designing products in a way that makes repair impossible or notviable; failing to provide replacement parts, or ofering them (and servicing) atcosts comparable or even higher than buying a new unit, etc. Another type ofplanned obsolescence strategy is perceived (or psychological) obsolescence:superfcial changes in the styling of products make empty-headed people feelbad with their “old” products, as they feel they’re no longer fashionable, which“forces” them to buy new ones, despite the ones they already have remainingfully functional.

Unfortunately, instead of rebelling against planned obsolescence, mostpeople get used to it and start considering it normal to buy the same things manytimes. Thus, this strategy is central to the building of the current culture of

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consumerism.Although this strategy is very attractive to corporations, both industry and

commerce, as it boosts their profts, that has nasty efects on society, as it leadsgreat part of the population into debt. Even more devastating are the efects onthe environment, because of the increase in resource consumption, industrialpollution and waste production.

Addiction to growth

Humankind is simply addicted to growth. Population growth, GDP growth,the swelling of cities… People want ever bigger houses, ever bigger cars; morehouses, more cars, more money, more status, etc. What we have installed is adominant culture of accumulation.

“If a man has an apartment stacked to the ceiling with newspapers, we callhim crazy. If a woman has a trailer house full of cats, we call her nuts. Butwhen people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish theentire nation, we put them on the cover of Fortune magazine and pretendthat they are role models.” —Lester B. Pearson

The culture of accumulation is so prevalent that people feel morallycompelled to grow economically at all costs, otherwise they will be seen as losersby family, friends, colleagues, etc. In our modern society, the concept of enoughhas simply been erased.

Company CEOs and politicians survive or not in their chairs based on theirability to promote economic growth year after year. This often leads to practicesthat are detrimental to society, as well as to the environment.

The quest for continual and infnite growth is the core element of thecurrent economic paradigm. In this system, it is assumed that growth isnecessary to prosperity and social well-being. In fact, the economy, as currentlyorganized, depends on continuous growth to create jobs and warrant fnancialand social stability. However, that brings a terrible dilemma: is continuousgrowth is necessary to prosperity, and at the same time causes environmentaldegradation and resource depletion that make it impossible to maintain thatprosperity, what shall we do? The problem is that the hegemony of the currenteconomic model, based on infnite growth, prevents people from questioning thebasic concepts on which that model is based. “Sacrosanct” growth can never bequestioned. Question growth, and your punishment will be severe andimmediate! You’ll be avoided as a leper, ridiculed, ostracised, your career willbe over, etc.

One of the manifestations of the addiction to growth is the obsession forGDP (gross domestic product), often utilized by economists, politicians,journalists, etc. as an indicator that “everything is all right”. “If the GDP is

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growing, all is well”, it is assumed. The problem is that GDP is a gross indicatorof progress, as it does not take into account the environmental or social costs ofthat growth, or the implications of such costs for the future of society. Byexploiting the natural resources in a predatory manner, such as destroying forestsfor agricultural conversion or timber, or wrecking soils or mineral resources, orabusing water resources, etc., all of that may lead to an increase in GDP, but alsobrings about the depletion of those resources, which means society will no longerhave them in the future. So, you have a situation in which the economy isgrowing, the population is growing, and precisely because of that theenvironment is being progressively degraded and the natural resources, depleted.This is an inextricable and irreversible relation.* Now, at the present moment,while we are growing, everybody is happy, and the majority of people seem tobe sure that all is well, and we are going in the right direction. But, how long willthis happiness last? The problem is that for as long as the resources are stillavailable, people will refuse to accept the logical fact that they are running outand some day they will fatally become critically scarce.

Economists, politicians and people in general can’t see the seriousness ofthe consequences of this addiction to growth, out of ignorance of the real humanneeds, and how economy relates with the natural resources and the environmenton larger time scales. One of the ways in which this ignorance is made evident isin the so-called technological optimism, that is, the idea that new technologieswill solve all problems, remove obstacles, allowing for infnite growth. This is themost dangerous of delusions, a suicidal bet. In fact, it is a proven fact that thedevelopment of new technologies is associated with an increase in resourceconsumption, and not the other way around! For example, new technologies canincrease the efciency in petroleum extraction, giving the impression of anincrease in that resource. While it is true that new technologies allow the tappingof once unreachable reserves, the fact remains that nothing can increase theamount of petroleum—all oil that exists has been made by nature millions ofyears ago, and none is being made now; it is a fnite and non-renewable resource,therefore its continual extraction inevitably will lead to its exhaustion, and in factany increase in the efciency of oil extraction will only lead to an increase in theconsumption of that resource. Another oft-cited example is that modern cars andTV sets consume less energy (fuel and electricity) than older models. That maybe true; however, at the same time, today many more cars and TVs are nowproduced than in the past, so that the global consumption is much higher.

Energy

Another very dangerous characteristic of our industrial civilization is ourterrible addiction for energy. While all other animal species only utilize the sun

* For a discussion of this relation, I recommend reading Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen’s Theentropy law and the economic process.

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and food as sources of energy, we civilized human beings consume vast amountsof energy from diferent sources in our daily activities.

Modern life, in all aspects, requires enormous amounts of energy: lighting,refrigeration, heating, cooking, home appliances operation, transports,construction, public services in general, etc. Modern agriculture too is a hugeenergy consumer, particularly due to mechanization. Finally, we have theindustry and technology sectors, central pieces of our civilization and one of themain consumers of energy in all forms.

The per capita consumption of energy has been exponentially growing, andis a refex of the civilizing process. Now, all those artifcial needs created bycivilization come at enormous environmental costs, including natural resourcesconsumption, pollution generation and ecosystem destruction. The main energysource currently employed by our civilization are fossil fuels, widely used fortransportation, industries and electricity generation. Besides all the air pollutioncreated by the burning of such fuels, the environment also sufers great damagein the processes of extraction and transformation of those fuels, includingoccasional (but not rare) oil spills that wreck marine ecosystems.

Other forms of energy are also destructive to the environment. Ethanol, forinstance, is often cited as a sustainable alternative to petroleum. While it is truethat, at least as far as greenhouse gas emissions are concerned, ethanol is lessdamaging than petroleum because there is a recycling of the carbon, its use as anenergy source also brings along serious problems, including the intensifcation ofenvironmental problems associated with industrial agriculture, which will bediscussed further on. Another grave problem is that when we focus on ethanol asan alternative to petroleum, that means that we are diverting the agriculturalresources to the production of ethanol fuel, in detriment of food production, thatis, cars and factories start competing directly with people for food, which maylead to an aggravation of the food insecurity and global hunger, besides anintensifcation of deforestation to accommodate this new agricultural demand, ifethanol became a major element in the global energy market.

In Brazil, the main source of electricity is hydropower. Regarded by manyas “clean energy” on the grounds that it does not involve the burning of fuels andassociated air pollution, hydroelectric power plants are, nonetheless, responsiblefor enormous environmental destruction, as they inundate vast areas of land, tothe order of thousands of square kilometres, destroying native and primevalforests, altering the rivers’ fow, interrupting biological cycles therebydeteriorating the biodiversity, both aquatic and terrestrial, in the area. Moreover,hydroelectric power plants also contribute signifcantly to water pollution andgeneration of greenhouse gases: the inundation of forest areas leads to the deathand consequent decomposition of all the biomass contained there. Suchdecomposition consumes voraciously the oxygen dissolved in the water, leadingto hypoxia or anoxia and acidifcation, decimating fsh and other life forms. Thedecomposition of all that biomass emits vast amounts of gases such as CO2 and

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methane; moreover, hydroelectric power plants are gargantuan civil engineeringworks in which millions of tonnes of cement are used, and hundreds of millionsof litres of diesel oil are burned to move machinery—all of that representing thegeneration of gigantic amounts of greenhouse gases, contributing signifcantly toglobal warming. Finally, it is important to stress that the construction of damsalso causes serious social problems such as the forced relocation (in other words,expulsion) of indigenous and traditional populations, and the destruction of theircultures and livelihoods.

Another major source of electricity worldwide is nuclear energy. Nuclearpower plants are also extremely dangerous because they produce nuclear waste,by-products that remain radioactive for thousands of years—a problem with noknown solution. Moreover, nuclear power plants are susceptible to accidents andincidents of all kinds, including human failure as happened in Chernobyl in1986, or caused by natural disasters such as in Fukushima in 2011, or evenintentional attacks, as they are potential bombing targets in wars or terroristattacks. Nuclear power plant accidents can be catastrophic, with explosions andleakage of immense amounts of highly radioactive material with the potential ofcausing great numbers of deaths in the short, mid and long term, besides massiveenvironmental contamination that may persist for centuries.

Alternative, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are regardedas much less damaging to the environment than the conventional sources citedabove. Although they are growing in popularity, in 2015 they still accounted forjust around 1.5% of the global energy supply.*

Transportation

The levels of mobility, both of people and cargo, that we see today areastonishing and unprecedented in human history, and are only possible becauseof the great development and consequent cost reduction of transports based onfossil fuels. What actually happened was a banalization of transportation.

The car has become a habit, an addiction that afects most people in mostcities in most of the western world. People drive to the school to pick up anddrop of kids, to the grocery store, to the restaurant, to the gym (!!!), to eachother’s houses—lining endlessly at trafc lights, often getting stuck in trafcjams, to do things at distances that could most often be easily covered by bicycleor on foot in a matter of a few minutes.

It also has become extremely common for people to run for tens or evenhundreds of kilometres every day for the most ordinary of activities, such asgoing to work or school, or shopping—a fact only made possible because of theindiscriminate use of the highly concentrated energy contained in fossil fuels,especially those derived from petroleum. The car habit is a largely self-inficted

* 2017 Key world energy statistics. International Energy Agency. 2017.

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(and often public policy-inficted) debilitating condition that dividescommunities and makes people poorer and fatter every day.

The same goes for cargo: nowadays, the vast majority of products boughteveryday from shops and supermarkets nearby people’s homes come in fact fromvery faraway regions, having been transported for hundreds or thousands ofkilometres, often from other countries, literally from the other side of the world.That applies equally to foods and industrialized consumer goods in general.

This trivialization and addiction to transportation, so characteristic of ourAge of Oil, represent a huge environmental problem, at multiple levels. The mostobvious problem is the air pollution caused by vehicle emissions, from theburning of fuels: motorized transport is the main source of pollution in most bigcities around the world, causing them to be permanently shrouded in a thick greylayer of smog. Such low air quality is directly associated with countless healthproblems in urban populations, such as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases,cancer, endocrine, neurological and behavioural disorders, including depression.It is good to stress that transportation is one of the main sources of greenhousegas emissions globally.

Besides air pollution, we must also take into account all the environmentaldegradation associated with the petrochemical industry, the car industry, as wellas the construction and maintenance of all infrastructure necessary to individual,public and cargo transportation, such as roads, streets, railroads, ports, airports,etc.

Water

Doubtlessly, the single most essential water use is for body hydration. Anadult human being needs on average approximately 2 litres of water a day tokeep adequately hydrated. However, the civilized man consumes an average of150 to 200 litres of water every day, for the most varied activities such aswashing the body, doing the dishes, the laundry, cleaning the house, washing thecar, etc., so only about 1% of the daily water consumption is dedicated to anessential use! A single toilet fush consumes three to four times as much water aswould be necessary to keep an adult person hydrated for the whole day; as everyperson fushes the toilet on average 10 times a day, that means enough water toquench the thirst of 35 people for the same period of time! We’ve grown toaccustomed to all that waste that we don’t even notice the absurdity that itrepresents.

And worst of all, those 150 to 200 litres of water correspond only to thedirect use of water by each person, at home. If we include all water consumedfor maintenance of public areas and workplaces, services and industry,agricultural irrigation, etc., the amount of water consumed per person reachesmuch higher values that are actually difcult to estimate. All that water beingconsumed clearly does not vanish from the planet or cease do exist, but is being

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transformed in sewage that pollutes aquatic environments such as rivers, lakesand seas, destroying life in those ecosystems, while at the same time reducingthe amount of clean water available, both for nature and for us humans.

Food

The artifcialization of life manifests itself in a particularly fagrant way inthe eating habits of the modern man, especially processed and ultra-processedfoods.

Ultra-processed foods are those made primarily from purifed (e.g. refnedsugar) and artifcial substances (colourants, favours, sweeteners, preservatives,etc.). Examples of ultra-processed foods include most ready-to-eat snacks,sweets, soft drinks, processed juices, alcoholic beverages, bread, cakes, pizzas,biscuits, chocolates, margarine, ice cream, etc.

Processed foods are unhealthy because they contain excessive andunbalanced amounts of sugar, simple carbohydrates, salt and fats, besides tens ofsynthetic chemical additives. When it is cited on the label that it “containsartifcial favours, colourants, sweeteners and preservatives”, that leaves theimpression that you are talking about 4 diferent substances (which alreadyshould be reason for concern!). But in fact it’s much worse than that, as ofteneach of those items is actually a mix of a number of chemical substances that fallinto each category, and are simply not specifed on the label! In the long run,those substances act as toxins in the organism. For all that, the everydayconsumption of such foods causes several health problems, including dentalcaries, metabolic and endocrine disorders such as diabetes and obesity, hepatic,pancreatic and renal disease, high cholesterol, oxidative and infammatorydisorders, arteriosclerosis, heart diseases, strokes, cancer, chronic degenerativediseases including Alzheimer, etc.

On the other hand, those foods contain very little dietary fbre andinsufcient and unbalanced amounts of vital nutrients such as proteins, vitamins,minerals and essential fatty acids, leading to digestive problems and malnutrition.However paradoxical that may sound, people who consume excessive amounts ofultra-processed foods often get obese and malnourished at the same time!

It is appalling that many of the ultra-processed foods on the market arecommonly mistaken by people in general for healthy food. This is largely due todeceitful marketing campaigns in which such products are associated with theimage of young, active, happy and healthy people. But the worst thing of all iswhen such marketing campaigns target at children! For instance, a typicalchocolate powdered favouring mix (e.g. Nestlé’s Nesquik) is about 90% sugarand only 10% of other ingredients, of which cocoa is but a minor constituent. Asanother example, the famous Kellogg’s Frosty Flakes is about 54% sugar, and amere 40% corn.

Besides their impact on health, ultra-processed foods also have bigger

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impact on the environment, because of all the industrial processing and excessivepackaging, most often made of non-biodegradable materials (primarily plastic).

It must be stressed, however, that processed foods are not the only problemwith modern eating habits, as the vast majority of foods consumed today,processed or not, are produced by industrial farming. Besides the environmentaldestruction caused by that model of agriculture (which we will discuss further),foods produced in such way are also contaminated with pesticides and chemicalfertilizer residues, hormones, antibiotics and other drugs that are associated withany number of health problems, such as hepatic, renal and neurological diseases,hormonal, reproductive and metabolic disorders, cancer, etc.*

Agriculture

Agriculture is the single most destructive human activity on theenvironment, since its inception 10 thousand years ago and up until now.

There is a widespread notion that traditional agriculture, as practisedforever before the dawn of industrial agriculture in the 20th century, wasecological, in other words, not harmful to the environment. However, that viewdoes not at all correspond with reality! It is important to stress that agriculturehas been, since its dawn, a system that goes against nature. Long before theindustrial era, deforestation for land conversion to agriculture, indiscriminate useof fre, overgrazing, etc. had already caused widespread environmental damagein many regions of the world. Half a millennium ago, most European countrieshad already lost nearly all of their forests, and desert areas of North Africa andthe Middle East had been considerably broadened because of agriculture.Species have been going extinct and whole ecosystems completely lost forcenturies, because of agriculture.

Traditionally, soils have always been used in a disposable manner in theagricultural process. Forests are slashed and burned to make way for plantations.In the frst years of agricultural activity, the productivity is usually great, becauseyou are actually exploiting the soil fertility that was built there by nature in thecourse of thousands of years. However, with the dramatic biomass andbiodiversity reduction in the soil, aggravated by practices such as routine fre useand tilling that destroy the soil structure and leave it completely exposed to thedamaging efects of direct sun, rain and wind, you have a progressive fertilityloss in the area. After some years to a few decades, the land that once was highlyproductive starts to show diminishing yields, forcing farmers to focus on lessdemanding crops. When even those less demanding crops fail to produce, theland is converted to pasture; when grasses too fail to grow, the land is abandoned

* Nicolopoulou-Stamati, P. et al. Chemical pesticides and human health: the urgent need fora new concept in agriculture. Frontiers in Public Health. 2016.

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and farmers move again into the forest, clearing more land and restarting anothercycle in the destructive process of agriculture.

Now of course the environmental problems were brutally intensifed withthe rise of industrial agriculture, characterized by a high degree ofmechanization, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, genetically improved cropsand livestock and, more recently, genetic engineering. Supported by political andeconomical mechanisms such as laws, subsidies, market policies includingglobalization, etc., industrial agriculture rose fast to the hegemony of the worldagricultural sector, bringing in its wake devastating side efects, both to societyand the environment.

Modern agriculture is the main cause of deforestation and soil loss, thebiggest consumer of water and one of the main greenhouse gas emitters globally,so it is no exaggeration to say that it is the single most destructive human activityon the environment. Besides all the aforementioned efects, the continualchemical fertilizer and pesticide use poison the soil, waters and also the food weeat. Among all agricultural activities, livestock production stands out asparticularly damaging to the environment.*

From a social point of view, industrial agriculture is associated with landownership concentration, expulsion of the peasantry from their land (ruralexodus), destruction of the rural social structure and cultural identity, andintensifcation of social inequalities. Although it is often said that modernagriculture contributes to society by producing wealth from commoditiesexports, this wealth does not in fact beneft the whole of society, as it remainslargely concentrated in the hands of big landlords, agribusiness barons,multinational corporations and corrupt politicians.

* Steinfeld, H. et al. Livestock’s long shadow: environmental issues and options. Food andAgriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2006.

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Part I – The Environmental and Civilization Crisis 3. The Environmental Crisis

3THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS

Overpopulation

Anthropological studies indicate that the global human population beforethe dawn of civilization was around 5 to 10 million people. Then, with the birthof agriculture, the human population started to grow and never stopped.

An analysis of the population growth curve in the graph below allows us toidentify three distinct periods. Up until around year 5000 BC (frst dotted line),the world population is relatively stable. From that point, the population starts togrow exponentially—a growth attributed to agriculture—doubling roughly onceevery 900 years. The Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th century(indicated by the second dotted line) brings an acute acceleration of that growth,with the human population doubling every 73 years on average. In the Oil Age,the world population starts doubling every 45 years—the fastest growing periodin all human history. In 2012, the human population reached 7 billionindividuals—that represents a thousandfold increase in the population numberfrom its basal level. In 2017, our population surpassed 7.5 billion, and everydaythe number of people who are born is 2.5 times more than the number of peoplewho die.*

* Population Reference Bureau. 2017 World Population Data Sheet.

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Graph: global human population through history, inarithmetic (panel A) and logarithmic (panel B) scales.

Sustainability requires reasonably constant populations. That derives from asimple mathematical logic: you can’t have infnite growth in a fnite space. Now,as it happens, the Earth is a fnite space, with fnite resources. If we growcontinually, exponentially, that will inevitably lead to the exhaustion of theresources that are necessary to life. Every one of the environmental problems weface today is worsened by the increase in population numbers. Therefore,overpopulation is, doubtlessly, one of the biggest problems in the world today.

There should be no trace of doubt that the world is overpopulated—theonly people who do not understand that are those who don’t know the meaningof the word overpopulation. Overpopulation means an increase in the population

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numbers of any given species beyond the carrying capacity of its environment.Today, the human population is 1,000 times bigger than its basal level, andbecause of that all natural resources that are necessary to our life are decliningrapidly. Everyday there are tens of thousands more people on the planet—andless trees, less forests, less soils, less clean water, less species of animals andplants. But unfortunately the majority of people in the world seem completelyunaware of this terrible fact, and the very subject is considered an immensetaboo, hardly ever even mentioned in the media or schools. Many people stilldeny that overpopulation is a problem, and this type of ignorance is oftenreinforced by religion: “‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fll the earth andsubdue it.’ it says in the Bible. Not a word about overpopulation!”

Although it is an extremely complex and hard to deal with problem, it isabsolutely necessary to bring it to the table for discussion, to take thatinformation to people and raise awareness on a broad scale. That is the very frststep, and the most important—and it’s just not being done! To deny the problemor avoid touching it is like hiding one’s head in the sand, and certainly won’tcontribute to any solution.

Deforestation

More than half the forests in the world have been destroyed by mankind,and most of this damage has been done over the last century or so. And thedeforestation process keeps going at a fast pace right now. It is estimated thatbefore this century is out, the tropical forests of the world will probably havebeen completely lost.*

The causes of deforestation are many, and their relative importance havevaried a lot over the course of history. Since year 2000, land conversion toindustrial agriculture, especially devoted to the export of commodities, has beenresponsible for half the deforestation done in the tropical regions of the world,but many other causes, such as logging, mining, human settlements expansion,infrastructure (especially roads), etc. are still important causes, and in extremelypoor and socially unstable regions of the world entire forests are being rapidlydestroyed for frewood harvesting. Brazil and Indonesia are currently thecountries with the highest deforestation rates, but many other areas in Centraland South America, Africa, South East Asia an Oceania are losing forests at analarming rate.

Most deforestation going on in Brazil currently is caused by cattle ranchingand soybean plantations. Brazil is one of the world’s top beef exporters, andmost of that meat comes from the deforestation of the Amazon forest (about

* Lewis, S. Will we still have tropical forests in 2100? World Economic Forum: GlobalAgenda/Forests. 2015.

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90% of recent cleared land in the Amazon region are used for livestockproduction). In Brazil, the biomes that are currently being destroyed at thehighest rate are the Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado. It is also noteworthy thatthe South American Atlantic forest has been nearly completely destroyed, withonly 7% of its original cover left.

Illegal logging, one of the leading causes of deforestation in most tropicalforest regions of the world, is primarily a result of the huge demand for woodproducts in Europe, United States, Japan and China (Japan is currently thebiggest consumer of tropical wood in the world, and China is the biggestconsumer of paper). The largest exporters of tropical woods are Brazil,Indonesia and Cameroon.

In Africa, the main factors causing deforestation are frewood harvestingfor cooking and subsistence agriculture. The ongoing demographic explosionassociated with precarious economic and social standards are associated with asteep increase in deforestation rates that have destroyed about 80% of forests inthe African West and 90% of Madagascar. Mining, logging and the agribusinessexpansion are also important causes of deforestation in that continent, and aretypically run by foreign companies focused on export markets.

In South East Asia, the pulp and paper industry and palm plantations, all ofwhich have their markets mainly in Europe, India, China, Japan and the UnitedStates, are currently the main causes of deforestation.

All that makes it clear how globalization afects deforestation.Economically developed countries, even after having completely destroyed theirown forests, are still the main drivers of deforestation globally, but the trueenvironmental impact of such countries’ populations lifestyles goes on thousandsof kilometres away, in less developed countries, literally on the other side of theworld, well away from their view.

Deforestation is a true crime against life, one of the biggest manifestationsof the ecocide perpetrated by humankind. Forests are the main cradles ofterrestrial biodiversity, and deforestation is the cause of thousands of speciesextinctions every year.*

But the seriousness of the problem goes far beyond that, as forests performother vital environmental functions. Among the consequences of deforestation,we can cite:

• Soil loss. Forests protect the soil they occupy, keeping it from direct sunand rain impact, thus preventing erosion and overdrying. Moreover, it allows thecontinual recycling of nutrients in the area: dead plant and animal matter isdeposited on the soil where it decomposes, fertilizing the soil with nutrients thatare again converted into living matter. This way, the forest keeps the soil fertilityindefnitely, and actually builds that fertility. By destroying the forest, you are

* Sodhi, N. S. et al. Causes and consequences of species extinctions. In: The PrincetonGuide to Ecology. Princeton University Press. 2009.

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also destroying the soil, as it is now subjected to erosion and nutrient leeching,losing its nutrients and becoming dry, compacted and barren. So deforestation isthe frst step that leads do desertifcation.

• Disturbance of the hydrological cycle. Forests play a vital role in thestabilization of the water cycles. They favour water absorption by the soil, as theroots as well as fallen trunks, branches, leaves, etc. represent obstacles to thesurface water fow, reducing the surface runof speed, thus making it stay longeron top of the soil, allowing for better absorption thus replenishing the watertable. When the forest is cleared, this water absorption is reduced, leading to thelowering of the water table level, which in turn causes springs and eventuallyrivers to dry up.

Through evapotranspiration the trees keep the air moist, continuallymobilizing water from the ground into the atmosphere, thus regulating theprecipitation in the area. Forest loss causes a dramatic change in the climate,making it hotter and drier, with a reduction in volume and regularity of rainfall.

• Greenhouse efect. Deforestation is one of the main sources of greenhousegas emissions globally, contributing to the rise in global temperatures andclimate change, which causes a reduction in volume and regularity of rainfall,and an increase in frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events, amongother efects (anthropogenic climate change will be discussed in more detail inthe next chapter).

• More deforestation. Forest loss and the resulting climate destabilizationleads to hotter and drier summers, making remaining forests much moresusceptible to wildfres. So you have a vicious circle where deforestation leads tomore deforestation.

Besides environmental problems, deforestation also causes terrible socialproblems. The forest represents the home and livelihood to indigenous and ruraltraditional communities, among others. The clearing of the forest thus representsthe destruction of those people’s way of life, threatening their very survival, asthe industrial agriculture operations that normally are put in place in the afectedregion ofer very little employment opportunities. Therefore, those populationsare forced to migrate to cities in an extremely impoverished, precarious andvulnerable condition. To make matters worse, such expulsion of traditionalpeoples more often than not is done by means of violent confict over land,promoted by agribusiness barons and multinational corporations, with theconnivance of corrupt local governments. Threats, murder, destruction of homes,etc. are all examples of the brutal violation of those vulnerable peoples’ humanrights that normally take place in this process, often resulting in true ethnocide,that is, complete destruction of their cultures.

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Pollution

Practically all modern civilized human activities generate enormousamounts of residues and toxic by-products that accumulate in the environment aspollution, causing deleterious efects to human health and well-being, butespecially to the environment.

Air pollution

The main sources of air pollution are factories, the energy sector, motorvehicles and agriculture.

Industry in general produces all sorts of gas, volatile, aerosol andparticulate matter pollutants that contaminate the atmosphere. In some countries,the energy sector stands out as a major source of air pollution—in China, forinstance, the single biggest source of air pollution are coal-fred power stations.The industrial and energy sectors combined make up 46% of the globalgreenhouse gas emissions.

Motor vehicles, especially cars, trucks and buses (but also includingmotorcycles, aeroplanes, ships, trains, etc.) are the main source of air pollutionin cities and one of the main sources globally. They release pollutants likecarbon dioxide and monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, methane,benzene, heavy metals (especially lead), particulate matter, etc.

Agriculture, in turn, releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide to theatmosphere from deforestation, intentional burning and soil degradation. Soildegradation is a major contributor to global warming as the reduction in soilbiomass is inevitably accompanied by the liberation of carbon dioxide to theatmosphere. Pesticide application causes transitory air pollution that decimatesinsect and bird fauna in the area, and chemical nitrogen fertilizers release nitrousoxide which depletes the ozone layer similarly to CFC. Livestock and animalproduction, particularly cattle, is one of the main sources of methane and nitrousoxide emissions, and also one of the main drivers of deforestation, withassociated CO2 release. According to FAO numbers, livestock alone isresponsible for 14.5% of the global greenhouse gas emissions.*

Air pollution causes severe damage to human health and reduction in thequality of life. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution causesthe deaths of 7 million people annually, mainly from cardiovascular and lungdiseases and cancer.** Other health problems associated with air pollution

* Gerber et al. Tackling climate change through livestock: a global assessment of emissionsand mitigation opportunities. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.2013.** Burden of disease from the joint efects of household and ambient air pollution for 2012.World Health Organization. 2014.

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include foetal malformation, immunological and hormonal disorders, autism,psychiatric disorders including depression, etc.

As for the environment, atmospheric pollution causes the phenomenon ofacid rain, which has terrible consequences for the ecosystems, particularlyforests, soil and aquatic environments. Some plant species can’t stand acidity,and entire forests have been decimated by acid rain, especially in Eastern Europeand Scandinavia, but also in North America and parts of Asia.

Acid rain also dramatically changes the chemical and microbiologicalcharacteristics of soil. Many microorganisms that are benefcial in the soil diebecause of the low pH, reducing the soil’s ability to retain nutrients.Acidifcation also increases the loss of cationic nutrients such as calcium,magnesium and potassium among others by leaching, and also causes aluminiummobilization in the soil, which means it becomes toxic to plants. The overallresult of these efects is a progressive impoverishment of the soil, which resultsin further forest loss, not to mention the reduction in agricultural productivity.

Acid rain also impacts fresh water bodies such as rivers and lakes, whereacidity causes a reduction in biodiversity, as many fsh and invertebrate speciescannot survive in low pH.

The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration also causesocean acidifcation, as the gas dissolves in water forming carbonic acid. Suchacidifcation causes tremendous damage to marine ecosystems, as it interfereswith many physiological processes in the aquatic organisms, depressing themetabolic rate and immune responses, preventing calcifcation, hinderingdevelopment and killing countless species and fragmenting the marine foodchain, thereby reducing the quantity, quality and diversity of sea life. Oceanacidifcation is one of the main causes of coral bleaching, along with globalwarming and pollution of the seas by agricultural runof.

One of the most dangerous efects of air pollution is the greenhouseefect: gases such as carbon dioxide and methane among others, released by ourcivilization, accumulate in the atmosphere and entrap solar radiation causingtemperatures to rise (global warming) and climate change. This problem will bediscussed in the next chapter.

Soil pollution

Soil pollution is caused mainly by industrial activities, agriculture and wastedisposal. Factories, petroleum extraction, mining, intentional discharges andaccidental spills, leakage from underground tanks and pipes caused by corrosion,etc. are among the main sources of soil contamination. Air pollution also endsup contributing to soil pollution, as pollutants settle in the form of dust, or arebrought down to the soil surface, carried by the rain. Similarly, as they leach intothe ground, soil pollutants from all sources reach the water table, contaminating

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this vital source of freshwater. Therefore, air, water and soil pollution areinterconnected.

Agriculture pollutes the soil mostly with pesticides and chemical fertilizers,but also with concentrated excrements from intensive animal farming operations.

Pesticides heavily contaminate the soil and air (through aerosol formation),wrecking the local ecosystems, because when you destroy insects and molluscs,the whole food chain is afected. Small mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibiansthat feed on invertebrates are left to die from starvation as their prey isannihilated by pesticides; larger predators such as hawks, owls and foxes arelikewise doomed.

Chemical fertilizers also are terrible environmental pollutants, as they aretoxic to soil’s micro and macro organisms, and cause progressive soilacidifcation and salinization, thus reducing its biodiversity and biomass.Moreover, chemical fertilizers are commonly contaminated with heavy metalsand persistent organic pollutants which undergo bioaccumulation, that is,increasing concentration in organisms over time, causing chronic intoxicationand several metabolic, hormonal, immunological, reproductive and nervousproblems, eventually causing death and the decline in wild animal populations.Such contaminants can also undergo biomagnifcation, which means an increasein concentration at higher strata in the food chain, so that predators areparticularly decimated.

Water Pollution

Humankind is systematically destroying aquatic life on the planet,especially because of pollution. This is very clear and can be verifed by anyone,practically anywhere and at any time. Try paying a visit to the river or streamclosest to where you live. Have a good look at it. Would you be brave enough todrink that water? Could you even touch it with your hand? Probably not. But,why? Simply because the poor river is so polluted that you fnd it disgusting toeven get close to it, or smell it. Would you care to try fshing in that river? Everwonder what you would catch?

Now, can you believe that that same river or stream has once been pristine,crystal clear, surrounded by riparian forests and full of fsh and other aquaticcreatures? But, what happened that made it end up this way? What caused such anegative transformation? The answer is only one: mankind happened. It is uswho do this to the river, and the water, and the rest of the environment.

The main sources of water pollution are: domestic sewage, industrialeffluents, agricultural runof and garbage.

• Domestic sewage. Every day, by doing the most ordinary actions such astaking a shower, doing the dishes or laundry, but especially going to the loo and

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fushing the toilet, billions of people are polluting the rivers, lakes and seas withtheir sewage. This is the main source of water pollution in most cities around theworld. Unfortunately, however, most people fail to see themselves as responsiblefor all that pollution. It is as if only others were guilty, as if their own sewage,from their own homes’ toilets, was not having exactly the same destination, andthe same efect.

• Industrial pollution. Industry, including the energy sector, is a greatsource of water pollution, discharging to waterbodies contaminants that areextremely harmful to human health and the environment. Residues fromfactories, mining operations and power plants, which comprise all sorts of toxicchemical substances, are commonly discharged in bodies of water. Moreover,most industries require great volumes of water for their activities; such watergoes through several processes, being contaminated with multiple toxic chemicalcompounds, and is eventually discharged into the environment, be it in rivers,lakes, seas or deep wells. The most common pollutants are heavy metals (lead,arsenic, mercury, etc.), polycyclic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds,persistent organic pollutants such as dioxins and PCBs, phosphates, sulphur,radioactive residues, solvents such as trichloroethylene, organic wastes, etc.Petroleum and its derivatives is one of the main pollutants in oceans, fromsources such as oil spills from oil tankers and platforms, leakage from oil wells,clandestine clearing of ship tanks, everyday spills and leakage from millions ofships and boats around the world, industrial discharges, illegal old oil dumping,etc. Last but not least, nuclear waste leaks every day from hundreds of nuclearpower plants around the world, contaminating water tables, rivers, seas andoceans.

• Agricultural runof. Conventional agriculture is one of the main sourcesof water pollution globally. Pesticides are carried by rain runof, reachingwaterbodies where they decimate practically all forms of life, from molluscs,insects and other invertebrates, to fsh and amphibians and fnally birds andmammals that feed on them. Most pesticides are persistent organic pollutantsthat accumulate in the environment, and particularly aquatic ecosystems, wherethey undergo bioaccumulation and biomagnifcation.

Chemical fertilizers are also terrible water pollutants. They are carrieddown by runof to water bodies, where they change the chemical properties ofthe water, intoxicating aquatic organisms. Moreover, they cause the phenomenonof eutrophication, that is an explosive algal growth caused by an excess ofnutrients in the water. Such algal blooms consumes all oxygen dissolved in thewater while also releasing toxins, causing the death of fsh and other aquatic lifeforms. Concentrated animal wastes from intensive livestock operations are also amajor source of nutrient pollution of waterbodies that contribute toeutrophication. It should be stressed that fertilizer and pesticide leaching is alsoan important source of groundwater pollution.

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And the damage doesn’t stop there: agricultural pollutants are carried byrivers for hundreds or thousands of kilometres, reaching lakes, seas and oceans,which sufer similar efects. In several parts of the world, including the Gulf ofMexico and the Baltic Sea, eutrophication caused by agricultural runof,especially phosphate and nitrogen fertilizers, as well as domestic sewage, havecreated immense dead zones—hypoxic areas where there is no life, except forthe algal bloom, particularly microscopic algae called cyanobacteria, whichconsume all oxygen thus killing all other life forms. A scientifc study publishedin 2008 identifed over 400 dead zones in the world’s oceans, covering an areagreater than 245,000 square kilometres.* Chemical fertilizers are one of themain causes of coral bleaching and marine ecosystem destruction globally.

Water pollution also causes serious impacts on human health. It isinteresting (actually outrageous) to see that the river where a city dumps itswaste is the same that the next city downstream catches water for public supply!Such contamination causes some of the greatest public health problems in theworld—diseases such as viral, bacterial and parasitic diarrhoeas, hepatitis,cholera, typhoid fever, worm infestations, etc. are among the main causes ofmortality in underdeveloped regions that lack appropriate water treatmentsystems. It is estimated that globally about 90% of all wastewater generated isdischarged raw into the environment.**

In more developed regions, water treatment for public supply reducesdrastically the incidence of such diseases. However, that does not mean pollutionwill not afect the population’s health! Firstly because many of the industrial andagricultural pollutants are not completely removed from the water in thetreatment process, so people do end up drinking them. Moreover, to make thatpolluted water “safe” for consumption, after several physical and chemicalpurifcation processes (screening, sedimentation, aeration, focculation,fltration), there is a disinfection step in which chemical compounds, mostlychlorine-based disinfectants, are added to the water to eliminate remainingpathogens such as viruses, bacteria and parasites. However, that chlorine reactswith the organic matter present in the water (humic acids), generating by-products such as bromoform, trihalomethane and dibromochloromethane. Manytoxicological and epidemiological studies have proven that exposure to suchsubstances from the drinking of treated water causes several types of cancer,especially of the bladder and intestines, and also reproductive problems,abortions, foetal anomalies, among other efects.

* Diaz, R. J.; Rosenberg, R. Spreading dead zones and consequences for marineecosystems. Science. 2008.** Corcoran, E.. et al. Sick water? The central role of wastewater management in sustainable development – a rapid response assessment. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN-HABITAT. 2010.

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Garbage

The everyday act of buying food from the supermarket and goods ingeneral from shops has as a direct consequence the generation of a lot of wasteand pollution: single use plastic bags, used indiscriminately by the overwhelmingmajority of consumers in the world; packaging, including cans, bottles, etc., allthat mean an enormous amount of garbage, particularly plastic but also glass,paper and metal, being produced and disposed of. Only a small fraction of suchmaterials are actually recycled, while the most part is just tossed into theenvironment, dumped in landflls and illegal dump sites, or incinerated, whichalso generates pollution.

Industrialized products in general (clothes, furniture, home appliances,utensils in general, toys, tyres, etc.), at the end of their service life, are alsodisposed of, normally as garbage, which often contains toxic substances such asheavy metals, fame retardants and persistent organic pollutants, whichaccumulate in the environment. The consumerism culture and our disposable,throwaway culture, which are so typical of our time, tremendously aggravate thissituation, as they lead to much bigger generation of waste, not to mention thatthey also mean much higher industrial pollution and natural resourceconsumption rates.

Organic wastes such as food waste, kitchen scraps, etc. are routinelythrown in a concentrated form into the environment, be it in landflls or dumpsites, or even rivers, where they represent pollution that harms the ecosystems.This situation is much aggravated by the outrageous levels of food wasteglobally, as we have already discussed.

Garbage is a huge environmental problem. Its practically eternal physicalpresence is spreading over the face of the Earth in the form of landflls anddumps sites that never cease to expand both in size and number. In morecivilized areas, such sites are strategically placed outside of most people’s view,which prevents them from having a clear notion of the problem’s magnitude.

In most parts of the world, garbage also piles up in rivers and other bodiesof water—check out the river in any urban area in most parts of the world andyou’ll see an immense amount of rubbish foating around, being carried by thestream, or stuck to the banks, not to mention the heavier stuf that sink to thebottom and remains unseen, covered by the thick, grossly polluted waters.Typically, most of that garbage is deliberately thrown into the river, refectingsuch an unbelievable, yet widespread culture in which waterbodies are seen assome sort of fuid trash bin! The notion that once something is thrown into ariver, it instantly disappears. Garbage thrown in the streets and dump sites is alsooften carried by the wind and rain runof, ending up in rivers, lakes and, fnally,seas where they accumulate—we are talking millions of tonnes. There, in marineecosystems, garbage decimates an incalculable number of animals such as fsh,dolphins, turtles, birds, etc. that get entangled in it or make the terrible mistake

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of ingesting plastic objects and other materials, which cause obstructions,perforations and other problems.

Besides the obvious physical contamination, the decomposition of garbageproduces by-products which are also serious land, air and water pollutants.Anaerobic degradation of organic waste is an important source of greenhousegases such as CO2 and methane. Moreover, in many places, waste is burned,contributing substantially to air pollution, including products of the incompletecombustion of plastic like dioxins and PCBs, which cause endocrine,immunological and reproductive disorders, and cancer.

In landflls and dump sites, anaerobic decomposition of organic wastegenerates a thick, slimy, stinky liquid called leachate, which contaminates thesoil. From the soil surface, the leachate goes in two directions: part of it leachesinto the soil, eventually reaching the water table, polluting it. Another part iscarried by the rain as surface runof, which is a fast track to reaching the nearbyrivers and lakes. The leachate comes mixed with other toxic substances pickedup from non-organic sources like home appliances, electronics, solvents, paints,batteries, household cleaners, etc., which include heavy metals, hydrocarbons,persistent organic pollutants, etc., which accumulate in the soil and ground andsurface waters.

A reduction in the production of garbage by a more conscientiousconsumption and the appropriate recycling of waste materials would greatlyattenuate all those problems, besides saving energy and other natural resources(materials); however, despite some progress in the recycling rate in much of theworld, the global amount of garbage being generated and thrown into theenvironment is constantly growing, as a result of the combination of populationand economic growth, and the spread of the throwaway culture.

Mass extinctions

When we talk about mass extinction events, people often associate the termto extremely remote episodes, that happened millions of years ago, such as thatwhich caused the demise of dinosaurs.

Mass extinction can be defned as a period in which the extinction rate issubstantially higher than normal, which over a relatively short period of timeleads to the demise of a great number of species and great reduction ofbiodiversity globally. What not so many people are aware of is that we are, inthis exact moment, right in the middle of a mass extinction event! But what couldbe the cause of such phenomenon? A meteor impact? A new ice age? Nope—the cause of the present mass extinction is us, human beings.*

* Ceballos, G. et al. Biological annihilation via the ongoing sixth mass extinction signaled byvertebrate population losses and declines. Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America. 2017.

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Species extinctions caused by humans are nothing new. Primitive peoplesmigrations around the globe thousands of years ago have been accompanied bycountless animal species extinctions, mostly due to overhunting, as alreadymentioned. Among the species that disappeared forever in that era were dozensof megafauna species that went extinct from the Pleistocene to Holocenetransition around 11,000 years ago, including mammoths, mastodons and otherrelatives of the present day elephants, several giant sloth species, armadillos thatweighed up to 2 tons, tapirs, moose, camels, equids, bears, sabre-toothed cats,lions, American cheetahs, etc. In Australia, the arrival of man around 45,000years ago caused the extinction of several species of kangaroo-like marsupials,many of them giant, in a short period of time, besides many bird and reptilespecies; on Pacifc islands including Hawaii, hundreds of bird species werehunted to extinction by the frst human inhabitants thousands of years ago, whilein New Zealand, all moa species—giant fightless birds related to the ostrich andemu—were hunted to extinction by the Maori, around six centuries ago.

In more recent times, with the vertiginous rise in human population and thedevelopment of new, ever more destructive technologies, the situation worsenedprogressively for biodiversity. Currently, species are being lost at a rate 1,000times higher than natural levels as a result of human activities; millions of animaland plant species are imminently threatened with extinction.*

Anthropogenic (caused by man) extinctions are due to overhunting,environmental destruction and fragmentation (e.g. deforestation), pollution,introduction of exotic species that, by predation, competition or disease bringautochthonous species to extinction; climate change and ocean acidifcation, etc.

When we talk about the mass extinction events that happened in the past,many people tend to assume that the species were wiped out overnight, what isincorrect—such events generally happen over a period of hundreds or thousandsof years. Even so, considering geological and evolutionary time scales, that stillrepresents a very short period and, therefore, an abrupt decline in biodiversity.Most people have difculty recognizing the current mass extinction episodebecause they ignore how such events happen, and also because they are incapableof understanding adequate time scales. For instance, for people 1,000 yearslooks like an eternity; however, relative to the age of the Earth or the history oflife on the planet, or the evolution of any living species, a millennium is anextremely short period—people in general are unable to look at time scaleslonger than the human lifespan, such as decades to a century at most. But thebiggest obstacle to a comprehension of the current environmental crisis and itslikely consequences is actually sheer ignorance of the magnitude and scale of theglobal environmental destruction by man and the speed at which it progresses, orabout the importance of ecosystems.

* Pimm, S. L. et al. The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, andprotection. Science. 2014.

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And the problem tends to get worse, as both the human population and theglobal consumption levels are only going up, day after day. As such changes areexponential, the most likely scenario is that we will soon reach a critical point, inwhich the accumulated damage will cause an abrupt aggravation of all problemsthat make up the environmental crisis, leading to the collapse of biodiversity andthe natural environment, and consequently of civilization and humanity itself.

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Part I – The Environmental and Civilization Crisis 4. Projections for the Future

4PROJECTIONSFOR THE FUTURE

In our society, because of the artifcialization of life and rampantalienation, many people seem to believe that humans don’t really need nature tosurvive, so environmental preservation would be something optional, non-priority, almost like a mere aesthetic detail. However, nothing could be fartherfrom the truth! Just as well as all other living species, humanity depends totallyon the natural environment and resources for its long-term survival. Ourcivilization is actually depends on the abundance of natural resources, as withoutthem any technology and in fact all economy and consequently the socialstructures as a whole become inviable. Therefore, logically environmentaldestruction and resource depletion will eventually lead to the collapse ofcivilization and humankind itself.

That actually would not be unprecedented—over the last 10,000 years theworld has seen the rise and fall of numerous civilizations, at diferent times anddiferent regions of the planet. Although several factors may cause or contributeto the disintegration of societies and civilizations, history shows a recurrentpattern: frst, you have an ascension phase which is marked by technologicaldevelopment, population growth, an improvement of the standards of living andincrease in the complexity of social structures. That causes an increased pressureon the environment, with growing consumption of essential natural resourcessuch as water, fertile land for agriculture, wood for timber and fuel (energy), etc.

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So you have a combination of an increase in population and the depletion ofnatural resources, accompanied by environmental degradation. In the growthphase euphoria, very few people realize trouble is brewing—continual growthover long periods of time create an atmosphere of optimism and the prevailingimpression that all is going to get ever better, and nothing could go wrong.However, from a certain point, such predatory relationship with the environmentcreates a critical shortage of the natural resources that are necessary to keep thecivilization going, which prevents further growth and even its maintenance,causing economic, technological, social and administrative break down, whichleads to the deterioration of living standards, culminating with a sharp decline inpopulation numbers from hunger, violence and epidemics.

Of course it is always risky to try to make “prophecies”, as it is impossibleto predict with any certainty when and how future events will take place.However, it is clear that the basic factors that caused the demise of pastcivilizations are all present in our society, pointing to the possibility of a collapseof our own civilization in a not so distant future.*

There is, however, a new and very important feature regarding our owncivilization. Past civilizations were relatively small and geographically restricted,so when they collapsed there were always new areas available, allowing formigration or the rise of new civilizations, etc. By contrast, now we have a hugeand global civilization which no part of the planet is safe from. In other words,with its collapse there will be nowhere to go. That is why the collapse of ourcivilization represents a real threat of complete destruction of humankind.

* For a deep analysis of the collapse of past civilizations and their implications for ourcurrent society I recommend Jared Diamond’s book Collapse: how societies choose to failor succeed and Joseph Tainter’s The collapse of complex societies.

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-2000

Akkadian Empire Mycenaean

Civilization

Indus Valley Civilization

Khmer Empire

Han Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

Anasazi

Western Roman Empire Maya

Civiliz.

Rapa Nui

Ancient Carthage

-250

0

-300

0

-1500

-100

0

-500 0

500

1000

1500

2000

Year

Rise and fall of some past civilizations


Natural resource depletion

The Earth is a fnite space with fnite resources, and because of the humanactivities every day there are less forests, less clean water, less fertile soils andless biodiversity than the day before. On the other hand, every day there aremore people, more cars, more factories… more polluted rivers, lakes and seas,more garbage, more greenhouse gases, etc. than the day before. Logically, theinevitable result of this process is that eventually we will reach a point in whichthe planet will be covered with people, garbage and pollution, while the basicresources which are necessary for the maintenance of human life will become soscarce as to force down the population numbers.

For a better understanding of this situation, let us focus on what is going onwith two of the most essential resources to human life: water and soil.

Water

The most essential resource to life is also one of the most seriouslythreatened by our civilization. Because of a combination of several factors, therisk of a global water crisis is regarded by many as one of the main threats tohumanity in the near future.

Water is threatened by:

• Population growth, associated with a growth in the per capita waterconsumption.

• Water pollution by domestic and industrial sewage, agricultural runof,siltation of rivers caused by soil erosion, etc., leading to a reduction in theamount of available clean water.

• Intensifcation of agricultural practices with indiscriminate irrigation,causing the depletion of surface waters (rivers and lakes) and groundwater(water table).

• Deforestation and unsustainable agricultural practices, soil compaction bycattle treading and soil waterproofng caused by roads and urban sprawl,leading to a reduction in water penetration into the soil and increasedrunof, which causes the lowering of water tables, drying of springs andreduction of the water fow in rivers.

• Climate change, causing a reduction in volume and regularity of rainfall,contributing to water scarcity in many parts of the world, while causingextreme weather events such as storms and foods in others.

According to FAO estimates, by 2025 two-thirds of the world’s population

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could be living under water stressed conditions.* And the most likely scenario isa progressive aggravation of this situation, considering our trajectory ofpopulation growth, environmental degradation and climate change.

This creates a sobering perspective: at some point, possibly not too distantin the future, lack of water for irrigation will start undermining the agriculturaloutput in many regions of the world, with a risk of a food crisis and,consequently, a humanitarian and migration crisis on a global scale. At the sametime, an urban food supply crisis will put large urban areas in severe distress.Because of it’s importance and scarcity, water has become a central strategicpoint that may soon motivate international conficts or water wars, similarly towhat we have been seeing over petroleum.**

Soils

Soils are the base for terrestrial life, including human life—95% of ourfood comes from it.

The part of the soil that is capable of supporting life (and thereforeproducing food) is the surface layer (topsoil), generally the top 5 to 20 cm. Thisis the zone where most organic matter, microorganisms and nutrients areconcentrated.

Topsoil is formed over millennia and is therefore, for practical reasons,regarded as a non-renewable resource. Now the problem is that topsoil is beinglost at a fast pace around the world, because of the progressive deforestation andunsustainable agricultural practices, as already discussed. Currently, around 80%of the agricultural soils around the world are already moderately to severelydegraded,† and scientists estimate that within the next 60 years, mankind mayrun out of fertile soils. That means there will be a dramatic reduction in thecapacity to produce food, which, combined with population growth (accordingwith UN projections, we should reach a population of 11 billion still thiscentury), will mean an irreversible food supply crisis (in other words, famine), ata global scale.

Although chemical fertilizers allow for food production in degraded soils,that will not solve the problem, because they too are fnite, non-renewableresources that are being extracted and consumed at ever increasing rates byindustrial agriculture, so that they too will someday fatally enter terminaldecline. Among them, the most noteworthy are phosphorus and nitrogen.

Phosphorus is an essential element to life, necessary to the cell energymetabolism, membrane formation, production of DNA and several other vital

* Coping with water scarcity – challenge of the twenty-frst century. Food and AgricultureOrganization of the United Nations. 2007.** Brahma Chellaney. Water, peace, and war: confronting the global water crisis. Rowman & Littlefeld Publishers. 2013.† Gomiero, T. Soil degradation, land scarcity and food security: reviewing a complex challenge. Sustainability. 2016.

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molecules in all known organisms. It is also a soil macronutrient (necessary inrelatively high concentration for plant growth). Nonetheless, it is available inlimited amounts on Earth. The most important source of agricultural phosphorusare phosphatic rocks, which are abundant only in few countries, most notablyMorocco, which contains 70% of the global reserves of this nutrient. It isestimated that the economically accessible phosphate rock reserves will enterterminal decline and absolute depletion globally in a matter of a few decades—the so-called peak phosphorus.*

Nitrogen, another soil macronutrient, also poses a big challenge. Nitrogenin the form of urea fertilizer is the most used chemical fertilizer worldwide.However, urea production requires natural gas (a fossil fuel), a resource that isalso running out, as will be discussed further on.

The destruction of the natural soil fertility and the depletion of mineral andchemical fertilizer reserves and the consequent decline in the food productioncapacity, associated with overpopulation, will create an overwhelming pressurefor conversion of new land for agricultural use—in other words, moredeforestation, as people will see this as the only way to produce food and escapestarvation in the short term. In such a scenario, the planet’s remaining forestswon’t stand any chance—it will be the end of the terrestrial biodiversity. Now,try to guess what will happen when also those last bits of soil are lost?

Peak oil and energy crisis

The widespread utilization of fossil fuels, that is, coal ever since theIndustrial Revolution and particularly petroleum from the early 20th century,allowed for the fastest technological development in human history, and also thefastest population growth ever. The global human population in 2015 wasalready six times larger than at the beginning of the 20th century, and this wasonly made possible by petroleum, with its immense energetic potential,versatility as a raw material and, most importantly, its huge availability and lowcost.

Since 1900, the percentage of people living in cities rose from 13% to over54%. That means that today we have over 4.1 billion people living in cities,while just over a century ago there were only 200,000—a twentyfold rise in anextremely short period. That was only made possible because of petroleum. Allmodern technologies could only be developed thanks to it, so that our entirecivilization has grown totally dependent on that resource.

Now, think about it: nowadays, a teacher giving lessons, an architectcreating projects, a salesman working in a store, a doctor seeing patients, a clerkworking in an ofce, probably sitting all day, in the shade and air conditioning

* Rhodes, C. J. Peak phosphorus – peak food? The need to close the phosphorus cycle. Science progress. 2013.

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(just to name a few professions, but the same goes for most modernoccupations), earn enough to buy food, clothes, pay rent or mortgage, have a car,etc. That’s all right, isn’t it? We shall see.

Now, compare all the efort that would be involved for those people toplant all the food they eat, transport it, process it… to build the house they livein—not only lay the bricks, but make the bricks, transport them, to mine andprocess and make cement, cut trees for lumber for the roofng, etc.; to extractand work all the iron and other metals, not to mention plastic, rubber, glass, etc.and make their cars… Compare all that efort with what they actually do in theireveryday work. Have you ever thought about the discrepancy between those two“eforts”: the one we really do, and what would be necessary to fabricate andbuild and make everything we consume? What could explain such discrepancy?Many would say: “technology”. And they would be right, but that is just half theanswer. The other half of the answer, that is the trouble: energy. The problem isthat the energy that moves all that technology, and makes all that efort for us, isprovided mostly by fossil fuels, especially petroleum.

It is petroleum that moves the tractors to do the farm work, and the trucksto transport the food, and the heavy machinery for mining; petroleum and coal togrind and melt, and mold, and fabricate, and build, and transport, etc. everythingthat is produced and consumed by our civilization. In other words, it is fossil-fuelled technologies that do practically all the hard work, so that people can besitting, doing very little physical efort, getting fat, and even so manage to get ahouse, car(s), air travel for holidays, etc.

This relationship is brilliantly summed up in American architect, inventorand philosopher Richard Buckminster Fuller’s “energy slaves” concept. Theconcept goes that if it wasn’t for technology and artifcial energy sources, thestandards of living and comfort enjoyed by the average modern person wouldonly be made possible if they had tens or hundreds of slaves doing all the hardwork (of cultivating crops, transportation, mining, industry, etc.) for them. Theenergy slave is an abstract energy unit that represents one adult person’s daylabour worth, but is work that is in fact done by machinery (technology), movedby energy sources such as petroleum, electricity, etc. The number of energyslaves per person varies with social and economic class and consumption level,but it is estimated that an average western middle-class lifestyle requires about150 energy slaves per person. Now, it is not only people’s standards of living thatdepend on energy slaves—in fact, they are the very bases that support the wholeof our modern industrial civilization.

Of course all that consumption of energy and other resources is a keyfactor in our current environmental crisis. But there is another problem: fossilfuels are fnite and non-renewable resources. All petroleum that exists has beenproduced millions of years ago, and all we are doing now is extracting andconsuming that resource, at an extremely high and growing rate. The continualextraction of this resource will inevitably lead to a totally predictable result: its

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exhaustion.Technically speaking, what will happen is not exactly the complete

depletion of petroleum, but a decline in conventional reserves of good quality oilthat can be extracted economically, leading to ever increasing investments thatyield ever diminishing return in terms of energy, as we have to go into reservesthat are more and more difcult to reach, and contain oil of worse quality. Froma certain point, this process will force a reduction in global oil output (terminaldecline), associated with a steep price rise. This point where the global oil outputreaches a maximum and starts to decline is called peak oil.

It is the consensus among scientists that the world’s oil reserves are alreadyin an advanced stage of depletion, and the efects of peak oil will be evident in avery near future—before 2030, or even before 2020.*

The global demand for petroleum has been growing steadily over thedecades, and the trend is for it to grow even more with the population growth,the development of new technologies (virtually all dependent on oil) and thedevelopment of giant emerging economies, countries such as China and India.The fatal combination of rise in demand and reduction in supply will cause oilprices to skyrocket irreversibly, up until a point where the output will be so low,and the price so high, that oil will no longer be a viable resource. From apractical point of view, that is equivalent to saying that petroleum ran out.

Although we tend to put more emphasis on petroleum for its particularrelevance, it must be stressed that the same principle works equally to the otherfossil fuels such as coal and natural gas (and even nuclear fuels such as uranium235, and actually any non-renewable resource). Fossil fuels provide 80% of allenergy consumed globally. The shortage and resultant price rise of an energysource naturally leads to a shift to other sources. Therefore, it is predicted thatthe main energy resources used by our civilization will all peak and decline in asomewhat synchronized fashion, making a global energy crisis hard to avoid. Itcould in theory be possible to prevent that crisis by means of a colossal efort toshift to renewable energy sources coupled with a total reshaping of our economicand social systems, but obviously that is not what’s happening. It should bepointed out that, in spite of investments in this feld, renewable energies such assolar and wind power sill account for just around 1.5% of the total energyoutput.**

Wars over petroleum resources (oil wars) have been commonplace fordecades—in fact, most international armed conficts involving industrial nationssince the Second World War were fought over the control of petroleum andnatural gas resources.† If that has been happening in times of abundance of that

* Miller, R. G.; Sorrell, S. R. The future of oil supply. Philosophical Transactions. Series A,Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences. 2016.** 2017 Key world energy statistics. International Energy Agency. 2017.† Klare, M. T. Twenty-frst century energy wars: how oil and gas are fuelling global conficts. Energy Post. 2014.

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resource, what could happen when it starts to become critically scarce?The energy crisis caused by peak oil will bring in its wake an

unprecedented global economic crisis, as the current economic system and thevery structure of our society are dependent on an absurd abundance of energy.The world as we know it was only made possible because of the fossil fuelsabundance, and their depletion may cause the collapse of our current industrialcivilization.

Global warming/climate change

Global warming is the rise in global average temperatures that has beengoing on mostly due to the human activities which involve the emission of theso-called greenhouse gases, of which the most important are carbon dioxide(CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O).

Anthropogenic (i.e. caused by man) greenhouse gas emissions are derivedprimarily from the burning of fossil fuels (coal, petroleum and natural gas) forelectricity generation, heating, industrial processes and transportation (fossilfuels, especially gasoline and diesel, account for 95% of the energy used intransports globally) and land (mis)use including agriculture, livestockproduction, deforestation, intentional burning and soil degradation—all of which

Global greenhouse gas emissions by economic sector.Source: IPCC*

* IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Climate change 2014: mitigation ofclimate change. Working Group III contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2014.

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Agriculture(25%)

Transportation(14,5%)

Residential and services

(18,5%)

Industry(32%)

Other


Such gases produced by human activities have been accumulating in theatmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, and more acutely in our Oil Age, sothat their current concentrations are much higher than natural levels.

Graph: atmospheric concentrations of the main greenhouse gases.Source: NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA

The greenhouse gases absorb indirect radiation from the Sun refected bythe Earth and give that energy back as heat, causing a rise in the atmospheric andconsequently also land and ocean temperatures. Up until recently, theconsequences of the greenhouse efect were not clearly noticeable, but nowadaysit is clear everywhere in the world that the climate is really changing: all regionsare getting warmer, and in many places there has been a noticeable reduction inyearly rainfall. Regions once humid are now dry, and formerly dry regions havebecome real deserts, etc.

Since 1900, the Earth’s average surface temperature has risen about 1 °C,and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts in its 2013report the possibility of a rise of up to 4.8 °C before the end of the 21 st century.*

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)concluded that in order to avoid catastrophic consequences, it is necessary thatthe global warming be limited to 1.5 or 2 °C relative to pre-industrial

* Stocker, T. F. et al. Technical summary. In: Climate Change 2013: The physical sciencebasis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2013.

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Carbon dioxide(CO

2)

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temperatures, and to reach that target would require a dramatic and immediatereduction in global greenhouse gas emissions. Although 195 state parties havesigned agreements to reach that goal, global emissions continue to rise year afteryear.

Scientists predict a widearray of negative efectsfrom global warming inthe future, including sealevel rise (due to thermalexpansion and meltingglaciers and polar icecaps), changes in rainfallpatterns, expansion ofdeserts, an increase inintensity and frequency ofextreme weather eventssuch as heat waves,droughts, storms, foods,typhoons, etc. and also anintensifcation of oceanacidifcation (withresulting coral death) and

the extinction of many animal and plant species from habitat loss.

Global warming will have severe consequences for humanity: the rise in sealevels will force hundreds of millions of people who live in coastal zones out oftheir homes, as many cities will be submerged. The temperature rise may makemost of the tropical zone uninhabitable. Moreover, because of the changes inrainfall patterns and desert expansion, vast regions of the globe will face severewater and food crises, causing widespread famine. Such pressure will create anunprecedented global migratory crisis. All those factors will place enormousstress on international relations, leading to the fortifcation of borders to blockthe fow of hungry and thirsty masses, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

Connecting the dots

The energy crisis caused by peak oil may bring our industrial civilization toan end, as all current technologies, which are dependent on oil, will becomeimpracticable. Without fuel, all people who depend on the car or public transportto go to work… just won’t be able to go to work! Neither will they have a jobeither actually, because without energy and raw materials, many industries willjust stop; without goods to sell, commerce will also stop. With such a crisis inthose sectors, the services sector will sufer also, as the people left jobless won’t

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1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

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Graph: global mean surface temperature change(land and ocean) from 1880 to 2017 relative to the1951–1980 mean. Source: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, USA


have any money to spend, so there will be an unemployment snowball. With sucha severe economic paralysis, there will be no revenue, so essential public servicessuch as education, health, infrastructure, sanitation, public security, etc. will alsocome to a halt.

Unemployed and left with no income, people won’t be able to buy food.People living in large urban areas will be particularly vulnerable, as foodtransport from producing regions will become expensive or even impracticable,because of there will be no fuel. But even worse, there will be no food—modernagriculture is totally dependent on tractors, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, allof which are dependent on oil, which is the fuel for the tractors and the rawmaterial for fertilizers and pesticides. The end of the oil age will be the end ofthe industrial agriculture masquerade, making it clear to everyone that it hascompletely destroyed the natural fertility of soils, making them barren, devoid oflife and incapable of producing food.

Now add to the mix the global water crisis! The lack of water and food willbring widespread famine that will strike frst the more vulnerable and poorerregions of the world, spreading inexorably until no one is spared. And all of thatwill be aggravated by climate change.

People’s despair will cause social instability and chaos, economic collapseof countries and the breakdown of institutions, civil wars and the rise oftotalitarian regimes. As discussed about water, wars will be waged and countriessubdued and destroyed in disputes over the last agricultural resources such assoils and nutrients (poor Morocco, with its phosphate rock reserves!). We’ll livean unprecedented humanitarian crisis in which millions of people will die everyday and the population will be reduced in a drastic, progressive and irreversibleway from hunger, thirst, violence, wars and epidemics, amidst the ruins of ourcivilization.

So, we have a perfect storm scenario, in which a conjunction of extremelyscary factors, which individually would already represent a threat to ourcivilization, have been escalating, converging to cause an unparalleled crisis stillthis century. To make matters even worse, on the brink of collapse, whencountries fght wars over energy, water and agricultural resources, that will bringa likely scenario for a third world war, with a substantial risk of global nuclearannihilation.

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Part I – The Environmental and Civilization Crisis 5. A State of Planetary Emergency

5A STATE OF PLANETARYEMERGENCY

From what has been discussed up to here, it is evident that we are in a truestate of planetary emergency, and that human unsustainability is the biggestproblem in the world.

Of course there are many other problems in today’s world, such as poverty,hunger, violence, inequality and social injustice, government corruption, wars,diseases such as cancer and AIDS, etc. all of which are also important, sadrealities that we must strive to change. However, even combined, all thoseproblems are no match, in terms of seriousness or importance, tounsustainability. If all those problems were miraculously solved, and suddenly wehad a world with no hunger or social injustice, only honest governments, andeven if we found a cure to every disease, etc., well we would certainly have amuch happier world… however, keeping our lifestyles unsustainable as they are,such happiness would be short-lived—with the resource depletion all thoseachievements would crumble like a house of cards, taking us to the very sameapocalyptic scenario described above.

If we are to stand a chance of surviving as a species and leave a healthy orat least liveable world to the next generations, a radical paradigm shift is urgentlyneeded. The preservation of the natural environment and resources must behumanity’s top priority and the quest for sustainability our main goal. This isprecisely what permaculture is about, as we shall see in the following pages.

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Part IIThe Permaculture

Alternative

Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 6. Time for Change

6TIME FOR CHANGE

In Part I we briefy discussed the human species’ trajectory towardsunsustainability. There we have a collection of public domain informations towhich everyone has access. In fact, most of that is no news to anybody—who’snever heard about overpopulation, deforestation, pollution or global warming?

However, rarely does anyone connect the dots or analyse that informationin an integrated and objective way, considering the origins and evolution of theunsustainability problem, that is, its aggravation over time, its extremeintensifcation in recent times, and the magnitude of the current environmentaland civilization crisis and its predictable consequences, both for the naturalenvironment and humankind. When one fnally makes that analysis and realisesthe seriousness of our current situation, that comes as a bomb, a shock.

But how could we put ourselves in such a situation? Someone mightwonder, who’s to blame for this crisis that threatens humanity and life in generalon Earth? When confronted with this question, many hastily point their fngers atthe big players: “the bankers, big corporate powers such as oil magnates, carmakers or fast food chains; logging or agribusiness barons, corrupt politicians,etc.”, they’ll say.

OK, they are right. But now, let’s look at it in a diferent way: imagine anyperson, a common mortal man or woman—it could be your neighbour, yourfriend or brother, your parent, or even yourself—someone who has an ordinaryjob, at a factory or store, a bank… they could be a business person, maybe own

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a workshop or a restaurant, or perhaps be a teacher, a public servant, etc. So,they are involved in the production and distribution of goods and services, be itdirectly or indirectly, or in some or another way supporting such activities. Thatperson has an income, buys stuf for their house, food, clothes for themselvesand their families… maybe they have a car that they use to go to work everyday,and do shopping, travel with their families on holidays, etc. That person paysmortgage, saves money for their kids’ college, for their own old age, etc. Ofcourse there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of that, right? We’re talkingabout a perfectly normal and common person, who very likely loves their familyand cares about their neighbour, seeks to abide to the law and contribute tosociety; who has needs, expectations, dreams, etc.—a person just like anyoneelse. Now, what if I told you that it is precisely all those above mentionedactivities (as well as all others that weren’t mentioned, but are part of the day-by-day of any ordinary person) that are destroying the planet? Think about it: everytime you take the car (or even public transport!), you are not only polluting theatmosphere and contributing to global warming, but also sponsoring allenvironmental destruction caused by the oil industry, road infrastructure, etc.Every time you buy food you are supporting industrial agriculture and allassociated environmental damage; every time you buy anything you’reparticipating in industrial pollution, mining, etc. and every time you put yourgarbage out for collection you’re stufng the landfll with materials that will takethousands or millions of years to decompose (of course recycling goes a longway to mitigate that, but how much of your waste actually gets recycled?). Everytime you light a bulb or turn on the TV, you’re participating in the emission ofgreenhouse gases by thermoelectric power plants, or the generation of nuclearwaste or the destruction of forests by hydroelectric power stations, depending onwhere you live, and every time you fush the toilet you’re polluting rivers andseas and possibly the water table with your excrements, and so on.

We can be all neat and tidy, living in decent neighbourhoods and prettytowns (if we’re lucky), but it is necessary to acknowledge the fact that everyaspect of our comfortable modern life involves an immense level of resourceconsumption and waste generation, which translates into environmentaldegradation—even if away from our sight. Now, multiply that for some billionsof people, and our environmental crisis is explained!

What that means is that nature is not being destroyed only by the rich andpowerful. Of course they are major culprits, but the fact remains that nature isalso being destroyed by every man and every woman, each person in this worldwho lives a “normal” life in the molds of our current industrial society. However,many people are not prepared to accept that fact, including many ferventenvironmental activists, who love to criticize the big players, self-righteously.That’s actually easy to understand, as it is much more convenient to point atforces that are bigger than you, things you can’t change, than to roll up thesleeves and change what you can change—starting with yourself. Now, how can

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you criticize large industries, for instance, for the damage they cause, if youyourself are consuming and making use of their products all the time? Isn’thypocrisy the name for that?

Of course society must always press the elites—governments, corporations,powerful groups and individuals—for the adoption of sound environmental andsocial practices. However, without a deep change in peoples’ habits, that willnever make much diference. All demand tends to create a supply, and the bigbusinesses only make so much unnecessary stuf because people keep buying itvoraciously—in spite of the associated environmental costs. For that reason, anysignifcant change can only start from the bottom, the base of society, that is,people. It’s naive and useless to expect positive change to start from the elites.

From the point you become aware that with our lifestyles we are causingthe planetary emergency, it becomes morally unjustifable that we keep a“business as usual” stance. In order to escape our current collision course withthe natural environment and the total destruction of humankind and life on theplanet, what is needed is a great paradigm shift in our society—we need toabandon this prevailing culture based on individualism, focused on self-interest,appearances, consumption and accumulation, and replace with a culture in whichenvironmental protection and restoration are priority. And each person whowants to see this change must begin by themselves.

However, to break away from the current paradigm in which we areimmersed is a huge challenge. After all, each one of us has been trained andconditioned to this modern way of life from the cradle; this is the only way oflife that we know, and everything is in place to make us just keep going as usual.It is surely a great challenge, but at the same time, there can’t be a moremeaningful, or necessary one. After all, it is the future of humanity and life onplanet Earth that are at stake!

But what exactly can we do? What do we start with? Facing this impasse,most people see themselves paralysed. Without knowing what to do, they justturn a blind eye to the whole situation and keep doing things as always. Maybethey cling to the hope that everything is going to be all right, although having noidea how it could; maybe turning to religious faith, or faith in science, in thegovernment… whatever bigger force that they hope might come rescue us fromthis mess.

Some people start trying to do little things to “help save the environment”,such as turning of the lights when not in use, turning of the water whilebrushing their teeth, or sorting waste for recycling, etc., and cultivate thedelusion that they are doing their bit to save the planet, while obviously only suchsmall measures, even combined, won’t ever make any real diference.

There are also those who feel morally compelled to withdraw from societyso as to not participate in this process any longer, rejecting the conventionallifestyle and the current society’s values; however, without seeing a viable

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alternative, they end up living on the fringes of society, “on the road” or inoccupations, practising freeganism, etc.—which is also a delusion, as they remaintotally dependent on the society they disapprove of, so that surely doesn’trepresent any solution, any way forward.

Positive action for change

Fortunately, some people have embraced that challenge and started to thinkin a positive and rational way, seeking concrete, practical solutions that could beavailable to any person, anywhere, from the individual to the collective level andat any scale, so that both people and the rest of the natural world could thrive onEarth. And that’s how permaculture was born!

But what is permaculture?

Permaculture is a system for the conscious organization of humanactivities, aiming at the provision of our needs and at the same time thepreservation and restoration of the environment and ecosystems.

In a broader defnition, it could be said that permaculture is:

• A multidisciplinary science that encompasses techniques, abilities andapplied knowledge for the design of productive systems (agricultural, energy,water and others), shelters, settlements, social structures, etc. so that they arereally sustainable, based on the active observation and application of nature’sprinciples and judicious use of natural resources. Organic agriculture,agroforestry, environmental and ecological design, natural building, ecologicalsanitation, renewable energies, rainwater harvesting systems, solidarity economy,etc. are central elements of permaculture.

• A simple, natural and sustainable lifestyle, guided by a philosophy ofmaximum respect for nature and all its creatures. The permaculture lifestyle isalso characterized by a focus on cooperation (both between people and betweenhumans and nature), rather than competition.

• A global movement of people who share those ideas, values and visions,and seek this lifestyle, learning, teaching, and sharing the permacultureknowledge, abilities and techniques, being themselves the change they want tosee in the world and inspiring others to join up in the making of a sustainablesociety. We believe that, if embraced by enough people, permaculture has thepotential to revert our civilization’s collision course with the naturalenvironment.

Permaculture is embraced by those who understand that the simple and

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natural things are the ones that give meaning to human existence—people whoappreciate the beauty and fragrance of fowers, the singing of birds; who knowthe value of contemplating a sky full of stars or a sunset, who love contact withthe earth and the smell of animals; who love to work, live and share with otherpeople. Permaculture is a natural way for those who have realized that theexacerbated human competition, as well as the greed for material riches,consumer goods and social status, so typical of our era, represent a gravemistake, and are actually poison to the soul and permanent sources ofdissatisfaction, existential void, in other words, unhappiness, besides beingdestructive to nature.

Two common mistakes people make when they frst have contact withpermaculture ideas is to think that it represents a move backwards, or some typeof self-sacrifce.

It is not about self-sacrifce, much on the contrary, as we understand that asimple lifestyle intimately connected with nature and more self-reliant is muchmore enjoyable, healthy, happy and meaningful than the completelyartifcialized, alienated and dependent lifestyle that is prevalent in society today.It is true, however, that it is a path full of challenges, that requires leaving one’scomfort zone, which means a lot of courage is needed.

Neither does it represent a return to the past, as the conscious quest for asustainable lifestyle is in fact something uncommon, maybe even unprecedentedin human history. It is important, by the way, to have clarity that life in the pastwas much harder! Many people have a romanticized view of the past, and that isa problem. The truth is that precariousness, hunger, disease and death werealways looming, life expectancy was much lower than today, and child mortalityextremely high, just to cite a few examples. Although new problems have beencreated (such as modern corporate servitude, isolation and lack of meaning inlife, etc.), overall it is clear that modernity made people’s lives easier and betterin countless ways. The problem is, precisely, that if we remain on this track, allthose advancements will be lost, and in the worst possible way. So, permacultureaims at maintaining and advancing the improvements in the quality of life,associated with a revision of humanity’s relationship with nature—fromdestructive to regenerative of natural resources and ecosystems.

Permaculture does represent, to be fair, a return in some aspects, as weseek a more simple life, in contact with nature, etc., which can be seen as areconnection with the human essence. Now, a lot of people, when thinking aboutthe future, imagine a super high-tech world with total urbanization andartifcialization, maybe space colonies, etc., as often seen in scientifc fctionflms. However, that only shows how such people are out of touch with reality—the technological optimists, people who still believe the fallacy of infnite growthand who fail to understand that such scenarios, although theoretically possible,disintegrate in the face of the imminent exhaustion of the resources that would

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be necessary for the achievement of such world. Clearly, it is far more likely thata collapse of the environment and our civilization will come long before thosescenarios could be made possible.

But what permaculture certainly does mean is liberation to those whoembrace it, and possibly salvation for life on Earth, representing, therefore, not areturn to the past, but a leap to the future—the true evolution that humanitydesperately needs.

One of the coolest things about permaculture is that it is positive—it’s aboutwhat you can do, about practical solutions. That contrasts with conventionalenvironmentalism, which is concerned primarily with what you can’t do.

History of permaculture

The origins of permaculture cannot be dissociated from the 20th centuryenvironmental movement.

Up until the frst half of the 20th century, there was hardly any awareness ofthe intrinsic value of nature. There was actually a generally negative sentimentabout the natural world and the wild, which was seen as something close toungodly, something that should be conquered, exploited or plainly fought bymankind.

That started to change in the last century, particularly some time after theFirst World War, when environmental destruction and pollution-related problemsstarted to become obvious, especially in developed countries’ large urban areas.In 1962, with the publishing of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” (and the lessfamous but equally important “Our Synthetic Environment”, by MurrayBookchin), environmental awareness took great impulse, being embraced by thecounterculture movement that marked that decade.

In 1970, the frst “Earth Day” was celebrated in the United States, when 20million people participated in peaceful demonstrations protesting against oilspills, nuclear power, river pollution by sewage, agricultural pesticides, etc. Itwent on to become a yearly global event.

Environmentalism had arrived, in a form that we can call “classical” oropposition environmentalism, as people demonstrated against things theydisapproved of. In other words, everybody knew what they didn’t want, but therewas a lack of actual propositions, of concrete alternatives, of solutions. Thatwould change with permaculture.

Permaculture as such was born out of the academic collaboration betweenBill Mollison and his then pupil David Holmgren in the Tasmanian College ofAdvanced Education Environmental Design Course, where they worked on aresearch project for the development of sustainable agricultural systems, as analternative to the destructive methods of the industrial agriculture whose

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devastating efects were clearly noticeable in Tasmania at that time.Mollison had observed that, in the agricultural practice, man was constantly

at war with nature—a war that could have no winners. However, all of our food,whether plant, animal or other, ultimately comes from nature, where they haveexisted and produced, in a sustainable way and without human interference formillions of years. Thinking about it, he started to work with Holmgren in amethod for the design of productive systems based on the very principles thatoperate in nature, aiming at creating highly stable and self-maintaining systemswhich would beneft both humans (production with less work) and nature (lessinterference with ecosystems, conservation of resources such as soil, water,energy, biodiversity, biomass, etc.), so they would be also highly sustainable.

The word permaculture is a portmanteau word derived from permanent andagriculture. At the beginning, that was exactly the meaning of the word, as thefounders of the movement were trying to create sustainable, permanentagricultural systems. However, later it became clear that the permaculture ethicsand principles were applicable not only to agriculture, but also all other humanactivities, such as orienting the daily habits and choices for a sustainable lifestyle,or the design of sustainable shelters and settlements and even whole cities,guiding public policies for sustainability, etc.

In 1978, Mollison and Holmgren published the book Permaculture One.Soon after the creation of the permaculture concept, Mollison started to dedicatefull time to its promotion, writing articles, giving lectures and interviews tonewspapers, magazines and radio stations, in Australia at frst, and later aroundthe world. His ideas had great impact, creating a wave of interest. Around thattime, he developed his Permaculture Design Certifcate course (or PDC). Hisvision was “to build an army of permaculture feld workers to go out and teachthe ideas of sustainable food production.” His proposition was that, instead ofwaiting for governments and other institutions to do something, people who areconcerned with the future of the planet should take the matter into their ownhands—acquire the necessary knowledge and do themselves what must be done.

While Mollison took the role of main spreader of the permaculture ideas inthe frst years of the movement, Holmgren remained reclusive for nearly twodecades, testing and refning the permaculture principles in his smallholding inrural Australia.

In 1995, Holmgren published his book Melliodora: ten years of sustainableliving. He has since written important books, lecturing and giving permaculturecourses around the world, emerging to the scene as one of the main intellectualsin the feld of sustainability.

Since its inception, permaculture has grown to become a global movement.

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Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 7. Permaculture Ethics and Principles

7PERMACULTURE ETHICSAND PRINCIPLES

Our society’s unsustainability derives from the fact that we have anti-natural systems that require high doses of work and energy to establish andmaintain, and utilize resources in an irrational way leading to their depletion onone hand, and to the production of waste and pollution on the other. In order toattain sustainability, we must revert each of those errors, that is, we need toestablish natural, low energy, self-maintaining systems that allow for themaximum efciency in resource use and minimize waste and residues, so that wecan provide for our needs not only in the short term, but indefnitely.

That’s easy to say. However, as we saw in Part I, our lifestyle and the verystructure of our civilization are the result of a long historical process, and ourways of thinking and acting, both at the individual and collective levels, arebased on deeply rooted concepts, consciously or not. In other words, ourcivilization is entirely based on a paradigm of unsustainability. Therefore,isolated actions and minor changes in the way we live and do things will never beenough to solve the problem of human unsustainability, or avoid itsconsequences. To that end, what is needed is a radical paradigm shift.

Clearly, however, we can’t just throw away our civilization and all itsachievements, and start again from zero—that would be impossible. What we doneed is a set of key concepts to guide us in this paradigm transition. That’s wherethe permaculture principles come into play.

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The permaculture principles are divided into two categories: philosophicalprinciples, normally referred to as permaculture ethics, and design principles or,simply, principles.

Permaculture ethics

Our current society is marked by individualism and competition—a societyin which personal fulflment is dumped for wealth accumulation and socialstatus; where the common yardstick is not only to be well yourself, but to bebetter of than others. So, it can be said that our society is focused on the ego,and not on the community, and the preservation of nature is virtually never takeninto consideration—the intrinsic value of nature and life is regarded assecondary to the individual interests. Such egocentrism is also refected in theway we see time scales, as people want benefts for themselves, and right now!Any consequences to their acts that transcend their own lifetimes is simplydisregarded; in other words, no-one stops doing something for their own interestbecause that could harm future generations. Such defective ideologicalfoundation is the source for the biggest problems or our society, and amongstthem the gravest—unsustainability. Therefore, for making a better world it isessential that we revise that ideological base.

The permaculture philosophy builds upon a wholistic view of the humanbeing as an integral and inseparable part both from the rest of humanity andnature. From that standpoint, the anthropocentrism and egocentrism that are socharacteristic of our civilization and current society simply dissolve: the humanperson only makes sense when analysed within a social and environmentalcontext.

The philosophical bases of permaculture are summarized in the threeethics:

• Earth care• People care• Fair share

Earth care means acknowledging the intrinsic value of nature in its wholeand all its parts: the air, the water, the soil and all creatures with which we sharethis planet.

The Earth contains in its varied landscapes an immense diversity of lifeforms (most of which still unknown to us), from the myriad of microscopicbeings to the large and obvious animals and plants. The beauty and lushness ofour planet contrasts greatly with the sometimes torrid, sometimes gelidbarrenness of all celestial bodies so far known to science. Life, in all its aspects,

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is surely the most extraordinary, wonderful and intriguing phenomenon theremay be—a true miracle. Each living organism is the result of billions of years ofevolution, being infnitely complex and harbouring endless secrets; eachindividual or species exists not in isolation, but totally integrated in the web oflife, in the delicate balance of ecosystems. Together, the living beings shaped ourplanet’s landscapes—even the atmosphere was made in a dynamic andinteractive way by their activity, allowing life to express to its fullest.

It is necessary to point out, however, that in the natural world even a simplestone is deserving of reverence, when we consider that it is a being that, althoughinert, has existed for millions or even billions of years. All things that exist in thenatural world have, therefore, incalculable intrinsic value and deserve highrespect for their own existence, their nature, antiquity and complexity, and forthe functions they serve, even if we cannot understand them, or if they seem tobe of no particular use to us.

In spite of the apparent vastness and antiquity of our planet and the life onit, it is good to remember that the Earth represents a contained, fnite space, andthat although life has existed here for billions of years, it is fragile and dependenton a delicate balance.

The Earth care ethic reminds us that we must abstain from actions thatdamage or destroy the natural environment, and work actively on its preservationand restoration. Humanity has already done a lot of damage to the Earth as wesaw in Part I. Now we must make a commitment to preserve the remainingecosystems at all costs.

The care for people ethic reminds us that for a society to be sustainable itmust be frst and foremost fair on all, both human beings and nature. This ethiccontrasts with the exacerbated egocentrism, individualism and competitivenessof our current society, which result in a brutalization of people making theminsensitive to the true human essence and needs.

The people care ethic also plays the important role of preventing ordeconstructing misanthropy—the feeling of estrangement, aversion and despisetoward humanity, which is often developed by people who embrace theenvironmental cause. Permaculture aims to create not only a sustainable worldregarding the environment, but also a better, healthier and happier world in allsenses. So the philosophy of permaculture is basically a philosophy of love. Inorder for permaculture to attain its goal of establishing a permanent culture thatprotects the ecosystems and preserves the future of the planet, it must spreadthrough the world, and for that it is necessary that it awakens, mobilizes andinspires the greatest number possible of people, and that will never happenthrough hate, but through empathy and love, in spreading information, helpingpeople and inspiring by example, forming a global movement for the good of lifeon the planet.

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This ethic means seeing the whole of humanity as a big family, and as anindivisible part of nature, as we are all together on this ship, our Mother Earth.

Fair share means to recognize that we live on a fnite world with fniteresources to which all are equally entitled. When you consume more resourcesthan would be necessary for a decent life, you are in fact usurping the part that inright belongs to others, such inequality representing injustice that inevitablyharms the whole of society and life on Earth. Therefore, this ethic means that weshould voluntarily set limits to resource consumption, in line with an ideal ofsimple living and sharing of surplus.

The permaculture ethics remind us that in everything we do, we shouldalways ponder: how will this afect other people? And how will this impact theenvironment? Not only on the short term, but also in the long run, and not onlylocally, but globally. In other words, we must seek to make choices and actionsthat will beneft not only ourselves, but also beneft or at least not harm othersand the environment and all its creatures, both in the present and the future.

Permaculture principles

The permaculture design principles are made from a combination of logicand common sense, scientifc knowledge and active observation of the waynatural systems operate, as nature is the archetype of sustainability. They help usplan, build and operate structures (buildings, water systems, sanitation),productive systems (agriculture, aquaculture) and whole landscapes so that theyare highly productive, harmonious, resilient and sustainable by using resourceswith maximum efciency, attaining high yield while cutting down waste throughthe perfect integration between the system’s components.

But the principles are useful not only for planning systems and structures,but also to rethink our lifestyles—when applied to our everyday habits andchoices, the principles help us attain an extremely sustainable lifestyle, both fromthe social and environmental points of view.

It should be pointed out that while having universal application, thepermaculture principles are not fxed, rigid—they are in constant evolution, andtheir number and the way they are described varies between authors andpermaculturists. That does not in any way detract from their value, much on thecontrary, as it makes it clear that they are not dogma (whoever likes dogmasshould seek a religion!), but concepts arisen from careful observation, logicalthinking and practical experimentation, to be applied, tested, adapted, developedand improved.

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The Permaculture Principles are:

1. Observe and emulate NatureNature is the universal standard of perfection.

2. Use and value diversityDiversity creates rich and resilient systems.

3. Integrate rather than segregateIntegration makes highly productive and self-maintaining systems.

4. Catch, store and utilize the available resourcesUnderstand the matter and energy fows and direct them in a productive

way.5. Produce no waste

Embrace the ideal of zero waste.6. Energy efciency principle

The smart positioning of elements saves time, energy and materials.7. Prioritize native species – value local biodiversity

Work for the restoration of your area’s native ecosystem.8. Maximum biomass and maximum biodiversity principle

Any area should contain the maximum biomass and biodiversity that it cannaturally sustain.9. Use small and slow solutions

Believe in the transformation power of simple, little things.10. Design from patterns to details

The application of patterns allows for a high degree of harmony,functionality and energy efciency.11. Use and value renewable resources and services

Use resources in an economical and efcient way, and encourage theirrenewal.12. Versatility and redundancy

Each element performs multiple functions, and each important function issupported by multiple elements.13. Use appropriate technology

Avoid dependence on unsustainable technologies.14. Obtain a yield

Protect the environment without forgetting the provision of human needs.15. Think globally, act locally (do your part)

Make permaculture your lifestyle and change your role in the history of ourworld.16. Cooperation rather than competition

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The permaculture’s ultimate goals transcend the individual interests.17. Self-reliance and local empowerment

Working for oneself and one’s family and community means empowerment,independence, liberty and fulflment.18. Constant reassessment

… for adaptation and continual improvement.

1. Observe and emulate nature

Nature is a giant laboratory that has been randomly testing everything forbillions of years; everything that did not work was eventually eliminated, andonly what worked has been kept, resulting in the immense diversity andcomplexity (and beauty!) that we have today. Therefore, it can be said thatnature is some sort of universal standard of perfection. Most of humankind’smistakes, which together culminate with the current environmental crisis thatthreatens life on Earth, are the result of a departure of humans from nature inthe establishment of artifcial habits, systems and methodologies. The reversal ofsuch process can only be attained through a return to what is natural, and for thatwe must learn to observe nature and learn from it.

An old permaculture maxim says: “Protracted and thoughtful observationrather than protracted and thoughtless action.” Careful observation and attentiveinteraction with nature is an endless source of knowledge and inspiration. Evenif we can’t understand fully how things work in nature, often through observationwe are able to identify patterns of shapes, positions and interactions betweennatural elements and phenomena; by applying such patterns in our projects, wecan often achieve a high degree of functionality, harmony and efciency.

Observe and emulate nature is the supreme permaculture principle, andmany of the other principles derive directly from it.

2. Use and value diversity

Diversity is key to resilience. Natural landscapes contain countless forms oflife, each of them performing multiple functions in the ecosystem maintenance.By contrast, the civilized man, with his obsession for dominating and controllingnature, has developed a strong reductionist tendency—less elements are easier tounderstand and control. So, he decides which handful of elements stay, and seeksto eliminate all others. This way, he is constantly at war with nature, alwaysstruggling, fghting life, not without serious consequences.

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By valuing diversity we are in fact imitating nature (the principle #1).Diversity ofers obvious advantages. For instance, in the case of agriculture,betting on only one species puts you in a very vulnerable situation: a bad year,with unfavourable weather conditions or the sudden rise of a new pest or anunexpected disease outbreak, etc., can easily destroy your crop if it is amonoculture. On the other hand, in a diverse system, a polyculture, someproduction is virtually guaranteed, as a climate that is bad for one species maybe tolerable for another one, and a pest that attacks one plant species is harmlessto others, etc. Moreover, the higher the diversity in your productive systems, thehigher your level of self-reliance.

Monocrops—which are the opposite of diversity—are one of the maincauses of unsustainability associated with industrial agriculture. By establishing amonoculture for food production you are, in practice, trying to establish a “onespecies ecosystem”—something that does not exist in nature! People forget thatthe food species they are trying to produce is above all a living thing, and nospecies exists isolated from others, much on the contrary: all known speciesbelong in and depend on an ecosystem. Plants, for instance, depend on the soilmicroorganisms that build and keep fertility, on insects and other organisms forpollination and soil aeration and decompaction, predator control, etc. When theyestablish monocultures, farmers become automatically dependant on fertilizer,pesticides and machinery, which deplete fertility, destroy ecosystems andproduce contaminated foods. Moreover, they also depend on non-renewableresources such as fossil fuels and mineral and chemical fertilizers, which willeventually run out, creating a serious situation of food insecurity in the long run.

In permaculture, we seek to establish highly diverse productive systems,including a great number of species and valuing traditional varieties andlandraces, native and non-conventional food species. This way we manage toestablish rich, resilient systems that are highly productive, ofering a wealth offavours, colours and nutrition, and also perform vital environmental services,preserving biodiversity and agrobiodiversity (or agricultural biodiversity).

3. Integrate rather than segregate

In nature, everything takes place in an integrated way—you have endlessfactors, countless diferent forms of matter and energy, and life forms, all ofwhich are interconnected and interdependent.

Diversity and integration are two sides of the same coin: nature’s balancedepends on the maintenance of a great diversity of environments, organisms andecosystems, as well as their integration. The types of connections or relationshipsbetween the diferent elements of an ecosystem vary widely, from cooperation(symbiosis, mutualism) to competition and predation, and from the harmonious

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integration of all such factors results the self-regulation and stability of naturalecosystems. Self-regulation works at all levels: in climate, ecosystems, everyspecies’ population, and within every organism, where it is a crucial factordefning homeostasis (the ability of organisms to maintain their internalenvironment stably in an optimal state).

Natural ecosystems work on their own, with an extremely high anddiversifed production, for millions of years, without any need for externalintervention in the form of human labour or artifcial resource importation. Thisimmense stability and productivity results from the perfect integration of themultiple elements, biotic and abiotic factors that compose ecosystems and thebiosphere.

The civilized man’s blunt reductionist approach destroys the basis for thatstability and productivity by drastically reducing the number of elements andlaying them in the arbitrary, totalitarian fashion of rows, thus creating poor,inefcient, fragile systems that depend on large input, both of energy andmaterials, thus being totally unsustainable.

When we design our permaculture systems, we must strive for perfectintegration at all levels, that is, between the elements of each system, andintegration between diferent systems, as happens in nature.

The correct integration of elements in productive systems allow for at leastthree advantages: concentration, positive interactions and auto-regulation.

• Concentration: this efect derives from the fact that plants and animals ofdiferent species and diferent developmental stages have diferent needs in termsof nutrients, solar exposure, humidity, temperature, etc., so they can occupydiferent niches, thus allowing for a better use of the available space and a higherand more diversifed global production.

• Positive interactions: the perfect integration between the elements creates afunctional proximity. For example, in a forest, the residue from a given species ispromptly utilized as a fertilizer by the next, so you have the constant recycling ofmatter (nutrients); a tree’s fallen leaves function as mulch, benefting the wholesoil community; partial shading from a tree favours herbs that are sensitive toexcess sunlight; legumes fx nitrogen from the air in the soil, helping other plants;certain plants may work repelling pests, or serving as baits for them, thus sparingother plants from their attack, or they may attract pests’ predators, etc.; fallenfruits are eaten by animals, who in turn contribute with their excrements, thusfertilizing the soil, besides spreading seeds, etc. Competition for space, nutrients,etc. still happens, but is more than compensated by the advantages, so that thesystem as a whole is benefted and production, augmented.

• Auto-regulation: diversity and integration make stable, self-regulatingsystems, just as happens in nature, thus reducing the need for inputs of materialsand energy. This means less work and less money needed, translating into

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autonomy and independence, besides the preservation of the environment boththe local level and beyond, considering that the continual use of externalresources (e.g. fertilizers, fossil fuels) leads to their depletion and environmentaldamage at their source, such as deforestation and pollution, not to mention theenvironmental costs of transportation, etc.

The positive interactions are the base for the concept of companion plants,that is, plants that, when put in proximity, help each other as they havepredominantly benefcial interactions. By contrast, non-companion plants arethose that compete for resources such as sun exposure or nutrients, or they mayproduce biochemicals that inhibit the germination, growth, survival, orreproduction of other organisms (allelopathy), etc. So we must observe all theinteractions and learn to position the diferent species in an intelligent way,extracting the maximum beneft from the positive interactions, for higherproductivity.

The integration principle complements the diversity principle, becausehaving a large number of elements in a system will be of no use if they areconstantly at war with one another. So, much more important than the numberof elements in a system are the number and quality of the benefcial relationshipsbetween those elements, contributing to productivity and auto-regulation.

For example, a skilfully established agroforest (food forest), richly diverseand fully integrated, performs all environmental functions of a natural forest(protection of soil, water, biodiversity), while providing for the human needs,such as food, fbre, wood, pigments, medicines, among others, in a natural andstable way. Other productive systems, such as artifcial ponds, should also bedesigned to be self-maintaining, through the establishment of a complete andstable aquatic ecosystem that includes plants, invertebrates, frogs, fsh, ducks,etc. Such an ecosystem keeps the water always reasonably clean, free fromundesirable insects such as mosquitoes, produces a diversity of foods, fomentslocal and migratory fauna and performs several other functions, with virtually noneed of human interference. Diferent systems, be they productive (crops,livestock) and non-productive (buildings, roads); biotic (plants, animals,microorganisms) and abiotic (sun, wind, water, topography), should also beintegrated in our projects, as this leads to higher energy efciency andproductivity.

4. Catch, store and utilize the available resources

This principle means that we should observe and understand the fow ofenergy and matter around us and intervene in a rational and strategic way todirect them productively—to see resources, often in unconventional ways, andutilize them.

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That we should harvest rainwater is so obvious, but at the same time sorevolutionary, because virtually no-one is doing it! It is such a wonderfulresource, both in rural and urban situations, that can in most cases easily providefor all our water needs, in a natural way. Unfortunately, most people ignore thatand waste all that water, and instead get water in artifcial ways, such asmunicipal waters, wells, pumping from rivers, etc., at high energy andenvironmental costs.

Solar energy can be used for water heating using simple, low technologysystems that you can make yourself; heating and lighting of buildings can beachieved by passive solar energy design: adequate size and position of windows,attached greenhouse, etc. Of course one can also use photovoltaic panels forsome purposes. Wind energy can be advantageous in many situations, andhydraulic power also has numerous applications in rural situations, such as waterpumping using watermills or hydraulic rams, grain milling and sometimeselectricity generation. Soil thermal inertia can be used for heating in coldclimates, and cooling in warm climates, etc.

The simplest, most rudimentary but at the same time very functional way toharvest solar energy is in the form of biomass, as frewood. Soil nutrients mustbe efectively recycled, by using a composting toilet (and composting in general)and returning the composted waste to the soil.

We often have opportunities to catch valuable resources outside of ourproperty, resources that would otherwise be wasted. Prunings and grassclippings, sawdust and wood chips are all very useful as mulch or in composting;wood ash is great for soil conditioning, and demolition debris are often useful asbuilding materials, etc.

Another application of this principle is food preservation. Fruits aregenerally produced in large amounts in a short period, a well defned season, andin most cases you have a lot of waste during this time, and for the rest of theyear you just don’t have them. Fortunately, there are many techniques that canbe used to preserve your produce, allowing for the yearlong preservation andavailability of your fruits, for you to consume or to sell—such as canning,freezing, drying, pickling, etc.

5. Produce no waste

There is no waste in nature—waste is a human creation. In nature, allforms of matter and energy are constantly recycled. But modern people, with ourartifcial lifestyles, consume an enormous amount of resources and utilize themin an irresponsible way, generating residues that accumulate in nature, causing itmuch harm. Most people are unaware of the problem waste represents becauseof the convenience of urban collection services, that take away their garbageevery day, preventing them from having prolonged contact with their own waste,

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so they don’t even have an idea how much garbage they actually produce. Now,try doing the following experiment: try to accumulate in your home all garbagethat you produce in a month—one whole month without putting out the garbagenot a single time, and you’ll understand what I’m talking about! You might aswell take the opportunity to pay a visit to your town’s landfll or dump site, justto have a clearer notion of what waste represents to nature.

Another thing that many people never think about is the fact that simply byusing a conventional fush toilet you are discharging all your excrements, mixedwith water, on the environment on a daily basis, be it in septic tanks thatcontaminate the water table, or in rivers, lakes or seas, through the seweragesystem. Bodies of water around the world are being polluted by domesticsewage, and most people just don’t see themselves as culprits, although it isprecisely they who are fushing the toilet several times every day. That’s anexample of how people have great difculty taking responsibility for their ownacts.

To cite a third example of bad resource use resulting in pollution, we cansummon the case of single occupancy motor vehicle as a means of dailytransport. People top up their cars’ tanks, and their only worry that moment isthe fuel price. Rarely do they relate the city air pollution problem, or globalwarming, to their own lifestyle; however, for each 50 litre tank you use, yourelease 60,000 litres of pollutant gases to the atmosphere.

By the frst permaculture ethic (Earth care), we have a moral obligation toavoid producing any waste or pollution. The zero waste ideal should be embracedby all conscious people in the world! This can be seen as utopian or not feasiblein our current society; after all, we are so used to our wasteful, pollutantlifestyles, to “throw away the garbage”, that the zero waste idea seemsrevolutionary. What we have to understand, however, is that there is no away—the garbage remains there, somewhere; it has only been taken away from yoursight. We live in a closed system, planet Earth, which is our home that we have tocare for. If with our current lifestyle it is impossible to live without generatingwaste and pollution, than it is clear that we have to change our lifestyle! And it isuseless to wait for the government or any form of authority to take steps to solvethis problem—it is time we took responsibility for the garbage andenvironmental degradation that we cause. It is up to each individual to take stepsin the right direction, towards a sustainable future.

The old 3R’s rule—reduce, reuse, recycle—so well known and still so littlepractised, is still the best recipe to save energy, minimize resource depletion andreduce garbage generation.

Reducing means avoiding consumerism, that is, not buying or consuminganything that is unnecessary, redundant, superfuous; whenever possible, fxingwhat is broken, instead of buying a new one. It also means avoiding packaging,

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for instance by buying in bulk, refusing double packaging, etc.Reusing means rejecting the throw-away culture. Using durable, permanent

goods, rather than disposable ones. For example, reusable packaging andshopping bags, or even reusing common plastic bags, intended for single-use, asmany times as possible instead of actually throwing them away after a single use—even such bags can easily be used tens of times!

Finally, everything that you can’t avoid or reuse must be recycled. The vastmajority of garbage produced worldwide could be recycled, although only asmall fraction of it actually is. Domestic garbage consists primarily of paper,plastic, metals, glass and organic residues—all of which is recyclable. Besidespreventing garbage accumulation in the environment, recycling saves energy, asrecycling materials needs much less energy than producing new items from rawmaterials. Go an extra mile, make an efort to ensure that your garbage will beefectively recycled by sorting it correctly, keeping it clean and, if necessary,taking it yourself directly to a recycling centre or collection point. Talk to thepeople there, ask what you can do to increase the efciency in the recycling ofyour own waste.

A key concept that has to be understood is that waste most of times isnothing more than a resource that is not being used. This makes it clear that thisprinciple is intimately related to the previous one (catch, store and use availableresources).

“Turn problems into solutions, residues into resources”

We must seek to use natural materials which are recyclable and have lowenvironmental impact as much as possible; use them efciently and see to it thatthey are efectively recycled. We must design our systems so that one process’sresidue is utilized as raw material for the next one down the line, so that matterand energy are efciently recycled—turn problems into solutions, residues intoresources. By using a compost toilet, besides saving water you also generate anorganic fertilizer, avoiding the waste of precious soil nutrients contained in theexcrements, returning them safely to the soil where they belong, so they areefectively recycled, preventing sewage generation or any kind of pollution, andinstead turning into life and production. Likewise, greywater (from sinks, bathand laundry) must be reused in irrigation systems, thus avoiding sewagegeneration and also saving water, turning that residue into production in yourgarden, orchard or forest. Prunings and fallen leaves should be used as mulch,being kept within the soil’s life cycle. However, many people still throw away orburn such materials, wasting all that organic matter and turning it into airpollution. Moreover, such practice is a common trigger for wildfres.

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6. Energy efciency principle

With the abundant availability of cheap energy in the form of fossil fuels,we got used to “pour petroleum” over all problems that get in our way—commonsense was gradually replaced with sophisticated technologies, and people gotliterally addicted to energy.

But all that energy comes at a high environmental cost: pollution,deforestation, nuclear waste and global warming, etc. Although such efects arealready evident, the real seriousness of this situation will only become clear tothe majority of people with the collapse of non-renewable energy sources andthe terminal intensifcation of the environmental crisis.

To reduce the pressure we exert on the environment, and also for us tosurvive the end of cheap oil, we must shift to a low energy lifestyle, using energyrationally and avoiding its waste. This applies not only to energy, but resources ingeneral.

Efcient resource use means to achieve maximum beneft with the lowestresource consumption. For high energy efciency in our projects and activities,we must be economical in space and design our systems intelligently so that theyare perfectly integrated, passive and auto-regulated, which means savingresources such as energy, materials and time.

In a house design, for example, the energy efciency principle means layingthe elements and utilizing materials and strategies that minimize as much aspossible the need for energy and time. Smaller homes, which suit the dwellers’needs while cutting down on maintenance and cleaning, are best. Passive solardesign increases energy efciency for lighting and heating—the appropriate sizeand position of windows favouring natural lighting and ventilation, the smart useof deciduous trees around the house so they give shade in the summer whileallowing the sun to warm the house in the winter, building with materials andtechniques that naturally give good thermal comfort such as strawbale, cob orearthbag building, using the soil’s thermal inertia, etc.

Diferent systems, productive and non-productive, must be well integrated.For example, a house should be positioned in a plot of land so that the greywatercan be used passively for irrigation/fertigation in gardens and orchards, fowingby gravity thus reducing the need for manual watering. Another good example ofintegration between the house and productive systems, which is particularlyuseful in cold climates, is an attached greenhouse, which brings at least twoadvantages: warming the house in the winter, and the great proximity whichmakes taking care of your plants much more convenient and efcient. Othersystems must also be designed to work passively, reducing the need for energyand labour input. For example, rainwater tanks should be built as high aspossible, allowing water use by gravity and avoiding the need for pumping;

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access roads should be planned and built with as little slope as possible, avoidingthe tendency to erosion, thus reducing maintenance costs, etc.

“The smart positioning of elements saves time, energy and materials.”

One of the key techniques in permaculture that derives from the energyefciency principle is the design by zones of proximity and intensity, which willbe discussed in detail in chapter 9, “Rural Permaculture”. In this designapproach, productive systems that need more attention are put closer to thehouse, often used paths and places you where you naturally spend more time,while more extensive, low maintenance systems are placed progressively fartheraway. This way you save a lot of time and energy moving yourself and materialsaround, besides having easier, better control over more delicate and intensiveelements and systems.

7. Prioritize native species – value local biodiversity

Over the last centuries of the Occidental civilization expansion, there hasbeen a progressive suppression of ecosystems in most parts of the world and theintroduction of agricultural and urban systems that contain only a few dozenspecies of plants and animals. So, if in the past fauna and fora were very richand diferent according to the region of the globe, now with the omnipresentanthropization you have virtually always the same species anywhere in the world:chickens, dogs, cats, cows, sparrows, rats… wheat, maize, grapes, apples… Thisprocess has intensifed tremendously over the last century, with industrialagriculture. As a result, we now have an impoverished biodiversity, wherethousands of native species of every region are going extinct, replaced bymonocrops of highly homogenized commercial varieties of plants and animals.

The local biodiversity principle means that we must:• Prioritize local native species of fauna and fora.• Rescue landraces or traditional varieties of domestic animals and plants.• Avoid new introductions of exotic species.

By prioritizing species that are native to your area, be it for reaforestationor food production, or even in gardens and urban aforestation, you strengthenthe local ecosystem because native plants are the best sources of food and shelterfor native animals, which in turn are the best pollinators and seed spreaders fornative trees, etc. So, even if you reintroduce a limited number of native species,those will bring and encourage countless other species of animals and plantswhich are also native, often without you even knowing it.

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It is good to introduce here the concept of unconventional food plants, orUFPs.

Of about 12,000 known edible plant species, less than 200 are actuallycommonly consumed by humans, and only three—rice, maize and wheat—makeup 60% of our diet.* And this situation is getting worse, with less speciesrepresenting an ever larger fraction of the world population diet, while most foodspecies fall into oblivion, which is caused mostly by urbanization, disconnectionfrom the country and nature, and the industrial agriculture domination, which aregrowing processes worldwide.

UFPs are plants which are food for humans but are not commonlyconsumed and, often, are unknown to most people. Do some research and fndout which plants that are native to your area are edible, and grow them and eatthem! By doing this you’ll not only be contributing to the rescue andpreservation of those species and the restoration of your local ecosystem, butalso improving the quality of your diet. Diversity is key to good nutrition, andUFPs are a great source of colours, favours and shapes, and are often richer innutrients, containing more vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc. than the foodsnormally consumed, especially the industrial varieties.

Now, this principle applies not only to native species. Animal and plantspecies that are particularly useful to humankind have been domesticated forthousands of years, and throughout this time, in all diferent regions of the globe,thousands of breeds, races and varieties of useful animals and plants have beendeveloped, rustically selected according to the particular environmentalconditions and needs of each people. However, during the last century thoseancient varieties have been progressively abandoned and replaced by industrialagriculture’s genetically uniform varieties, which are often a result ofhybridization or genetic manipulation. With the growing trend to produce onlyfor the global market and focusing on such a small number of species andcommercial varieties, we are in fact turning our backs on great food resourceswhich are being lost forever, as the traditional varieties are not being cultivatedand their natural and cultural environments are being destroyed. According toFAO, 75% of the agricultural genetic diversity has been lost over the lastcentury*—and the trend is for it to get ever worse. Such erosion of theagrobiodiversity represents a serious risk to global food security, as industrialvarieties that now dominate are highly dependent on unsustainably resources(such as irrigation, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and energy), which are notgoing to be available for long. Therefore, in permaculture we must strive torescue and preserve landraces of animals and plants, instead of growingindustrial varieties. Traditional varieties are more rustic and adapted, so they are

* What is happening to agrobiodiversity? In: Building on gender, agrobiodiversity and localknowledge – a training manual. FAO. 2004.

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generally more resistant to diseases and more fexible regarding soil and climateconditions, for instance, which favours their natural, ecological, sustainablecultivation. Growing them means the preservation of an ancestral genetic andcultural legacy, and an essential measure to protect global food security in thefuture.

The introduction of exotic species has been practised extensively byhumanity. However, it is a dangerous practice that has caused environmentaldisasters of great proportions, bringing to extinction countless species of animalsand plants by predation, competition, inadvertent introduction of pests anddiseases, etc. Now that we have full knowledge of such serious side efects, it isno longer justifable to continue running such risks, especially now that thenatural ecosystems are already so weakened, and considering that we alreadyhave so many options of native and naturalized (i.e. long introduced) species touse in our productive systems.

To sum up, by following the local biodiversity principle you will becontributing to the restoration of your area’s native ecosystem, protectingthreatened species and varieties, fghting the global genetic homogenization andprotecting the long-term world food security.

8. Maximum biomass and maximum biodiversity principle

Life occurs on planet Earth in the form of ecosystems, that is, sets ofcountless species that live in an intricately integrated way in their environment. Itis this combination of variety and integration that ensures balance and,consequently, stability of life in any given area.

Here, we should defne the concepts of biodiversity e biomass. Biodiversityis the diversity of species of living things that exist in a given space, whilebiomass is the total amount of matter contained in the form of living beingswithin that space.

In nature, all species that exist in a give ecosystem have, in their continuousstruggle to survive and reproduce, co-evolved over millions of years with thenatural conditions of the local environment, which led life to express itself in itsmaximum possible form for that particular place. Therefore, if an area’sconditions allow for a forest to develop and maintain itself, that area willnaturally be covered in forests; if it only allows for a savannah, there will be asavannah. Now, if the conditions are too restrictive, you’ll only have some sort ofdesert, and so on.

If an area originally contained a forest, it is not fair to keep that forestsuppressed to, in its place, plant vegetables or pastures, or even grain, as all suchcrops contain tremendously less biomass and biodiversity than a forest. Biomass

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and biodiversity are measures of life, quantitative and qualitatively. So, replacinga forest with the above mentioned plantations means to brutally reduce life inthat area, which can’t be right.

“Any area should contain the maximum biomass and biodiversity that it can naturally sustain.”

Therefore, we must always ask what type of ecosystem is native to the area,and design our productive systems accordingly. In areas originally covered byforests, we must create agroforestry systems that refect the original ecosystemand include as many of its natural elements as possible, because an agroforestperforms all environmental functions of a natural forest, not only harbouringbiomass and biodiversity (animal, plant, microbes, etc.), but also protecting thesoil, water, climate, etc. Areas originally covered in natural grasslands such asprairies and meadows are more suitable for grazing pastures and grain crops.

Of course in some situations the human interests will confict with thisprinciple of maximum biomass and biodiversity. For example, in order to build ahouse it may be necessary to suppress a forest to some extent, and we may alsoneed or desire to plant vegetables, etc. In such cases, common sense shouldprevail, which means to keep such suppression at the lowest possible levelnecessary to meet our needs.

Unfortunately, however, it is extremely common to see people suppressinglife indiscriminately just for the sake of some deeply ingrained aesthetic notion.As an example we can cite the widespread lawn culture, in which large areas areoccupied by a single-species ecological desert that consume huge amounts ofresources, mostly water but also energy and fertilizers, human labour and time ofour lives, without producing anything. Think of how many fowers andvegetables, and fruit producing trees and shrubs could be there instead of plaingrass! And the bees and birds, etc. that would beneft from that, besidesourselves.

Similarly, in rural areas it is common to see people spending a lot of timeand efort and resources to keep the vegetation down in the whole property,which means to systematically keep natural life suppressed, just for aestheticpurposes. This type of culture must be fought and abolished, as it is simplyagainst life.

Dry climates and desert regions have been home to human populations forthousands of years; therefore, it is perfectly possible to live in such areas, but theproductive systems and lifestyles must be suitable to the local conditions.

It is true that in many situations it is possible to achieve an increase in anarea’s biomass and biodiversity beyond what you would normally fnd, throughthe skilful application of the permaculture principles and techniques. However,

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you’ve got to be careful, because in most cases the use of inadequate strategies,although bringing an apparent improvement of life in an area in the short term,actually comes at a high environmental cost that means it is not sustainable, sothat in the long run you have a negative net environmental impact. This isillustrated in the following examples:

• In dry regions, the indiscriminate use of irrigation may allow substantialproduction in the short term, but leads to serious problems such as high energyconsumption and all associated environmental costs, the progressive reduction inthe local rivers fow and even drying of rivers and other waterbodies. The abuseof underground water sources for irrigation leads to the lowering and eventuallydrying of water tables, and most often also soil salinization with nefariousconsequences to life and productivity.

• The application of chemical fertilizers to improve soil fertility can increasebiomass in the short term, but its continual use is toxic to the soil, reducing itsbiodiversity, so it is not sustainable. It also leads to contamination of watersources, which is detrimental to aquatic life, so it has a negative netenvironmental impact.

• Care must be taken also regarding the application of organic fertilizers,such as farmyard manure. Although they undoubtedly cause an improvement ofsoil fertility and productivity where applied, it must be noted that that doesn’tmean fertility was created, but in fact transferred—as it is often the case, thenutrients brought into your property are now lacking in the place of origin ofthat resource. Therefore, we must be conscientious as for the source of suchresources: ideally, they should be acquired from places and situations where theywould otherwise be wasted; in other words, they should be sourced withoutcausing damage to the place of origin. The energy costs associated withtransport, etc. must also be taken into account.

The only sustainable way to get an increase in the quantity and quality oflife in an area is through the application of the permaculture principles: utilizinglocal resources, fxing water, recycling nutrients, watching out for energyefciency, valuing local species, skilfully integrating them to maximize benefcialrelationships, imitating the functioning of the local ecosystem, etc.

As we shall see in the following chapters, the soil and terrestrialecosystems’ biomass and biodiversity are responsible for the building andmaintenance of soil fertility, and any reduction in biomass and biodiversity willfatally result in a decline in fertility. Another important implication of thisprinciple is carbon fxation: one of the best ways to prevent and revert globalwarming is fxing atmospheric carbon in the form of biomass, by increasing soilorganic matter and tree cover. More biomass means more carbon being fxatedand taken from the atmosphere.

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9. Use small and slow solutions

When one becomes aware of the severity of the current environmentalcrisis and decides to join a movement for a better, fairer, more sustainable world,it is very common to feel lost and intimidated: “everything is so wrong, and I toohave been doing everything so wrong… I want to change that, do my part, butwhere do I begin?”

The answer to that question is simple: start with what is easier, what iswithin your immediate reach. Believe in the transformation power of simple,little things. Remember the old saying: “A journey of a thousand miles beginswith a single step”, this is the most important thing. Of course the second mostimportant is to keep moving!

The frst thing to do is to embrace the permaculture lifestyle, which meansto apply the principles in your everyday life. Use resources sparingly: take aquicker shower, and heat up the water just enough—you’re supposed to wash,not boil yourself! When showering or bathing, collect the water and use it tofush the toilet. Also, you don’t have to fush after every single pee! With suchsmall measures, it is possible to reduce your daily water consumption by over50%. At night, turn of all lights that you are not using or needing, and duringthe day, don’t turn any lights on—open the windows! Avoid using the car, takethe bicycle instead. Reduce your consumption of meats and dairy, seek ahealthier diet, buy bulk at the farmers market, avoid disposable packaging, valuelocal producers as much as possible. Buy less stuf, and diligently sort yourwaste; fnd out ways to ensure they’re going to get recycled. Do homecomposting, plant some herbs and veggies, as much as your available space willallow. Harvest rainwater from your roofs and gutters—at frst, you may use 200litre drums, while you plan for a more efcient system. Use that water to wateryour garden, do your laundry, clean the foor, etc. (the permaculture lifestyle willbe the subject of chapter 14).

Of course small measures such as those will never be enough to solve ourunsustainability problem and revert our environmental crisis, but everythingstarts from them! They are essential for anyone to begin the permaculturejourney—and this is a transformation that takes time, so the most important is tobegin and keep moving.

A common mistake is to get overexcited with permaculture and try to takebig steps in a short period of time. Then, because of the lack of experience, youend up spending a lot of money, causing damage and most of times your systemsend up not functioning well. You may see yourself in quarrels with family andneighbours, etc. and as a result many people may get disheartened and give up onpermaculture, which is pretty much the worst that can happen. Therefore, it isbetter to start small and slow, and reassess yourself constantly (see principle#18) to evolve gradually, reaching better and better results. Throughout this

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learning process, you must make plans for a really sustainable livelihood andlifestyle. That planning is of paramount importance and must be taken veryseriously. There is no room for haste whey you are trying to bring about aradical, positive change.

The same principle applies when one is setting up a rural permacultureproject. A common mistake is for one to devise a plan that sounds great, andthen start making big changes in the landscape, using heavy machinery,suppressing vegetation, meddling with the topography… consuming a lot ofpetroleum, bringing heaps of resources from outside, investing a lot of money,etc. based on the assumption that the fnal results will compensate for all thatmess, bearing in mind that vision of the project in the future, beautiful, lush,highly productive. Unfortunately, however, in most cases the fnal results are farbelow expectations—the benefts do not materialize, only the damage does. Thething is, the larger the scale of our actions, the bigger the potential for damageand the lower our capacity to repair the damage, and all that is aggravated bylack of experience. By starting slow and small, with careful observation andconstant reassessment, we can avoid much damage and gradually improve oursystems, moving safely to bigger scales, if that’s the case.

We must always remember that nature also is working for its ownrestoration, because that’s what it does. The small and slow solutions principlealso includes the concept of minimal interference, that is, to let nature do its job.Oftentimes, when we interfere too much, in spite of our good intentions we endup getting in nature’s way, preventing the recovery of the environment thatwould naturally occur.

10. Design from patterns to details

The careful observation of nature as well as highly harmonious, functionalhuman systems allows us to identify pattens, which can be seen as formulas thathave stood the test of time. Learning to recognize such patterns gives us a goodstarting point in the making of our projects.

Starting from general patterns and then flling in with details is the mostcommon approach used by visual artists, designers, architects and urbanists inplanning buildings and whole cities, and this approach is the one that yields bestresults in terms of balance, harmony, beauty and functionality. The same appliesfor permaculture projects, so we must start from patterns, flling in with thedetails later, taking into account the relations between elements to attain a highdegree of integration which leads to harmonious, functional, energy efcientsystems. The reverse approach, that is, to deal with each element individuallyand add them randomly or arbitrarily, is often used by the inexperienced, andtypically results in unstable, disharmonious, inefcient systems.

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In permaculture design, since we seek the perfect integration of theelements, we must start by knowing the elements. So, the project starts with adetailed study of the local conditions: geographical aspects (altitude, latitude,size, orientation, topography, geology, soils, hydrology, climate), ecologicalaspects (native ecosystem, level or preservation or antropization), humanelements (neighbourhood, local culture, etc.), local infrastructure (urban vs. ruralsituation, access, resource availability), etc. Equally important are the aims ofthe project, which may include food production for commercial purposes or forself-sufciency, environmental restoration, dwelling, environmental education,etc.

From that, we start to sketch the design. For each project category (forexample: rural smallholding permaculture project in tropical region, or urbanpermaculture project in a house with a garden, temperate zone, etc.) the generalfeatures of the design are mostly the same. So, for example, in a rural project atypical design process generally starts from the water systems (catchment areaand storage tanks favouring use by passive fow), access roads and house site (atan intermediate height in the plot, allowing water supply by gravity and enoughspace downhill to deal with effluents). Next, we deal with the productive systems.Here we’ll use the proximity and intensity zones system, which is an importantpermaculture design tool derived from the patterns principle, to be discussed indetail in chapter 9, “Rural Permaculture”. Last we deal with the details of theproductive and non-productive systems—species to be included and theirpositions; facilities, buildings such as nurseries, barns, sheds, greenhouses,houses, etc.

This principle—design from patterns to details—should be applied in everystep of the design process, and at all levels and scales. In other words, it appliesto a single permaculture project as well as an ecovillage or a whole sustainabletown design, and also for a simple chicken coop, a garden or an artifcial pond.

11. Use and value renewable resources and services

The use of non-renewable resources may be advantageous in somecircumstances, but when we create a dependence on such resources we putourselves in a trap, and peak oil is a prime example of that.

However, it is not enough to use renewable resources—it is crucial that weuse them in a sustainable way, that is, in a conscious and controlled way, actuallyallowing them to renew themselves, as renewable resources too can run out. Thisin fact happens all the time—many of the greatest problems of humanity derivedprecisely from the unsustainable use of resources that are, in their nature,renewable. For example, animals, plants, forests and water are all renewableresources; however, the abusive, irrational use of such resources have been

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causing the extinction of countless animal and plant species, the wiping out offorests and whole ecosystems, and water crises in many parts of the world.

So, we must prioritize renewable resources and set limits to their use,within a rate that allows their renewal, and adopt practices that encourage theirrenewal, preventing their decline. For example, frewood can be used as fuel inrural situations, as it is a renewable resource naturally produced in the property,so it can be considered more advantageous than fossil gas, which has to bebought, which means dependence on money and on an external, non-renewableresource. The mistake to be avoided is to use frewood at a higher rate than itsrenewal in the property, which leads to a progressive decline in its availabilityand environmental degradation. This happens in several parts of the world today,where frewood collection for cooking and is a major cause of deforestation. Anadequate management of this resource allows you to harvest enough to meetyour needs, continually, without it ever declining or running out. This means tokeep a low consumption level and promote its renewal. To that end, we must usethe resource economically and efciently, getting maximum beneft fromminimum consumption, for example optimizing the use of fre, using highefciency stoves such as the rocket stove, prioritizing raw food consumption;utilizing solar water heating systems and adequate house design that minimizesor abolishes the need for artifcial heating, such as through passive solar designstrategies, using building materials and techniques that naturally promotethermal comfort, proper insulation, etc. On the other hand, to promote therenewal of frewood, we must stick to good practices such as using prunedbranches and dead plants instead of cutting down trees or shrubs for frewood;cultivating well adapted, fast-growing plant species for frewood production, andmanaging them properly for a continual and sustainable supply, etc.

Water use must also follow rational criteria so that this resource ispreserved and augmented. This means reducing the domestic consumption ofwater, and the consumption of products that require a lot of water to produce(e.g. meats, dairy, industrialized products, etc.); to catch, store, use and recyclerainwater to the greatest possible extent; to avoid using natural waterbodies andgroundwater for water catchment; never contaminating any bodies of water;protecting forests and engaging in reaforestation projects, to preserve andrestore the water cycle and water resources, etc.

The renewable resources principle applies also to productive systems, as wemust always ensure the proper recycling of soil nutrients through organicfertilization, composting, mulching, etc. rather than relying on chemicalfertilizers. Also in construction, we must focus on natural, renewable buildingmaterials, preferably from within the property or nearby, and using naturalconstruction techniques.

This principle also reminds us that we must always prioritize renewable,low impact energy sources such as wind and solar over fossil fuels.

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12. Versatility and redundancy

In nature, virtually nothing has only one function—all elements performmultiple functions. A tree, for instance, ofers shelter to countless living thingssuch as insects, birds, bats, squirrels, other plants (epiphytes), etc., and food tomany animals (sap, pollen, leaves, fruits, seeds); it protects the soil, stabilizes theclimate and water cycle, provides wood, shade, beauty, etc. An earthwormdigests organic matter producing humus, aerates, the soil and is food to manyspecies of birds and mammals. Also in the human body, most organs havemultiple functions, with rare exceptions of extremely specialized structures, suchas the eye.

Modern society, with its reductionist craze, has great tendency to favourspecialization: today you have tools and utensils that are more and morespecialized, and people too are increasingly specialized in their jobs. It is truethat, as a rule, greater specialization leads to higher efciency in performingspecifc tasks; on the other hand, you lose fexibility: the more specialized yourtools and equipments, the greater the number of tools and equipments you’llneed to perform all functions. Likewise, highly specialized individuals normallybecome totally dependent on others for basic functions to their own survival.

Natural systems work efciently and stably because of diversity, integrationand auto-regulation. However, integration requires a certain degree of fexibilityin the elements that compose the system. This explains why highly specializedelements are not so common in nature: because of their lack of fexibility andhigh degree of dependence, they were naturally excluded in the natural selectionprocess.

“Each element performs multiple functions, andeach important function is supported by multiple elements.”

Therefore, when designing our systems, it is important to ensure eachelement performs many functions. For example, if you only have enough roomfor one tree, let it be one that gives nice shade and produces edible fruit. Whendesigning a food forest, do it so that it will produce several diferent usefulproducts, such as fruit, nuts and other foods, wood, fbre, oils, honey, and alsoperforms several other functions such as encouraging fauna, serving as anecological corridor, working as a living barrier that gives privacy and reducesnoise and dust from the road, etc. When designing an artifcial pond, do so that itwill act as a water reservoir for human consumption and irrigation, aquaculture(fsh, frogs, shrimps and aquatic plants), bring birds and other wild animals, plusbeing beautiful, pleasant and inviting for an occasional dip! Access roads can bemade level and slightly raised, serving as swales that retain rainwater and preventsoil erosion. Hedges may include several plant species, so that besides working

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as a fence they’ll also produce fruit, edible leaves and beautiful fowers. In thehouse, the wood stove may work not only to cook but also to heat the house,especially when coupled with a radiator, and for water heating by means of aserpentine heat exchange system. Even if you have a solar water heater (and youshould!), this can save you on rainy winter days.

The other side of the coin is that essential functions should be supported bymany elements, because this gives resilience to the system, ensuring that, if oneelement fails, the function will still be performed. For example, you shouldn’tcount on only one water tank in the property, but have at least a few, for safety.Also, if you use an electric pump, it is always a good idea to have a back-uphand pump available, in case of power failure, etc.

13. Use appropriate technology

Modern society has a strong tendency to overvalue technology—a trendthat is encouraged by industry and the media. The prevailing notion is that forsomething to be good, it must be the last word in technology, and life withoutthe latest advances in technology is impossible or unbearable; most of times,people don’t even realize that just a few years or decades ago, all those newtechnologies didn’t exist, and all was fne.

The so-called “technological solutions” often ofer little or no advantageover traditional, low technologies methods. Moreover, they normally require highenergy inputs, generate residues, etc. The addiction to high technologies is aform of consumerism with high environmental costs, and also creates a type ofdebilitating psychological dependence in which one feels totally incapable ofdoing anything unless one is equipped with the last word in technology—in thelack of this or that gadget, many people simply give up on doing what they want,when the task could perfectly be done with what they have. There you see thediference between those who do little with much, and those who do much withlittle. In permaculture we seek to be always in the latter group.

Perhaps it is good to cite here some examples of how the appropriatetechnology principle is ignored by many people: for instance, when someonetakes an elevator from their apartment, then take the car to go to the gym, wherethey pay money to work out under artifcial lighting and air conditioning, oftenusing equipment that consumes electricity… to do exercise that they could verywell do for free, with no fuel or electricity consumption, simply by taking thestairs and moving around by bicycle or walking. There are also many people whocompulsively buy kitchen appliances—food processors, centrifuges, digitalcontrol ovens, kits and more kits… and just never cook! Instead, they keepbuying frozen food and heating it in the microwave oven, while other people whodon’t have or even know such technologies do marvellous cuisine all their lives.

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Another prime example are the now ubiquitous leaf blowers: expensive andnoisy machines that consume electricity or gasoline (in this case they alsoproduce stinky, toxic fumes) that do exactly the same job that has always beendone in a totally satisfactory way by simple brooms and rakes! Not to mentionthat they throw a lot of dust up in the air which is always a nuisance and, notrarely, causes eye and upper respiratory tract irritation.

Many people mistakenly assume new, ever more advanced technologieswill solve humanity’s problems. However, more often than not, new technologiesrepresent solutions to problems that didn’t even exist. Another thing that can besaid of new technologies is that for every problem they solve, ten new, moreserious problems are created. It is clear that technological advancement ismaking us increasingly less sustainable.*

The solution to most of our problems actually lies in less technology,simpler technology and a massive dose of common sense and ethics.

For example, to build a house we must use natural materials andtechniques, many of which are ancient, that result in low costs, both in terms ofmoney and environmental costs, high energy efciency and thermal comfort,besides giving an extraordinarily authentic look.

In the design of productive systems, it is generally better to focus on lowtechnology systems, striving for diversity and high integration between allelements in a way that imitate the relations found in nature, which leads to self-maintenance and resilience, and avoid highly technological systems, as they keepus eternally dependent of external, technological resources, and also fnancialresources (in other words, the exact opposite of self-sufciency), not to mentionthe fact that such artifcial material resources may not be available in the future.

“Technology is no replacement for common sense”

Of course many modern technologies that are really useful, so they can andshould be used to maximum beneft, a prime example of that being the internet,which is today the vastest, most accessible source of information to virtuallyeveryone. The internet is also useful for networking, which doubtlessly helpsmovements such as permaculture.

Another good example is heavy machinery, such as diggers and bulldozers,which are often useful in permaculture projects. Such use is criticized by someand supported by others, but the most important is sensible judgement, on acase-by-case basis. Digging by hand is possible and can be the best choice,especially on small scales or when you have many helping hands. In other cases,where human power is scarce or expensive while machinery is available at a low

* For further information on this, I recommend Michael and Joyce Huesemann’s bookTechno-Fix: why technology won’t save us or the environment.

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cost, the same pond could take months (and loads of money) to dig by hand, or afew hours and 50 litres of diesel oil to dig with a machine, which is a perfectlyjustifable use of available technology, especially considering the positiveenvironmental impact in the long run. In other words, the appropriate technologyprinciple does not by any means preclude the use of modern technologies, butrather implies their rational and judicious use.

14. Obtain a yield

Permaculture has two main goals: the provision of human needs and thepreservation and restoration of the environment. Although diferent people mayfocus more on either of those goals, both are equally important and must alwaysbe regarded in conjunction.

However, many people who seek to embrace permaculture have a historyof urban life and are sick and tired of their artifcial and stressful lifestyles; theylove nature and resent the fact that humankind is destroying it, so they want to“change sides” and become champions of the Earth. They feel an urge toreintegrate with nature, and have the ideal of producing food in an organic andhealthy way, but they lack a rural background, so they are not geared to live ofthe land. Consequently, when starting their own projects, newbies often tend tofocus too much on the environmental preservation and restoration side ofpermaculture, coupled with a lifestyle that they consider frugal and natural, anddon’t give enough attention to the production side. Therefore, they soon reach astalemate: how can one try to restore a degraded piece of land or plant a forest,if one can’t even keep oneself? Logically, if you don’t survive, your project toowill perish.

So, what often happens is that, without enough production to survive,neophyte permaculturists end up exhausting their fnancial resources and areforced to abandon their projects, and return to their previous situation; they failin changing from being a part of the problem into being part of the solution tounsustainability, and they fail also in achieving their desired lifestyle.

Permaculture is based on the premise that it is perfectly possible to attainhigh productivity without destroying the environment. To fulfl that promise,permaculture projects must yield food and other products in quantity and qualityenough to provide for our needs and our families’, and also a surplus that shouldbe shared, either by sale or barter, thus benefting more people and theenvironment, both directly because of the increase in biodiversity and biomass,soil and water protection, etc., and indirectly by organic food supply to themarket, thus “stealing” market share from the ecocide industrial agribusiness.Therefore, in permaculture, we must strive for that productivity.

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15. Think globally, act locally (do your part)

One of the worst types of attitude is to think like: “if everyone is doingeverything wrong, what’s the point me trying to do anything right? That’s notgonna make any diference!” Clearly, such attitude is not productive at all. It isimperative that we take the reins of our own lives and start living in consonancewith our own principles, rather than mindlessly following the establishedsociety’s norms.

To act locally means, above all, to make permaculture your lifestyle. It’sabout improving the environment around your own home. Much more thandoing activism expecting organizations, governments or other institutions to fulflyour hopes, it’s about actually doing what is within your reach, but from a globalcomprehension of the existing problems.

Here are some concrete examples of how to use this principle:

• Considering that cars consume a lot of resources and pollute theenvironment, and also that it is not viable for every person in the world tohave a car, I will refrain from possessing or utilizing one.

• Deforestation is a terrible problem, so I will not buy wood products derivedfrom deforestation, and will plant myself many trees.

• Industrial agriculture is destroying nature, so I will buy organic products, orbetter still, I will grow my own food, organically.

• Animal agriculture causes serious environmental problems, so I will keepmy consumption of animal products to a minimum.

• Consumerism is destroying the planet, so I will voluntarily keep myconsumption down.

• Water is getting scarce, so I will catch rainwater, and use water sparingly.

• Sewage is killing rivers and seas, so I will use a dry composting toilet.

• We have an overpopulation problem, so I will have no more than two kids,etc.

That “I can’t change the world” or “that’s not gonna make any diference”kind of attitude is extremely defeatist and counterproductive. By contrast, anattitude of positivity and action creates a feld of infuence around yourself,inciting refection and infuencing others to follow your example. And those inturn will also infuence more people, and so forth. So, when you adoptpermaculture as your lifestyle, you become a link in a chain that can actuallyhave a strong impact in the world. Besides, even if you can’t change the worldhistory, it is certainly possible for you to change your role in that history:stopping being part of the problem, and becoming part of the solution. As this

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change has an essentially moral motivation, it is extremely rewarding—you’llknow that you’re doing the right thing, and that alone makes it all worth it.

16. Cooperation rather than competition

Modern society puts great emphasis on competition. In most occupations,you have to produce more, sell more, or innovate more, etc., in order to survivein your job or have a chance to climb the career ladder. That means a constantpressure to stand out, to outdo others—which means competition. This culturegot so deeply rooted that it has contaminated even the most intimate familyrelations: many mothers are obsessive that their ofsprings be “advanced for theirage”, and engage in a constant though unacknowledged race to see who’s kid ismore precocious or above average in this or that… most of times they do sounconsciously; when questioned, they may try to justify such attitude arguingthat they wish to ensure their young ones will be successful later in life—withoutrealizing they are in a way jeopardizing, harming the precious purity of earlychildhood. The competition spirit is also evident in social circles, where peopleare constantly comparing to others and seeking to look better, richer and happierthan others—a competition that is largely based on false appearances, and whereinferior and mediocre feelings and emotions such as jealousy and envy have apermanent seat.

Another feature of our society that illustrates well this competition cultureis the passion, fxation, obsession that many people have over sports—not thepractice of physical exercise, which is great and unfortunately not so manypeople do, but sports competitions. Of course it is normal and healthy, and evencharacteristic of human nature to seek to overcome one’s limits—that’s a centralingredient for development and evolution. Now, sports have become a verydiferent thing: it’s been turned into an industry. The concept of “professionalsportsperson” is something very recent in history—people who do nothing morethan running, jumping, kicking balls, etc., activities that have no utility per se,that don’t produce anything or contribute to the solution of any of the manyproblems of our world. Actually, the way it is now, it’s not even good for theathletes’ health—their bodies are used in an abusive, disposable way, whichincludes the use of performance-enhancing drugs that damage long-term health,development of painful, debilitating chronic lesions, etc. The ones that make it tothe top, the champions, are seen by the masses as heroes. But honestly, heroesfor what? What kind of contribution does all that give to society? What’s the useof all that, anyway? Sure, it’s good to help the sponsors sell their products morethan their competitors—that is, one type of competition feeding another type ofcompetition. Oh, yeah, it is also good to help keeping the mindless massesdistracted, numbed.

Of course it is absurd to claim that competition in itself is a bad thing. It

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exists in nature where it plays vital roles, being the driving force of evolution andmaintenance of species. It is important to stress, however, that also in naturecompetition is only part of the story! In fact, there are many diferent types ofinteractions between living things, that can be positive (symbiosis, mutualism,commensalism) and negatives, such as competition and predation. Also inhuman societies, competition is natural and inevitable, and plays an importantrole in stimulating people to achieve their best. The problem is the overvaluationand exacerbation of competition in today’s society, in other words, the lack ofbalance.

Here it is important to point out a diference between the modern society(current paradigm) and the permaculture proposition: generally, in our society,when we talk about human development and overcoming limits, people generallyassociate this with climbing the career or social ladder. In other words, the focusof all eforts are on the ego. By contrast, in permaculture, the main focus of oureforts are on the preservation of nature and the future of humankind (whichcannot be dissociated). Therefore, the motivation for developing and overcominglimits is of a totally diferent nature: not self interest, but higher values—a trueheroic spirit (very diferent from that of football players!). So, permaculturistsshould not compete among themselves, but rather cooperate, because only thisway we can attain the permaculture’s goals.

Examples of cooperation that are common in permaculture include: helpand work exchange such as in volunteer work, solidarity economy (exchange ofgoods, services and knowledge), sharing of information, etc. Moreover,permaculture itself essentially represents the cooperation between humans andnature—working with nature rather than against it.

17. Self-reliance and local empowerment

Our society is marked by segmentation of tasks and functions, which isillustrated by the concept of profession. According to this system, each personpractically has an obligation to acquire a specifc skill or specialize in a limitedset of skills, which they will perform every day in their job—most of times as anemployee. It can be argued that, in such structure, the role played by each personcontributes in some way to society. Generally, people are forced to pick aprofession or career from a limited set of pre-established options that areavailable, aiming above all to earn money to meet their needs through theconsumption of goods and services. All the while, essential skills and knowledgesuch as how to grow your food or build and maintain your shelter are simply setaside, falling into oblivion to the majority of people.

The norm in our society is for people to work all day, every day at theirjob, performing tasks which bear no direct relation with the most basic andessential human needs. Sitting behind a computer screen in an ofce, seeing

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clients, selling products, talking over the phone, driving vehicles, pushingbuttons, giving classes, etc. are common professional activities, and all of themprovide people with their basic necessities of life indirectly, through money. Thisis what is considered normal today. It may look like all is fne, as in this systempeople actually have their needs met, and the world is (still) working. However,such type of segmented work organization also brings at least two seriousproblems:

1. The lack of a sense of importance in what the individual does for work, asdedicating to very specifc functions that have no direct relation with theprovision of our basic needs is generally not motivating enough, leading toa lack of fulflment. As a result you have this situation in which mostpeople detest their jobs, which correlates with chronic dissatisfaction,decreased well-being and self-esteem, often leading to depression.

2. A situation of total dependence on the system. As long as the machine isworking, and one has a job, and there is transport and infrastructures ingeneral, and food in the supermarket, etc. everything is “all right”.However, when those structures fnally start to fail, that will unveil the realfragility, precariousness that this overdependence represents.

Moreover, it must be noted that we live in a sick and unsustainable society,so practically all conventional activities available in the job market alsocontribute direct or indirectly to human unsustainability. Not to mention the factthat today many of the jobs and professions simply lack any deeper meaning,being completely superfuous, unnecessary and often even degrading. All thosefactors create an inner confict particularly unbearable to those who aresensitized to the grave problem of unsustainability and our environmental crisis,or those who seek a bigger purpose in life.

Working for oneself and one’s family and community, to the directprovision of real life necessities, means personal and collective empowerment,independence, liberty and fulflment. Of course it is impossible to any individualor small community to be completely self-sufcient, unless they choose to gocavemen style. However, a certain degree of self-reliance is totally possible, andfull of meaning—living of the land, growing your own food; building your ownhome, your water and energy systems, etc. Working for yourself and your familyand community is extremely rewarding as it has a direct and immediatemeaning, and also presents countless challenges and opportunities for learningand self-development.

Self-reliance can be achieved at several levels, from the individual tocollective (family, community, region). At the collective level, cooperate withyour neighbours (principle #16), do volunteer work, barter food and services,buy local, because this way you’ll be empowering your community,strengthening ties, contributing to local and regional self-sufciency.

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It must be stressed that, contrary to what many may believe, self-sufciencydoes not necessarily mean living isolated from society. It is perfectly possibleand in fact very important that we participate also in the greater communityaround us, be it in the practice of a profession, or as providers of organic foodand other sustainable services in the local market, for example. Such integrationwith society is critical for a harmonious coexistence, strengthening of social tiesand personal fulflment, besides helping in the expansion of the permaculturemovement, by putting people in contact with it so they too can be inspired.

18. Constant reassessment

This is the typical situation: you are tired and disillusioned with your lifeand the ways of the world. You come across permaculture, and suddenly it allmakes sense; you realize that is the way to follow. You then start studyingpermaculture, you read some books, devour articles, watch videos, maybe takeone or more courses. Then, you make up a plan for your transition, and it looksinfallible. You imagine yourself, a year or so from now, in your new, self-sufcient life, in contact and harmony with nature… But, unfortunately that’s nothow it works! We have to make something very clear: the dedicated and deepstudy of permaculture is completely essential to the success of your projects, butthere are no substitutes for hard work and practical experience.

You’ll see that, at the beginning, no matter how much you have studied andprepared, things will often not work as expected, and you won’t have the fastprogress you had imagined. You’ll learn that much of the information yougathered is overly optimistic, representing best case scenarios that will notnecessarily refect your particular reality, so you’ve got to be prepared for lots oftrial and error, and slow progress.

In permaculture, as with pretty much everything in life, persistence is key tosuccess. It is the main diference between those who reach their goals and thosewho don’t. But persistence does not mean to keep doing the same thing over andover again and expecting diferent results! It means to keep trying hard, but withconstant reassessment, trying diferent approaches, seeking to learn frommistakes, to reach ever better results.

Stop, take a break, take a deep breath. Look again at what you’ve beendoing, look at the present, the past, compare your expectations with the resultsyou’re getting. Are they in agreement? Seek to identify possible causes for yourapparent failures. Try to look at your life and your project from a diferent angle,as if from someone else’s eyes. Critically accept external views and opinions:listen to people, be they experienced or not. Oftentimes, even someone with noexperience can have a point of view, a piece of information or knowledge, saysomething simple that may make a big diference, something you hadn’t thoughtof, but was good. Try diferent approaches, especially for things that aren’t going

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well.

The Permaculture Principles are based on logic and common sense,scientifc knowledge, thoughtful observation of nature and decades ofpermacultural experience. They are truly useful, in fact vital for reaching thenatural and sustainable lifestyle that we want, but they are not magical words thatif memorized and uttered will do the job for you, or guarantee your success!When things that we try don’t work, we must make them work, through constantreassessment and adaptation for continual improvement. It’s not that you’ll fndout that this or that principle was wrong—most of times, you’ll fnd out that yourinterpretation of the principles, or how they translate into practice, was wrong.But surely, as previously mentioned, the Principles are not dogmas: with practiceyou can modify them, and create your own, etc. Share your experiences withothers. This is important for permaculture’s evolution, too.

For permaculture to reach its goals on the grand scale, it too must evolve sothat it reaches ever more people, and work for ever more people. But it won’tevolve on its own. Permaculture is made by people, so it is up to permaculturiststo develop it.

It is good to stress that evolution, understood as a transformation over time,is not necessarily good. It can be good (development), or bad (degradation).Positive evolution, especially in the case of human systems towardssustainability, can only result from an intentional, conscious efort by theinvolved players.

Constant reassessment also means to be on the watch for the changes thatgo on in the world around us, and adapt to them, and use them positively.Change is the only constant feature in the world. That applies both to the naturaland social environment. The projections we make about the environmental andcivilization crisis, for example, have to be constantly revised as they may proveinaccurate, either for better or for worse; new factors, new problems (and alsosolutions) can come up, etc., and the way we run our projects and the directionswe give to the permaculture movement must follow that evolution of the generalpicture, both locally and globally.

Main references:

Bill Mollison; Reny Mia Slay. Introduction to permaculture. Tagari Publications. 1991.

David Holmgren. Permaculture: principles and pathways beyond sustainability. HolmgrenDesign Services. 2002.

Sepp Holzer. Sepp Holzer’s permaculture: a practical guide to small-scale, integrativefarming and gardening. Chelsea Green Publishing. 2011.

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Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 8. Water in Permaculture

8WATER IN PERMACULTURE

Water is a vital and sacred resource. However, it has been extremelymistreated by humankind. In permaculture, we always treat water withmaximum reverence and respect.

The rational use of water is critical for sustainability. On the other hand, itsirrational and irresponsible use creates a wide array of extremely negative efectson the environment and society, such as water resources depletion (lowering ofwater tables, drying of wells, springs and rivers), high energy consumption, soildegradation (erosion, salinization), pollution and aquatic ecosystem destruction,etc.

The hydrological cycle

It is impossible to plan for a rational and efcient use of water resourceswithout understanding how the water cycles at the local level.

In a forest, the soil is permanently covered by multiple layers of protection:the canopy high up, the understory at an intermediate height, which can bedivided in the shrub layer and the herbaceous layer, and lastly the litter, fallenleaves and other decaying organic matter that covers the forest foor. So, the soilis never exposed to the sun, being kept always humid, which allows for intensebiological activity and nutrient recycling. It is also protected from the wind and

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rain impact.

When it rains, the raindrop impact is absorbed by all those layers. Whenthe rainwater fnally reaches the soil, it fows very slowly, as it encounters endlessobstacles to its fow: trunks and roots, fallen leaves and litter in general, etc.Moreover, the soil is highly aerated and porous, because of the continuous actionof biological factors such as earthworms, insects and other animals that digtunnels, rotting roots, etc. All that favours water penetration into the soil, so youhave an optimal infltration of rainwater, and little surface runof.

The water that sinks into the soil travels very slowly downwards; it keepsthe soil moist for long periods, and eventually reaches an impermeable layer ofrock or sediment, where it accumulates forming a saturation zone, the watertable. At the water table, the water moves extremely slowly. Where the watertable meets the soil level, it leaks in the form of springs. So, the water fowingfrom springs is rainwater that fell months or years earlier, was fltered slowly andpassively through the soil, collected at the water table and brought to the surface.That is why spring water is generally so clean and, at the same time, often loadedwith important minerals. The spring water then fows on the surface, formingcreeks and streams and eventually rivers which typically fow into the sea.

Now, not all water that penetrates into the soil ends up in springs. In thetime while it is migrating in the soil’s shallower layers, keeping its humidity, partof that water is absorbed by the plants’ roots, to be used for their growth,maintenance and production, and is also transferred to the atmosphere throughevapotranspiration. At the forest layers between the soil surface and the canopy,this water keeps a particularly humid microclimate. That moisture is alsoreleased to the atmosphere above, contributing signifcantly to the relative airhumidity, cloud formation and, fnally, rain, thus restarting the water cycle.*

Then, there comes man and cuts down the forest to convert the land toagriculture, livestock production, urban development, etc. The soil, fromprotected, permeable and humid, now becomes bare, dry, compacted bymachinery or cattle treading, or sealed by pavings and buildings, etc. As a result,when it rains, very little water manages to infltrate into the soil, while most of itruns of the surface downhill, straight into the river. The water table is no longeradequately replenished and so it starts to get lower and lower, which in turnmakes springs dry. Moreover, at every major rain you have an abrupt anddestructive rise in the river level, that is, foods. The unprotected soil now suferserosion, losing its nutrient- and organic matter-rich top layer, leading to

* Of course the hydrological cycle is much more complex than that, including oceans,glaciers, etc. However, for the sake of simplicity, we’ll keep this discussion confned to theparts of the cycle that take place at the local level, over which it is possible to one tointervene, thus being more relevant.

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progressive fertility loss and the creation of wide fssures, the gulleys. All thatdirt will end up in the lower parts of the hill and the river, causing silting whichimpairs water quality, the river course and the aquatic ecosystem.

When the soil is protected by the forest, the very little surface runof meansthat even during major rains the river level remains largely unchanged. Also, indry periods, the river is still fed by the springs, so the fow is maintained. Bycontrast, in the deforested area, during dry spells you have a reduction in thewater fow, as springs have reduced fow or have dried. In extreme cases, theriver may dry up in long dry spells, becoming intermittent.

As previously mentioned, trees contribute to the maintenance of relative airhumidity, cloud formation and rain because of canopy evapotranspiration.Moreover, they absorb sun energy to use in photosynthesis, and shade theground, all of which contributes to cool down and stabilize the climate. Withdeforestation, tree evapotranspiration is lost and the sun starts hitting the ground(often asphalt or concrete) directly, which leads to a much hotter and dryerclimate.

Looking at this general picture, we reach the conclusion that in a naturalsituation, the forest works as a system to retain water. By contrast, in anenvironment that has been disturbed, modifed by human activities, the wholeplace becomes a system do drain water—a system to send water away as fast aspossible. It should be stressed that when water fows downhill and reaches theriver, it’s on its way to the sea, so in practice it’s already lost—the next day itwon’t be there anymore, it will be gone without performing any of its vitalfunctions at the local environment. Therefore, deforestation causes a brutalreduction in the water locally and regionally.

Then, man needs water. And where does he catch it from? Sure, he’ll catchit where it is most obvious, where he knows there is water: the water table(drilling wells), springs, rivers and lakes. So, the water resources sufer doubly:besides causing the lowering of the water table, man also pumps the remainingwater, lowering it even further; besides causing springs to dry, man also divertsthe remaining springs to his own use; besides causing the reduction in river fow,he also pumps the remaining water out for irrigation and urban supply, etc.

So, we keep drilling deeper and deeper wells in search of the last drop ofwater. Springs drying everywhere, rivers disappearing. Deep aquifers that takethousands of years to replenish are being sucked dry quickly, bringing about theglobal water crisis discussed in Part I.

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Efects of deforestation on the water cycle and soil: reduced waterinfltration into the soil, leading to low water table and drying of springs;soil erosion and river silting; great variation in river level (low in dry spells,high on rainy days); impaired evapotranspiration, leading to reducedrainfall.

Cultivate water

The application of the permaculture principles to water gives us a new setof specifc principles relative to its use and management:

1. Rain is the primordial source of water. Catch, store and utilize rainwater.

2. Store water as high as possible, and make it travel the longest possible way on the property, performing the greatest number of benefcial functions.

3. Use water conscientiously and economically.

4. Promote water infltration in the soil and the restoration of the water cycle.

5. Never contaminate any body of water.

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With rainW

ith fo

rest

Without rainW

ithou

t for

est


As previously mentioned, when we use water irrationally we cause itsprogressive reduction and deterioration. Therefore, using and managing thisresource in a rational and conscientious way is of paramount importance.

Rain is the primordial source of water; however, it is generally neglected orignored, which is a serious mistake. Rainfall is the most abundant source of goodquality water, and all other freshwater sources derive from it. The apparent needto use other water sources normally arises from the fact that that rainwater is notbeing properly harvested, stored and utilized.

When we catch and use rainwater, we are actually increasing itspermanence locally—water that would otherwise be lost, running of theproperty—and making it perform productive functions while preserving otherwater resources and aquatic environments. When we recycle water, we give itmultiple uses, so we are actually saving this resource. For example, soap waterfrom the laundry can be used for general cleaning purposes in the house, and therinse water can be saved to use in the next wash. Greywater from the bath andkitchen can be used to water the garden, etc. Ideally, the fnal destination of anywater should be the soil in the form of watering and irrigation, allowing it toperform one of its most vital functions, which is to keep soil moisture andfoment life and production.

When we favour water penetration in the soil, we are ensuring thereplenishment of the water table and the permanence of springs. That can beachieved, frst and foremost, by preserving forests, but also throughreaforestation and the establishment of food forests, etc. Besides enhancingwater infltration, that also contributes to the stabilization of the climate throughshading and evapotranspiration, as already discussed. In other words, when weplant trees we are actually working for the restoration of the water cycle. Also inthe city, there are several strategies that can be used to that end, as will bediscussed further below.

All that does not only lead to a preservation but in fact an increase in thequantity and quality of water available locally. That’s why it is often said that inpermaculture we don’t only use water—we “plant water”.*

For a rational water use, we must carefully design our systems aiming at thehighest possible efciency in the use of this resource, avoiding waste of waterand energy. To that, the systems must be adequately sized, designed so that waterfows passively, by gravity, reducing or abolishing the need for pumping, andlastly, they must be perfectly integrated with other systems, boosting beneftswhile preventing problems such as erosion, fooding, etc.

Water is a limited resource, and the trend is for it to become increasingly

* The concept of planting water, and water in permaculture in general, is discussed in adeep, brilliant and inspirational way in Brad Lancaster’s book series Rainwater harvestingfor drylands and beyond .

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scarce, as discussed in Part I. Therefore, when designing our systems, it isnecessary to think ahead, preparing for a diferent scenario, with lower and lesspredictable rainfall. That means designing and building bigger harvesting andstorage systems than would be needed at current conditions, and also striving toachieve the highest possible efciency in our water use.

Water in Rural Situations

There is a widespread notion that a rural property will only be of any valueif has some waterbody such as stream, river, lake or spring in it. However, suchview is erroneous and in fact somewhat absurd. There are few places on theplanet where you have such an abundance of springs and other waterbodies ingreat proximity so that every farm will have one, so insisting on this idea meansto assume that practically all of the Earth is inadequate for farming or humansettlement.

We all know water is essential. The problem is that most people only seemto be able to see water looking down, completely ignoring the primordial watersource: the rain. For illustration purposes, let’s take the example of a one hectareplot of land, in a region with an average rainfall of 800 mm/year. That meansthat eight million litres of clean, good quality water literally fall from the skyright on that property every year. In many cases, about half that water exits theplot as surface runof, that is, is simply lost without performing any positivefunction either for us humans or nature.

Therefore, clearly the crucial point regarding water supply is not whether ornot there is a spring or stream in the plot, but is all about harvesting, storing andusing rainwater. In the vast majority of cases, rainwater alone would be morethan enough to provide for all of the property’s needs, as long as it is adequatelyharvested and stored, and used rationally.

There are several possible strategies to catch, store and utilize rainwater inrural situations. The main techniques will be discussed below.

Artifcial ponds

The main way to store rainwater in rural situations for multiple uses is inthe form of artifcial ponds. The idea is very simple: you harvest rain runof bymeans of gutters, which then take that water into an impermeable tank dug intothe soil.

Artifcial ponds are extremely versatile and incredibly useful. They maystore substantial volumes of water for relatively little cost. They may servecountless purposes, such as water supply for the house, irrigation, aquaculture,

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microclimate creation, landscaping, recreation, fostering wildlife, etc.

Choosing the spot

The placement of a pond in the property and relative to the topography isof vital importance.

Regarding artifcial ponds, many people mistakenly assume that water isharvested from the rain that actually falls right in the pond. Well, that’s not howit works! Of course some rain will fall in the pond, but that will make but a smallfraction of your harvested water. Your real catchment will be the whole areauphill from your pond’s site, from which surface runof will be diverted into thepond by the gutters or channels. For this reason, the pond must never be built atthe top of a hill—there must be a sufcient area above the pond’s level to allowfor an efective rainwater harvest. That catchment area should be forestedwhenever possible.

On the other hand, it is important to build your pond high enough on thelandscape to allow for the passive use of the water over the largest possible area,supplying the house, irrigation and other uses without need for pumping. Yourhighest pond will have the cleanest water, and is therefore the most suitable forhome supply. Of course you can have additional ponds, as many as you wish oryou can ft in your plot. The lower ponds tend to have higher loads of organicmatter and nutrients because of contamination from crops and livestock, so theyare more suitable for production through aquaculture and irrigation.

Other factors should be considered when choosing the site for your pond.One of them is topography: steep hillsides are always much more complicated tostore water. Gentler slopes are easier and safer: with less interference on thetopography and at a lower cost you can build much bigger ponds, with muchmore capacity, and with smaller risks of breakage or collapse. Rocky areasshould also be avoided as much as possible, for obvious reasons. Another factorto be taken into account is the vegetation in the area: whenever possible, youmust choose existing clearings, so that you don’t have to cut trees to build yourpond.

Pond size

The pond may have virtually any size, but is must be able to store enoughwater to provide for your needs. It’s no good to have a pond so little that it runsdry at the middle of the dry season! It must also be compatible with yourcatchment potential—you don’t want a pond that never flls. Therefore, the sizeof your pond must be planned carefully. As a starting point, for a small-scaleproject, in a plot with an area between 5,000 and 25,000 m2, you can think ofponds about 10–20 meters wide and 1–2 m deep, with a capacity of some 50 to500 cubic metres, approximately.

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Building the pond

In theory, any pond can be dub by hand, with spades and hoes andwheelbarrows, etc. However, it is arduous and lengthy work. Unless it’s a rathersmall pond, or you have a good number of motivated people and no hurry, themost common is to use machinery such as diggers and bulldozers to dig yourpond.

In rather gentle slopes, the digging of a pond produces a great amount ofearth, which can be used in earthworks, construction, earth banks for a variety ofpurposes, or simply to make a small hill beside the pond, which can create aninteresting look, or help creating a microclimate, working as a windbreak, givingshade or refecting sunlight, etc. Of course those efects and benefts depend onan adequate positioning, which demands careful planning. Now, in places with asteeper incline, digging a pond won’t produce any surplus earth, because the dugout soil must be deposited at the lower edge of the pond and compacted, formingthe dam that will give the pond its shape and capacity.

Rainwater ponds must be strictly sealed, as any water loss by infltrationmay mean an empty pond in the middle of the dry season. The simplest andmost efective way to waterproof a pond is with a plastic liner. They are 100%impermeable, but are photodegradable, which means that if exposed to sunlightthey will deteriorate over time. However, if protected from the sun they can lastvirtually forever. Therefore, the liner must be covered with a permanent soillayer.

Before ftting the liner, the pond interior must be adequately prepared. Theinner walls must be made in “steps”, with fat platforms about 20 cm wide, andraisers with an inclination of no more than 45° and about 45 cm high. Thatprofle is important to make the soil cover stay on the liner, preventing it frombeing washed down to the pond bottom with the rain.

The inside of the pondmust be well compactedwith a dirt tamper(compactor), or even withyour feet. Any stones or bitsof wood must be carefullyremoved, and the innersurface be made as smoothas possible to prevent anydamage to the liner.

Also the water inlet must be prepared before ftting the liner. The inlet is adepression, a concavity on the inner side of the pond wall, with larger size andcapacity than that of the runof catching gutter. It must be sculpted keeping thestep pattern, and its edges must be raised to help confne the water fux withinthe inlet, even with heavy rain.

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Raisers45 cm high

Platforms20 cm wide(mín.)

Raisers inclination 45° (máx.)


Once the inside of the pond is prepared, it’s time to ft the liner. There areseveral types of thick, sturdy plastic liners that are made specifcally for thatpurpose, which are often referred to as geomembrane. Unfortunately, those tendto be quite expensive. As a cheaper alternative, you can use a 200 μm thick high-density polyethylene (HDPE) silage wrap—they cost a fraction of thegeomembrane price and can be perfectly efective; moreover, they are easier toget and to handle, and represent a reduced use of plastic relative to thegeomembranes. However, they are much thinner, so they require extra care toavoid damage by tearing and sun exposure.

The liner must cover all the inside of the pond, going over the borders atleast some 50 cm. Oftentimes it is not possible to cover the entire pond with asingle piece of liner. You can use duct tape to join the pieces, and also forrepairs. You must ensure the liner is well ftted (not too tight) to the bottom andsides of the pond.

The liner must be covered with a layer of loamy soil at least 10 cm thick.Add chopped grass, which helps keep the soil layer, preventing it from collapsingor being washed down. You may need to amend the soil, correcting its acidity oradding fertilizers before adding it onto the liner, at least for the last, superfciallayer, to allow for plant growth in and out of the pond water, which willdefnitively stabilize the soil layer, keeping the liner protected. Aquatic plantswill also be important to keep the water quality allowing for the production offsh, frogs, etc., which is vital to avoid mosquito proliferation.

The water inlet is a critical point. It must be built with stones and mortar(or, alternatively, concrete tubes, ferrocement, etc.), to safely contain the waterfow into the pond without overfowing, thus avoiding erosion inside the pondand exposure of the liner.

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Waterfow

Water inlet


The excess water must leave the pond through an overflow outlet. It is acritical part of every rainwater tank, and must be carefully designed, built andmaintained.

When harvesting rainwater, we catch surface runof from a large area. Instrong rains, that may cause the concentration of large water volumes, exceedingthe storage capacity of our systems, which means they will overfow. Now, wemust never let the water choose its own course, as it will always choose theshortest possible way, that is on the steeper slopes where it picks up more speed,with immense potential to cause damage, especially erosion, besides damage tocrops, facilities, etc.

To avoid such problems, we must make the excess water fow smoothlyacross the land. Some people may think of using tubes, but in most cases thebest way to deal with that water is on the surface, through of-level troughs,which are just the same as the runof catching gutters described above. Theoutlet point must be determined with the aid of a fexible tube water level toensure that the outlet point is actually the lowest point around the pond border, atleast some 50 cm lower than the dam level (or more, in the case of larger ponds).That is critical to prevent the overfow from running over the pond’s dam, whichwould cause damage and possibly even its breakage, with potentially seriousconsequences.

The overfow gutters are dug with a 1–2% incline, zigzagging across theslope, gently taking the water down to the next pond in the system. Lastly, theyshould take the excess water to a “dry pond”, that is a pond that is not sealed,where the water will penetrate, replenishing the water table.

Catchment gutters

As previously mentioned, rainwater harvesting is done by means of of-level channels that collect the rain runof and take it to the reservoir (pond). Thegutters are easy to build: starting from the pond inlet point, you mark a line onthe ground using a level and stakes. You can use a fexible tube water level or asimple bubble level attached to a trestle-like frame—a horizontal bar held by oneleg at each end. Give the line a fall of 1–2% toward the pond. The line markedby the stakes is where you’ll dig your gutter. You can have 2 gutters, forming theright and left arms of your water catchment, that will bring all runof from thesection of the hill above, taking it to your pond. The gutters can be dug with atractor or by hand, with mattocks and hoes.

Sometimes you’ll have a gulley, cut on the hillside over time by heavyrainwater. That obviously represents an opportunity to harvest a lot of water.However, it is generally a bad idea to try to store water right there or build thepond at the gulley, as it is normally the steepest part of the hillside. Rather, youshould choose a spot with milder topography for the pond, and build just adiversion in the gulley, with a reinforced wall built with stones, rammed earth

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tyres, earth bags, concrete, etc. The diversion connects with the catchmentgutter, taking the water to the pond.

Dig a cavity, maybe a 1.5 m wide, 1 m deep hole, at the end of thecatchment gutter, just before the water inlet to the pond, to act as asedimentation tank. This hole must not be sealed. Solid particles such as sand,pebbles, branches and other impurities carried by the water will settle in thistank, preventing them from entering and accumulating in the pond. Thesedimentation tank must be cleared regularly.

It is hard to predict the ideal size of the catchment gutters, so it is better tostart small, as an excess of water can cause you trouble, especially in strongrains. The pond should not fll up at the frst rain, but rather slowly, over manyrainy days, maybe taking a few months to fll to capacity. So, it is safer to startwith a modest catchment and observe the water fow during rains, check how thepond flls, and make the gutters bigger if necessary.

Once the pond is fnished, plant grass seeds or a mix of herbaceous speciesthat are native of your area in the soil layer that covers the plastic liner—theirroots are the most efective way to fx the soil in place, preventing its washingdown by the rain. Introduce also aquatic plants, such as cattails and water lilies,rush, etc. inside the pond once it is full. Frogs will come and colonize it, and youcan also introduce fsh, shrimps, etc. (we’ll talk a bit more about aquaculture inchapter 9, “Rural Permaculture”).

Now, a very important safety tip: you must put up a very efective fencearound your pond. This is critical to the safety of people, as there is always adrowning risk, and also to protect the pond itself—you don’t want a large and

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Catchmentgutters

Water inlet

Sedimentationtank

Inside of pond


heavy animal such as a cow or a horse treading your pond, damaging the plasticliner with their hooves! Even if you don’t have such animals, it is always possiblethat someone will forget to close a gate, or your neighbour’s livestock maymanage to cross a fence, etc.—that’s the sort of thing that happens all the time.

Lastly, plant trees around your pond, to shade the water, keeping it freshand preventing excessive evaporation, besides making it look great. In coldclimates, plant deciduous trees on the sunny side, allowing the sun to warm thewater in the winter.

A pond close to the house or on the way to it can createa very pleasant efect

Series of ponds

You can and should have more than one pond in the property. In fact, bythe redundancy principle, it is always better to have two or more smaller ponds,rather than only one big pond—this way, if you ever have any problems with apond, your water supply is still guaranteed.

Start by building a smaller pond and move on to building bigger ones later.This gives you some important advantages: you’ll have water sooner, as a smallerpond is quicker to build and fll. With that water, everything will get easier:building, planting, and even making new ponds. Moreover, it is better to startsmall to get experience—you’ll learn from mistakes and improve your skills, soeverything will fow better when you get to the bigger ones. And the costs will besplit in “installments”, which can be a great advantage. Lastly, you’ll have thebenefts of a pond scattered all over the plot: favourable microclimate creation,the possibility of independent irrigation systems, and multiples opportunities forvaried uses, such as aquaculture systems. You’ll also be creating multiple pointsfor wildlife including migratory birds to beneft from water, shelter and food, etc.

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The several ponds may have diferent sizes and shapes, according with thetopography and other properties of the terrain, such as catchment potential,available space, etc.

The water catchment for those multiple ponds must be made in series,where the excess water from a higher pond fows passively to the next pond downin the system (the overfow drain of a higher pond is the catchment gutter of alower one).

Ponds in series: the excess water from a pond fows into thenext one in the system.

Underground cisterns

Another way to store rainwater is with underground cisterns. They areeconomical in space and can be particularly advantageous in small-scale projects,where maybe there isn’t enough space for a pond. They also have a specialapplication in arid climates, with a very long dry season, where excessiveevaporation could dry your pond up.

Cisterns are impermeable water tanks which are normally builtunderground. Most commonly, cisterns are used to store rainwater caught fromroofs, but they can also be built to store surface runof from the land caught bygutters as described above for the ponds. Here too the sedimentation tank isnecessary to prevent silting inside the cistern. From the sedimentation tank, the

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Runof fow directionCatchment

gutter

Overfow outlet

Sedimentationtank

Artifcial pond

Next pond

Catchmentgutter

Catchmentgutter

Overfow outlet


water is brought through a pipe into the cistern. The overfow route must also beplanned: from the drain, the water is taken directly to the next cistern or pond, orgently across the landscape through gutters or channels. In relatively smallsystems that don’t create risks, the excess water can be taken to a vegetated areawhere it can be absorbed or fow without causing erosion.

The cistern’s inlet and outlet pipes must be ftted with nylon or wire meshscreens to prevent mosquitoes from entering and breeding and also the entry ofsmall animals that would drown in the cistern contaminating the water.

Cisterns can be build in virtually any size. They can be made inconventional masonry or other materials such as plastic, fberglass, ferrocement,etc.

Because they are underground, cisterns keep the water always relativelycool. They must have a solid roof, preferably concrete. The cistern water mustbe protected from sunlight, to prevent algal proliferation. The cistern must havean access door or hatch to allow for regular maintenance and cleaning.

Keeping water in the soil

As already mentioned, it is of paramount importance that we do all we canto restore the water cycle. To that, probably the most important factor is toincrease water penetration in the soil.

The soil can be seen as the greatest water reservoir that you can have on aproperty. Of course once in the soil the water can’t be seen anymore, and itwon’t be available for many of our uses. However, it will still be there,performing some of its most crucial functions in a natural way, and sparing usfrom some jobs. For example, when the soil is naturally kept humid for longerperiods of time, that obviously reduces our work and water consumption inwatering and irrigation. Moreover, we know that by restoring the hydrologicalcycle, we are actually contributing to the increase of the quantity and quality ofwater available to humans and all other life forms, both locally and globally.

There are many strategies and techniques that can and must be used topromote the infltration of rainwater into the soil. All of those techniques haveactually double function, as besides favouring water infltration they also preventsoil erosion.

Reafforestation

Certainly the best way to keep water in the soil and preserve and restore thewater cycle is by protecting and increasing the plant cover and especially treecover, that is, through conservation of forests and reaforestation.

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The word reaforestation is very beautiful and brings up positive emotionsin most people. It is common to see some people, sometimes regarded as localheroes, bragging about having planted thousands of trees. However, it isimportant to demystify something: planting seeds or saplings is easy—takingcare of them and ensuring they’ll become trees is the tricky part!

Here you have a whole spectrum of situations: at one end of the spectrumyou have a difcult scenario in which you have a degraded soil, typically thatplace where the forest was cleared a long time ago and the soil has sufered withunsustainable agriculture over decades or centuries; at the other end, you have aneasy scenario, with fertile land where typically the forest was cleared not so longago, so the soil has not yet been destroyed by human interference.

In practice, the diference between such two scenarios is that in the easyone everything you plant grows. Even if you don’t plant anything, it will grow allthe same, as nature has great potential to self-regenerate. So, if you only leavethe area alone, naturally over a few years or decades you’ll have a young forestgrowing there. By contrast, in the unfavourable scenario, nature has been sobeaten up by man that its self-regeneration potential is seriously compromised—fertility has been lost, and now you have a barren soil, deprived of organic matteror nutrients, and dried up, compacted, a depleted water table, maybe problemswith salinization, etc. That doesn’t mean the area cannot recover on its own, butthat recovery can take centuries or millennia. When you try to intervene in thatprocess planting trees, for instance, to accelerate the recovery, you see that it isvery hard to have any success—your plants have difculty in surviving andgrowing, producing, etc. Sure it doesn’t mean such areas should be abandoned,much on the contrary, as it is precisely there that lies one of the biggest and mostbeautiful challenges of permaculture: to work not only in the conservation, butindeed in the restoration of nature, and at the same time provide for the humanneeds.

Techniques and strategies to establish forests and agroforests will bediscussed in chapter 9, “Rural Permaculture”.

Half-moon-shaped planting basins

The planting basin is a concavity dug/built around a plant, with the capacityto hold a certain volume of water. This technique is very useful, and in factessential at the sapling phase of a tree’s development, so it is critical for theestablishment of a food forest or reaforestation projects. The planting basin’smain function is to facilitate watering and favour plant hydration, as it retainswater allowing for its penetration close to the root zone. By contrast, if you don’tmake a basin around your plant, when you water it normally most of the waterimmediately runs away from your plant without benefting it—you waste yourtime and the water, and your plant remains thirsty.

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Now, when you make a good half-moon-shaped basin around your plantwith small runof catching channels stretching from either end that take thewater into the basin, it starts working also in concentrating rainwater aroundyour plant.

If used in large numbers across the landscape, the half-moon-shaped basinscan substantially increase the rainwater penetration into the soil, preventing itfrom running of your plot, so it serves as a strategy to fx water locally.

Basins are also very benefcial to grown trees, so they can be applied tomature orchards and food forests too. They not only increase soil and plant

hydration, but also assistin fxing nutrients (e.g.from manureapplication) and mulch,preventing them frombeing carried away bythe rain, thus favouringtheir maximumefciency for plantgrowth.

The basin’s size variesmainly according withthe size of the plant. Fortree saplings, a basinaround 60 cm wide and10 cm deep, with acapacity for some 30litres of water, may be

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Without a basin With a basin

Water runs of Water penetrates


enough. For bigger plants, you increase the size of the basin accordingly, maybeto a capacity of some 100 or 150 litres. The basin construction technique will bedescribed in chapter 9, “Rural Permaculture”.

Contour swales

Contour swales are an important technique to increase water penetrationinto the soil and prevent erosion. They can be applied at any scale, from a smallgarden to large land holdings.

Contour swales are linear barriers that are build on contour, which meansthat every point along them is at the same level. They catch and hold the runofwater from the section of the hill above them, preventing it from moving furtherdownhill and allowing its absorption by the soil. They can be built with handtools such as spades and hoes, particularly in small scales, or with a tractor incase of larger scales. Contour swales must be carefully planned with adequateinstruments so they are perfectly level—eyeballing just won’t do! On smallscales, you can use an “A-frame” level or a fexible tube water level, while onlarge scales you’ll normally use a theodolite.

The contour swale is made of two parts: the trough and the swell—the soildug out from the trough is used to make the swell.

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Accumulated runof

Infltration

trough swell

Cross section of a swale


The swale’s size varies according to several factors:

• Scale. For example, in a backyard you’ll make swales that are maybe some25 cm wide and 10 cm high, while in a big area your swales may be over 1m high and some 3 m wide.

• Soil type. Clayey soils drain slowly, so they require bigger and morefrequent (i.e. closer together) swales, while in well drained loamy andsandy soils you can make smaller, more spaced swales.

• Topography. The steeper the terrain, the taller and more frequent yourswales.

It is important to stress that, although useful, swales are no replacement forpermanent plant cover regarding soil stabilization. Don’t even think aboutdestroying trees to make swales—you can dig your swales around them, noproblem. Now, some herbaceous vegetation and small shrubs will inevitably bedestroyed in the swale making. However, over time new vegetation tends todevelop on the swell, which is quite useful in its stabilization. Vegetation and soilstructure outside the swale must be preserved as much as possible.

Terraces

Terraces are an ancient technique, employed by peoples of severalmountainous regions of the world, especially in South East Asia and also by theIncas in South America.

Terracing means building series of platforms on level, on a sloped terrain.The platforms slow down the runof, helping it infltrate into the soil andpreventing erosion.

This technique ha a big environmental impact at frst, as you’re moving alot of earth and changing soil structure and the topography. Therefore, it shouldbe used only where you don’t have a substantial tree cover, as it doesn’t make anysense to destroy a forest in an efort to protect the soil. The soil in the raisersbecomes very susceptible to erosion right after building the terraces, making itimportant to take steps to prevent problems. You should apply lime, fertilizersand soil amendments as required to allow for fast and efcient plant growth onthe terraces, both on raisers and platforms. Once your terraces are built, youshould plant rapid growth, hardy species on the raisers for soil stabilization(erosion prevention). On the platforms, you can start planting your crops.

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Runoff management for erosion prevention

As we have been discussing, when we promote water infltration into thesoil we are also preventing erosion, and the most natural and afective way toachieve that is by keeping a permanent plant cover.

However, there are situations where that is just not possible, such as onroads and footpaths. In such cases, permeable paving, which allows waterinfltration and at the same time prevents erosion, is an ideal solution, but is notalways economically viable.

Dirt roads are extremely prone to erosion, and that can lead to seriousproblems, especially in steep slopes. The most obvious problem from a roaduser’s point of view is that, after every major rain, fssures develop on the roadthat compromise trafcability and safety, while from a road maintenance pointof view the most obvious problem is the maintenance costs. Now, from anenvironmental point of view, the problem is the enormous amount of dirt that iscarried down with the runof, ending up in the river downhill, where it causessilting.

To minimize all those problems, adequate erosion prevention techniquesmust be applied.

Infltration basins

Infltration basins are depressions designed to hold runof from the road,allowing its infltration into the soil.

Roads are normally built with a convex profle so that stormwater fows tothe sides. That reduces the erosion on the carriageway, but exacerbates theerosive potential at the roadside, where the runof is concentrated. To minimize

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Infltration

Terraces


this problem, you must prevent this runof from picking up speed and volume,by making drains that take that water away from the road, into the infltrationbasins.

Infltration basins turn problems into solutions: the road erosion is reducedand river silting, prevented, while the water table is recharged. Dirt carried downwith the runof sediments in the basin, which means there is need for regularmaintenance (clearing the basin). However, even that has a positive side: that dirtcan be used in road maintenance, i.e. moved back onto the road to fx thedamage caused by erosion. It can also be used for other purposes, such as inearthworks and construction.

Considering their capacity, infltration basins can be seen as temporaryrainwater tanks, and as such they must have a planned overfow route. Ideally,that excess water should be taken gently away from the road through drains witha fall of about 2%, to a place where it won’t cause any harm, that is a vegetatedarea with gentle topography. That overfow water too can be seen as a resourcethat can be chanelled for productive purposes.

Diversion swales

The steeper roads and paths that connect the upper and lower parts of theproperty are also very prone to erosion, quickly becoming creek beds. Toprevent that, you can use diversion swales—of-level, speed hump-like barriersbuilt across the road or footpath that take the runof water out of the path into avegetated area beside it, where it will be absorbed or fow without causingerosion. This diverted water can be used productively—extend the diversionswale toward theplanting basin of a treeplanted nearby the roador path. This way youprevent erosion andwater your plant at thesame go!

Diversion swalesare built at variableintervals, maybe 5 or 10m apart, according withthe path’s incline andpropensity to erosion, sothe spacing must beadjusted case by case.

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Water for the house

Every house comes equipped with a great rainwater harvesting apparatus—the roof. Roofs are always great opportunities to catch large volumes of goodquality water, and that applies both for rural and urban situations. If all waterthat rains down on the roof of a house in a year was harvested and stored, thatwater alone would be enough to provide for the house and its dwellers in mostcases. Even if you have great ponds that supply your house passively by gravity,or if you trust your public water supply network, there is no excuse to waste allthat good water that you get literally as a gift from the heavens every year.

To catch rainwater from your roof you’ll need to install gutters that take thewater to a tank or cistern. For a start, you can simply use 200 litre drums to storeyour rainwater, or even a conventional water tank placed on the foor just outsidethe house, if you have enough room. That can be done without any trouble orhigh costs, and you’ll be surprised with how fast and easy those reservoirs getfull, and the quality of the water—crystal clear! You’ll probably be perplexed:“how could I waste all that good water, for all my life?” You’ll discover thepleasure of using that water to water your plants, do your laundry and other uses.

However, that really is just a start, because such improvised reservoirs aretoo small for the harvesting capacity of your roofs. In such situation, whatnormally happens is that, in the rainy season, your tanks fll up very quickly atevery rain, from which point they overfow wasting most of the water. As the dryseason comes, you quickly use up all that stored water, and your tanks willremain empty for the rest of the year, until the new rainy season. That is not veryrational or efcient. Moreover, tanks just placed on the foor are not veryconvenient for use—you don’t want to bucket water around all your life.

By the water use and management principles, it should be caught andstored as high as possible, allowing its use by gravity. However, in the case ofharvesting water from a house’s roof for use in the same house, that most oftendoesn’t really work, because having a large water tank over two meters above theground has many inconveniences, such as difculty in construction, high cost,takes a lot of room, aesthetic impact, etc. Often the roof is not even high enoughfor that. So we must use diferent strategies.

In rural situations, you often have a barn, shed or garage at a level abovethe house—a building with a large roof, with a good rainwater harvestingpotential, but low water consumption. In such cases, you can store that water in acistern right there, and take that water by gravity to the house. And the rainwaterharvested from your house’s roof can in turn be used in another house downhill,maybe by a neighbour, or used for irrigation, etc.

In urban situations, normally the best strategy is to build an underground

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cistern, that can be placed in the backyard or even under the garage. A cisternwith capacity for some 25,000 litres can be built, and will be invisible, withouttaking any room! Install a solar panel-powered water pump in the cistern topump the water to a tank on the house’s roof. The underground cistern musthave a solid concrete roof, so you can keep your car, or plant a garden on top ofit.

Now, there are several points that need attention so you can use theharvested rainwater safely. The cistern must be properly built, as alreadymentioned, so it is durable and watertight, and strong enough to withstand thewater pressure without developing any cracks and leaks. It must also be closedtight to prevent mosquito breeding.

Rainwater can show varied degrees of contamination by air pollution anddust, but particularly from dirt of various sources accumulated on the roof andgutters. During the frst minutes of rain, that contamination is largely washedout. For that reason, the frst fush must be separated, as it bears the bulk ofcontamination. To that end, your home rainwater harvesting system must includea frst fush diverter. The diverter must have a debris excluder, that is a screenwhich separates gross impurities such as tree leaves, feathers and insects; a tankwith a tight lid, an air vent, a tap to drain water, and fnally the pipes that lead tothe cistern.

The sizing of the frst fushtank is of critical importance. Itmust be proportional to the roofsize—as a rule of thumb, one litrecapacity for every square metre ofroof area. The frst fush watermust be drained after every rain.But that does not mean that waterwill go to waste! You can andshould use it to various purposes.After a long dry period, you’llnotice that the frst fush is verydirty, and it will be good only forwatering, really. But in the rainyseason, with regular and abundantrainfall, even the frst fush willoften be clean enough for otheruses, such as cleaning the foor,washing the car, or even doing thelaundry, etc. Generally speaking,for non-potable uses, if the waterlooks and smells good enough, it isgood enough. Use common sense.

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Gutter

Air vent

First fush tank

Undergroundcistern

Pump

to the rooftopwater tank


As the inside of the cistern is totally protected from sunlight, the waterthere is not prone to developing problems such as algal growth or bad odours.However, as with any water tank, the cistern should be cleaned regularly.

If adequately harvested and stored, rainwater can be used for all homepurposes, including drinking and cooking. However, before being used forpotable uses, it must be appropriately sanitized (e.g. by fltering, chlorination,etc.).*

Water in the city

In cities, the hydrological cycle disturbance by human activities occurs withmaximum intensity. Quite often, over 90% of the soil surface in urban areas issealed with buildings and paving, and it is not difcult to fnd places withimpervious surfaces approaching 99% of the area.

Such wholesale sealing of the soil surface causes many big problems. Ifhardly any water manages to penetrate in the soil, how is the water table to bereplenished? In urban areas, natural springs are often regarded as a nuisance (!!),obstacles to urban development, so they are systematically destroyed, buried,levelled, drained, etc. The few surviving springs are polluted by the sewage fromthousands of septic tanks and sewerage leaks that infltrate in the soil reachingthe water table. Rivers are turned into stormwater and sewage channels, and areoften piped, that is, killed and buried.

Soil sealing also means that practically all rainwater will run of thehardscape surface, and because of that during major rain events you’ll often getfooding which cause damage to property, loss of lives and waterborne diseasesoutbreaks such as leptospirosis, cholera, mosquito-transmitted diseases such asdengue fever, etc.

Besides all those problems, soil waterproofng in cities also turn them into“pressure pots”, the so-called urban heat islands. Concrete, asphalt and metalabsorb solar radiation, giving it back as heat both to the inside and out ofbuildings. For that reason, day temperatures in cities can be up to 10 °C higherthan outside of them. In the summer, that brings serious problems such asthermal discomfort, high energy consumption for air conditioning, alsocontributing to global warming.

Now, all those problems could be solved or mitigated through adequateurban planning—that means planning that takes into consideration the soil,water, trees and animals, in other words, nature, rather than only thinking about

* Rahman, S. et al. Sustainability of rainwater harvesting system in terms of water quality.The Scientifc World Journal. 2014.

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growth and proft.

Increased permeability

The reversion of soil sealing in cities is critical for the conservation ofwater resources. There is a host of strategies that can be used to that end.:

• Increasing the green areas within cities. Obviously, the larger theproportion of a city area that is left unpaved, the bigger the potential forrainwater absorption by the soil. In such areas, the same techniques forimproving water retention and penetration discussed for rural situations shouldbe applied, such as permanent plant cover, especially trees; contour swales,infltration basins, etc. All those techniques are compatible with harmonious,beautiful urban design that favours wildlife and also the human population, forrecreation, sports, relaxation, etc. Besides preserving water resources and naturallife, greener cities are also much more pleasant, beautiful, with better air qualityand thermal comfort, etc., all of that resulting in improved human well-being.

We all know the diference between walking on a hot summer day in a parkunder the trees or in an open parking lot, or the diference between steppingbarefoot on grass or hot asphalt. Plants bring the temperature down by severalmechanisms: they provide shade, preventing the sun from hitting the ground andheating it; the absorb solar radiation to use in photosynthesis, and consume heatin the evapotranspiration process, etc.

Urban aforestation is also an excellent opportunity to preserve threatenedlocal species, so they should be used preferentially.

• Increasing soil permeability around the house, by keeping gardens andrescuing the culture of urban farming.

• Permeable paving, which is a method of paving vehicle and pedestrianpathways that allows for infltration of water and air (breathability). It may beachieved by using porous materials, or nonporous media that are spaced so thatfuid may fow in between the gaps. Permeable paving is a viable solution both inpublic and private areas. Examples include roads, paths, and parking lots,sidewalks, private driveways, etc.

• Rainwater-harvesting street profle. This is an urban design tool inwhich permeable, vegetated areas are kept at a lower level than the roads, so therunof water fows into them through strategic gaps in the curb, where it can beretained and absorbed. That works by the same principle as the infltrationbasins. The enhanced water infltration improves plant hydration, contributes tothe replenishment of the water table and reduces the runof fow during storms,helping prevent foods.

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Catching, storing and using rainwater

The systems described previously under “water for the house” are totallyapplicable in urban as well as rural situations. And that’s valid not only forhouses, but also, with the necessary adaptations, to pretty much any otherbuildings including schools, factories, warehouses, etc. The bigger the roof, thebigger its rainwater harvesting potential.

It is estimated that on average around 25% of the ground in cities isoccupied by roofs. If all the rainwater that falls on those roofs was efectivelyharvested and stored, that would represent a substantial reduction in thestormwater fow on streets, storm drainage systems, streams and rivers, etc. thatcould be enough to prevent many foods. Moreover, think about all the mainswater that would be saved! It’s not just about saving money, but above allpreserving the city’s water resources.

Green roofs

Green roofs are roofs of houses and other buildings that are covered by alayer of soil and vegetation. They have a signifcant capacity to retain rainwaterand give it back to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, thus reducingrunof in the city. They also help reducing air pollution, heat islands in cities,they foment biodiversity (particularly avifauna, bees, etc.) and on top of all thatthey make the city look much more beautiful. Green roofs can also be used toproduce food (rooftop gardening). They will be discussed in more detail inchapter 10, “The Permaculture Home”.

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Rainwater-harvesting street profle


Watercourse protection

Springs are invaluable, miraculous eternal sources of pure water, and mustbe regarded with total respect and reverence, also in the cities. Anyextraterrestrial being of highly advanced intelligence would be absolutelyshocked by the thoughtless, disrespectful way we treat springs in urban areas.Every spring and its surrounding area (at least 50 m in radius) should be turnedinto an urban natural reserve, a park for the preservation of the local naturalecosystem—a water and wildlife sanctuary. Also other waterbodies such asstreams, rivers and lakes, should receive the same treatment. Series of parksshould be built along the rivers and around lakes. Such linear parks work aswildlife corridors,* allowing the fux of fauna (and, with it, seeds, pollen, etc.)between the parks, rivers and lakes of all parts of the city and beyond,connecting with the rural areas, other towns and cities, natural reserves, etc.Therefore, they have a profound efect in environmental preservation thatstretches far beyond water conservation.

Lastly, the purity of water bodies and aquifers must be restored andpreserved at all costs. Sewers must be totally contained and segregated fromnatural bodies of water—collected and conveyed through strictly impervioussewerage systems to wastewater treatment plants. Even after treatment, theresulting effluents must not be discharged into natural water bodies, because theyremain substantially pollutant, loaded with nutrients, chemicals, microbes andother contaminants, so they are still harmful to aquatic ecosystems. Therefore,they should instead be employed safely in forestry irrigation, environmentalrestoration areas, and food production especially in agroforestry systems (thismatter will be discussed in chapter 11, “Ecological Sanitation”).

We must stop regarding polluted, stinky rivers as something normal. Theymust be pristine, surrounded by riparian vegetation, full of life like fsh, birds,etc., and places for people too to enjoy, chill out, have a swim, etc.

* Wildlife corridors will be discussed further in chapter 9, “Rural Permaculture”.

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Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 9. Rural Permaculture

9RURAL PERMACULTURE

The permaculture’s mission is to provide for the human needs and at thesame time preserve and restore the natural environments and ecosystems. In thischapter, we’ll discuss techniques for the provision of one of the most criticalhuman needs: food.

Although the permaculture ethics, principles and techniques apply in allenvironments, it is in rural situations that permaculture can express its potentialto the fullest in the development of a healthy, self-reliant lifestyle that is trulybenignly integrated with nature. It is in rural situations that you will have roomto catch and store thousands or millions of litres of rainwater, do large-scalereaforestation projects, restore springs and grow tonnes of food, etc. Also, someessential things in permaculture, such as ecological sanitation, are often inviablein an urban context, as individual solutions (e.g. compost toilet) are often limitedby the lack of space, while collective systems depend on the participation oracceptance of the whole community, which unfortunately remains a distant goal.

It should be stressed that, in its origins, permaculture stood for permanentagriculture, and sustainable, ecological food production remains its main feature,considering the fact that food is essential to human life, and also thatconventional agriculture is the single most impacting human activity on theenvironment.

The idea here is to create oases of fertility and abundance, where food,water and other indispensable resources (wood, fbre, medicine, etc.) are

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produced and made available continuously and permanently, for us humans aswell as for other creatures. This ideal can be attained through rational resourceuse and intelligent positioning of elements (i.e. design), in the light of thepermaculture principles. This way, the natural resources are preserved andactually increased, and high productivity comes together with continualimprovement of soil, water, biomass and biodiversity. You know that Garden ofEden idea, where you stretch an arm and pick a fruit here, stretch the other armand pick another fruit, take two steps and trip on some vegetable… Well, that’sthe kind of thing we’re talking about—rich, harmonious, resilient and self-maintaining systems that, once established, keep high productivity with verylittle work. This vision contrasts sharply with the conventional agriculture, whichis labour intensive, harmful to the environment, leads to the progressivereduction of soil and water quality, biomass and biodiversity, needing highresource input, generating pollution, etc. So permaculture is a system of workingwith nature, rather than against it.

When we talk about productive systems in permaculture, it is common tohear the question: “what’s the diference between organic agriculture andpermaculture?” Organic agriculture can be defned as an agricultural system thatdoes not utilize chemical fertilizers, pesticides, hormones and other syntheticadditives, relying on natural resources and techniques such as crop rotation,green manures, composting and biological pest control, etc. to grow crops in away that minimizes negative impacts on the environment and human health. Soit can be said that organic agriculture is a conservative, ethical, ecologicalapproach to agriculture. By contrast, permaculture is something much broader,as it can be applied to all human activities—not only food production but alsohousing, sanitation, residue management, lifestyle, social relations, etc.

As far as food production is concerned, there is a great deal of overlappingbetween permaculture and organic agriculture, as they utilize basically the sametechniques. However, even here there are important diferences. For example,many organic farmers are not concerned whether or not they are using water forirrigation in sustainable way, in other words, maybe they don’t harvest and userainwater, but rather abuse water resources such as a stream or watertable, ormaybe use an unreasonable amount of energy pumping that water, etc., withoutseeing any problem in all that. Or maybe they are importing loads of resourcessuch as organic fertilizers over long distances and at high energy andenvironmental costs, or export their produce to far of regions, or they may dooverpackaging, etc. All those practices are commonplace in the world of organicagriculture, but are considered reproachable in permaculture.

On the other hand, there are practices that are not accepted by mostorganic certifcation agencies, but are nonetheless considered very important inpermaculture, such as the use of treated sewage sludge (biosolids) as fertilizer,which is necessary to close the nutrient cycle, without which there can be nosustainability.

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Soils

Soils are the main food producing matrix for humans, so it is critical thatwe have a thorough comprehension of what they are and how they work.

The soil is a complex mix of elements: a predominant mineral matrix,organic matter, air, water, microorganisms, etc. It represents the substrate for lifein terrestrial ecosystems as it provides support and nutrients. They are alsoimportant water reservoirs and a vital component of the hydrological cycle, asdiscussed in the previous chapter.

Grossly speaking, the soil can be divided in two layers: topsoil and subsoil.Topsoil is the outermost layer of the soil, usually the top 5 to 20 cm. It has thehighest concentration of organic matter and micro and macroorganisms, andnutrients—this is the soil zone that ofers the best conditions for the developmentof life, so here you have the most intense biological activity. Therefore, this isthe most vital portion of the soil for food production. Because of the immensevariety of life forms that exist in an interdependent way in the soil, and itsspecial characteristics, topsoil must be seen as an ecosystem in its own right, butyet indivisible from the “visible” terrestrial ecosystem above ground.

Besides being the most crucial portion of the soil for food production, thetop layer is also the most delicate and susceptible to destruction by humaninterference, especially by unsustainable agricultural practices.

Our discussion here will focus on topsoil, so for the sake of simplicity itwill be referred to simply as “soil”.

How soils are formed

Simply put, soils are formed from an original rock material, through thecombined action of two factors: rock decay (disintegration and decomposition byphysical, chemical and biological processes) and biological accumulation ofnutrients.

Mineral nutrients are chemical substances that are necessary to thebiological processes in general, so they are needed for life and growth of all lifeforms. They are generally present at low concentrations in rocks and otherinorganic materials, and sometimes highly concentrated in some types of ores.With rock decay through processes such as abrasion, wind erosion, thermalshock, oxidation, reduction, hydrolysis, etc., such nutrients are released,becoming soluble or otherwise available to microorganisms, plants and animals,etc. which absorb them and use them in their metabolism. This way, nutrientsthat were forever locked inside rocks are set free and subsequently captured bythe web of life. From that point, they are permanently recycled in the biosphere:herbivores feed on plants; carnivores feed on herbivores; scavengers and

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microorganisms feed on the corpses and excreta of other organisms, returningthe nutrients to the soil, from which they can be absorbed by plants again,restarting the cycle.

While the necessary elements (nutrients) are actively fxed in the web oflife, other substances which also originate from the original rock material but areunnecessary or excessive to the living organisms are slowly dispersed out of thismost active zone of the terrestrial biosphere, carried by the wind, washed awayby the rain, or leached through the soil, etc. With such process going oncontinuously through the ages, the essential substances for life (nutrients) areaccumulated in the terrestrial biosphere, allowing for the maximal expression oflife in any given area. It is through this process that a forest’s topsoil, forexample, accumulates enormous fertility which supports and is supported by theforest and all organisms it contains, continuously, for millions or even billions ofyears.

How soils are destroyed by agriculture

From what we’ve discussed so far about how soils are formed, one thingshould have become clear: fertility is not in the soil, but rather in the soil’sbiomass. Of course the biomass is also part of the soil, but what that means isthat the nutrients are not just simply present there, loose, in a soluble form in thesoil’s mineral matrix. If you separate the biomass (organic matter) from themineral matrix in a forest soil, most of the nutrients will be in the former, not inthe latter.

The building up of soil fertility through the biological accumulation ofnutrients process occurs more efciently the higher the density and diversity oflife forms. That is because diferent species have diferent nutrient needs,consequently diferent abilities to absorb and utilize nutrients, that results in theirfxation. Therefore, when you have a lot of diferent species all together and athigh density, all the nutrients will be efciently fxed and accumulated in theterrestrial ecosystem. In other words, long-term soil fertility depends on themaintenance of high biological activity, that is, life in the soil and terrestrialecosystem.

Man destroys the soil fertility precisely by interfering negatively with allfactors essential to the maintenance of life, both quantitatively and qualitatively,particularly through agricultural practices.

Cover

When you cut down a forest and replace it with a plantation or pasture, youare eliminating or seriously reducing the protection that the trees and otherperennial vegetation provide to the soil. As we have been discussing, in the forestthe soil is totally protected from the direct solar exposure, rainfall impact, the

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erosive and overdrying efect of the wind, etc., besides the fact that the forestfavours rainwater infltration into the soil. With the loss of the forest, the soilabsorbs much less water, and loses much more of it through surface runof anddirect evaporation from the soil surface, which leads to a dramatic reduction inits hydration that impacts all life forms. The exposure to the direct efects ofwind and rain also leads to erosion, a process in which the nutrient-rich topsoil isliterally stripped from the area, eventually leaving only the barren subsoil.

Structure

The soil is not just a random mass of dirt and organic matter—on thecontrary, it has a specifc, healthy structure that allows for its maximal fertilityand life. This structure encompasses mainly two factors: the tangled mass ofplant roots, living and dead, that holds together and greatly fxes and stabilizesthe earth (aggregation), and the adequate porosity (aeration) which allows for thesoil’s breathability and rainwater penetration. Now, in conventional agriculture,the practices of tilling and ploughing completely destroy that structure. With thatthe very entrails of the earth are exposed to the merciless impact of the sun,wind and rain, invariably leading to massive death of the soil’s organisms, with abrutal and virtually instantaneous reduction in its biomass and biodiversity ateach treatment, not to mention that it makes the soil much more susceptible toerosion.

Another factor afecting soil structure is compaction, which occurs as aresult of tillage, agricultural machinery trafc, and especially treading by cattle.Compaction reduces soil porosity, leading to impaired gas exchange with theatmosphere and asphyxiating the soil, while also reducing water infltration,therefore compromising soil hydration and increasing the propensity to erosion.

Life

The ripping of topsoil and consequent fertility loss by erosion is self-explaining. This factor alone is one of main contributors to desertifcation aroundthe world. Now, each one of the other events that cause macro andmicroorganism death in the soil also contributes to progressive fertility loss.Every time you overdry the soil, or revolve it, or apply pesticides, etc. you have amass mortality of soil organisms—plants, animals, fungi, microbes. As we havebeen discussing, in a stable, balanced ecosystem there is very little nutrientsavailable in a free, soluble state in the soil—the nutrients are mostly containedwithin the “bodies” of the organisms present there, and there is intensecompetition for those nutrients. Every time a nutrient is released, for instancewhen a cell dies and bursts, there is always other organisms right there, be itbacteria or fungi, or a plant’s root, etc., ready to absorb that nutrient as fast aspossible, before another organism does it. Protected within the biomass, the soilnutrients are actually fxated in the place—the rain falls, infltrates and the waterproceeds clean to the water table, while the nutrients remain in the soil.

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When you have an abrupt reduction in biomass, with the death of the soil’sorganisms and the rupture of their cells, what happens is that you have a suddenrelease of the nutrients contained in them, without there being enough remainingliving organisms to absorb those nutrients, so they remain free in the soil, in asoluble state. Now, what will happen to them? Well they tend to be absorbedagain eventually, as the soil’s organisms multiply in the natural regenerationprocess, or in crop growth. However, during this period of time when they are ina free, soluble state, they are totally susceptible to being washed away by therain, lost to runof or by leaching into the ground toward the water table, andfrom there to the springs and streams and rivers, departing from the areadefnitively.

So you put together all those factors, and that is how agriculture isdestroying soil fertility and causing the desertifcation of the planet! Now allthose nutrients are being carried down the rivers to the seas and oceans wherethey accumulate, causing tremendous damage to the marine ecosystems.Nutrient pollution from agricultural runof causes chemical unbalance andeutrophication, that is an explosive growth (bloom) of phytoplankton whichconsume all oxygen dissolved in the water and release toxins, causing the deathsof fsh and other aquatic organisms—a phenomenon that has been causing thedecline of aquatic biodiversity, countless species extinctions, contributing to thecollapse of fsheries, coral death around the world, etc. The reduction of soilbiomass also leads to the release of carbon to the atmosphere—as previouslymentioned, soil degradation is one of the main sources of anthropogenicgreenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change.

Soil preservation

Sustainability requires that we adopt practices that preserve soil fertilitynaturally, so keeping a permanent soil cover (vegetation, mulch), preserving soilstructure and protecting its humidity, biomass and biodiversity are centralelements of our soil conservation strategy.

The main soil preservation techniques are described below.

Agroforestry

Agroforests can be seen as forest ecosystems that are designed and made byhumans to a greater or lesser extent, in which in addition to elements (species)that are native to the local ecosystem you have a relatively high proportion ofelements that are particularly useful to humans, for providing food, wood, fbre,etc. They are highly diverse and integrated systems that emulate natural forests,performing all ecological functions and services normally provided by a naturalforest, such as the preservation of soil, water cycle, climate, biodiversity etc.,while also providing for the human needs.

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Agroforests have an enormous potential to produce countless types offoods, especially fruits, nuts, roots, animal products, etc. However, the modernhuman eating habits is based mostly on grains, especially cereals—a type of dietthat was born with agriculture around 10 thousand years ago. The problem isthat grains in general are annual crops which are not efciently produced inagroforestry systems. This impasse implies that the transition to a sustainablelifestyle requires a change in our eating habits, away from grains and relyingmore on perennial species which work well in agroforestry systems—which alsomeans a return, or getting closer to the eating habits of our distant ancestors.

However that is probably not possible or viable in all parts of the worldwhere humans live. Besides, we must take into account that big paradigm shifts,also regarding eating habits, take time and a whole transition process. All thatmeans that we also need to apply agricultural practices that are as sustainable aspossible for grain production and vegetables. These practices and techniques,which are essential for organic agriculture and permaculture, are describedbelow.

No-till farming

No-till farming is a way of growing crops or pasture from year to yearwithout disturbing the soil through tillage. In contrast with conventionalagriculture, no-till preserves the soil structure, reducing or eliminating soilerosion and organic matter loss; preserves soil aeration and the capacity toabsorb and hold water, and protects soil biomass and biodiversity. Farmingoperations such as weeding and sowing are done with the minimum possibleinterference with soil structure; fertilizer application too is done on top of theground, accompanied with measures to prevent losses and improve the naturalincorporation of nutrients into the soil (e.g. contour swales, mulching, etc.).

Mulching

As previously discussed, to protect soil fertility it is crucial that it is keptpermanently protected from the deleterious efects of direct sun exposure, wind,rain impact, big temperature variations, etc. In other words, the soil must not bebare. However, every time we work on the land, to sow, for instance, somedegree of suppression of vegetation is inevitable. But that doesn’t mean we haveto leave the soil unprotected; on the contrary, we must always keep it protected,and in such cases we do that by applying mulch—dead plant matter, such asstraw, dead leaves or wood chips, or even non-organic materials such as plastic—on top of the soil.

In conventional agriculture, crop residues and weeds are usually discarded,piled up somewhere or even burned as they are regarded as a nuisance, ahindrance to (bad) soil and crop management, mechanization, etc. However, inany variety of sustainable agriculture, such residues must be applied onto the soilto work as mulch. Mulching brings several benefts:

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• Soil protection against the elements, preventing soil erosion and preservingits biomass and fertility.

• Enhanced water absorption and reduced loss by evaporation, which helpskeep soil moisture.

• Inhibition of weed seed germination and growth.

• Nutrient recycling, because as mulch breaks down, its nutrients arenaturally returned to the soil.

One of the coolest things about mulching is that it allows you to turnproblems into solutions: weed growth generally means you’ll have more work todo (weeding), but it also means a continuous supply of mulch for your plants andcrops.

Grass clippings, prunings, crop residues, weeds etc. are the main sources ofmulch produced at the property level. Wood chips and sawdust, fromlumberyards and woodworking shops, rice husk and straw, etc. are alsocommonly used.

Besides plant material, other types of materials can be used as groundcover performing, if not all, at least some of the abovementioned functions—stones, cardboard, fabrics (blankets, old clothes, upholstering fabrics, etc.),carpets, synthetic leather, tarpaulin, old silage wrap… building and demolitiondebris, wood scraps—any materials that are available or can be obtained in yourarea.

Synthetic materials should ideally be recycled, but in some cases whererecycling is not available and such materials are abundant, they can also be usedas mulch, thus benefting the soil and your plants. Care should be taken,however, to avoid materials that contain toxic or otherwise harmful substancessuch as poisons, solvents, corrosives and heavy metals; sharp objects (e.g. brokenglass), biological contaminants, etc.

Crop rotation

Crop rotation is the practice of growing diferent types of crops in the samearea in sequenced seasons, rather than planting the same crops over and overagain at the same places. Crop rotation brings two main advantages:

• Preservation of soil fertility. Each plant species utilizes more intensely acertain set of nutrients. If you grow always the same crop species in a givenarea (monocrop), two things happen: the nutrients that are used mostintensely are depleted because of their extraction as produce, while theremaining nutrients are lost by erosion and percolation, as they are notbeing efectively fxed in the biomass. When you alternate crops, youprevent partially those efects, leading to a better conservation of thenutrients.

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• Pest and disease prevention. In monoculture, the great density of a singlecrop species create the ideal conditions for the proliferation, propagationand perpetuation of disease-causing germs (bacteria, viruses, fungi) andpests (insects, molluscs, etc.), because their favourite food is in abundantsupply, continuously. With the alternation of crop species, you break thatcontinuity and, therefore, those transmission cycles, leading to naturallyhealthier crops.

Intercropping

Intercropping means growing two or more crops in proximity, in the samearea and at the same time. A classical example of intercropping is the associationbetween grasses (including pastures and cereal grasses) and legumes (beanfamily).

This technique has several advantages, the most obvious being a diversifedproduction and more intense space use leading to higher yield. In many casesyou have additional benefts because of the companion plant principle. Forexample, a legume crop benefts another plant species because of its ability tofxate nitrogen in the soil. When you have a grazing pasture with a grass-legumeassociation, besides the aforementioned nitrogen fxing efect resulting inenhanced productivity, you also have an improved protein supply for thelivestock.

Another great advantage of intercropping is that it preserves soil fertility ina similar way but yet more efectively than crop rotation: diferent species utilizeand fxate diferent nutrients and in diferent ways, therefore two species fxatenutrients better than one!

Organic fertilizers

When organic wastes are applied or incorporated to soil to provide it withnutrients, that means closing the nutrient loop—what came from the soil mustreturn to the soil. When adequately employed, organic wastes are the most stableform of nutrient delivery to the soil, in the form of biomass that encourages soilbiological activity, which ensures the nutrients are naturally fxed andcontinuously recycled in the soil ecosystem.

The main source of organic fertilizers are animal wastes, primarily excreta(manures), but many other types of wastes are also used, such as feathers, eggshells, bone meal, mollusc shells, guano, compost derived from organic wastecomposting, plant residues, etc. In fact, some of these fertilizers, especiallyanimal manures, guano, bone meal, etc., are universally utilized, both by organicand conventional agriculture, as their value as fertilizer is broadly known. Thatmeans they are seldom put to waste, but rather normally marketed ascommodities.

Organic fertilizers also include human excreta, in the form of treatedsewage sludge (biosolids) and compost derived from dry toilet composting. This

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will be discussed in detail in chapter 11, “Ecological Sanitation”.

Green manuring

Green manures are plants and plant material used primarily for the purposeof enriching the soil with nutrients.

Nitrogen is one of the main macronutrients required for plant growth andproduction, and a limiting nutrient in many soils around the world. Although it isthe most abundant element in the atmosphere and the air we breathe, plants can’ttake up nitrogen from air, so it must be present in other organic and inorganicforms in the soil for efective absorption and utilization as a nutrient.

Leguminous plants (family Fabaceae) such as clover, vetch, soy and beansin general contain nitrogen-fxing symbiotic bacteria (diazotrophs, especially inthe genus Rhizobium) in root nodules that fx atmospheric nitrogen in a form thatplants can use, such as ammonia and amino acids. The main form of greenmanuring is planting legumes with the specifc purpose of increasing the soil’snitrogen content, thus benefting the desired crops. It is a natural, sustainable andtotally ecological form of nitrogen supplementation that avoids the economic andenvironmental costs of urea, the world’s most commonly used nitrogen fertilizer,which is produced from fossil fuels (therefore unsustainable), and also one of themain causes of agricultural water pollution.

The best results are achieved when legumes are systematically planted and,after fully developed, reaped—as the roots rot down, the nitrogen is releasedfrom the nodules into the soil, becoming available for take up by other plants,while the aerial parts of the legume plants are used as mulch, so they provideboth soil nitrogen supplementation and ground cover material.

Restoration of degraded soils

As we’ve seen in Part I, around 80% of the agricultural soils around theworld are degraded, and that situation is worsening every day. Therefore, it ispart of permaculture’s mission to work on the remediation of degraded soils, toensure there will be food in the future.

To that, the adoption of the practices described above is absolutelyindispensable; however, that won’t be enough, as they are preventive measures,and we will need curative measures for the damage already done.

The restoration of soil fertility and ecosystems in general occurs naturally,but it takes huge periods of time—centuries to millennia. Therefore, we mustapply all techniques available to favour that process, so that it happens in theshortest possible time. Moreover, in a nutrient depletion scenario both in soilsand in the mineral and chemical fertilizer reservoirs, coupled with the projectedpopulation growth still this century, we must strive to restore fertility and also, atthe same time, attain food production in currently degraded soils.

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Natural sequence farming

Natural sequence farming is a regenerative agricultural system based onsoil, water and ecosystem management practices that preserves and stimulatesthe sequences of events that happen in the natural landscape regenerationprocess so as to accelerate soil fertility restoration and increase productivity withminimal resource input.

All techniques discussed so far are employed in natural sequence farming:techniques for improving water retention and penetration in the soil, preventingerosion and improving soil hydration, favouring soil biomass and water tablereplenishment, reverting soil salinization (which will be discussed further on);no-till farming, mulching, green manuring, etc.

Now, regarding plant production, degraded areas present a great challenge,as the nutrients are just not there—they’ve been lost, destroyed, removed byyears of unsustainable agricultural practices. Oftentimes, organic fertilizers arenot available in sufcient amount in the area, neither can they be importedeconomically. Even green manuring is not viable in such situations, for tworeasons: frstly because legumes provide nitrogen only—they do not help withother nutrients, so they could solve only part of the problem. Besides, they tooare plants and therefore need nutrients and a suitable environment to thrive. In aseverely degraded soil, devoid of nutrients, overdry, salinized, etc., the legumeplants normally used for green manuring too will not grow, so they won’t be ofany use.

Natural sequence farming seeks to emulate the natural land regenerationprocess. Generally, even in severely degraded areas, some vegetation stillmanages to survive and grow. Those are the pioneers—species that areparticularly hardy and adapted to adverse conditions such as dryness, intense sunand wind, barren soils, salinity, etc. When a degraded piece of land isabandoned, the pioneers are the frst to establish in the area, and they start thelong process of bettering the local conditions, fxing nutrients in the soil,favouring water retention and infltration, giving part shade, bringing in fauna,etc., making the whole place more suitable for other, less tolerant species, whichin turn, once established, will bring other even more demanding species and soon, until the total restoration of the area, as close as possible to its original state.So, in natural sequence farming we focus on those highly adapted species tocarry out the restoration process and give some produce. Spontaneous speciesare valued and encouraged, and other species that are potentially useful aretentatively introduced, aiming at achieving the best ground cover possible andthe highest biological activity in the area.

Now, by the permaculture principles, we must obtain a yield. Therefore,whenever possible, we must employ pioneer species that produce something ofparticular use to us humans, be it food, fbres, wood, etc. that we can use or sell

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to obtain an income as soon as possible so as to ensure our survival and theproject’s viability, so we can carry on with the restoration of the area. As therestoration process moves on, we can start using more productive and demandingspecies.

An important point is that, in degraded land, the resources are scarce andspread over a large area. When it is not feasible to increase those resourcesquickly by importation (which will be discussed next), it is vital that weconcentrate the available resources where they are most needed. In other words,instead of planting many plants scattered throughout the plot, you must makenuclei, where the resources will be concentrated, allowing for biological activity,plant growth and production. The frst resource to be concentrated is water, withthe previously discussed techniques, such as contour swales and especially half-moon basins with runof catching channels. When you concentrate rainwater inthe planting basin, you achieve a higher than average humidity there whichfavours plant survival and growth. Besides water, such structures also accumulateorganic matter, nutrients, seeds, residues and debris that act as mulch, etc.,making the best possible conditions for your plants.

It is best to make broad, shallow basins with long catching channels thatharvest runof from a large section of the terrain and infltrate in an area that hasnot just one, but a few trees—a small clump. That is because plants—herbs,shrubs and trees—mutually beneft from proximity to one another, for a varietyof reasons: they provide some shade, avoiding excessive sun and heat; moreplants also keep the soil better covered, preserving humidity; a clump of treesprovides protection against the wind, etc., so also the plants are stronger whenunited!

As the vegetation gets established in a nucleus, it becomes capable ofmaintaining itself and starts expanding, spreading—soil conditions such asfertility, structure and humidity gradually improve, and you have a microclimatethat is more suitable for plant and animal life, etc. As the nucleus grows, youmust adapt the rainwater harvesting system to ft this expansion. When you judgethat the nucleus is fully consolidated and doesn’t need any further assistance, youcan redo your rainwater systems, directing the runof to new nuclei. In the longrun, as nuclei grow and new ones are created, they tend to get closer together andmerge, and eventually you’ll have the whole area covered.

Resource importation

When your soil nutrient defciency is slight to moderate, it may be possibleto have a substantial production just by using the strategies we’ve discussed sofar. However, in more severely degraded soils, all those techniques even jointlymay be insufcient to allow for any production or ecosystem restoration in areasonable time frame.

One of the ways to know your soil’s condition is by taking samples to a lab

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for a soil test, to determine organic matter, acidity and nutrient contents. But youdon’t need to have your soil tested straight away. The problem is that typicallythe lab guys, who do the tests and make the recommendations, are usuallyagronomists and other technicians who are inserted in the paradigm of industrialagriculture. When you order an analysis, they will nearly always prescribe alarge-scale application of chemical fertilizers, because that’s what they’re usedto. However, in many situations that may be unnecessary, and you couldperfectly obtain good production and restoration of your area just by usingorganic, natural techniques. So the best approach is to use the permacultureprinciples: use small and slow solutions, catch and use available resources, andfnally use appropriate technology which may in some cases include mineralfertilizers.

Start by observing what’s already growing on your plot, as that will give youa good indication of the soil condition. Ask the neighbours, former owners orpeople who live there and have a good knowledge of the place, the region, etc.,trying to get as much information as possible about the history of that piece ofland: which crops have been grown, and with what difculty? What would andwhat wouldn’t grow? Such pieces of information may give you a good startingpoint for decision making.

Now, you’ll have to do your own experiments. Plant everything you want,and see what happens. Will it grow? If it grows, great. If your plants’performance is below expectations, you’ll have to try diferent approaches—change this, change that… try planting at diferent spots of your plot, or diferentseasons: plant in a partly shaded area, and in full sun; water more, try a diferenttype of mulch, apply more manure here or there, etc. In some cases, however,you’ll reach the conclusion that you can’t go on like that anymore, as hardlyanything you plant grows, typically on a piece of land that has been seriouslymistreated, slashed, burned, ploughed, etc. for decades or centuries. In suchcases, you may have to bring nutrients in from external sources.

You’ve got to take hold of any organic matter and other nutrient sourcesavailable in your area: manures, residues from food- and agro-industry(bonemeal, feather meal, egg shells, castorbean pomace, etc.), prunings andgrass clippings, sawdust and wood chips, rice husks, wood ash, municipalcompost, treated sewage sludge, etc., whatever is available. However, thoseresources must be obtained judiciously. It is best to focus on resources thatwould otherwise be wasted. A good way to fnd out whether they would bewasted is from the price: if it’s free, that means it probably wouldn’t be used byanyone else! Ashes, sawdust, prunings and grass clippings are most often givenfor free—if you don’t get them, they’ll simply be thrown away, mounting upsomewhere as waste, thus becoming an environmental problem. Therefore, theiruse brings a double advantage: low cost and positive environmental impact.

Regarding manure, the situations vary a lot. There are places where it issold, reaching high prices; in other situations, you can get hold of good amounts

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for free, especially if you volunteer to do the mucking out.Avoid fetching materials from very far away, as that is associated with

economic and environmental costs relative to the transport.A vital resource that is generally possible to bring into you property for free

is runof water from local roads, particularly dirt roads. Bring it in with drains,passing through sedimentation basins to collect dirt, and then into your plot.

Try to solve your fertility problem only with organic stuf. However, insome cases, depending on the degree of soil degradation and the availability ofnutrient sources (or more properly the lack thereof) in your area, that may not beenough and you may see yourself forced to resort to mineral soil conditionerstoo. In such cases, in the choice making, you should always make a globalanalysis of all factors involved, not just your soil requirements and the economiccost, which is what everybody does—rather, you should choose options that havethe best environmental cost-beneft, that is, choices that will solve your problemand bring the biggest environmental beneft, with the littlest associated damagepossible, and also considering the price, of course.

Chemical fertilizers can be grossly divided in mineral and synthetic.Mineral fertilizers are generally derived from certain types of rocks which arerich in some nutrients, and are ground and subjected to a chemical treatment(e.g. acid digestion) so as to make the nutrients available. Agricultural lime andsuperphosphate belong in that category. On the other hand, synthetic fertilizersare, as the name implies, artifcially synthesized in chemical industries. The mainsynthetic fertilizer is agricultural urea, which is used as a nitrogen source.

One of the big problems with chemical fertilizers is that they are usedindiscriminately by industrial agriculture, following total destruction of nativevegetation and soil structure, etc., so they are quickly “washed away” from thesoil with surface runof, erosion and percolation, reaching water courses wherethey cause great environmental damage, as previously discussed. Because theirpresence in the soil is short-lived, they also have to be applied frequently, inother words, they are used in a disposable way, which greatly exacerbates theirnegative efects.

However, it doesn’t have to be like that! When we use mineral fertilizers inpermaculture, we do so in a judicious, sparing and contained way, associatedwith all good practices described above, preserving the soil and vegetation, andin conjunction with organic matter supplementation. This way, the nutrients arerapidly taken up by the soil organisms (plants and microbes) and thereforeefectively fxated in the form of soil biomass, from which they are permanentlyrecycled. So you have a maximum beneft from their application, while anypotential negative efects or risks are minimized, as the imported nutrients arestably incorporated in the soil and agroecosystem.

Chemical nitrogen fertilizers are the ones with the worst environmentalimpact, and the most dispensable, as nitrogen can be efectively supplemented bymeans of green manuring. Therefore, they are never used in permaculture.

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Mineral fertilizers on the other hand can be used whenever it is not possible orviable to obtain plant growth from organic alternatives only. You have to bear inmind that mineral fertilizers are derived from mining and their extraction causesgreat environmental impact at their source. Moreover, they are commonlytransported over long distances, so they have a high environmental footprint.Therefore, they must be used judiciously, and only in situations where theenvironmental beneft (restoration of the area) compensate for all those costs.

Soil nutrients are grossly divided in macro and micronutrients, dependingon their requirements for plant growth. Macronutrients include nitrogen,phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulphur, while micronutrientsinclude boron, copper, iron, manganese, zinc, etc. Ideally, fertilizer applicationshould be oriented according with the soil’s needs, as indicated by laboratorialtests, to avoid their unnecessary, excessive or unbalanced use.

Particularities of the humid tropics

In the humid tropics, the abundance of sun, heat and humidity creates idealconditions for high production. However, high rainfall also means a highertendency to nutrient loss, generally also leading to soil acidifcation, which isharmful to plants, leading to impaired growth and production.

Oftentimes you have a piece of land which has substantial plant cover, butwhen you try to plant things or establish a food forest, for example, everythingyou plant dies, or if it doesn’t die, it won’t develop either. You take a soil test andit shows high acidity, and very low nutrient levels, maybe 1/10 of the ideal levelsfor agricultural production. Well, that explains why your plants don’t grow. Buthow come the other, spontaneous plants do grow? The reason is that plantspecies vary as for their tolerance to acidity and nutrient requirements. Even indegraded, acidic soil, some plant species which are very adapted to suchconditions actually manage to survive and thrive, forming a plant communitythere. It is the beginning of the soil’s natural regeneration process that we havealready discussed. But in that initial phase of regeneration, only those hardy,highly adapted species manage to grow—which unfortunately does not includeyour avocado, mango, papaya and most fruit and timber trees. Therefore youneed to amend and fertilize the soil in order to have any production in areasonable time frame.

In humid regions, it is common to see acidic soils that are low on calcium,magnesium, potassium, etc. That is because the cationic elements tend to bemore soluble, being washed away more easily with the rain, leaving behind theanionic elements, which leads to a reduction in the soil’s pH.

Acidity is a serious problem for the soil, the ecosystem and agriculturalproduction. It inhibits plant growth by interfering with solubility and availabilityof nutrients, preventing them from being utilized by the plants; it also increases

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the solubility of toxic elements, such as aluminium, which inhibits rootdevelopment, preventing the plant from growing and further impairing nutrientabsorption.

Conventional agriculture triggers the soil acidifcation process by reducingthe soil’s biomass. In a natural situation, as previously discussed, the nutrients aremostly fxed, locked inside the biomass. When the organisms in a terrestrialecosystem are destroyed by agricultural practices, the nutrients are exposed andbecome soluble in the soil, which allows their loss by percolation and erosion. Soyou have a vicious circle where biomass destruction leads to nutrient loss andacidifcation, which in turn causes further biomass loss.

Most plants prefer soils with a pH between 6 and 7, although there areimportant variations between diferent species and regions. Below that range,you start to have toxic acidity to plants. Acidic soils generally are amended withagricultural lime, which contains mostly calcium and magnesium oxides, sobesides fxing the pH value it also provides calcium and magnesium, twoimportant nutrients which are normally low in degraded soils. It can be said that,in acidic soils, liming is the most important treatment, because if the pH is low,adding other nutrients is of no use, as the plants will remain incapable ofutilizing them. When you amend the soil’s acidity, you remove free aluminium,that is, the aluminium is still there, but now in an insoluble form that is harmlessto the plants. The amount of lime to be applied should be oriented by soil tests,but a common value is around 200 g per square metre, or per tree sapling atplanting.

Agricultural lime is derived from mining and therefore has a greatenvironmental footprint. Fortunately, there is an excellent alternative which isavailable in many places: wood ash. Ashes are rich in calcium, mostly in theform of oxide and carbonate, so they are similar to lime in their ability to amendsoil acidity. They are also rich in magnesium and potassium, and contain smalleryet important amounts of phosphorus, and practically all nutrients required byplants, except nitrogen and sulphur, which are vaporized during the combustion.It should be no surprise that wood ashes contain plant nutrients, since wood isnothing but plant material, so the nutrients necessary to tree growth must bethere! Wood ash can be obtained in large amounts and normally for free fromindustries that utilize wood as fuel, such as pottery, brickyard and gypsumfactories. Also, many forestry facilities, ethanol plants, pulp mills, sawmills, etc.burn wood, bark, sawdust and yard waste as an energy source. In cities,restaurants that use wood-fred stoves and ovens can be a good source of ashesfor urban permaculture. When using wood ash as soil amendment, as a rule ofthumb you should use twice as much wood ash as you would with lime in orderto see the same response, that is, about half a kilogram per square metre or pertree planted.

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Particularities of the semiarid tropics

Arid and semiarid regions have been turned into huge food productioncentres and given rise to large and modern cities in many parts of the world.However, what may look like a miracle operated by our civilization has actuallybeen achieved by means of unsustainable strategies which include divertingwatercourses over hundreds of kilometres and the intense and irresponsibleexploitation of deep aquifers. That brings serious environmental consequences:diverting water means that water will be lacking in its place of origin—LakeTulare, for instance, and many other lakes and swamps have been dried and theirecosystems completely destroyed after the watercourses that fed them werediverted for agricultural irrigation and urban water supply in California’s CentralValley, in the United States. Moreover, that also causes huge water loss byevaporation and infltration in cracks in the canals. Deep aquifers that takethousands of years to replenish are being sucked dry fast, and the use of thatwater, usually with high salt content, for irrigation has been causing soilsalinization and barrenness. In a climate change context, it is predicted that thosesystems will be the frst to fail, foreshadowing the global water crisis. Theinevitable consequence is that when that happens, likely in a near future, allthose structures are bound collapse—the deserts will again be deserts, the citieswill have to be abandoned, and all that “progress” will be lost, just theenvironmental damage will remain.

The big mistake is to bring all that water artifcially, unsustainably, and thenget overexcited with that sudden abundance; people freak out and start to abusethe water resources, for example planting things that require intense irrigation…in a desert climate! That brings economic prosperity and a population boom inthe area, which causes the progressive and ever faster depletion of those artifcialwater sources, eventually leading to their collapse.

Now none of that means it is impossible for people to live and thrive in aridlandscapes. In fact, societies have lived in deserts for thousand of years, and aridlandscapes have been the cradle of many civilizations. And it is precisely thosecivilizations that give us two types of examples: those that used water resourcessustainably persisted and thrived for long ages; by contrast, those that didn’t usethe water resources sustainably perished abruptly with the collapse of their watersupply. That same old mistake is being made right now in many parts of theworld, as the aforementioned California’s Central Valley, Israel and the BrazilianNortheastern Semiarid region, with predictable dire consequences.*

Arid and semiarid environments are defned by their water scarcity, and wemust bear in mind that the situation tends to worsen progressively in the climatechange context. Therefore it is critical that we make highly efcient systems that

* This subject is discussed in a deep and brilliant way in Jared Diamond’s book Collapse:how societies choose to fail or succeed.

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are economic in water use, starting by the efective harvesting, storing andutilization of rainwater, and the selection of species that are suitable to the localclimate conditions.

Also here, as in the humid tropics, you have a great diference betweenfertile and degraded land, and similarly, the fertile areas should be preserved,and the barren ones restored. Deforestation is, as a rule, the triggering factor inthe degradation process, so the solution necessarily has to do with reaforestationor, being more practical, establishing agroforestry systems.

However, how can you make your saplings survive and grow to becometrees in such adverse conditions, with water scarcity and a particularly hostileenvironment? Here, more than anywhere else, we need to use the strategy ofresource concentration.

Nuclei

As we have discussed, in natural sequence farming, on a very challengingor severely degraded piece of land we must not try to restore a large area at once,but rather bit by bit, establishing nuclei with many plants in close proximity,where we will focus our attention and eforts, and also resources. This isparticularly important in the case of arid and semiarid climates. It should bestressed that a lone tree will not be able to restore the small area it occupies; but,if we create a nucleus maybe some 10 m wide, and concentrate there our plantsand resources, that area starts to recover. The proximity between the plants inthe nucleus is important as they help one another, improving their survival andthe establishment of the vegetation in that nucleus.

Water

Since you have a short rainy season and a small annual precipitation, and along dry season, it is critical that you spare no eforts to catch and store as muchrainwater as possible. That may mean a substantial cost, but it will surely pay of.Make interconnected systems of artifcial ponds and large cisterns. Cisterns aremore costly and normally have smaller capacity, but they ofer the advantage ofnot losing water to evaporation. A large volume of stored water for watering willbe very important to keep your plants hydrated and strong during the dry part ofthe year, allowing for a much quicker establishment of your nuclei.

Of course you won’t count only with watering to keep your soil and plantshydrated: in the nuclei, you’ll have to use the half moon shaped basins—that iscritical. In a terrain with gentle incline, you can make your nucleus in a single bigbasin, level and shallow, and in that big basin each tree sapling will have it’s ownsmall private basin to allow for a more efcient watering during the dry season.Now, in more inclined terrains, you’ll have to make several basins close to oneanother, avoiding big interference with the topography. Make long runofcatching drains bringing a good amount of rainwater into your nuclei.

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You probably won’t have to worry about watering during the rainy season.However, in the dry season, you’ll have to keep your plants hydrated toaccelerate their development and the establishment of a permanent plant cover inthe nuclei. You should focus on tree species that are well adapted to the localclimate conditions and resistant to water scarcity, so they survive and develop asfast as possible, to start working on the restoration of the area. To improve wateruse efciency, you can use other strategies such as drip irrigation (neversprinklers!), but the most critical is the basins to hold the water and a thick layerof mulch to prevent water losses to evaporation.

Soil cover

Preventing water loss by evaporation from the ground surface is essential.Now, here you’ll probably not have enough resources to have all your aremulched. Therefore, you’ll have to concentrate those resources in your plantingbasins, within the nuclei.

To keep the ground covered, you’ll have to use all the resources available.Typically, you’ll have a scarcity of plant matter in your plot, so you’ll have to useother types of materials. If you have stones, those should be used to cover thesoil in your nuclei, but stones too will rarely be available in enough quantity. So,normally you’ll have to import resources.

Roadsides are normally largely spared from soil degradation andsalinization as they are not subjected to agriculture or irrigation, so they normallyhave a lush plant growth in the rainy season, which actually often createsvisibility problems in the road, hiding road signs, bends, coming vehicles, etc.That creates the need for regular maintenance of the roadsides, cutting theovergrowth, which generates large amounts of dead plant matter that you canbring into your property, normally with no problems. Other discarded materialssuch as scrap wood, cardboard, plastics, debris, etc. can and should be used forthe most efective possible ground cover, at least until you have enough plantmatter production in your plot that you can use as mulch, which is the mostnatural and the ideal solution. As your nuclei get established, you’ll start to widenthem and make new ones, expanding the soil restoration work progressively untilit covers your whole area.

Besides the strategy described above, the use of soil conditioners may beuseful or even necessary for the successful establishment of your trees and,therefore, your soil restoration work. Also here, organic soil conditioning withmanures and compost will be much benefcial. However, diferently from humidlandscapes, where you normally use agricultural lime to amend the soil’s acidity,in alkaline and saline soils typical of arid landscapes you normally apply gypsum,which is basically made of calcium sulphate. Besides providing calcium andsulphur, gypsum also increases the cation exchange capacity in the soil, reducingthe salt and alkali toxicity and improving nutrient absorption by the plants.

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Agricultural gypsum is more soluble and penetrates in the soil more than lime,favouring root growth and improving water absorption by the plants. Gypsumand organic compost or manure can be mixed to the soil at the time of plantingyour trees. Planting techniques will be discussed in more detail further in thischapter.

Salinization

Arid and semiarid regions are often characterized by high salinity, that is,high salt concentration in the soil and groundwater. You can drill a well and fndwater, but that water will often be brackish. The diference is that in high rainfallareas the salt is continually “washed away” from the soil and water table, takenout of the area through springs and streams and rivers towards the sea, while inlow rainfall areas that process does not operate with the same intensity, resultingin higher salt levels in the environment.

Salinity problems are much more common in lowlands. There, the leveltopography does not favour water drainage through springs and rivers asdescribed for sloped landscapes, so you have a certain stagnation of the water inthe land—that continuous washing away of the salts out of the area is furtherimpaired, resulting in even higher salinity.

Moreover, diferently from sloped areas where the incline favours somesurface runof of rainwater, in plains rainwater naturally infltrates into the soilwith high efciency, with or without vegetation. Therefore, here the water tableis inevitably replenished. So in such areas you typically have a combination ofhigh water table and salinity.

High salt levels are toxic to plants, but even so semiarid areas often developa substantial plant cover. That is because the vegetation itself acts for theregulation of the salt distribution in the soil profle, preventing its accumulationin the superfcial layer where most roots are (rhizosphere). Now, the humanactivities, particularly deforestation and agriculture, cause a progressive increasein salt concentration in the topsoil, in a process called salinization, which thenstarts to compromise the soil health and productivity, making it barren.

Vegetation works in several ways to prevent salinization. It enhances waterpenetration and at the same time reduces evaporation from the ground surface,by keeping the soil shaded and covered. The water migration through the soilprofle thus cause a predominantly downward water fow that keeps the salts inthe deeper zones and the water table. Now, the trees work for the desalination ofsoil by other important mechanisms: trees that are native to dry environmentsnormally have particularly deep roots which are specialized in water absorption.Trees lose humidity by evapotranspiration from their leaves. So, they “pull”water from the deep soil zone to release it to the atmosphere from their canopies.

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With that, they intensify the downward fow of soil humidity, as the water comesinto the soil from the top (rainwater penetration into the ground) and leaves thesoil from the bottom (absorption by roots), being transported internally throughthe trees’ xylem to the leaves in the canopy where evapotranspiration takes place.By that process trees work as “desalination pumps”.

That is not to say that they remove the salt from the environment, butrather help keeping it at the deeper zone in the soil profle, thus avoiding itsconcentration near the surface where it would be most harmful. Lastly, treeshave a much higher evapotranspiration rate than low vegetation. Therefore, theyare important for discharging into the atmosphere the excess water contained inthe water table. In low, closed basin areas which lack drainage, soil saturationwith water is common, which causes the water table to be very high, that is, withthe saturation zone close to the soil surface. That is an interesting paradox: theclimate is arid or semiarid, but you have the soil saturated with water! That cansound great, and really would be, if that water wasn’t brackish. A too high watertable causes the salts to migrate by capillarity, accumulating at the topsoil andground surface, causing salination problems. Trees, by means ofevapotranspiration, remove that excesswater, keeping the water table at a safedistance from the soil surface,preventing those problems.

Now, from the moment you clearthe forest, you lose this vital role playedby trees and vegetation in general,causing a rise in the water table andupward salt migration by capillarity,causing the accumulation of salts in thetopsoil and the ground surface, which inmore extreme cases gets literally coveredwith a visible layer of salt. This processis terribly aggravated by irrigation withsaline groundwater, a common practicein conventional agriculture—the waterthen evaporates, leaving the salt on topof the ground. As a consequence, thehigh salt starts to harm plants: frst, thespecies that are more sensitive to salinitystart dying, while the more resistantremain. Eventually, not even the mostadapted species can survive. Vast areasof the planet are being desertifed by thisprocess.

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A tree as a “desalination pump”The water fow balance keeps salts

distributed in the soil profle


Notice, that in this type of situation,deforestation interferes in a diferent,but also negative way, in the water cycleand soil health. If in sloped topographiestrees contribute mainly by favouringwater penetration in the soil andreplenishment of the water table, here,in natural conditions, the trees work forremoving excess water from the groundby evapotranspiration, preventing therise of the water table and favouring thesalt distribution in the soil profle. So,the interplay between topography,precipitation and ground coverdetermines the water table level and salt

distribution in the soil through a balance between the amount of water thatenters and the amount that leaves the soil, either through springs or byevapotranspiration.

Also here, reaforestation is the best solution to restore the productivity ofthe area. The goals are maintaining the water table level at a safe depth, restoringthe hydrodynamic balance in the soil and preventing evaporation from thesurface (by using ground cover techniques). Initially, you should plant speciesthat are fast growing, have a high evapotranspiration rate and are well adapted tosoil salinity and water saturation, to do the biodrainage of the area. Selectedeucalyptus varieties are among the favourite species to that purpose. Grasses thatare adapted to salinity and alkalinity can be planted concomitantly with the trees,allowing for livestock production and obtaining a yield. Some fruit tree species(e.g. guavas, date palms) have also been proved useful from the early phase ofthat restoration process. So, the planting of trees to restore a salinized area bybiodrainage can and should be done in a diversifed and integrated way, in theform of food forests. Once desalination is achieved, and with the other due soilamendments, the productivity of the soil will be restored to allow for moredemanding crops.

Biodrainage is the most natural and efcient way to solve problems withsoil saturation and salinity. Its main advantages relative to artifcial drainagesystems (underground drains) are: low implementation and maintenance costs;perenniality of the system and its increase in value, rather than depreciation overtime; absence of drains or effluent generation; contribution to atmosphericcarbon sequestration as biomass, helping mitigate the greenhouse efect and fghtclimate change; increase in tree cover fomenting fauna; works as a windbreak inagroforestry systems, and provides additional income from foods and wood

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Salinization


production. Biodrainage systems also work for the restoration of the hydrologicalcycle: evapotranspiration contributes to improving the climate, especially in aridand semiarid regions, leading to an increased relative air humidity, reducedatmospheric temperature range (which translates into higher thermal comfort tohumans as well as productive systems and the ecosystem), and an increase inrainfall precipitation—all invaluable functions and services that artifcialdrainage systems do not perform.

Now, establishing your biodrainage system will bump on an importantobstacle, which is the high salt level in the soil, which may hamper your saplinggrowth. To deal with this problem, you must use the resource concentrationapproach, especially water, fertilizers and mulch, as previously discussed. Startby making the planting basins in nuclei, concentrating rainwater there andkeeping the basins permanently, efectively mulched to “wash away” the saltsfrom the soil in your basins, for at least one full rainy season, from which pointyou can start to plant your trees. Soil treatment for planting, with gypsum andorganic fertilizer (manures or compost) as described above can be useful ornecessary for the establishment of your trees.

Proximity and intensity zones

When establishing a permaculture project, our goals are to create a humansettlement that is highly sustainable, harmonious and productive, and thatpreserves and restores nature and the ecosystem, improving soil fertility, localbiodiversity and biomass. All must be done with high efciency in resource use,that means with as little waste as possible. We seek a high degree of self-relianceand independence. Moreover, we want to create an environment that allows for adignifed and pleasant human life, that is abundant and full of meaning. Toachieve all that, we need careful planning where all permaculture principles areskilfully put to work.

One of permaculture’s core techniques that has a particularly importantapplication in rural situations is the design by zones of proximity and intensity,which we can refer to simply as zones.

Zone planning is a system of rational organization of human activities inwhich elements and systems that require frequent servicing or use are placedcloser to you, that is, around the house and along the most used paths, places ofgreater human presence, while less intensive systems are placed progressivelyfarther. Zone planning derives from the energy efciency principle. It helps ussave time and energy moving around, besides allowing for greater control overmore delicate and intensive systems.

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A rural property can usually be divided in up to fve zones:

• Zone 0: the house.• Zone 1: gardens surrounding the house and along the most used paths.• Zone 2: orchard and annual crops.• Zone 3: intensive agroforest and livestock.• Zone 4: less intensive agroforest.• Zone 5: ecological reserve.

Zone 0

The house can be regarded as the nucleus of a permaculture project, as it isnormally the place where humans are present most of the time and where mosthuman activity takes place. Besides its primary function (shelter), it can alsoserve as a food production site, no matter if you live in the city or the country.The house is our zone zero.

There are many reasons why to grow food in the house. The greatproximity (virtually zero distance, hence the zone’s name) makes managementextremely efcient, almost passive. Therefore, here is a place for highly intensivesystems. Moreover, the house is also a place where a vital element is highlyconcentrated: water, especially fertilized water (greywater), which invariably isproduced daily, making this zone particularly productive. The walls, verandas,balconies, etc. also help the plants as they provide protection against the windand excessive sun exposure. Buildings also help the plants by keeping the soilaround them always a little more humid, similarly to what you fnd in a naturalcontext, where around a large rock you normally have a more exuberant plantgrowth, for the same reasons.

Of course in rural situations, because you have great availability of space,the biggest food production potential is outside the house, and that leads manypeople to ignore the idea of growing food in the house. However, even here thereare good reasons to grow food in the house! It can be simply for the pleasure ofhaving beautiful plants producing food inside your kitchen and living room, andalong corridors and at window sills etc., creating a beautiful, lush and pleasanthome environment. All that has everything to do with the permaculture lifestyle!Moreover, maybe you or someone in your house has some physical disabilitythat makes working outside difcult or not feasible. People in such conditionscan make the zone zero their very own domain, and they’ll be surprised with howmuch they can produce, in terms of food, beauty, favours and medicine, etc., allinside the house, at the reach of their hands.

Anyway, it is fair to acknowledge that the zone zero concept is moreessential in an urban permaculture context, considering the space limitation that

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is characteristic of urban situations. Therefore the zone zero will be discussed indeeper detail in chapter 13, “Urban Permaculture”.

Zone 1

Except for the house, zone one is the one that is closest to you, that part ofyour property that you see everyday, where you go all the time—the area withwhich you have greatest intimacy. It starts right at your doorstep.

It should be stressed that the permaculture zones are not concentric,circular or otherwise geometrically regular or physically delimited spaces—onthe contrary, they are abstract concepts with undefned shapes and sizes, exceptby the aforementioned criteria, which are proximity and intensity of humanpresence, also taking into account how often we use the elements placed there,and how often we have to service them. Not only the area around the house, butalso along the most frequently used paths, constitute the zone one—for instancethe path leading to the house, or to the shed, or around that tap in the garden,can all be treated as zone one. On the other hand, there may be a spot behindyour house, right under that window, a place where you rarely go although it isvery close. That spot will not be zone one.

Because of the great proximity and your constant presence, this zone is theideal place for elements that require more attention and care, and also thosethings that we need all the time. So it is the best place for your vegetable garden.

Vegetables demand daily care and frequent interventions. They have to bewatered everyday, sometimes twice a day, depending on the sun, heat andrelative air humidity. They also have to be replanted at each cycle (for annuals),and require constant management such as weed and pest control, manuring,mulching, etc. Besides, they ofer daily harvests, for your salads, soups, teas, etc.

All that being said, it is an extremely irrational choice, and a mistakepeople make all the time, to place a garden dozens or even hundreds of metresaway from the house! That means many things: an enormous waste of time andenergy to go forth and back every time, and take and bring materials such ascompost, straw, your harvest, etc. Moreover, it means your veggies won’t receivethe due attention, simply because they are out of your sight. On a very hot anddry day, your plants can wither and dry before you think of it; also, when there isa pest attack, maybe you’ll only fnd out about it after a lot of damage has beendone. Another thing that frequently happens is that you’ll give up on having thatrich, fresh, delicious salad, or fail to add a herb or spice to your dish, simplybecause the garden is too far and you’re in a hurry, or the sun is too hot or it israining, etc. For all those reasons, having a garden very close to your home, inzone one, not only will increase your production but also make your life easierand better in other ways.

Another great advantage of planting a garden close to the house is that it is

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a place of high, frequent water use—and continual greywater production. Waterabundance is a critical factor for vegetable production, and greywater alsocontains organic matter and nutrients that are benefcial to the soil and plants, soit can and should be used for irrigation and fertigation in zone one. That meanshigh productivity and economy of water, and also waste prevention.Unfortunately, in many rural properties people consume vast amounts of pure,clean, potable water in the garden while discharging greywater into the nearbystream, or into the deep soil, thus wasting the water and the nutrients, while atthe same time causing surface and underground water pollution—all wrong! Aswe’ll discuss in chapter 11 (“Ecological Sanitation”), greywater from sinks, bath,shower, laundry and the kitchen is safe and benefcial for the soil and terrestrialecosystem where it represents hydration and nutrition, but the same greywater isharmful to aquatic ecosystems, where it represents pollution. Therefore, it shouldbe used in surface or subsurface irrigation, giving maximal productivity in a safeway regarding both human and ecosystem health, and never discharged intowaterbodies.

Zone one should preferably me kept free from big trees, as besides the riskof a tree or large branch falling on the house they also make too much shadewhich hampers garden productivity. But it is a good place for small trees andshrubs, be it for their beauty (think of fowers) or food production. Lemon,papaya, apple or pear trees, grape vines, etc. are all welcome in zone one. Plantfowers close to and mixed with your herbs and vegetables: besides making yourgarden look much more beautiful, they help confusing and keeping away somepests. Along your daily used paths, plant vegetables, hedges and shrubs that areedible or give fruit, and beautiful fowers—hibiscus, for instance. Nothing ismore pleasant than picking the veggies for lunch on your way to the housewithout having to give one step out of the path, or getting home with a bag fullof fruits that you harvested while walking!

There is a host of techniques that can be used in a small-scale garden, withhigh efciency. Many people like to plant in raised beds, which can be madewith tree trunks, stones or cinder blocks, or even cob walls, and flled withplanting soil. The beds must be made level, and the walls should be at least oneinch higher than the soil level as this facilitates watering, allowing the water tospread homogeneously over the bed and penetrate without running of.Moreover, they must be kept covered with a layer of mulch, to preserve the soilhumidity, increasing the water efciency.

Another option are lowered beds—shallow trenches, that can be around 10cm deep and 60 cm wide, where veggies are planted. Because they are low, theykeep humid for longer, while the paths, being higher, are kept drier and mud-free even after watering or rains.

Relatively steep areas should preferably be kept permanently covered byvegetation to prevent erosion. However, even such areas can be used for

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production if appropriate techniques are used, such as terracing. Terracingconsists of building series of level platforms on contour, with raisers that can bereinforced with stones or other materials (e.g. rammed earth tyre walls) ifneeded.

Greywater can be used for watering and irrigation in many ways. A simplepassive irrigation system is an of-level drain with a fall of about 2% running onthe soil surface, zigzagging downhill from the house or other greywater source.You can simply plant your crops on either side of the drain—they will be keptwatered and fertilized by the graywater, never getting saturated with water. Thedrain must be cleared regularly to remove any vegetation growth and excessorganic matter, and that material can be composted and returned to the gardenas organic compost.

Another option is to pass the greywater through a rough biological flter—adrum full of sawdust or wood chips, for instance—then store it in a tank for usein irrigation when desired. The tank must be emptied every day and washedregularly, as prolonged storage may cause the greywater to stink. The flter’ssawdust, when saturated with organic matter, must be changed and composted.To prevent fy breeding, the flter should be covered with a nylon screen.

Information on vegetable production is easily found in organic farming andgardening books. However, such books are often “contaminated” with theconventional agriculture paradigm in which “a lettuce patch is a lettuce patch”,and “a tomato patch is a tomato patch”. This approach, although time-tested,actually means you’ll have several small monocrops side by side, and that at theend of each cycle, each patch or bed will have to be totally renewed. Inpermaculture, even in gardens it is common to use a food forest-like approach, in

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Mini-terracesallow for cultivationin steep portions of the terrain

Adapted from: Bill Mollison. Permaculture in humid landscapes. In: Dan Hemenway (ed.). Permaculture design course series (3rd ed.). Yankee Permaculture. 2001.


which several species are planted together and intermixed, forming a smallthough rich agroecosystem. That allows for a bigger perenniality of your patches,as the growth cycles of diferent species are desynchronized. Flowers, vegetables,legumes, herbs and fowers mix in the patches, forming true mini-forests full ofcolours, favours and tastes! Some native herbs can also make part of your foodforest garden, which will certainly attract visitors such as bees and birds, etc.Here, by the principles of valuing native species and maximum biodiversity, youshould always include unconventional food plants (UFPs), especially plantspecies that are native or well adapted to your area or region, and also landraces,ancient and ethnic foods etc., because by doing this you’ll not only enrich youragroecosystem and diet, but also help preserving that food resource base. Seek toexplore the concept of companion planting. With time and experience, you’ll fndout which species work well together and which don’t, and that will help youplace elements more efciently and harmoniously.

Zone 2

Zone two is an area that is not under your nose and within your arm’s reachall the time—you may have to get out of your way a few dozen steps to get there.Here, you’ll basically have your orchard, some annual crops and your animals.Normally, zone two is close enough to the house to allow for greywater use inirrigation. Of course the size of zones one and two, and in fact all zones, willvary according with each permaculturist’s priorities and other factors, includingthe plot size, the project’s main goals, etc. If you’re focusing on vegetableproduction, maybe there won’t be any greywater available for the orchard,because it will be used up in the garden in zone one.

The orchard, like the garden, should be planted in a food forest approach,that is, with many species intermixed in an integrated way, boosting positiveinteractions between the plants, increasing plant density and therefore biomassand biodiversity. Place plants carefully to avoid negative interactions—don’tplant a shrub that needs a lot of sun next to a big tree with a dense canopy. Youshould know the characteristics and needs of each species so you can place themskilfully and efciently, also taking into account the topography, orientation tothe sun, etc. A diverse and well integrated food forest orchard has highproductivity because of its density, which translates into high efciency in spaceuse. Its diversity and harmony also makes it lush and beautiful. It is also a niceplace to work in, because there will always be some shade.

There are still other advantages: because of the higher plant density, thetrees and shrubs alone manage to keep the soil well covered by a layer of deadplant matter, especially fallen leaves, so once established your food forestorchard is self-mulching; also the shade prevents weed growth to a large extent.And the close proximity means irrigation or watering is much easier and more

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efcient.All that contrasts with conventional orchards: boring and monotonous with

their rows and uniform spacing, and generally only one or few species; plantsaway from one another, with all that space in between them that you have towork hard to keep weeded. And that means endless hours doing hard labour inthe blazing sun, or what’s worst—herbicides!

You can water or irrigate your orchard with greywater or, if you don’t haveenough of it, with rainwater from your artifcial pond. For an efcient watering,make a good basin that can hold at least some 20 or 30 litres, and keep itcovered with a good layer of mulch. If using irrigation, you should always go fordrip or underground irrigation systems, never sprinklers, as they are extremelywasteful. Drip irrigation requires very clean, fltered water from your rainwaterpond, to prevent clogging of the drippers.

During the establishment phase, when your plants are young and small,you’ll have a lot of space between them, with lots of sun. You can take advantageof this and plant vegetables in the basins, around each sapling or young tree, sothey beneft from the planting soil, watering/irrigation and mulch, and you’ll havea short term production with little additional efort.

Zone two is also the place for annual crops such as maize, pumpkins,manioc, beans, rice, etc. Don’t forget to value traditional varieties and landracesadapted to your region. At the beginning, you may have some difculty fndingsuch seeds, but talking to people, especially older local folks, you’ll fnd peoplewho still grow and keep traditional varieties. Acquire the habit of growing themand keeping the seeds, becoming yourself a seed saver, a guardian of this legacy,helping preserve and spread it, sharing with others.

So, here you have many possible scenarios, depending on your particularinterests. If you have no interest in growing annual crops, you can make yourorchard quite dense, as described above. But if you also want to plant annuals,then you should plant your orchard more spaced out, making room for theannuals.

Now, if you want to produce annual crops on a larger scale, then youshould plant your orchard in dense belts, separated by strips, always on contour.The strips should be wide enough for you to work with a tractor—there you’llplant your annual crops. The orchard belts will help spread and sink runof,preventing erosion; they’ll also work as a windbreak, and a wildlife refuge. If youreally want to focus only on annual crops in that area, you can give up on theorchard, and keep only native vegetation on the belts.

If your terrain is quite steep, you can opt for terracing. On the raisers,you’ll plant your orchard—trees and shrubs—as densely as possible, which willhelp permanently stabilizing your terraces. The raisers’ inclination actuallyfavours high plant density, as it allows for the “stacking” of the trees’ canopies,and that translates into higher productivity. On the platforms, you’ll plant your

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annual crops. The fact that they are level makes your work easier, allowing forthe use of tractors, besides favouring rainwater infltration into the soil andefectively preventing erosion.

Zone two is also a good place for some livestock. Your birds (chicken,ducks, geese, quail, etc.) can stay here. Also other species, especially in morecritical phases such as late gestation and lactation, when more care is needed,will beneft from this proximity, so they should be brought to zone two. Otherphases that demand less attention and can be done more extensively can beplaced in zones 3 and 4. Besides allowing for easier and more efcientmanagement, having livestock close by is also advantageous because manure canbe easily brought for use in your garden and orchard.

Small rural properties, maybe up to some 5,000 m2, probably won’t haveenough room for more than a modest zone 3, which is not necessarily a problem,as zones 1 and 2 are the most intensive and therefore have the highestproductivity per area, so most of your food will come from them. If you have asmall area and want the highest production possible, then you should focus onintensive systems, which means expanding zones 1 and 2, to the detriment of themore extensive zones.

Zone 3

Here comes your real food forest! But, what exactly is a food forest (oragroforest)? The best way to understand this concept starts by looking at anactual natural forest. The forest has been there for thousands, millions of years ifit is an old growth forest, or maybe some decades to a few centuries if it is asecondary forest. And there it is, green, lush, wonderful. Who applied fertilizers?

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Plant stacking allows for greater density

Trees and shrubs on raisers

Annuals on platforms


Nobody. Is there anyone watering it? No. The forest doesn’t need any humaninterference to attain high yield, perpetually. By contrast, orchards andplantations in general demand constant care and resource input: fertilizers,irrigation, pest control, etc.

But how is that possible? The answer lies in maximum biomass andbiodiversity, and in perfect integration. In a forest, you have thousands of speciesof plants, animals, fungi and microbes working together. You have maximalnutrient recycling—one element’s residue is the other element’s food, andnothing is wasted. Soil fertility is kept and improved, and so is the water. At thediferent forest strata, you have ideal microclimates for the development of alllife forms of that ecosystem.

The only problem is that in a natural forest normally there is very little foodfor humans. If you get lost in a jungle you’ll see how easy it is to dye fromhunger in there! Now, imagine a forest that is similar to a natural one, but inwhich a good part of the trees are fruit trees—avocado, mango, guava, papaya,jackfruit… or apples, pears, grapes, berries, cherries, peaches, etc. (dependingon where you live)—or nut trees, etc., and not only food producing plants, butalso other resources that are useful to humans such as wood, fbre, medicine, etc.Problem solved! So the basic premise is that it is possible to apply nature’swisdom to attain highly efcient and harmonious productive systems to providefor our needs, rather than using artifcial and dysfunctional systems typical ofconventional agriculture.

Besides the number of species, another diference that stands out is thatwhile conventional orchards normally have low plant density and a regularspacing between the trees, in a natural forest you have an extremely high plantdensity. The common justifcation for the plant spacing in an orchard is toprevent overcrowding and competition over nutrients and sunlight, which couldhamper productivity. But how come this is not a problem in the forest? One ofthe reasons is that, because they have diferent needs regarding nutrients and sunexposure, humidity, temperature, etc., plants of diferent species and diferentdevelopment phases occupy diferent niches, so that many diferent plants canoccupy “the same” space (concentration), often even benefting from suchproximity and interaction with other plants. That is the base for the concept ofcompanion planting—plants that, when placed in proximity, help each other out,that is, have positive interactions, be it for providing part shade, or by fxatingnitrogen in the soil (legumes), or by repelling pests, or attracting pest predators,etc. These are all simple and well known examples of mechanisms for benefcialinteractions, but there may be other mechanisms, such as through secondarymetabolism substances. Such positive interactions are key to maximal biomassand biodiversity, and the perfect integration found in natural forests. Therefore,in establishing a food forest, it is critical that we apply the permacultureprinciples taking into account the types of relations between the diferentelements, favouring benefcial relationships and avoiding negative ones to attain

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the highest degree of integration and auto-regulation of the system as a whole.

In zone 3 you’ll have your managed agroforest—pruning, fertilizing andmaybe irrigation for maximal productivity. Here is the place for most livestock,too.

Establishing a food forest

There are many ways to plant a food forest, and the ideal technique willdepend on many factors, especially climate (temperature, rainfall regime, lengthof the dry season), soil condition (fertile or degraded), current state ofspontaneous regeneration of the vegetation on the land, etc.

In the establishment of a food forest or a reaforestation project, you’llnormally have to deal with three main obstacles: soil defciencies, water stressand pest attack.

Soil

Regarding soil conditions, particularly with regard to fertility, you havebasically two possible scenarios: degraded land and fertile land (of course theseare the two extremes, and your particular case can fall anywhere in between). Inthe case of degraded soil that has been mistreated by agriculture and is nowbarren, overdry and compact, with extremely low nutrient and organic mattercontent, you’ll have to apply all techniques discussed so far, and will have towork hard to make your plants grow. On the other hand, on fertile land,whatever you plant grows, but you’ll have to keep spontaneous vegetation(“weeds”) down so it does not outgrow and sufocate your plants.

Looking for a fertile piece of land to start your project may sound verytempting. However, from an environmental point of view, you should seek theexact opposite: to focus on degraded land, so you can use permaculture torestore it, efectively having a positive impact on the environment. The twosituations contrast sharply: a person working on a fertile piece of land invests agood deal of their time and eforts fghting nature, such as suppressingspontaneous vegetation growth that threatens their crops, or even wild animalsthat attack your plants and produce. On the other hand, a person working on adegraded piece of land invests their time, eforts and resources in restoring thatarea, bringing back life, increasing biomass and biodiversity. Who of the two isworking for nature? Fertile land should ideally be left to nature, so it naturallyregenerates, which in fact happens quickly, as long as there are no humans in theway.

Water stress

Water stress happens when the available amount of water is not enough tomeet the plants’ needs. It afects young trees (sapling) disproportionately, posingan obstacle to the establishment of your food forest. Young plants have smaller

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roots that are confned to the upper layers of soil, which dry faster. Moreover,diferently from forested soil, areas of bare soil are normally compacted andoverdry because you have a combination of reduced water infltration andincreased water loss by direct evaporation, as the soil is exposed to the efects ofsun and wind.

When your forest or agroforest is established, such problems are naturallysolved, but to get past that initial barrier, allowing your saplings to survive andgrow up to become trees, you’ll have to use an appropriate strategy, whichcombines four techniques: planting at the right time of the year (which will bediscussed further), building planting basins, mulching and watering.

Pests

Pests are animal and plant species, native or not to the area, which becauseof a disturbance of the natural balance become rampant, having harmful efectson our crops. This happens with greatest intensity in conventional plantations ormonocultures, where you have an absurd concentration of plants of the samespecies over large areas (a disturbance of the natural balance). Obviously, anyinsect that likes to eat that plant will love it, and will settle there and breed, andtend to eat it all up!

Therefore, the frst and most important step toward pest prevention is torestore the environmental balance, and the only possible way to accomplish thatand at the same time get an agricultural yield is by means of integratedpolycultures, in the form of agroforests. This way, that plant that is the favouritefood of that insect will be interleaved with other plant species that the insectdoesn’t like and will have to get through, and maybe harbour predators, etc., thatis, making that insect’s life harder—it will still be there, but now in a balancesituation, so it won’t have so much potential to harm your crops.

When we talk about organic pest control, many people immediately thinkof that old biological control model: introducing a predator “X” to keep down apest “Y”. This is a popular concept among biology and agronomy students, andalso some permaculturists. However, that idea itself is also a product of anextremely reductionist and unrealistic view of how interactions work in nature,therefore it doesn’t really work in practice, and can actually be extremelydangerous, having already caused environmental disasters of serious proportions.

A typical case is the introduction of predator snail Euglandina rosea inHawaii, aiming at controlling the also introduced African giant snail (Achatinafulica). The African giant snail was introduced in Hawaii, as in many otherplaces, as a food snail species, but fnding suitable conditions of climate,abundance of food and absence of an efective predator, it went wild and spreadquickly. In an attempt to halt its spread by means of biological control, Hawaiianauthorities introduced the predator snail. However, as in so many other failedbiological control endeavours, the introduced predator simply ignored the targetspecies, preying on native snails instead, causing dozens of extinction in a short

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period. Similar fascos happened in Mauritius, French Polynesia and otherislands and archipelagos.

Of course biological control exists, but it happens at its best in the form ofdiverse and integrated systems that refect natural ecosystems. “Pests”, that is,animals that eat our plants against our interests, will always exist and causelosses, but they will normally be acceptable losses. Such losses can also bereduced by the application of several organic techniques, such as natural pestrepellents and killers (e.g. planting tagetes in the garden, or applying tobaccoleaves tea as an insecticide, or sprinkling soap water or wood ashes to controlaphids, etc.), access prevention by physical barriers, etc.

Planting seeds or saplings?

If you do some research on techniques for planting an agroforest, you’ll besurprised with the amount of conficting information you’ll fnd. Somerecommend sowing seeds directly, while others recommend planting seedlings,and other, saplings; even amongst those, there are disagreements as for what isbest: young and small saplings or bigger ones, for example. Also,recommendations on soil preparation for planting, or the number and dispositionof species, vary widely among authors. The only conclusion that can be drawn isthat there are many possible approaches, and the best one will depend on yourparticular conditions, which must be determined on a case basis, based onexperimentation, that is, trial and error with the options available.

Direct seeding theoretically has two main advantages: it is easy and it ischeap. This strategy can work well in some particularly favourable situations,that is, when the soil is not too bad and you have a good rainfall distribution overthe year, and you don’t have much problems with pests in your area. However,oftentimes this approach does not yield good results, and planting tree saplings ismore efective, thus advisable. That’s because when you plant seeds, even if youhave a good germination rate (which is not always true), at the end of the rainyseason your seedlings will still be too young and small, with minimal energyreserve and very shallow roots, in other words, they are too fragile to survive thefrst dry season, and as a result their survival rate can be very low, except forvery rustic and highly adapted species. Another problem is that young seedlingsare usually extremely vulnerable to pest attack, especially, in the case of tropicalAmericas, leafcutter ants, which we’ll discuss further on.

Some alternative approaches have been devised, such as seed balls, inwhich seeds are wrapped in a nutritious substrate made of soil, fertilizers andsometimes additives (such as predator repellents), and thrown about over thearea you wish to restore as in reaforestation or agroforestry projects. The idea isto enhance the germination and survival rates of the seeds by supplying morefavourable conditions. This technique has seduced many supporters, because a

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small group of people can easily on a weekend throw thousands of balls, andeach person returns home with that feeling that they just saved the world.However, go back to that area in a few years, and try to fnd any of the trees thatyou “planted” that day, and you’ll have a saddening revelation: they simply aren’tthere. Of course you can experiment the technique—nothing is better thangaining knowledge through practical experience. However, you too will probablyreach the conclusion that this is not really an efective approach.

Although it is surely more laborious, in my experience the approach thatyields the best results is planting not seeds or seedlings, but biggish saplings,between 50 cm and 1 m tall. Here we have a paradox, because permaculture’sprinciple #1 teaches us to emulate nature, and in nature trees reproduce bydropping seeds, not planting saplings. However, you have to consider that thesurvival rate of seeds in nature, that is, the proportion of seeds that actually dogerminate, grow and make it to adult age and reproduce, is very low, and inorder for our projects to succeed and us to survive, and feed the humanpopulation and restore ecosystems, we need more than that in terms ofefciency! Planting a seed, or even a sapling, is easy, but in most cases this aloneis not enough. It is necessary that we be there to fend for it, care for it so as toensure it will grow to be a tree. When it comes to caring for the Earth, we needto abandon the illusion of easy solutions.

Collecting seeds

To plant a food forest, you’ll need many seeds and/or saplings. That canrepresent a substantial cost, but can also have virtually zero cost. For that, all youhave to do is take up the beautiful habit of planting the seeds of the fruits youeat, producing your own seedlings and saplings! Also for forest species, you cancollect your own seeds and grow your own saplings. For that, frst you have toknow your region’s tree species, be able to identify them, and go seed hunting. Itmay look like a daunting task, but there is a way to make it easy. Take thefollowing steps:

1. Do a thorough research and make up a list of tree species that are native toyour region. You should search the internet, specialized books, and askknowledgeable people in your area, especially old folks, as they often havea considerable knowledge of local fauna and fora.

2. Make a fowering and fruiting calendar of all species on your list.

3. Take up the habit of constantly watching out for trees, focusing on thosewhich are fowering or bearing fruit. Identify them, based on the month ofthe year they are fowering or fruiting, according with your calendar—thisnarrows down your search, making it much easier to spot and identify trees.It is also good because the learning process is spread out through the year,so you’re not overwhelmed. That allows for the building of a solidknowledge of tree species and their cycles, which is very important. As you

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get experienced, use that practical knowledge to expand and update yourcalendar, as there may be regional variations.

You don’t have to go out gathering seeds and planting themindiscriminately in your plot, or making seedlings like crazy. The best way is toset up selection criteria for species to be used in your project, so as to maximizeyour work efciency, for better and faster results according with your goals. Thiswill be discussed further below. But of course you can dedicate part of your timeand eforts to a random planting, as the chance factor often brings wonderfulsurprises.

Growing your own saplings from the seeds of the fruits you eat and thoseyou’ve gathered yourself in expeditions into the woods or even the city’s parksand streets—that represents much more than saving money. That’s a veryimportant learning process that will give you some vital knowledge, and will alsogive your relationship with your plants a much deeper meaning.

Growing tree saplings

Growing saplings from seeds is the simplest thing in the world: gather allmilk and juice cartons, and sturdy plastic bags (e.g. food packages) that have acapacity between 0,5 and 5 kg—they will be your nursery planting bags. Askfriends and relatives to keep theirs for you too, because you’ll need a lot. Usescissors to cut holes about 1 cm wide in the carton or bag’s bottom, fll it withplanting soil and sow the seed close to the soil surface. As a rule of thumb, youshould plant the seed at a depth about 1.5 times the seed’s size (i.e. a seed that is1 cm in size should be planted at depth of about 1.5 cm, for example). Keep thesown planting bags in a suitable place, with enough sun exposure and protectedfrom weather extremes (in a greenhouse if possible or needed), and water themas needed so they are always damp, but not soggy. In due time your seeds willgerminate, and you’ll have your seedlings and, after some time, saplings readyfor transplanting at their fnal spot in your food forest.

Germination rates and timing vary widely among species and localconditions, but you should be patient, as some seeds can take months togerminate.

Another useful approach is to use a nursery bed: a patch in your garden or araised bed flled with planting soil where you sow all the seeds you want, andkeep watering them so they germinate and become seedlings. When they are bigenough (a few centimetres tall), you carefully transplant them into the earth bags.This approach is more attractive for species with a very low, long or unknowngermination rate.

The planting soil to grow your seedlings and saplings can be prepared fromyour own plot’s topsoil, mixed with organic compost at a 2:1 proportion, that is,two parts of topsoil to one of compost.

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Seedlings require daily attention, especially in hot and dry climates, wherethey may have to be watered daily. Therefore, the nursery must be placed inzone one, quite close to the house. If you still live in the city, it’s probably betterto have your nursery there, in your backyard, garage or veranda, whereverpossible, provided the conditions are suitable.

Now, there is one thing to consider when you prepare your own saplings.Some plant species show great variability in fruit quality (e.g. oranges, grapes):you plant the seed of a fruit you found delicious, but the tree you get mayproduce fruits that look or taste diferent. That risk is normally avoided byplanting grafted plants. Grafting is a technique whereby tissues of diferentplants are joined so they fuse and grow together. Normally, one plant providesthe roots and this is called the rootstock, while the other plant is selected for itsfruits and is called the scion. The rootstock must be derived from a compatibleplant (normally the same species or genus as the scion) that is hardy and easilypropagated, while the scion contains the desired genes to be duplicated in futureproduction by the grafted plant, and the fruit quality will be identical to thescion’s mother plant. Grafted plants also have the advantage of being precocious—they start production much earlier than natural plants grown from seeds. Thedisadvantages are higher costs or labour in making them, and the fact that theyhave a much shorter lifespan than natural plants.

Another disadvantage of grafted plants, especially with scions derived fromcommercial varieties, is that they are genetically uniform while natural plantshave greater variability, which gives them more resilience, besides germplasmconservation value.

Now of course you don’t have to pick just one option! You can perfectlywell plant both, natural and grafted trees, thus having the best of both worlds: anearly and more uniform production coupled with long living plants with diverseproduction.

Grafted trees can be obtained from commercial nurseries. You can alsomake them yourself, if you learn the techniques. But you’ll have to have accessto good scion donors (plants of known desirable qualities), which is not alwayseasy.

There are other ways to propagate trees, such as from cuttings. Diferentplant species vary a lot as for the most efcient propagation technique: mostpropagate more easily or exclusively from seeds; there are those which can beefciently propagated from seed and cuttings (e.g. mulberries), while other canbe propagated nearly exclusively from cuttings (e.g. fgs). Propagation fromcuttings has advantages that are similar to grafting, as the daughter plant keepsthe same genetic composition as its mother. You can make saplings fromcuttings in planting pots or bags in a nursery for further transplanting, or stickthe cuttings directly into the ground at their fnal location, with varying successrates depending on the case.

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Planting techniques

Planting a food forest can be done in many diferent ways, by hand, whichis quite conservative and economical though slow, or using machinery for soilpreparation and wholesale planting, which is faster but also more impacting onthe environment.

Here there is an important consideration to make: by the permacultureprinciples, we must always preserve the area’s biomass and biodiversity,preserving the organisms that have already managed to grow there and areperforming their functions for the restoration of the ecosystem, while we work toencourage and accelerate this regeneration process and obtain a yield byintroducing more species that will enrich the ecosystem, fxing nutrients,protecting the soil and water, importing resources if necessary, etc.

So, at the beginning of your project, you have two possible scenarios: ifyour plot has until recently been used by industrial agriculture, being continuallytilled and subjected to all other destructive practices such as application ofchemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc., there is hardly any biomass and biodiversityto be preserved there. In such a piece of land, you can do a mechanized soilpreparation, such as liming, fertilizing, etc. one last time for the establishment ofyour food forest, which can compensate because of greater ease, speed and cost-beneft. In other words, in that case, wholesale, mechanized soil conditioningmay be considered an appropriate use of technology.

However, most commonly the plot has been left alone for some time whenyou start your project, and nature has been diligently doing its job restoring thatarea over that time, so when you get there you already have a recoveringecosystem, with developing plants, animals, soil structure, etc. In such ascenario, it is generally unjustifable to cause widespread destruction of thatecosystem that is struggling to recover, so a more conservative approach, ofmanual, single planting, is preferable.

Some impatient people may feel tempted to use mechanized, wholesale soilpreparation and planting anyway, arguing that the long-term environmentalbenefts will compensate for this initial impact. However, this is a very riskystrategy. To make my point clear, I will tell you a fact-based story:

Once, a friend of mine who in fact is an agronomist decided to reaforest aplot of land that he inherited. Excited about applying the knowledge acquired incollege and anxious for seeing his forest established as fast as possible, he optedfor an “industrial” approach—mechanized soil conditioning and planting ofseeds and saplings purchased from certifed nurseries, all as he learned atuniversity. He made that choice in spite of the land having been there, lyingabandoned for several years, so there was already a certain degree of ecosystemregeneration, with fora and fauna slowly but surely developing, that he knewwould be destroyed in the process. But the impatient young agronomist judged

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that the long-term environmental benefts would compensage for all that shortterm destruction.

So he tractored the whole place up, tilled and ploughed, and limed andfertilized, and sowed and planted. But he didn’t have enough money to cover allhis plot, so he decided to work on only half the area, and leave the other half forsome time in the future.

A lot of people would think he had a good plan. However, everything thatcould go wrong, did: there came the strong rain, and eroded the unprotected soil;there came the dry spell, and withered and dried many of his seedlings. Then,there came the leafcutter ants, left with no food options because of thesuppression of vegetation, and ate up the remaining seedlings…

The guy, who had spent all his money, had to abandon his project and godo something else. A few years later, when according with his plans and initialcalculations he would already have there a beautiful young forest, the situationwas very diferent from that: the half of his plot that he’d left untouched for lackof money had improved greatly, being now covered by a bush in a much moreadvanced stage of natural regeneration, with no bare soil, many shrubs and smalltrees, and fowers and birds and all kinds of insects, etc., while the half where heworked and spent all his money on still looked much worse than when he startedof.

Of course that will not always happen, certainly there may be people whotry this type of approach and have better results than my friend. But the bottomline is that it is a risky choice, both for your pocket and the environment, so it isgenerally not a good idea. Therefore, in such cases it is better to opt for aconservative approach, preserving soil structure and the vegetation in its currentstate of regeneration, which actually gives us an advantage.

Now, to plant your trees (seeds and saplings), there are many possibleapproaches. Let’s discuss some of them.

• Simply plant it. This is what most people do when they are inexperiencedand think of planting a tree, be it from seed or a sapling. They dig a hole in theground, drop the seed or sapling in and cover up with dirt, sprinkle some wateron, and that’s it. If your soil is in good condition and is suitable for your plant,and provided the plant is adequately cared for afterwards (as will be discussedfurther below), that may well work. However, in many cases that is not going towork, because your soil will need some amendments, such as for acidity or poorfertility, so that your plants can survive and grow satisfactorily. Anyway, asnormally you’ll often have some seeds to spare or saplings you don’t really knowwhat to do with, you should always try to simply plant them, to see whathappens. You should do this type of experiment, so as to learn the actualconditions of your piece of land, its potentials and needs.

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• Individual treatment. Plant by plant treatment is the most commonlyrecommended technique for tree planting on a small to mid scale. Althoughideally the amounts of soil amendments should be oriented by soil analyses, I’llcite average values which are often prescribed:

1. Firstly, clear an area of about 1 m2 of vegetation at the planting site andstart preparing the basin with a diameter of around 70 cm, scooping thetop 5 cm of soil with a hoe and moving this topsoil to the side for later usein planting.

2. With a spade, dig a hole about 50 cm wide and 30 cm deep (or more,depending on the size of your sapling’s rootball). Of these 30 cm, the top20 cm dirt is added to the 5 cm layer of topsoil scooped out at step 1above, while the bottom 10 cm dirt is deposited along the lower edge ofthe basin, according with the terrain incline, making it higher to give thebasin capacity.

3. Now it’s time to mix the soil for planting. Add 150 g of agricultural limeor gypsum (lime for acidic, and gypsum for alkaline soils) to the soilreserved for planting, and mix it well with a hoe. Next, add 200 g of singlesuperphosphate and 15 litres of aged cow manure or organic compost, andmix again.

4. Move part of the now prepared planting soil back into the planting hole,making a layer that covers its bottom, and compact it with your feed so itis not excessively loose.

5. Plant your sapling right in the centre of the planting hole, on top of thatlayer of planting soil, and fnish backflling with the remaining plantingsoil. Ideally, your sapling’s rootball crown should be about 3 cm higherthan the soil level within the basin after planting, to prevent excessivehumidity on the stem.

6. Lastly, cover all the inside and around of the planting basin with agenerous layer of mulch and water it with about 20 litres of water. Animportant observation is that the recently prepared planting soil typicallyretains humidity for longer periods, so you should take care not to wateryour plant excessively during the frst month after planting, so as to avoidsaturation and potentially rotting of your plant’s roots. Keep an eye onyour plants and the humidity of the soil in the basin, and water only whenneeded. As planting should be carried out in the rainy season (as we willdiscuss below), you probably won’t have to water your plant at all formonths after planting, until the dry season arrives.

• Simplifed individual treatment. This is a favourite technique to manypermaculturists, as it is simpler, faster, more natural, uses less resources andoften yields good results:

1. The frst step is identical as in the individual treatment described above.

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2. Now, dig a round planting hole, large enough to ft your plant’s rootballplus about 5 cm in all directions (for example if your rootball is 10 cmwide and 15 cm tall, dig a hole 20 cm wide and 20 cm deep).

3. Fill the planting hole with water, and water also the pile of topsoil that youscooped out of the basin area at step 1. Wait for the water to sinkcompletely, which may take a few hours.

4. Now, you can fnish planting your young tree. Put some topsoil in theplanting hole, making a layer about 5 cm thick covering the hole’s bottom;slit open and discard the nursery bag and place your sapling’s rootball atthe centre of the planting hole, backflling with the reserved, moist topsoil,compacting it lightly around the rootball with your fngers or a stick.Sprinkle a fne layer of lime or wood ash on the inside and around thebasin (about 0.5 litre of lime or 1 litre of ash is generally adequate), andcover it all with a generous layer of mulch. As described above, avoidexcessive watering in the frst month or so after planting.

5. Wait until your sapling gives clear signs that it’s “caught”, that is, when itstarts to grow. Now, you can add whatever fertilizers you want or feel arenecessary, such as manures, compost, diluted urine, etc. on top of the soil,within the plant’s basin.

6. Observation: in places where the soil is strongly acidic, one additional stepis needed: after flling the planting hole with water and waiting for it tosink, and just before planting your sapling (that is between steps 3 and 4),sprinkle wood ash inside the planting hole, especially on the sides (internalwalls of the hole), so they get coated with a layer of ash. Some ash willinevitably fall on the hole’s bottom, so you don’t need to add any more ashthere. Now, carry on with the planting as described above. This isgenerally enough to neutralize the soil acidity around the rootball, ensuringthe plant’s growth, without stressing the plant, so it is generally safer andbetter than mixing the ash to the planting soil.

So, you have many possible approaches. The best is to try them all, to fndout which one(s) will work best or are more viable in your particular situation.You’ll probably learn that the ideal technique depends on the plant species—maybe some species will accept direct planting, while others will respond well tothe simplifed individual treatment, and others still may require full treatment.With experience, you’ll learn these things and will be able to stick to thetechniques that work best for each species in your particular conditions.

• Mechanized treatment. If you opt for mechanized treatment, there is away to do that minimizing the damage caused—that can be achieved by treatingyour terrain on contour belts. That is, you won’t tractor up the whole terrain, butstrips on contour, interleaved with strips that are kept intact. This approachpresents several advantages over conventional mechanized treatment in the

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establishment of food forests: the preservation strips act as barriers to preventerosion, spreading and sinking the surface runof; the dense vegetation on thesestrips works as a windbrake and ofers part shade, making a mildermicroclimate and a more favourable environment for your young trees.Moreover, they remain as a refuge for your local fauna and fora: the birds,insects and other animals won’t be destroyed, but will rather migrate to thepreservation strips as they are extremely close, and the preserved plants willcontinue to contribute with seeds to the restoration of the tractored strips(belts), besides supplying biomass from pruning, which may be used as mulchfor your saplings. Once the restoration process is on its way on the tractoredarea (i.e. once the soil is restructured and protected by an efective plant cover),you can treat the strips that had been spared on the last treatment. Or else, ifyou want to try two diferent approaches simultaneously, you can do individualtreatment planting on your preservation strips.

Mechanized soil conditioning should ideally be done under appropriatetechnical guidance.

Planting season

Orthodox (i.e. very resistant) seeds can be planted during the dry season togerminate after the frst rains, but more sensitive (recalcitrant) seeds shouldalways be planted at the beginning of the rainy season. If using full individualsoil treatment, you can start preparing your planting holes during the dry season,although the dry and hard soil is much harder to work.

Start planting your saplings at the beginning of the rainy season, when thesoil has been thoroughly dampened, and depending on the plant species and theclimate in your region maybe you’ll never have to water them again: they’lldevelop fast during the rainy months, getting big and developing their rootsystems, becoming able to fetch water from deeper soil, ensuring their survivalover the dry season until the next rainy season comes. They will normally suferfrom water stress to some extent, but they will generally not die, and will bethere, ready to resume developing as soon as it starts raining again. However,that is not always the case: for some more sensitive species, or in places with aparticularly long and harsh dry season, it may be necessary to keep your plantswatered at least during the frst year after planting to ensure their survival ingood shape until the next rainy season.

Taking care of your young trees

A common illusion is to think that you can change the world just byplanting a handful of seeds, or that planting a seedling and planting a tree are thesame thing. In fact, they are very diferent things—to plant a tree means to plantand care for it until it grows to be a tree. In this process, the planting itself is

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doubtlessly the quickest and easiest part.

After planting, the main care points are:

• Planting basin maintenance and mulching to help ensure the plants areproperly hydrated.

• Watering or irrigation, which as mentioned above may be dispensable insome cases, and essential in others. Now, there are species that will needwatering in the frst, and maybe also the second year after planting so theycan establish, after which period they will be able to keep hydrated on theirown. However, there may be some tree species that will need irrigation forall their lives, that is, even when they’re big, they won’t be able to survive orproduce without an artifcial water supply. That means such species are notappropriate to your environment. It may sound a bit too hard, but you’dbetter give up on them and focus on the better adapted species.

• Fertilizing. The most critical phase with regard to nutrients is the saplingphase, when the plant faces the greatest challenges of surviving anddeveloping. Once they’re big, plants have a much higher capacity to extractnutrients from the soil. However, fertilizing will still be benefcial forgreater productivity until the agroforest is fully established, from whichpoint it starts to be self-sufcient in nutrients, because of their naturalrecycling. All organic nutrient sources in your property must be utilized inthe most rational way possible, split between the diferent productivesystems, diferent zones, and resource importation must be done in ajudicious way, as previously described.

• Formative pruning. Oftentimes, your young trees will start producing acrown cluttered with branches. In such cases, it may be convenient to dosome light pruning, shaping your plant’s crown, giving it a more desirablearchitecture. When we eliminate excess branches, the plant may also directits energy to the growth of main vegetative buds, making it grow faster inheight, which makes it easier to protect them from pests such as theleafcutter ants (discussed further below).

• Pest control. No matter what is your location, if you want to plantsomething, especially in rural situations, you are most likely to faceproblems with pests. Pest species vary enormously according with regionand plant species, and also your crop management system, etc. You have tokeep an eye on them, and take appropriate measures as required.

• Weeding. In many cases, the spontaneous vegetation, which is highlyadapted to the local conditions, tends to outgrow your saplings and end upinhibiting your food forest growth in several ways: covering your plants and“stealing” precious sunlight; releasing inhibiting substances that interferenegatively on your plant’s growth (allelopathy); competing for nutrients,that is, consuming them more efciently and fxing them in their own

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biomass, thus preventing your plants from using them, etc. Therefore, animportant part of the maintenance work in the initial phases of your foodforest establishment is to suppress (cutting or uprooting) spontaneous plants(i.e. weeds) that represent a threat to your saplings, and to use that deadplant matter as mulch.

Which and how many plants to use?

Regarding food forests, a point that often gives rise to some confusion isthe choosing of species to use, and also the right proportion between fruit andnon-fruit, forest tree species. As for the proportion, it is not really that important—any proportion can do, as long as the primary goals of providing for humanneeds and performing environmental services are attained. If you don’t havemuch space, you can plant fruit trees only, no problem. Plant as many diferentspecies as you can, and you’ll have your food forest. Now, if you have a lot ofroom, it is important to include forest species too, especially native andendangered species, thus contributing also to the restoration of the localecosystem and the preservation of those species, besides providing wood andother useful resources and services.

You can opt, for instance, for planting a fruit-only agroforest in zone 3, amixed agroforest in zone 4, and planting only native tree species in zone 5. Oryou can have mixed food forests in the three zones, varying only themanagement intensity. All those approaches are valid.

In choosing your fruit tree species, a good starting point is to plant thefruits you like best as well as those that grow easily in your area, which you canlearn from your neighbours and people who have lived in the area for a longtime. Now, of course you don’t have to limit yourself to that. By the maximumbiodiversity principle, the more species, the better. But that doesn’t mean youshould be paranoid about the number of species, but try to incorporate a goodnumber so as to have a diversifed system. Your area’s natural biodiversity can bea good source of inspiration to answer this question. Areas that are morerestrictive naturally have a smaller number of species, which are highly adapted.Your system should refect that; otherwise, if you try to incorporate there a muchhigher number of species, your system will probably fail, or demand excessiveamounts of inputs (energy, water and other resources, labour), which can make itunsustainable.

Now, regarding the question of what species to use, it is good to have a listof criteria to guide your choices. Bearing in mind the aims and principles ofpermaculture, we can establish the following criteria:

• Usefulness. Of course all plants are useful in one way or another, butdoubtlessly some have more practical use to us than others. Whenconsidering a species for incorporating in your project, you should ask

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yourself: will this plant be particularly useful to you? Will it produce foodthat you can eat or sell? Will it be a good source of timber or frewood, oruseful for green manuring? Will it be particularly useful to the localecosystem, for instance for fomenting fauna, housing and feeding birds,bees, etc.? Or, if you have a focus on commercial production, besides yourlocal conditions (the production potentials of your plot) you’ll also have toconsider the market potentials, etc.

• Is it a native species? You shouldn’t be a fundamentalist and rule out allspecies that are not native to your area, but it is always important to valuelocal species, to help preserve and restore your local native ecosystem.

• Is it an endangered species? Try to include the greatest possible number ofthreatened species in your project, thus helping saving them fromextinction.

• Hardiness/adaptability. In the establishment of your project, especially inthe earlier phases, it is important to focus on plant species that are hardy orhighly adapted to your particular conditions (natural sequence farming),preferably fast-growing ones. It is no good to take into consideration allabove criteria but ending up picking only highly sensitive species that canhardly survive your local conditions, as this can cause your project to fail.Adapted, hardy plants will play the pioneer’s role, improving theenvironmental conditions, paving the way for the establishment of evermore demanding species.

Any species that fulfl any of the above criteria can be considered in yourproject, and the more criteria they meet, the higher their priority. On the otherhand, you shouldn’t waste your time, energy and other resources with speciesthat don’t meet any of the criteria on the list.

Some species meet some or even all the criteria above, and among themsome are UFPs. Those must always be included and valued, as they are alsogreat for fomenting wildlife.

Now, it is impossible to know beforehand which species will be successfulon your plot, under your particular conditions. People often assume nativespecies to your area will have great advantage, but often that is not whathappens, and the reasons for this apparent contradiction are generally unknown.Oftentimes, species originated from distant and very diferent ecosystems havegreater success in your project than species that are actually native to the area.Therefore, the best approach is to start from a large base, trying as many treespecies as possible, and narrowing down later, focusing on the species that areworking best. Species that don’t yield good results can be set aside, or kept in theslow burner for further attempts, with diferent approaches, etc. But the morespecies you try, the more options you’ll have, and the better your chances ofsuccess.

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Phases of establishment of a food forest

The establishment of an agroforest can be grossly divided in three phases:initial (planting), growth and production.

The initial phase of establishment of a food forest corresponds to soiltreatment (amendment) and the planting of your seeds and/or saplings asdescribed above. In this phase, you’ll concentrate your eforts on planting andmaintenance of your baby trees. Here you’ll have to decide which plant speciesyou will use, and how they will be laid out. Some people recommend plantingthe diferent species of trees in geometrically regular patterns, such asinterleaved rows; others recommend planting a consortium of only two or threespecies, and call it an agroforest. Such strategies are, in my view, inappropriate,and clearly show that their advocates are still to some extent stuck in theconventional agriculture paradigm.

Of course each permaculturist will have their own style as to how andwhere to plant their food forest trees. The most important is to always bear inmind the aims of a food forest, the desired fnal result, which should be similarto a natural forest, but with a high proportion of species that are particularlyuseful to humans. To that, knowing the characteristics and needs of each plantspecies regarding humidity, soil, space, sun exposure and interaction with otherplants, the topography, etc. is critical. To acquire that knowledge, you must studyabout every species in your system, and also observe them in their naturalcontext and in actual practical situations. Talking to traditional rural folks aboutthis can also help a lot, as they usually have great experience, accumulated overgenerations. With that information in hand, you should be able to look at yourpiece of land, walk through it, and visualize spots that look adequate for each ofyour desired plant species. If you use that approach for laying out your foodforest, you will have a fnal result that may look random to other people’s eyes,but in fact was carefully planned. Of course you will make mistakes, but you willcontinue to learn constantly, from your observations and results, trial and error,and new informations and knowledges that you’ll acquire along the way.

In this planting phase, you can put your baby trees relatively close to oneanother in a relatively dense planting, without too much regard for the desiredfnal spacing, because there normally will be losses, so there will be somethinning. As your system matures and the trees start getting real big, you can dosome further thinning as required, culling unproductive or unnecessary trees tomake more room for the better or more desirable ones, as judged case by case.

In the growth phase, your main task will be caring for your young trees, aspreviously described. Maintaining the planting basins, mulching and some timespest control or fertilization will be important in this phase, and watering orirrigation may be useful to ensure your trees will grow and enter production assoon as possible. During this phase, you may also have to replace plants that forwhatever reason have died.

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The production phase is the one you so much long for! Your trees will startto produce, and you’ll have your Garden of Eden. Now, you’ll get busy withharvesting, and of course occasional maintenance jobs.

As your system matures (we’re talking several decades), there may be adrop in productivity. Some trees can grow old and stop producing, while otherscan grow too large, inhibiting smaller ones, etc. Therefore, for keeping highproductivity indefnitely, it may be a good idea to have some turnover in yourfood forest, with judicious culling of some trees and constant replanting of newones.

Leafcutter ants

When you are planting a food forest, if you live in the tropical Americas,you’ll have to do something about the leafcutter ants (genera Atta andAcromyrmex).

They form massive colonies, with millions of ants. Their nests are huge,occupying up to 200 m2 in area, and reaching up to 8 m deep. They have avoracious appetite for plants. In fact, they don’t eat the plants, but take them totheir nests where they use them to farm a fungus, which they then eat.

When they go out to forage, they go by the millions. Where they pass, theyform true “ant highways”! They choose a plant and literally cover the poor victimwith huge, voracious ants. They cut the leaves bit by bit, and take them to theirnest, and they won’t stop until they’ve completely ripped of the poor plant. Youarrive there the next morning, to fnd just the stem, all gnawed up. Their impacton vegetables and tree seedlings and saplings is simply devastating. In a nursery,they can destroy dozens of plants overnight.

If you do some research, you’ll fnd many proposed techniques for organiccontrol of the leafcutter ants. Unfortunately, however, in practice all of themleave much to be desired in terms of efciency. Therefore, rather than trying tofght the ants, it is best to protect your plants from them, through the use ofphysical barriers that prevent the ants from reaching your plant’s leaves.

One very simple, cheap and efective such technique is the protective cone,also called “anti-ant skirt” or “Chinese hat technique”. It is a cone made of milkcartons or plastic bottles, and stapled around the plant’s stem; on the inside ofthe cone (facing down), you apply petroleum jelly or grease, which act asefective ant repellents. Because of the cone’s shape and position, it protects therepellent from the rain, ensuring its permanence and efcacy for longer periods.However, monitoring is needed to check for the need for repellent reapplicationsor cone replacement as the plant grows. It is also necessary to keep the soilaround the plant properly mulched, otherwise raindrops will hit the soil andrebound on the cone, removing the repellent or coating it with dirt, making itlose its efcacy.

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Protective cone against leafcutter ants

Animals in the agroforest

Animals play vital roles in any forest, such as pollination, seed dispersal,organic matter recycling, etc. No natural forests exist without animals, so it isincorrect to say that the animals are in the forest—in fact, they too are the forest,they are an integral and indivisible part of the forest. Animals are the motile partof the forest. Therefore, they must be present in any agroforest.

Of course the existence of a lush forest, with abundance of food, shelterand water will naturally attract animals of all species in the area, which will visitand probably settle there, as they beneft from the food forest, so it plays a vitalrole in the preservation of local fauna and biodiversity. The agroforest toobenefts from the environmental services performed by the animals, especiallypollination and seed dispersion, as they bring in their faeces seeds of native plantspecies that will further enrich your system’s diversity.

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Cut

Apply petroleum jelly or grease

Staple Done!

1 2

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Food abundance in the food forest also means you can introduce domesticanimals of several species as a part of the agroecosystem. Those animals willoccupy niches within the system, and besides producing food, they will also workon the organic matter and nutrient recycling, by means of manure production.Chickens, cows, goats, pigs, ducks, bees… practically any species of livestockcan be incorporated in an agroforestry system, but the most appropriate speciesand races vary according with the case, so experimentation and constantreassessment are indispensable.

Now, it is not enough to just raise animals—in permaculture, we mustalways strive for an efcient livestock production. An efcient agricultural systemis that where more resources are produced than consumed. The vast majority oflivestock production systems around the world are terribly inefcient from aresource point of view, as the amount of resources consumed is much biggerthan the amount produced, in other words, they are wasteful systems. Forexample, the amount of grain consumed by the animals could feed several timesmore people than the amount of meat, milk and eggs produced does; in otherwords, the farmed animals are in fact competing for food with humans, and thatis a very serious problem. You’ll often see a rancher bragging about the fact thathis cows produce 30 litres of milk a day, for instance, but that doesn’t change thefact that he is actually importing much more resources (feed, energy) thanexporting in the form of produce (milk), that is, his farm is much more a foodconsumer than a producer. And that is precisely what we must avoid.

In an efcient system, the animals utilize predominantly resources thatwould otherwise be wasted or cannot be consumed by humans, such as grassesand other herbs of the understory, fallen fruits, tree leaves, insects, worms, snails(for birds, pigs, fsh), etc., efectively converting such resources into high qualityfood for humans.

Notice that, in the efcient livestock raising, the animals are an integratedpart of the agroforestry system, inhabiting the spaces in between the trees.Therefore, the animals don’t require any more space than is already availablewithin the agroforest, so you have an increase in yield without an increase inspace, which translates into a higher efciency of your system. Now, for thisintegrated livestock raising to be successful, it is critical that its scale iscompatible with the carrying capacity of your food forest, as happens with anyecosystem.

Of course livestock production requires appropriate facilities (shelters,divisions, drinking water supply, etc.) and proper management to preventsufering, disease and also damage to the agroforestry system and theenvironment. Animals can have a considerable destructive potential, if theyinvade a garden, for example, or by overgrazing. Moreover, large animals such aspigs and cows can cause land erosion if not properly managed.

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Livestock raising in permaculture is a matter that still needs muchdeveloping. Therefore, it may be hard to obtain detailed, specifc and reliableinformation on the subject, as there is a lack of available literature. So, at thecurrent stage, for designing and establishing your livestock production systems,the best you can do is study the specialized literature on raising the species ofyour interest and make the necessary adaptations in the light of the permacultureprinciples so as to make your livestock raising systems as efcient, productive,healthy and sustainable as possible, through the perfect integration with the otherelements of your productive systems and the environment in general.

Bees

Bees deserve a special mention, as besides producing high value productssuch as honey and beeswax they also perform an invaluable environmentalservice: pollination. Bees produce their products utilizing only resources thatwould otherwise never be used by humans: the nectar and pollen of fowers.And, best of all, they do it without consuming the fowers, much on the contrary,helping them perform their primordial reproductive function. Besides honey andwax, apiculture can also yield other products that are useful to humans and mayhave a good commercial value: royal jelly, pollen (both used as dietarysupplements) and propolis (used as medicine).

Besides Apis mellifera bees, which are the most commonly kept bee speciesaround the world, we should also have a special regard for the countless nativebee species, particularly those in the tribe Meliponini, often collectively referredto as stingless bees, which are native to the Americas, Africa and Oceania.

Although honey production is substantially lower as compared to Apis bees,meliponiculture (stingless bee keeping) has a very special meaning, as itrepresents an efort for the conservation of these beautiful species, which are somuch threatened by the destruction of their natural environment and agriculturalpollution with pesticides. The preservation of stingless bees also means thepreservation of countless plant species which are efciently pollinated only bythem, and therefore of all the organisms that depend on those plants, whichmake up a huge part of the ecosystems. Moreover, meliponiculture has deephistorical and cultural roots, having been practised for millennia by the Maya, forinstance. It is also an extremely pleasant and rewarding activity which fortunatelygathers new enthusiastic adherents every day. Stingless bee keeping is consideredsimple and easy (the fact that they don’t sting also helps a lot), and alsoaccessible, as it can be practised at a very low cost and virtually anywhere, froma dense forest to your home’s porch or backyard, even in the city. And to makethings even better, there is a wealth of literature on the subject, freely availableon the internet.

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Aquaculture

In a permaculture project, you’ll generally have large volumes of waterstored in the form of artifcial ponds. Besides their obvious function as waterreservoirs for use in the house and productive systems, etc., your ponds will alsoplay other roles, such as encouraging the local fauna, creating favourablemicroclimates for the ecosystem, landscaping, etc.

Ponds also have great potential for food production through aquaculture.By the permaculture principles, the more functions an element in your systemperforms, the better. Therefore, we should always regard the pond as a waterreservoir as well as a food production site.

Aquaculture in permaculture is radically diferent from conventionalcommercial aquaculture. In conventional aquaculture, similarly to industrialagriculture, you have highly resource-intensive systems—water, feed, energy—and tremendous water pollution by nutrients, hormones, drugs, etc., with direconsequences for the environment. By contrast, in permaculture we emulatenatural systems, that is, how production occurs in natural aquatic ecosystemssuch as lakes and ponds. So you’ll have varied aquatic vegetation growingnaturally in your pond, to serve as food and shelter to fsh and other creatures, inother words, creating a proper habitat. You should have several diferent speciesin an integrated system.

Freshwater plants have been used by people worldwide for centuries. Allparts of plants (stems, roots, rhizomes, tubers, fruits, seeds, etc.) can be used forfood, medicine, fbre and building materials. Some species that exhibit vigorousgrowth are particularly important for purifying the water, removing excessnutrients and impurities, and their biomass can be used as livestock feed, fuel,mulch and compost bulking material. Important plant species in aquacultureinclude algae, wild rice (Zizania spp.), water caltrop (Trapa natans), Chinesewater chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis), Indian lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), waterspinach (Ipomoea aquatica), watercress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum), watermimosa (Neptunia oleracea), wild taro (Colocasia esculenta), water hyacinth(Eichhornia crassipes), cattails (Typha spp.) and several species of reeds, etc.*

As for animals, in aquaculture you can have fsh, frogs, shrimps, etc. Andof course ducks as well. Once your pond is full and established, which meanswith a stable vegetation, and after at least a year or two so you are sure a goodwater level in the pond is kept all year round, you should contact businessesspecialized in aquaculture, as well as university departments and qualifed orexperienced technicians in aquaculture’s many subfelds to get specifcorientations regarding which species to include, how to obtain and manage them,etc.

* IPPC Implementation Review and Support System. Aquatic plants – their uses and risks:a review of the global status of aquatic plants. FAO. 2012.

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You’ll have to have your pond water tested by a laboratory, which willguide the necessary amendments so the pond’s conditions are ft for aquaculture,before you introduce fsh and other creatures. Explain your goals to yoursuppliers and technical assistance providers. Many of them will not understandor accept your ideas, because they are stuck to the dominant paradigm ofmonoculture. However, some will get interested in the idea, and will gladlyaccept the challenge to do diferent. Knowledge on the possible combinations ofspecies and environments will have to be built on a case-by-case basis, as theyvary enormously with the local environment conditions, so you’ll also have to doexperiments to learn by trial and error what will work best in your particularsituation.

You can focus on fsh species that live naturally in stagnant waters, asessentially that’s what you’ll have. Or else, you can think of energy-efcientsystems for agitation and aeration of your pond’s water, which will broaden yourchoice options.

Choose fsh species that can be fed with products naturally present in yoursystem: frugivore fsh that can be fed with fallen fruits; herbivores that can feedon the aquatic plants you have growing in the pond, etc. You can use earthwormsor black soldier fy larvae grown in your compost bins (vermicomposting) to feedfshes and frogs. You can also feed them with other insect larvae, especiallymaggots, which can be farmed for that purpose. Maggot farming units can bemade from a high tray (about 15 to 25 cm tall), a roof and a leachate collector atthe bottom. In the tray, you put plant and animal organic wastes (slaughterhousewastes such as carcasses, ofal, etc., and also other food wastes such as kitchenwaste, and maybe animal manures). The organic wastes will attract fies ofseveral species, which will lay their eggs there. In a few days, you’ll have a greatamount of maggots, which can be fed to the fshes and frogs in your pond (andalso chicken and other birds). After harvesting the maggots, the organic remainsand leachate must be composted (just add them to your compost pile), and themaggot farming unit must be washed before further use. Maggot farming unitsmust always have a roof to prevent soaking by rain or excessive heat anddehydration by solar exposure. Keeping adequate humidity is important foroptimal larval conversion. Maggots can normally be harvested four days after theaddition of organic wastes.

Zone 4

Zone four is a place you seldom visit. It can be a more extensive foodforest, with no regular pruning, fertilization or irrigation, so it is more viable toless demanding, hardier and more adapted species, besides of course thespontaneous native vegetation. It is also an ideal zone for you to plant timberspecies for use in the future.

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Because it is more distant, less managed, the establishment of your zonefour tends to take longer. Here you can focus on the simpler planting techniques;you’ll use the appropriate strategies for keeping soil humidity, such as plantingbasins and mulching, only in the initial phases of establishment.

Generally, watering or irrigation is not viable in zone four. Therefore, youshould try to plant only during the frst half of the rainy season. This way you’llhave a good germination rate, and if you’re lucky most of your seedlings willsurvive and develop enough to survive the following dry season.

Because it is a more extensive and less managed system, you can expect aconsiderable loss rate. Therefore, you mustn’t be afraid of planting in excess,especially seeds, which are cheaper (always good to remind that seeds andsaplings can have virtually zero cost, if you harvest your own seeds and makeyour own saplings).

During the frst years of establishment, you’ll have to do somemaintenance: keeping spontaneous vegetation checked so they don’t outcompeteyour trees, redoing the planting basins regularly and reapplying mulch as needed,replacing dead saplings, and pest management. When your trees get past 3 mhigh, they can generally be considered out of risk, and you can concentrate youreforts on the smaller ones.

Once your agroforest is establishment in zone four, you’ll rarely have to gothere—except for harvesting the fruits of the season, collecting frewood,harvesting seeds for use in restoration of other areas (you can give away or sellseeds and saplings too) and, in the long run, harvesting some timber.

Speaking of timber, there is something we should talk about: humankind isheading straight into a serious wood supply crisis. Wood is an essential resourceto humans and civilization, and after thousands of years of predatory exploitationwe’ve managed to deplete this resource; now, the remaining heartwood speciesmust be preserved at all costs, as they face a serious risk of extinction.Therefore, when we design and implement our agroforestry systems, we mustalways include good timber trees, especially of endangered species, aiming at thesame time at their preservation and future use. It is important not to mistake thisfor that often heard dissimulated talk by some logging companies and other bigdeforestators, and big polluting corporations in general who claim that “for everytree we cut, we’ll plant a hundred new ones”. That is nothing more than plaingreenwashing, that is, a lie told so that corporations can destroy the environmentas much as they like, and still pose as sustainable businesses. Now, you go there,ask them to show you the forest they are planting. Does it really exist? Do theseeds they planted (if any) really compensate for the trees that were destroyed?

What we must do is to plant many trees, so that in the future we can, or ourchildren and grandchildren, harvest part of those trees, and that also ourdescendants plant trees, so that their children and grandchildren will also havethis resource and so on. We must institute this tradition in which every

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generation plants more trees than they consume, so that there will always begood quality timber to be harvested, and the amount of wood and trees availableonly increases with time—the exact opposite of what humanity has been doing.

Wildlife corridors

Zones 3, 4 and 5 are permanently covered by agroforests and forests, sothey can be regarded as permanent environmental conservation areas.

In permaculture’s zone planning, these more extensive zones are naturallyperipheral in the property, that is, more distant from the house, covering themargins, stretching up to the boundaries with neighbouring properties. Thatbrings a benefcial efect of particular importance, as these zones play the role ofwildlife corridors.

Ecosystems around the world are sufering not only because of theirdestruction, but also their fragmentation. It is not enough to have areas withpreserved nature—it is also vital that these areas are interconnected, rather thanisolated from one another. This connection is necessary to allow for the fow ofanimals and plants (seeds), microorganisms, etc. from one area to another. Whenyou have preserved areas but they are disconnected, for instance separated bylarge areas of grazing pasture or plantations, highways or cities, etc., that causesserious problems, as the majority of animals are incapable of crossing suchobstacles, so they get locked in their “pocket” of nature. Animals that need largeareas, such as big cats, for example, are extremely harmed by such situation, astheir pocket maybe does not have enough resources (e.g. prey) for their survival.If the pockets were connected, the animals could transit between them, whichwould give them much better chances, as the preserved areas would start tofunction as one much bigger area, which could support that species’ population.

Another vital point is the genetic fow between the diferent areas. It isknown that genetic diversity is critical for the health of animal and plantpopulations. When few individuals are kept isolated from others of their species,what happens is inbreeding, which leads to a high homozygosity rate withdeleterious consequences to health, which in extreme cases can cause populationcollapse and species extinctions. That often happens when you have naturalpreservation areas that are isolated from one another, preventing the genetic fowbetween them.

Wildlife corridors, also called biological corridors, are areas of habitat thatconnect forest (or other ecosystems) fragments separated by human activities(deforestation, pastures, agriculture, cities, etc.), allowing for the migration offauna between the fragments and, consequently, seed dispersion, thuscontributing to the preservation of the genetic diversity and overall health of theanimal and plant populations and the ecosystem as a whole.

Notice that we’re not talking about increasing the preservation areas

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(though in most cases that would also be important!), but connecting them. Forexample, you can have 20% of preserved nature in a region, and see aprogressive deterioration of the genetic health of that ecosystem, and specieslosses over time, because those preservation areas are disconnected, in the formof “pockets”. If the same 20% of preservation area were connected by biologicalcorridors, you would have a much more stable ecosystem, that is, a much moreefective environmental preservation function.

“Preservation areas arranged peripherally on the propertycreate wildlife corridors”

That is valid anywhere in the world—all rural properties should havepermanent environmental preservation areas, connected forming wildlifecorridors. Now, that is very simple to do: all it takes is for every property toarrange their preservation areas peripherally, along the margins of the property,keeping at least a belt of preserved vegetation along the boundaries withneighbouring properties. This way, the preservation areas of neighbouringproperties fuse forming a web that allows for the fow of animals and biodiversityin general. That happens automatically in permaculture, because of the zoneplanning.

Zone 5

This is your natural sanctuary, your greatest tribute to nature. Reaforestthis zone with native species, aiming at the reconstruction of the local ecosystem.

As for the establishment of your forest, the process is the same as in zonefour. When your zone 5 is fully established, that is a place you hardly ever visit—except for a quiet meditation, or to check if there isn’t anything wrong. It isimportant not to disturb this area, to avoid driving away those very sensitivespecies that simply don’t tolerate human presence. Don’t go there to harvestfrewood—let it rot right there, as has always been in nature.

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Think of your zone 5 as some sort of “old growth forest of the future”which, if we are lucky, will still be there a few centuries from now, with some ofthe very trees you planted yourself still living there, as well as many descendantsof other trees you planted, and others that came along, amidst a complete andbalanced ecosystem, working as a refuge and fomenting the spread of wildlifearound the area.

Establishing a rural permaculture project

Starting a rural permaculture project is a big endeavour which demandscareful planning, fnancial resources and a lot of determination and patience. Tolive of the land and in harmony with nature is the most dignifying lifestyle thatthere may exist; however, for those of us who are used to an urban life, thatrepresents a radical change. Doubtlessly, it is a worthwhile and in fact anecessary change, but if you think it’s gonna be easy, you’re fooling yourself.

Many people think the main barrier to achieving this lifestyle change is theacquisition of a piece of land where they can develop their projects. However,this is actually only one of many obstacles in this race. It can be said that themost important things are, frst of, to have knowledge on permaculture, andsecondly, to have a solid plan, a well-devised strategy to make the transition fromthe lifestyle you have to the one you want. Only then you can start thinking aboutacquiring a plot of land, involving the fnancial resources obstacle. And last butnot least (in fact, absolutely essential), it is necessary to have the guts, thestrength and the determination to make your transition work.

The acquisition of knowledge on permaculture will be discussed in adedicated chapter (chapter 16, “Learning Permaculture”).

Transition strategy

There are many points to consider when devising a transition plan for arural permaculture project. Among them, we can highlight:

• Aims• Activities to be developed• Settlement model• Scale• Choice of region• Choice of plot• Acquisition of land• Project implementation strategy

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The specifc aims of a permaculture project can vary widely betweendiferent people. Of course the general goals of permaculture, which are toprovide for the human needs while preserving and restoring the environment,must be central to any permaculture project, but that still leaves margin to greatvariations regarding more specifc goals.

You can focus on having an ecological home, built with natural materialsand techniques, with high energy efciency, rainwater harvesting and ecologicalsanitation, with limited eforts towards food production; you can aim atproducing food for your own consumption, on a small scale, or a commercialproduction of foods and other organic products. A permaculture project mayfocus on the development of a highly natural lifestyle, integrated with nature’scycles, self-reliant or even primitive! Or it can be devoted to research andpromotion of permaculture, as in a permaculture centre or institute, etc. It isgood to have the aims well thought of before you start to actually design yourproject, so you can guide your strategies and eforts towards what you want. Butof course you can change your focus later on the development of your project.

Activities to be developed in the project. Here, the options are countless,being limited only by the ethics of permaculture (that is, activities that go againstthose ethics should be rejected). Organic food production, whether vegetables,grains, fruits, etc., coupled with environmental preservation and restorationactivities, are essential to any rural permaculture project. Now, you have aninfnity of other options of activities that can be developed aiming to provide foryour needs or just for personal satisfaction, or to contribute to society and theenvironment in diferent ways, or for an income, etc. For example, theproduction of useful plant products other than food such as wood, fbre,medicine; reaforestation and agroforestry systems; raising animals for foodand/or conservation of native species and wildlife foment; aquaculture, both foranimal and plant products; apiculture and meliponiculture; edible mushroomgrowing; material recycling, lodgings, environmental education, holistictherapies, artistic and recreational activities, etc. These are all activities that canbe developed individually or collectively, informally or formally, as a business orsome form of association or even a non-governmental organization, etc.

The choices of activities to be developed in the project depend essentiallyon the permaculturist’s particular interests and skills, but should also take intoaccount the potentials of the plot and the region (e.g. market demands). It isimportant to keep an open mind and a fexible attitude, as these factors mutuallyinfuence one another, molding what the project will be like. For example, thepermaculturist’s interests will afect the choosing of the property and the region,so as to allow for the desired activities; however, the property itself will alsomold the decision making on the activities to be developed. For example, maybeyou are not thinking of aquaculture at frst, but if the property you choose is veryfavourable to this activity, that may give rise to such interest. Likewise, a

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regional demand for rural tourism or ecotourism, that is, a kind of tourismmixed with environmental education, can infuence the permaculturist to investin such activities. You have to bear in mind that there are no tailor-madeproperties, that is, when searching for a piece of land to buy, you’ll never fndsomething that fts perfectly your expectations, and the same can be said of theregion where the property is located. So, you’ll have to choose among the actualoptions available. But that should looked at positively, as it will bring interestingchallenges, and opportunities you hadn’t even thought about.

Model of settlement. A rural permaculture project can be individual orcollective. Individual projects have the advantage of giving the permaculturistmore freedom in all decision making regarding the elaboration of the project,from the choice of the place, activities to be developed, etc. A collectivepermaculture settlement is what we call an ecovillage. The great advantage is thatyou’re not alone: of course all work tends to be lighter when done by manyhands, and many heads also think better than just one, so at least in theory aproject with many people would tend to be more efcient. Moreover, a collectiveproject or settlement allows for a much richer and more favourable socialcontext, leading to improved quality of life. However, this choice (of a collectiverather than individual project) also brings important challenges: forming a groupis generally not easy, because although there are always people interested informing an ecovillage, few are actually prepared for this change in theirlifestyles, or willing to leave their comfort zones, their jobs, etc. and move to thecountry, work on the land, etc. Moreover, when all decisions have to be made byconsensus, that implies every person has less freedom in choosing what theywant to do, trying diferent things, etc., which leads to frustrations. Likewise, theobligation to do what was determined by the majority, even if you don’tpersonally agree with what was decided, is often demotivating. Another problemis that, generally, there are members who work hard for the establishment andmaintenance of the project, while others don’t, which creates all types ofconficts. Ecovillages will be further discussed in chapter 15, “Communities inPermaculture”.

Scale. Permaculture is applicable at all scales, as its principles andtechniques work in a small backyard garden as well as in hundreds of hectares ofland. There is no impediment to establishing a highly productive andenvironmentally benefcial agroforest in a large land holding, for instance.However, regarding the scale of permaculture projects, some points deserveconsideration.

By permaculture’s third ethic (fair share), we mustn’t utilize moreresources than are necessary to our life. Therefore, it can be said that theaccumulation of land into one’s hands goes against this ethic, so it would be hardto reconcile large landed estates with permaculture. On the other hand, theconversion of land from conventional, industrial agriculture into permaculture

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would be extremely benefcial both to nature and society, considering theenvironmental services ofered, the production of healthy food, etc.

However, another important point is that permaculture represents a lifestyleof simple living in contact and integration with nature and its elements—alifestyle of intimacy with the land and all things on it. Now, it is surelyimpossible to anyone to have intimacy with a vast tract of land. An intimatecontact with nature, in the true sense of caring for the Earth, limits the area sizethat one can efectively occupy, utilize and care for to a relatively small piece ofland.

Anyway, regardless of all the above philosophical considerations, the factremains that the vast majority of rural permaculture projects are developed insmall landholdings, maybe from 1,000 m2 up to some 10 hectares in area. Forthis reason, we’ll focus our discussion about rural permaculture on small-scaleprojects.

Choosing the region. Most of times, people interested in starting a ruralpermaculture project actually come from an urban reality, often from big cities.That implies the need to move to another region, and several factors must beconsidered in choosing this new place.

If you already know a place you like and feel great afnity for, that can be agood starting point. Knowing and liking a place gives you a great advantage, asmoving to a completely unknown place always brings much greater risks ofadaptation problems.

Another important factor to be taken into account is the place’s humancontext. You have to bear in mind that the permaculture lifestyle is very diferentfrom most people’s, both in urban and rural situations—you’ll be seekingenvironmental restoration and reintegration with the natural cycles, etc., whilemost people seek much diferent things. Trying to insert yourself in a randomhuman environment can lead to isolation and rejection by the local community,i.e. the people who already live there. Integration and good relations with thegreater society around us are essential for a permaculture project to reach itsgoals, and is crucial for the well-being and happiness, and fulflment of thepermaculturist, because no one is an island, and nobody can be happy alone. Andit is not just about well-being—such a situation of estrangement and confict withthe society around us represents a big barrier that substantially reduces thechances of success and survival of any project. And you should not imagine thatyou can change the minds of the society around where you choose to live—although this is not strictly impossible, it is a long and slow process, and in manycases it just won’t happen, so it is not a good idea to count on that.

Therefore, it is very important that, when choosing a place for your newpermaculture project, you try to choose a place with a certain “alternative”atmosphere to it—where unconventional lifestyles are common and wellaccepted, preferably some place where there are already people developing some

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work related to permaculture, such as organic farming, alternative educationphilosophies (e.g. Waldorf, Montessori), or there is an active environmentalistgroup or NGO, etc. If you bring in a new permaculture project where there arealready other related initiatives going on, that will make everyone stronger. Youmust bear in mind that isolation weakens at the same measure that unionstrengthens, and successfully establishing a permaculture project is already a bigenough challenge—you shouldn’t look for additional obstacles!

Of course that is not to say there will never be new permaculture projectsin new places. However, new projects in places where there is no alternativementality should be started preferably by people who are native-born, or alreadyestablished and well known in the region, so they are known by the localcommunity before the project starts, or else by experienced permaculturists, whowill have on their side the weight of their previously build reputation, which willhelp gathering respect and even arising curiosity and interest by the localcommunity.

The choice of region must also take into consideration the project’simplementation strategy (discussed further below), that is, the transition plan. Forexample, in the case of a professional who plans to work part-time in their ownprofession while concomitantly building the project, the region to be chosenmust allow for that work, that is, there must be demand for that profession oroccupation for the plan to work.

Choosing the piece of land is another obvious critical point in theestablishment of a new rural permaculture project. In choosing the plot, there aremany factors to be considered:

• Size, to be defned according with the activities that will be developed inthe project.

• Price, which has to be compatible with the fnancial conditions of thepermaculturist or group.

• Accessibility. Sometimes, people interested in starting a permacultureproject fnd their “dream plot”, with loads of green, nature, springs andeven waterfalls, etc., but… 30 km away from the nearest town, by aprecarious road. This is the infallible recipe for turning a dream into anightmare! Here you must be realist: starting a rural permaculture projectis no child’s game, and an excessive distance to the nearest town can be thefatal mistake to make the project inviable. The establishment phase willalways take years, and for all that period you’ll need to reconcile thebuilding of your project and new lifestyle with a job, a source of income,which will mean frequent, possibly daily trips to the town, and a greatdistance will mean high costs both in terms of money and time, plus thenegative environmental impact (air pollution to start with). Even when yourproject is mature, the longer the distance, the greater the difculty in selling

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your produce, for instance. And what if the plot is not on the school busroute? That means there will never be children in the project!—a detail thatis often overseen when choosing the spot. Of course it is possible to createa school inside the project or ecovillage, right? In theory, yes, but it willinevitably be years before that becomes viable, and a project started in sucha remote and inaccessible location will probably not even survive that long,or attract a sufcient number of people to make the school possible,precisely because of the additional barriers imposed by the distance andisolation.

• Not rarely, neophyte permaculturists are so disheartened by society andurban life that they deliberately choose a plot “as far as possible fromcivilization”, and in doing so they make the fatal mistake which as a ruleleads to the project’s failure, sending them back to the same reality they sowished to depart from.

• Neighbourhood. The immediate neighbourhood is like a “microclimate”—those will be the people you’re most likely to have most contact with.Therefore, it is important to avoid choosing a place with undesirable typesof neighbours, such as those who practice predatory agriculture (slash andburn agriculture, intense pesticide use, etc.), violent neighbourhoods withhigh crime rate, plots adjacent to polluted rivers, etc.

• The plot itself must be an attractive, pleasant place, somewhere you wouldwish to live. This is very subjective, but very important. You’ve got to havea good feeling about the place, see in it the potential to create the paradiseyou want. That means having an afnity, a sense of belonging—not that theplace belongs to the person, but the person belonging to the place. Thislink is essential for the motivation, love and zeal that will be necessary inthe building of the project.

• The plot’s conditions. Many people wishing to live “in harmony withnature” seek a piece of land covered with native forests and intactecosystems. But this is a big mistake, because if you do so, normally whatyou’ll be doing is precisely bring degradation and pollution to that placewhere those problems didn’t exist before. Of course it is always nice tohave some forest on your property for you to enjoy and above all protect;however, it is important that the piece of land you choose for a ruralpermaculture project can actually beneft from the project. Therefore, it ispreferable to pick a piece of degraded land so that you can put your efortsinto restoring the soil, water and ecosystem in this place, so you’ll have apositive role on the environment. But you have to be careful with verychallenging plots that will bring excessive difculties in establishing theproject, because that will demand much more resources and time for you tomake the place liveable or get any yield, which can make your project notviable.

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It should be stressed that the criteria used for choosing a piece of land for apermaculture project are diferent from those used by conventional farmers. Thatis because the goals are radically diferent: while the permaculturist seeks anatural and sustainable lifestyle in harmony with nature, the ordinary farmer onlyseeks fnancial success for his enterprise, in other words, normally all he caresabout is proft. When you start looking for plots of land to start yourpermaculture project, you’ll hear many people suggesting that you should chooseonly properties with fertile land and plenty of water—the criteria used by mostfarmers. But to the permaculturist, these are not priority, as we are interested inbuilding soil fertility and cultivating water, rather than just exploiting suchresources.

Acquiring a piece of land. You may love or hate the idea of private landownership; however, the fact remains that this is currently the predominantsystem in our society and therefore the reality to be faced by nearly everyoneinterested in starting a rural permaculture project. You may think it’s theweirdest or most unfair thing to regard as private property a piece of the planetthat has existed there forever without it being anyone’s merit, and particularly inthe so common cases where that piece of land is practically abandoned, kept assomeone’s property just for the sake of accumulation of wealth, etc., but even ifyou think this idea has to be revised, it is useless or at least counterproductive totry to change that right when you are thinking of starting a permaculture project,when you are already sure to have to face so many other challenges. Therefore,you’d better be pragmatic and accept the fact that to start a rural permacultureproject, you’ll need money to buy land (unless, of course, you already own land).

A permaculture project is a long-term project: building soil fertility,planting water and restoring ecosystems, all that takes some time to achieve andstart seeing a return or benefts, which will then be permanent. Therefore, it isgenerally not advisable to start a permaculture project in someone else’s land.Maybe you’ll have a friend, relative or neighbour who has some idle land andmay be willing to lend you after hearing your ideas. There is nothing wrong inaccepting such ofer, and starting to do some things in that piece of land,especially if you are an inexperienced permaculturist who doesn’t have themeans to start a project for real, either because you haven’t enough fnancialresources to buy land, or because you are still stuck to things like college or ajob contract, etc. This type of opportunity may be useful for you to put intopractice the permaculture principles, acquire some experience, etc. But you mustalways bear in mind that it is a temporary project, so you’d better not make biginvestments, or create great long-term expectations, because the actual ownerwill take the land back at any time, and destroy everything you had been doingthere. This is very common. Therefore, take the opportunity if you will, butdon’t create any bonds with land that is owned by someone else! This samerecommendation applies equally to urban permaculture projects, as we shall

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discuss further on, in chapter 13.

Unfortunately, loans are not generally available to people interested instarting a permaculture project. Loans for land purchasing are generallyrestrictive and quite tricky; oftentimes, they are conditioned to an obligation tofollow the technical recommendations imposed by the bank, which in practiceprevents you from doing permaculture, as the recommendations are usuallydictated by the paradigm of conventional agriculture.

Moreover, it is generally not a good idea to get into debt to start apermaculture project. That is not to say that permaculture can’t be proftable, butbecause it s a long-term and largely experimental enterprise, especially in case ofneophyte permaculturists, you shouldn’t count on a return on the investment inthe short and mid term. The debt and interest rate pressure can mean a sadending to a project that has just begun.

For all that, the safest and most recommended way to acquire land forstarting a permaculture project is with your own money. I know it may sounddisheartening, but if you don’t have enough money, it may be best to stick toyour job a little longer, or get a job if you don’t have one, and save as muchmoney as possible to be able to buy land in the shortest possible time. This“waiting time” is not necessarily a bad thing: during this period, the aspiringpermaculturist should get as much information as possible about permaculture—read books, watch videos, participate in forums… get practical experience doingvolunteer work on weekends and holidays, patiently look for the ideal piece ofland, checking all available options, etc. While doing this, the permaculturistmust carefully elaborate their project, putting in the concepts that are learnedalong the way, and the characteristics of the candidate plots of land, etc. All thistakes tame to do! Therefore, there is no room for haste. Now, if you don’t thinkyou can have enough income to make the money to buy land, then you shouldfocus on getting a qualifcation that will allow you to do that. Also because, aswe’ll discuss further on, the need for fnancial resources does not end at the landpurchase! You’ve got to be patient—all great achievements require patience,focus and determination, and it’s no diferent with permaculture.

Project implementation strategy.As we’ve just touched above, purchasing land is only one of the points

requiring fnancial resources. Suppose you luckily get a beautiful plot of land forfree, as a present, with full entitlement to it. Then what? Do you think you’ll justhop in there and “live happy ever after in harmony with nature?” Like, eatinggrass and bugs and sleeping in the open, in the sun and wind and rain?

Establishing a permaculture project inevitably requires, besides a lot ofpreparation (knowledge of permaculture in theory and practice) and considerabledoses of dedication and efort, also fnancial resources and a considerable lengthof time (some years). Therefore, probably the most important point insuccessfully establishing a permaculture project is your implementation strategy.

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You have to make a solid plan that will make viable your transition from yourcurrent reality to the desired one. Essentially, you have to keep an economicactivity or income source that will ensure your subsistence while living on theproject’s land or close enough to it (the nearest town, for example), while givingyou enough spare time to allow you to work on the project’s construction.

You can think, for example, in a part-time job, or as an autonomousprofessional, or start a business of your own, or ofering accommodations (suchas in a B&B), etc. An excellent option are jobs that can be done from home,over the internet, such as translation, proof-reading, editing, graphic or webdesign, etc., as they allow one to work from practically anywhere, as long asthere is an internet connection, with the plus advantage of great schedulefexibility. So, the options are countless, practically unlimited, dependingbasically on the permaculturist’s skills, the local demands, but especially on theircreativity, capacity to see opportunities and using them, fexibility anddetermination. Depending on the case, it may be necessary or advantageous toinvest frst in the acquisition of a new professional skill or qualifcation thatmakes the transition strategy viable.

Of course it is disheartening to keep yourself stuck to a type of job orprofession you actually don’t want, just to make viable your transition to a newlifestyle that you do want—a more natural and independent lifestyle throughpermaculture. Therefore, the most desirable would be a job or source of incomerelated to permaculture to support this transition. This is possible, as will bediscussed in chapter 17, “Consultancy and Service Provision in Permaculture”.However, that is not so simple, because the demand for such type of service isnot always sufcient, and as a rule neither does the beginner permaculturist haveenough experience to provide that type of service professionally.

In most cases, especially if you are moving to a new area or changing youroccupation, it is impossible to be sure whether your plan will work or not.Maybe there won’t be as much demand as you projected for the product orservice you plan to ofer, or maybe the costs and difculties will be higher thanexpected, etc. Therefore, it is vital that you make not only one plan, but consideralso other options; that is, a main strategy or plan A, and alternative plans B, C,etc. as that will give you much better chances of succeeding. It is critical that youhave all that worked out before you make the move, rather than receiving a blowif something doesn’t work, and desperately trying to improvise alternativesolutions then. That is very important!

Phases of implementation of a rural permaculture project

It can be said that the frst step for anyone interested in starting apermaculture project takes place before they even know permaculture: the frststep is wishing deeply a change towards a more simple, natural and healthy

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lifestyle, away from the artifcialization, exacerbated competition and lack ofmeaning that are so characteristic of the current society. That depends on theperson (some people seem well adapted to that society, which is actually quitedisturbing!).

Doubtlessly, the second step is learning permaculture, both in theory andpractice, as deeply as possible. And you should not deceive yourself: a two-weekcourse or just reading a book won’t get you prepared for that change! That is justthe beginning. This will be the subject of chapter 16, “Learning Permaculture”.

So, you decide the time has come for you to take the challenge ofembracing this lifestyle, to stop being part of the problem of our civilization’sunsustainability and starting to be part of the solution through permaculture.And you start to elaborate your project, and a transition plan. You’ll set theproject’s goals, the activities to be developed, the settlement model; you’ll decideon the project’s scale, choose the region and start looking for land to buy, whereyou’ll start your dream project (which could be your life’s project!), and devise asolid strategy for your transition.

In the designing of your project you’ll apply all permaculture principles andwill take into account all information contained in this book and others that youhave studied, and also all videos you’ve watched, and discussions inpermaculture forums, courses you have taken, volunteer work you’ve done inpermaculture projects, conversations and practical examples you’ve had and seenfrom inspiring permaculturists, etc. In fact, the elaboration of a project normallystarts at the beginning of your permaculture journey: as you start learning aboutpermaculture, ideas inevitably dance in your head, about what you are going todo, how your project is going to be. But of course many of those early ideas willchange along the way, as you acquire more knowledge and discernment.

Now you’ve checked all items on this list, and are ready to “make the leap”.So you’ll buy the chosen piece of land, and move to the place, be it on the plotitself or nearby (somewhere close enough for you to go to your plot every day),and you’ll start your transition economic activity (or activities).

At this early stage, the most important thing is for you to stabilizefnancially, to make sure your chosen economic activity is working, or make thenecessary adjustments to make it work, which means ensuring you have enoughincome for your subsistence, and enough surplus to invest in your project. It iscrucial that such stability is attained before you start making substantialinvestments in the project. Oftentimes, people too eager to see the projectmoving forward don’t give this point enough attention. More often than not, theyhave to abandon the project quite soon, in the frst months or years, because theysimply fail to survive.

This stabilization phase usually takes several months or even a few years.During this period, parallelly to your transition economic activity, you must

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experience your piece of land as much as you can. Pass all your spare time there,experiencing the place and the elements. Let yourself sink deeply into thoughtfulobservation, feel the passing of time, the hours of day and nigh; experience thesun and the rain, and the dew and the frost and snow. See the seasons change.There is an old permaculture rule, that you should wait a year before startingmaking big changes in the landscape such as messing with the vegetation,topography, building, etc. Of course this year is relative, could be more, couldbe less. But the most important point is that this period must not be of passivewait. On the contrary, it must be a period of active observation, which includesexperimentations. Plant several things, seeds and saplings, see what happens.Make small buildings, a small shed for keeping tools and hiding yourself fromthe rain; build a small experimental artifcial pond, to gain experience and alsofor you to have some water. All that will serve not only as good training and“warming up” (which is very important!), but also for you to tune up your ideas,which certainly will help prevent big mistakes that could have permanentconsequences.

Now you’ve decided where you’ll build your house, your ponds, yourproductive systems in general. You have an idea where your zones will be, etc.But, where to start? That really depends on the case. If you decided to movestraight to the project site but there is no house there, then building the housewill be priority—you can start living in a tent, or build a shed for you to livewhile you build your house. But this (starting by the house) will only be feasibleif you already have an easy water supply (e.g. a spring or stream in the property).Otherwise, you’ll have to start by the rainwater systems. You should start with asmall pond that can be built quick and will fll quick, so you’ll have water fast.That pond can be temporary or permanent. So, you can build your house, andnext you should build one or more bigger ponds, which will be permanent.Generally speaking, starting by the water systems gives many advantages, as theyfacilitate and guide the implementation of all other systems (house and otherbuildings, plantations and other productive systems).

Lastly in this case (that you started by the house), you’ll focus your efortson your productive systems. At this point you should already have many babytrees, because you’ll have been growing them from the beginning (see“Permaculture Lifestyle”, in chapter 14), and they should be ready for planting!

In a diferent scenario, in which you won’t be moving straight to the farmbut rather living in a house in town while you work on the building of yourproject, then the house will be the last to be built. What determines this choice,of moving to the project at the beginning or later, is your transition strategy, thatis, the economic activity you chose for the implementation of your project. Ifyou are a retiree, it will make more sense to think of moving straight into theproject’s property. Also, if you work over the internet, and as long as there is

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connectivity on the farm, it won’t make much sense for you to live in town,paying rent, having to go forth and back etc., so it would be better to move to theproject as fast as possible. Now, if you’ll work in the city, then it may make moresense to live there while you build your project. In this case, start by the watersystems, and next the productive systems. When your agroforest is grown andproducing, and you feel you can start living of that production, then you canbuild you house and move defnitively to the project.

As for the productive systems, it is important to split your eforts in abalanced way between establishing your orchard and food forest, and workingwith annual, short cycle crops such as manioc, maize, rice, beans, vegetables,etc. That means seeking a short term yield, without compromising your mid- andlong-term goals.

The importance of planning

One of the most common mistakes in establishing a permaculture project isfaulty planning. The lack of seriousness in this regard is one of the main factorsthat make projects fail, sometimes even before they start.

This is a typical scenario: you come across permaculture and getoverexcited with the whole thing, and decide to embrace this ideal and lifestyle.However, you don’t really care to carefully plan exactly how you’ll make thatchange. Fora a (poor) start, out of laziness or excessive confdence, you don’tcare to study about permaculture in depth and get the most information andknowledge possible, both in theory and practice through volunteer work, forexample. Then, when choosing a piece of land, you don’t bother weighingcarefully the options for places and properties, thinking about the options ofactivities to be developed, which ones will be more viable considering the typeof soil and climate, distances, market conditions, etc.—instead, you buy byimpulse. You don’t think of a schedule or a rational sequence of events in thebuilding of the project, neither do you worry about having a reliable source ofincome that ensures your livelihood while allowing enough spare time for you towork on the building of the project. You don’t bother trying to predict multiplepossible scenarios, understand the variables, elaborate alternative plans (plan B,C, D…) if things go wrong. In sum, many people think it is just so much easierto just assume “the universe will be on their side”, and make an abrupt move intopermaculture without preparing for it, just doing things as they please, assuminginstinct will do any trick. As a consequence, they start their transition process ina totally haphazard way, and from the beginning everything goes wrong: theplants won’t grow, water lacks, pests attack… building takes longer, is muchharder and costs much more money than anticipated; money runs out, confictarises between people… in other words, they fail completely in their endeavourand see themselves forced to go back to the previous lifestyle, broke and

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demoralized.So, the bottom line is: planning is essential. The problem is that many

people don’t know that, and maybe think permaculture is easy, which is adelusion. Planning is hard work! It demands protracted, continual intellectualefort, but it is completely necessary for the success of any enterprise, andespecially for a radical change in lifestyle, as is the case with permaculture.

Hard work, patience, persistence

Oftentimes, after getting into contact with the permaculture world andreading a book or taking a permaculture course, etc., everything seems to makeso much sense, and the neophyte may end up with the impression that thepermaculture principles will work as magic spells that will allow for the buildingof beautiful, comfortable homes, the establishment of highly productive andharmonious productive systems, etc. with very little efort and in a short time.Unfortunately, however, reality is quite diferent from that. As previouslymentioned, setting up a permaculture project invariably takes years, before itreaches maturity and full productivity—and we’re not talking about years ofwaiting, but years of continuous hard work. Therefore, for you to achieve results,you’ll need, besides thorough and careful planning, also massive doses ofdetermination, and also patience and persistence to actually make it, to see yourdream come true.

Here, I believe it is good to stress the diference between patience andpassivity. A patient person prepares the ground, moves on or makes their way toreach the desired destination, attain their goals, without hurry or haste. On theother hand, a passive person just waits for things to happen on their own, likethey are not in charge of their own life, so they tend to remain stuck in theirpresent situation without moving forward, or end up just drifting with thestream. So, generally speaking, if you want change, patience is a good thingwhile passivity is not. In fact, patience is essential for any profound, real, positivetransformation.

People who fail to realize the importance of patience often tend to acthastily, but that too is an error. To illustrate that, let’s compare two individuals:one that is hasty, and one that is patient. At a frst glance, it may look like thehasty one is moving forward faster—while the patient one is still studying,planning and saving money, he hasty one has already sold their car, bought a plotof land and is already building! But just to snatch defeat from the jaws ofvictory, as discussed above. The “slow moving”, patient person who will nothurry, but prepare adequately, elaborate a solid strategy, have the resilience todeal with unforeseen complications and tenacity to keep trying, reassessing,adapting, improving—that is the one who will succeed in their life change, andwill reap the rewards of their patience and persistence.

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Prepare for hard times

When we design a permaculture project, we must not have a static view ofthe world’s reality, as if things would for ever remain the same. We must bear inmind all the discussed in Part I, and plan according with the likely futurescenarios. It is especially important to take into consideration the followingfactors:

• Climate change. With the prospects of an ever hotter and dryer climate inmost regions of the world, prudence dictates that we design our rainwaterharvesting and storage systems with capacity to spare, as dry years tend tobecome more frequent and severe. Another point that is afected by theprospects of climate change is the choice of species to be included in yourproject. Make sure you include species that are highly adapted to water shortageeven if you live in a humid area, because there’s no telling what it will be like inthe future. Find out about useful species that are native to deserts and semiaridregions, such as prickly pear cactuses, date palms, etc., and include them in yourproductive systems. They can be your salvation in the future, depending on howthe climate turns out.

• Peak oil. We must avoid the excessive use of technologies which aredependent on petroleum today for the sake of environmental sustainability, butwhile this resource is available we almost inevitably end up using it in severalsituations, which is in agreement with the principle of appropriate technology.However, we must keep in mind that the end of the oil age will bring bigchanges, and we must be prepared for them. Maybe new technologies will beable to replace petroleum, maybe not. Therefore, it is crucial that in designingour systems and planning for the future, we don’t count on petroleum and, aboveall, don’ depend on it. Value and use all possible strategies that don’t depend onmechanization and motor transportation.

• Economic crisis and social structure collapse. I don’t wish to soundapocalyptic here, but as we’ve seen in Part I, we must prepare for the worst. Inthe event of a societal collapse, the less you depend on the economy, the state,institutions, technologies, etc., the better of you’ll be. You can think you arecompletely fne in your current job, your income situation, etc., but with thecollapse of society, all that can simply disappear. Therefore, it is always veryimportant that you seek some degree of self-reliance in your project. Make gooduse of the favourable current situation to make your transition in a safe, solidway; use the resources available, but strive to establish stable, self-maintainingsystems that will not need resource importation and especially technologicalresources in the future, because they may not be available for long.

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Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 10. The Permaculture House

10THE PERMACULTUREHOUSE

In many respects, conventional modern houses can be considered great—comfortable, safe and durable, all essential virtues that modern homes, ifproperly built, undoubtedly have. However, they also have their faws. Amongthem, we can cite:

• High environmental impact for their construction and maintenance.Conventional building materials, such as cement, bricks, cinder blocks andtiles, etc. depend for their production on mining which has a terribleenvironmental footprint, consume enormous amounts of energy andgenerate air pollution such as greenhouse gases and particulate matter,among others. Wood used in construction is generally derived fromdeforestation.

• Low efciency in resource use. Most conventional houses don’t harvestand store rainwater and don’t have water recycling or reuse systems. Theyalso have low energy efciency, which leads to an excessive consumption ofenergy for lighting, heating and cooling.

• They are pollutant. They utilize conventional sanitation systems, whichmeans they produce sewage that as a rule contaminates the environment(water table and/or watercourses).

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• No food production. Conventional modern houses refect a paradigm oftotal dependence (that is the opposite of self-sufciency). They are meantas a place for you to dwell, and just that. Their garden areas are becomingever smaller and ever rarer, so they are not particularly favourable to foodproduction.

• High cost. Most people commit a great deal of their life’s time to payingmortgage, often 20 years or more, while some of the poorer people canactually die of old age before they can say they own their house.

The permaculture’s challenge regarding housing is to solve or minimizethose problems, without compromising on the positive aspects of modernbuildings, such as comfort, safety and durability.

Permaculture house design

The permaculture house has high energy efciency. It is made with naturalmaterials and techniques which, besides having low environmental impact,naturally provide thermal comfort, reducing or eliminating the need for heatingor cooling. It also employs passive solar design and includes systems forharvesting, storing, utilizing and recycling rainwater. Moreover, in permaculturethe house is seen as not only a place for you to hide at night and sleep, and keepyour stuf and have some meals, but rather a place for you to live, and also growfood around and inside it.

We also utilize ecological sanitation systems (the subject of chapter 11), sothe permaculture house does not pollute the environment with sewage. Lastly,the natural building techniques allow virtually anyone to build their own house,which creates a much higher level of connection and intimacy with the house,besides potentially saving lots of money.

House size

The permaculture house is not very big. It must be just big enough. Housesthat are bigger than necessary occupy too much space, usurping it from the othercreatures of the Earth. They also consume more resources for their constructionand maintenance, more water, more energy, etc. than necessary—and that’sforever! It seals a bigger area of soil. It also means more work to keep it clean,consuming an invaluable resource: time of our lives!

A big house is something a lot of people dream of—it is a status symbol, atypical vice in our megalomaniacal society. As a reaction to that trend, there istoday a movement for small houses—the tiny house movement. Some of itsenthusiasts advocate for really minuscule houses, as small as 20 m2. But you

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don’t have to be such an extremist—just use common sense.

Position

Several factors must be taken into account when picking a spot for buildingyour house, especially in a rural situation. Among them, we can highlightpractical issues such as ease of access and water and energy fows on the land,matters related to well-being such as privacy and aesthetic harmony, and ethicalquestions regarding the building’s impact on the environment and the landscape.

Ideally, the house should be placed somewhere around mid-height in theplot—never at the top, never at the bottom. That allows an area big enoughabove the house level for harvesting and storing rainwater for use in the houseand zone one, as we have discussed in chapter 8 (“Water in Permaculture”), andalso enough area below the house level for us to deal with the effluents from thehouse (greywater), using it for watering, irrigation and fertigation, preventingthem from exiting your property, contaminating waterbodies or causing nuisanceto neighbours, for example (greywater will be discussed in detail in next chapter,“Ecological Sanitation”).

Another important point is the house position relative to the sun. Place thehouse so as to amplify the benefts of sunlight (see the item “passive solardesign” further below).

A common mistake is to build a house right in the middle of a forest orclose to big trees, where wildfres and falling trees can have catastrophicconsequences. Build houses at a safe distance from forests and tall trees.

Impact on the landscape

You must always take into account the efect your house will have on thelandscape. Build a beautiful house that integrates harmoniously with the

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Rainwater catchment area

Artifcial pond

House GardenOrchard


landscape where it’s inserted. The disregard for this point is a frequent cause oftrue landscaping disasters. Be responsible for your role on the landscape!

Impact on the topography

When you design and build a house, you should always try to interfere aslittle as possible with the topography. When building in a relatively steep terrain,instead of making a big earth moving operation carving out the slope to create alarge enough plateau to ft the house, you can split your house plane in diferentlevels or “steps”, distributing the ground foor rooms on them, connected withshort fights of stairs. The same strategy goes for the external area, where thesteps extend laterally as terraces, where you can plant your gardens. With thisapproach, you can greatly reduce the amount of energy consumed in earthmoving; you also reduce the negative impacts on the topography, which meansless environmental damage, and as a result you have a gracious, interesting,organic-looking house, harmoniously integrated with the landscape where it isinserted.

Shape

We live in an era of rectangular buildings—nearly every building is arectangle, or a combination of rectangles. Each room is a rectangle too. Now,look at a multi-storey building, and you’ll see a rectangle; look from anotherangle—another rectangle. Look from above… rectangle! However, manypermaculturists and natural builders prefer round shapes.

The tendency to build in rectangular shapes is not something new. Look atthe medieval European buildings, the Roman Empire ruins and Ancient China(e.g. Forbidden City), and you’ll see virtually always rectangular patterns. Eventhe ancient pyramids of Egypt, Sudan, or the Mayan and Aztec’s, all have asquare base, and a square is nothing but a particular type of rectangle!

On the other hand, nearly all tribal, primitive and nomad societies have

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Retaining wall

Stairs

Fill


always built their dwellings in round or roundish shapes. Look at the traditionalBrazilian Indian houses, or the North American tipis, the Mongol yurts, theEskimo igloos… The same goes for tribal peoples of Africa and Oceania, andeven in the European continent, most “barbarian” peoples’ dwellings were round-shaped.

Isn’t it intriguing that natural builders, without even giving it a thought,have the tendency to reject square shapes which are characteristic ofmegalomaniacal and unsustainable civilizations (of which ours is the mostextreme example) in favour of rounded shapes, typical of more primitive, simpleand sustainable societies’ buildings? Coincidence or not, who’s to tell?

The ancient Chinese tradition of feng shui (風水) may propose a theory tofavour round shapes—according to that “science”, angular shapes would causestagnation of qi (氣), leading to insalubrious environments, while round shapeswould favour the fow of qi, contributing to wholesome environments.

But you don’t have to agree or worry about any of that. Now, dealing withmore practical considerations, curved walls, because of their tridimensionalnature, tend to be much stronger structurally than fat, “bidimensional” walls.Therefore, they allow for frmer and safer structures and/or economy ofmaterials. On the other hand, it is undoubtedly easier to arrange furniture inrectangular rooms, and it’s also easier to build a roof on rectangular rather thanround buildings.

Of course it is perfectly possible to build houses that are beautiful, safe anddurable, either in rectangular or rounded shapes or others, as long as you don’ttry to break the laws of physics and use appropriate materials and techniques forbuilding. In the end, regarding the house’s shape what matters most is thepersonal preference, good taste and building with seriousness and competence.

A well built house, with adequate shape, size and placement, harmoniouslysurrounded by gardens, natural landscapes and gracious paths — all depends onmaking the right choices and building with skill, resulting in a house where you’llreally want to live, a place to call home, and be happy.

Energy efciency and passive solar building design

There is a host of design strategies that can be used to maximize thepositive efects of solar irradiation while minimizing negative efects, naturallyleading to a good thermal comfort in the house, reducing or eliminating the needto consume energy for heating or cooling.

The most basic item for passive solar design is the appropriate size andpositioning of walls favouring natural lighting and ventilation—there is nothingworse than a house with no windows and the lights on all day! That appliesanywhere in the world.

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In cold climates, there are several techniques that can be used to catch andstore sun energy, increasing the internal average temperature in several degreeswith no energy cost. For example:

• An attached greenhouse facing the winter sun (that is, facing south if youlive in the northern hemisphere, and facing north in the southernhemisphere). A greenhouse is just a room or shed made of glass on a metalframe. They work by the following principle: solar radiation penetratesthrough the glass and a good deal of it is retained in there in the form ofheat, thus bringing up the internal temperature. That’s why they are usefulto grow vegetables and fowers in cold regions. When you make agreenhouse attached to the house, this heat can be used to warm up thehouse—all you have to do is open the door or windows that connect thetwo spaces. Sunrooms, which are similar to glassed verandas, are avariation of attached greenhouses and work very well in passive solardesign. Even big windows or glass walls facing the winter sun can help heatthe house, by the same principle.

• Solar energy collector-irradiator. A dark coloured, high thermal massstructure such as a stone wall painted black, or a dark foor, etc., placedclose to the abovementioned windows, receiving solar radiation during theday, catches that energy converting it to heat, which is slowly released tothe internal environment increasing the temperature substantially, up toseveral hours into the night.

• Insulation is an obvious necessity in cold climates, to prevent heat leaksfrom your home. Doors and windows should seal tightly, and double-glazedwindows should be used to minimize heat transfer. Some natural buildingmaterials such as strawbale also provide good thermal insulation.

• Planting deciduous trees around the house in the predominant sundirections is also an important technique. In the summer the trees provideshade keeping the house cool, and in the winter they’ll shed their leaves,allowing the sunlight to hit the house, heating it.

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Summer(shade)

Winter(sun = heating)


In warm climates, the goal is the opposite: to prevent excessive heat. Tothat, the following techniques are useful:

• Houses with high ceiling have cooler internal temperature. Also, an atticprovides good insulation for the rooms below, as any heat coming from theroof will be retained there.

• Green roofng (which will be discussed further below).

• Tilting windows placed high on the walls, near the ceiling, are useful to letthe hot air out (as hot air is less dense and therefore goes up).

• Planting good shade trees all around the house, preventing solar incidenceon the walls and the ground, helps cool the internal environment. Roomyverandas also help, by the same principle.

There are some universal rules for thermal comfort. For example, regardingwindows, the rule is always the same: if the air outside the house is nicer thaninside, open the windows; now, if the air inside is better than outside, then closethe windows. That applies both for heat and cold.

Certain building materials and techniques also naturally give thermalcomfort. For example, thick raw earth walls, such as cob, adobe, earthbag andrammed earth that we shall discuss further. The mud walls, once dry, retain aconsiderable amount of entrapped air in between the sand and clay particles,which makes it a poor heat transferrer (in other words, a thermal insulator).Moreover, the thick, heavy walls have considerable thermal mass and inertia.These factors in conjunction mean raw earth buildings are cool in the summerand warm in the winter, so they are great for most climates. However, aspreviously mentioned, for really cold climates, strawbale may be particularlyattractive, because of its higher insulating value.

Making use of soil thermal inertia

The sun heats the ground during the day and, at night, the soil graduallygives that heat back to the atmosphere. This cyclical fuctuation of the soiltemperature is greatest on the surface and its intensity reduces exponentially withdepth in the soil profle because of the soil’s great thermal inertia. From a certainpoint, usually around 2 metres below surface, the temperature becomespractically stable, varying but a few degrees from the local annual averagetemperature.

Because it is a sheltered environment, the air temperature inside the housenormally varies much less than the external temperature, but even so it stillvaries substantially through the day. Now, the temperature constancy at thedeeper (though accessible) soil levels creates great opportunities both to harvest

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heat (heating in times of intense cold) and to dissipate excess heat (cooling intimes of intense heat).

To that, several techniques have been developed and are currently in usearound the world, particularly in cold climate regions, including heat pumps thatutilize water and other fuids as thermal energy conductors, underground forcedventilation ducts, among others. However, simpler technologies for exploiting thesoil thermal inertia have been used by mankind for millennia. A great exampleof this are the ancient desert peoples’ dwellings carved in rocks. We all knowthat in the desert temperature variations through the day are extreme, from verycold at night to very hot during the day. By digging their homes into rocky hills,ancient desert peoples of several parts of the world were in fact utilizing theground thermal inertia to have their homes at a nice, stable temperature all thetime.

Another classical way to beneft from soil thermal inertia is with thetraditional cellars. A cellar is an underground or partly underground room builtunder the house. Because they are built 2 to 3 metres below the ground level,cellars have practically constant, cool temperatures. Traditionally, cellars havebeen used to store foods such as roots (hence the oft-used name root cellar),tubers, fruits, nuts, etc., allowing for their storage for long periods before electricrefrigeration. Cellars can also provide ideal conditions for making and storingwine, for example.

For greater efciency, the cellar must be built adequately: its walls and foorshould be built preferably in stone to provide optimal heat transfer between theinternal air and the soil around. It must have windows or hatches to allow somenatural lighting and ventilation when desired or needed, but they should bedouble-glazed and tightly ft to provide proper thermal insulation. Another

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0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

5

10

15

20

25

30

External

Internal

Soil at 2 m depth

Hour of the day

Te

mp

era

ture

(°C

)

Graph: illustrative example of temperature variations through the day outside (external), inside the house (internal) and 2 m deep into the soil.


important point is to take appropriate measures to ensure drainage andwaterproofng of the walls and fooring, to prevent infltration and moistureproblems.

We can exploit the same principle to beneft other rooms in the house bybuilding them partly underground. This is easy to do when you are building in aquite inclined topography—all you have to do is build the house in an cut carvedinto the hill, so that the house’s wall doubles as the retaining wall. The roomsthat are built into this cut, therefore below the original ground level, will beneftfrom the thermal inertia of the surrounding soil, leading to a great stabilizationof their internal temperature. These will be the coolest rooms in the summer,and the warmest in the winter, naturally and without any energy consumption.Whether it’s your sleeping room, living room or an ofce, on extremetemperature days you won’t want to get out of there!

Solar water heating

There is great variety of home solar water heating systems available on themarket, but there is also an even greater variety of simple and efcient modelsthat you can make yourself at a low cost. For example, a spiral made with a high-density polyethylene tube placed on the house roof facing the afternoon sun.Water comes from the water tank and passes through the spiral where it isheated by the sun, then going to the shower, taps, etc. where hot water is wanted.For greater efciency and durability, you can cover the spiral with a low sheetmetal cover painted black and well adjusted to the roof surface. This cover willhelp heating the water and keep it hot for longer into the night. Moreover, it willprevent the deterioration of the plastic tube by solar radiation.

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Simple DIY solar water heating system


Natural building

Nowadays, as far as construction is regarded, we live in an age of concrete.Cement is everywhere, and to architects, engineers, builders and people ingeneral it is kind of impossible to build anything without it. However, thePortland cement that we use today only became popular from the beginning ofthe 20th century, which means that up until a little over a century ago, humanityfared pretty well without it.

As we know, construction is an industry of high environmental impact,with all the mining, fabrication and transportation involved, besides thegeneration of enormous amounts of waste. Therefore, in permaculture we focuson natural building techniques that have low environmental impact and are muchmore sustainable.

In natural building, we use materials such as earth, stone, bamboo, straw,etc., which are often available on site or in the vicinity. That means they can beobtained at low cost, sometimes virtually for free. Also, they are ecologicalmaterials, as they are not derived from mining, don’t require calcination,smelting, or even fuel for long distance transport, etc. Waste materials such asold tyres, glass and plastic bottles, conventional construction wastes, etc. areoften upcycled in natural construction.

Natural building utilizes fexible techniques that can be done by practicallyany person, without the need for machinery or skilled labour. That allows thepermaculturists to build their own homes, which gives freedom for the design, agreat sense of fulflment and connection with the house, while also savingmoney.

Most techniques used in natural building are traditional techniques, oftenethnic and even primitive, having been used by humanity for centuries ormillennia. Natural construction so means a movement for the rescue andpreservation of that knowledge of diferent peoples around the world. Thefusion, adaptations and even development of new techniques are also common innatural building.

Another great advantage to natural building is that it practically doesn’tgenerate waste, and its materials are recyclable. Let’s look, for example, at an oldwattle and daub house with a thatched roof that you decide to do away with. Thethatch can be used as mulch, or as cover material in your compost bin; wood thatis still in good shape can be used again in new constructions, while the bad onescan be used as frewood and the half-rotten ones can be used as mulch, or tomake compost bins, or used as log erosion barriers, etc. The mud from the wallsand the stones from the base can be reused in new natural buildings, etc. so nowaste is produced! And even if you don’t do any of that, and simply leave the oldhouse there, it will slowly disintegrate, and its materials will be naturallyincorporated in the environment without causing any harm.

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In sum, the goals and advantages of natural building are:

• Building with the littlest environmental impact possible, sparing naturalresources and producing no waste.

• Attaining a pleasant aesthetic result of simplicity and rusticity,harmoniously integrated with the surrounding natural environment.

• Favouring self-building, with minimal need for external resources such asmaterials and skilled labour.

• Building at a reduced cost, or in situations where modern conventionalbuilding materials are unavailable.

• Coherence with the permaculture lifestyle, both with regard to principlesand aesthetic, thus strengthening the movement’s identity.

• Rescuing and preserving ancient traditional knowledge and the connectionwith those cultures, etc.

The natural building techniques and materials are countless, and theirchoice depends on factors such as climate, local availability of materials, thepermaculturist’s tastes and skills, local culture and history, etc. It should bestressed that locally abundant materials should always be prioritized, as thisrepresents economy, prevention of environmental impact associated withresource importation and also results in greater harmony and identity with thesurroundings and the region. Valuing and rescuing locally traditional buildingtechniques also helps strengthening this identity.

Although there is a great variety of materials that can be used in naturalbuilding, which include stone, straw bales, leather (tipi), and even snow (igloo),raw earth is by far the most commonly used worldwide because of its immensevalue and availability; therefore, we will focus our discussion of naturalconstruction techniques on raw earth building techniques.

Preliminary considerations on building with earth

Raw earth is not so rigid as concrete or ceramic tiles—which is notnecessarily a disadvantage. To deal with that, normally we make thicker wallsthat we normally would using conventional modern building materials, so naturalbuildings have thicker and more porous walls. Such walls have greater thermalmass and insulation, resulting in better thermal comfort—internal temperaturestend to be more stable, varying less with external oscillations comparatively toconventional buildings. They also have better breathability. Yes, that’s right,walls that “breathe”! That is they allow for more gas exchange, and as a resultthey are not prone to condensation and don’t retain humidity as much asconcrete. For all that, raw earth walls aren’t prone to developing mould and dustmite problems, leading to much more comfortable and healthy environments.

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Protection against moisture

Raw earth buildings need doubled attention regarding humidity. That isbecause raw earth, if wet, loses its strength which may compromise thebuilding’s safety.

There are a number of measures that must be taken to prevent problemswith excess moisture. The frst of them is the placing of the building—youshould pick high spots, that is, avoid low places that tend to accumulaterainwater; for extra protection against humidity, it may be a good idea to make asmall embankment for the house so it sits a bit higher than the ground level. Avital structural detail to prevent contact with soil moisture is the building’s base,which should be made preferably with stone—mud wall must never be builtdirectly on the soil. Also, the roofs must have relative long eaves, with anoverhang of at least 80 cm, preventing raindrops from hitting the walls. Guttersmust be installed to prevent splashing on the lower parts of the walls (besidesharvesting rainwater for storage and use, of course), and the walls must beplastered and preferably covered with some repellent or resistant material on thelower part, such as stone, tiles or sealing coatings, to prevent wear by the impactof rain.

Foundation

The foundation must be built with a very dense and resistant material tosupport and distribute the house’s weight, preventing cracks. Stone, whenavailable, is the ideal material for the foundation as besides meeting the criteriaabove they are also good humidity barriers, helping prevent humidity creepingup from the soil to the walls by capillarity. Another good option is the reuse ofbig concrete chunks produced as waste in demolitions (concrete columns andbeams, for example), which can be used instead of stone. Or else, you can makea conventional concrete foundation, but in such case you must use an efectivemoisture barrier, otherwise the concrete will transfer soil humidity to the walls.

The importance of fnishing

As in any building, it is always important to give natural building walls aproper fnish. Oftentimes, natural builders wish to “boast” that their homes werebuilt with earth, so they leave them unfnished, just for everyone to see. That isnot a good idea as besides compromising aesthetics the lack of proper fnishingalso compromises the building’s durability and can create other problems such asproviding cracks and fssures that can encourage the proliferation of undesirablecreatures like cockroaches, scorpions and bloodsucking bugs.

In natural building, the fnishing can and should also be done with lowimpact, natural materials and techniques.

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Natural building techniques

Cob*

Cob is probably the most rustic, primitive, simple and natural constructiontechnique—hence its beauty! It is also incredibly fexible and at the same timerobust and safe, as long as properly done. The cob technique essentially consistsof hand-sculpting your house, or at least its walls, with mud.

One of cob’s advantages is its extreme plasticity, that is, the freedom itgives you to build in varied styles and shapes. You can build anything from a“normal”, square and smooth house that nobody would suspect is made of mud(except maybe from the thickness of the walls) to the most alternative andunconventional shapes—as long as you respect the limits imposed by physics, ofcourse.

Despite its baffling simplicity and primitiveness cob is an extremely safeand durable technique. Cob houses can last for centuries, no problem.

Building with cob

The mud

One of the cool things about building with earth is that you normally canmake your house using the soil you already have in the property. Loamy soils areadequate for building, but they must be free from organic matter, in other words,only subsoil is used, not topsoil. The ideal sand:clay rate is something around 2:1(two parts sand to one part clay). However, this proportion is quite fexible, andsoils with a clay content anywhere between 15 and 50% can be used, noproblem. In practice, that means that most loamy soils will work for buildingwith cob (as well as the other raw earth techniques described below).

Soil for building should be obtained in a way that does not causeenvironmental impact, like deforestation, increasing propensity to erosion orafecting the landscape, etc. The source of soil should be as close as possible tothe building site, thus reducing the costs and environmental impacts relative totransportation, especially when you consider that the amount to be moved issubstantial. An intelligent option is to dig water reservoirs such as artifcial pondsor underground cisterns and use the earth produced in the digging for building.Another extremely smart source of loam for building are infltration basins thatcollect runof from dirt roads. With the inevitable erosion of the road surface,such basins will collect, besides water, dirt (sand and clay). Therefore, they haveto be regularly cleared, which means a supply of building material.

* Becky Bee’s The Cob Builders Handbook is an essential reading for anyone interested inthis natural building technique.

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Making cob

Prepare a clear, fat spot for mixing the cob, as close as possible from yourbuilding site. You bring the soil to this spot, break any chunks with a hoe, addstraw and other additives (if any) and water, and start mixing with the hoe. Next,you must tread the mud with your feet—to many, this is the funnest part ofbuilding with earth! You can tread in groups, and sometimes people add musicand improvised dancing to the work making it a real party!

Mix and tread the cob, adjusting the water content until it gets a relativelyfrm yet plastic consistency. If it’s too hard and crumbly it’s too dry, so you addmore water; but if it’s too soft and won’t keep its shape, than it’s too wet—addmore soil. Getting the right water content is important, as a dry cob won’t adherewell so the wall will be porous and frail. On the other hand, excess of water (likean overwet mud) will cause the wall to crack excessively when it dries.

Additives

Perfectly good buildings can be made with plain earth as described above.However, although not strictly necessary, most natural builders of the presentand the past in all regions of the world have included additives to the cob mix toimprove its characteristics and the building’s quality. The main additives arestraw and fresh bovine manure.

• Straw. Adding straw can increase the strength and reduce the tendency tocracking on mud walls. For that, you can reap or even pluck grasses andleave them in the sun for a few days, then chop it with a machete and awood block (or a grass chopper, of course, if available) to pieces 3 to 5 cmlong. Add this chopped grass to the cob mix. You’ll notice that the strawmakes the cob drier, making it necessary to add also more water to get themix to the right consistency. You should use thin leaved grasses, includingrice and wheat crop residues if available. Avoid grasses that have broadleaves or thick stems. The amount to be added varies, but as a startingpoint you can use a 1:10 rate (one part straw to ten parts soil by volume).

• Manure. Fresh bovine manure can be used at a 2 to 5% rate in the cobmix to increase its strength and resistance to erosion. Manure is anextremely traditional additive in raw earth building. It is assumed that themucus and plant fbres contained in the faeces are responsible forimproving the cob characteristics. Although cow manure is the mostcommonly used, as it is normally the most abundant, you could also use anyother big herbivore’s, whichever is available.

Building the wall

Take big handfuls of cob and apply with a deft move onto the foundation,forming a layer about 10 cm tall and the width you wish the wall to have. Do itall around the house’s foundation, including internal walls. Accessory structures

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such as couches, shelves, freplaces, etc. can also be build with cobsimultaneously with the house, in a single structure with the walls! But that is notnecessary, you can leave those to make later, when the house is ready.

Every time you apply a new handful of cob to your wall (or otherstructure), you should massage it with slaps and pressing with your fngers or astick to mold and get a better fusion with the rest of the wall. Once the frst layeris fnished, you can start a new one on top of it. You can make up to some 2 or 3layers in one day; then you’ll have to wait until the cob dries and hardens enoughso you can apply more layers—normally 2 to 3 days, depending on the climate,rains, etc. It is a good idea to cover the top of the walls with a tarp or a layer ofstraw, etc. at the end of the day, in case it rains. At the beginning of a newbuilding day, while you prepare the cob, you must wet the top part of of the wallyou’re building a few times, until it gets quite wet, to allow the new layers tostick well to them.

Window and door frames should be installed as the building proceeds.Electric wiring and water pipes also should be planned beforehand and ftted asthe walls are built.

The wall thickness varies a lot, mostly with the weight to be supported, thatis, the building’s height, if it’s one or two storeys, roof weight, etc. Normally, awidth of at least 25 cm for simple and low buildings is enough; 40 cm for asingle storey house, and quite thicker for two or three storey buildings. Youshould start building the walls thicker at the base, tapering of as the wall goesup, thinning 2 or 3 cm for every one metre in height.

Roof beams rest directly on top of the cob walls. If necessary, dependingon the size and weight of the roof, you can make the walls thicker to serve ascolumns under the roof beams.

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Cob walls are literally hand-sculpted.


Finishing

Hand-sculpted walls invariably end up with a quite irregular, rough surface.Some people may actually like such rustic feel, but you can get them much moreregular by “shaving” the walls with a metallic blade, such as a machete. Chop theexcess cob to get your walls to the exact shape, then they’ll be ready forplastering.

There is a principle that states that similar materials have afnity for eachother (“like sticks to like”). Therefore, you shouldn’t use cement-based plasterson earthen walls. Besides not sticking well, the diferences in expansion andbreathability cause cement plasters to crack and peel from the mud walls withtime. Therefore, you should always opt for natural materials also for the fnish.

Natural plaster can be prepared with a recipe very similar to cob itself,but with fner, sifted ingredients. Numberless variations are possible, but a basicrecipe for an earth-based plaster is fne sand and clay at a 2:1 rate, plus siftedfresh cow manure at some 10 to 20% in volume. Besides the aesthetic function,plastering reduces dust in the house and protects the walls against erosion.Variations on the proportions between sand and clay, sand grain size andadditives such as fbre (plant or others), as well as application techniques such aswith your hands, trowels, brushes or sponges, etc. can be used to give the plasterdiferent textures.

You can paint your walls with a basic lime paint or white wash, as itadheres very well to the cob walls and give great protection against wear withoutcompromising the wall’s breathability. Apply at least 3 coats to get a nice layerof lime paint.

Another great option are natural earth paints. They are very easy to make!All you have to do is sift the earth through a fne sieve, and add a mixture ofwood or paper glue and water to a thin pasty consistency, and apply to the wallswith a paint brush or roller, as you would with any other paint. You can usepractically any type of earth no matter what the sand/clay content, as long as it’snot pure sand. There are soils of countless diferent colours: yellow, red, black,white, grey… plus of course all tones of brown, which gives you all sorts ofcolour possibilities. You can also add natural colourants (e.g. annatto) orartifcial colourants for reaching a wider range of colours and tones. Theglue:water rate is quite fexible, ranging from 1:2 to 1:10, according with thetype of soil and the desired durability of the paint.

The fnishing materials and techniques described above can be used for cobjust as well as any other types of raw earth building.

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Adobe

Adobe is one of the oldest an most widely distributed natural constructiontechniques in the world. There are countless adobe buildings with centuries ormillennia of age, still in excellent shape and still in use! The word adobe itself isaround 4,000 years old, coming from Middle Egyptian, evolving into LateEgyptian, adopted into Arabic and assimilated into Old Spanish during theUmayyad conquest of Hispania, then spreading to other western languages.

The adobe technique consists basically of making raw earth building blocks(mud bricks) that are dried in the shade or in the sun, and building with themusing a mud mortar.

Making adobe bricks

Adobe bricks can be made with the same “recipe” used for cob as for thesand and clay content and also with regard to additives. The adobe mix is shapedin wooden molds into bricks, that are unmolded and left to dry in the sun.* Thebricks must be turned daily and kept protected from rain until they arecompletely dry, when they are ready to use. The brick size varies a lot, but acommon size is 10 × 20 × 40 cm.

Laying adobe bricks

The fresh mud mortar used to lay adobe bricks has the same compositionas the cob or adobe mix, except for the fact that it doesn’t take straw. Thebricklaying technique is essentially the same as in conventional building (i.e.with bricks or cinder blocks and concrete mortar).

* Many natural builders prefer to pre-dry the adobe bricks in the shade for some daysbefore taking them to full sun. This may be important to prevent deformations or excessivecracking depending on the adobe mix composition, brick size, local climate, etc.

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Making adobe bricks


Wattle and daub

The wattle and daub technique basically consists of making a lattice ofpoles intertwined with wooden or bamboo strips, rods, branches, etc. to serve asan internal frame to which mud is applied to make the walls.

Building with wattle and daub

After preparing the building site (earth moving and compaction), you sinkthe poles that will give support to the building. These must be rot-resistanthardwood or treated wood. Rotting can also be prevented to some extent byapplying tar to the portion of the pole that will be buried, or protecting it with animpermeable “boot” made with a sturdy plastic bag or tarp. Next, you build agood stone base for the walls. The wattle is then built: onto the poles you fx thehorizontal wooden strips using nails, wire or vines. The vertical stakes are fxatedto the horizontal strips by weaving and/or wire and vines, and they rest on top ofthe stone base.

Now it’s time for daubing! The daub composition is the same as describedfor the cob and adobe mix, and it must be applied simultaneously by two people,one on the inside and the other on the outside of the wall. Starting from the base,the handfuls of daub are applied in a deft move like in the cob technique, in asynchronized manner against the wattle at either side, so that the mud penetratesthe wattle flling its spaces without leaving any air pockets, adhering perfectly tothe wattle, the stone base and the previously applied daub.

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Building with wattle and daub

PoleWattle

Daub (mud)

Base


Dos and don’ts of wattle and daub

Do Don’t

• Stone or concrete base • Poles and stakes sunk in soil rotfast; moisture creeps up if wallstouch soil

• Use completely dried wood andbamboo

• Green wood and bamboo shrinkwhen they dry, losing adherencewith mud

• Adequate clay/sand rate andmoisture content

• Too much clay or too much water(overwet daub) leads to excessivecracking on drying

• Walls thick enough to completelycover the wattle

• Walls too thin, wattle exposed

• Proper fnish (plaster and paint)and maintenance

• Lack of fnishing and faultymaintenance, cracks host pests;impaired durability

Advantages and disadvantages of wattle and daub

Building with wattle and daub is generally quicker than with the other rawearth building techniques. That derives from the fact that the walls are thinner,so it takes less mud. For the same reason, they are also lighter. Therefore, wattleand daub walls tend to be less sturdy than the thick cob, adobe and rammedearth walls. They also provide less thermal and acoustic insulation.

However, as they are lighter they are more suitable for upper storeys, forexample. Also, because they are thinner, they are great for internal walls, takingless room space.

Rammed earth

In this technique, strong wooden planks are held in place by clamps or longscrews to form a moveable form for the walls. You add moistened earth into theformwork in layers 10 to 20 cm high, and ram it hard with a manual orpneumatic tamper; new layers are added to fll up the formwork, which is thendisassembled and moved forth, and the process repeated to proceed with thebuilding of the wall.

The walls must be thick, 40 cm or more depending on the building’s height.The soil composition can be essentially the same as in the other raw earth

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building techniques, with a clay content between 15 and 50%, and sand between50 and 85%. However, for use in this technique, the earth must be a bit drierthan in the previously described techniques. Moreover, additives such as strawand manure are less important in rammed earth, so they are generally not used.

Earthbag building

In this technique, which is very popular among natural builders nowadays,bags are flled with earth, piled up in layers and compacted with a tamperforming the walls.

The soil preparation is identical as in the rammed earth technique. Theyare in fact very similar techniques, except that in earthbag the “form” is providedby the bags rather than formwork.

You can use old natural fbre bags such as hemp or burlap; however, themost commonly used material for the container is polypropylene. Reclaimedbags (e.g. bulk rice bags) can be used but in practice used bags are rarelyavailable in enough quantity and quality, so the most common is to use newbought ones. The preferred choice is to buy 500 to 1000 metre long tubes inrolls, which are available from manufacturers who sew them into bags. Thecontainer may represent a substantial cost, which is a disadvantage of thistechnique.

The bags can be grossly divided in two types: solid-weave or woven mesh(raschel). For some reason, building with solid-weave bags is called superadobe,while building with raschel bags is called hyperadobe. Building with raschel ismore advantageous, as the open mesh allows for a good adherence between thelayers and also with the fnish (plaster). Moreover, they are generally cheaper,and represent less plastic use.

A plastic bucket with the bottom cut out is used as a funnel to help fll thebags with earth. The bags (or tube) are flled with earth and laid on thefoundation (or previously laid earthbag layers) forming a new course that is thenrammed with a tamper. Before the earth dries, you should also compact the wallson the sides, using a big rubber or wood mallet.

Finishing is done just like previously described for cob buildings. However,if solid-weave bags are used (superadobe), some natural builders prefer to burnthe plastic of the sides of the wall with a blowtorch to ensure plaster adherence.

Roof

The roof is a critical part of any building. If it’s not good, you’ll have leaksand in some cases even the risk of collapse. Therefore, even in natural building,

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many people end up opting for conventional roofs, because they are known to besafe, they are familiar to all and it is always easy to fnd materials and skilledlabour to build them.

However, there are also many roofng options that are natural, efective andsafe. Among them, we can cite thatch, green roofs and domes.

Thatch roofs

Thatch has been used as a roofng material for thousands of years bypeoples ranging from the most primitive to civilized, in all continents. Severalplant species have leaves that are adequate as roofng material, including grassessuch as wheat, many palm tree species, aquatic plants such as rush, reed, cattails,etc.

Thatched roofs are very attractive and can be very efective, as long asproperly built. With appropriate maintenance, which should be done at leastevery 5 years, they can last for decades or even centuries. Moreover, becausethey are light and fexible, they allow for the use of alternative, low impactmaterials in the roof structure, such as bamboo, as long as adequately treated fordurability.

A critical detail for thatch roofs is the fall, which has to be quite steep, atleast 45° (preferably between 50 and 60°), to help rainwater run of the roof,preventing infltrations and leaks, and also premature decay (rot) of the thatch.

Making a simple thatch roof is not difcult; however, making a good thatchroof can be quite complicated, requiring specialized skilled labour which can behard to fnd. Hobbyist and unskilled natural builders, when they venture intomaking thatch roofs, usually get leak problems. Therefore, if you want toexperiment with it, it is recommendable that you use this roofng technique inless critical structures such as sheds, chicken coops, etc. before using it on yourhouse.

Another limitation of thatch is that nowadays in most places there just isn’tappropriate foliage in sufcient amount and quality to build roofs.

You should bear in mind that thatch is fammable, so you should take extracare against fres.

Green roofs

Green roofs are very attractive with their unusual, picturesque andextraordinarily natural look. Moreover, they give the house excellent acousticand thermal comfort. And that’s not all—as mentioned in chapter 8 (“Water inPermaculture”), green roofs help retain rainwater and improve air quality in thecity, besides allowing for the production of beautiful fowers, herbs and food. Forall that, it is not surprising that they are a favourite to so many natural builders.

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Green roofs can be built in many diferent ways, with diferent techniques.The most common is to have a fat concrete roof with a fall of at least 2%,strongly sealed with asphalt or a sturdy plastic liner on top of which you add alayer of expanded clay pebbles to allow for good drainage, a permeable liner(flter fabric, carpet) and, lastly, a layer of soil that will be the substrate for theplants.

However, green roofs can also be built in simpler and cheaper ways,without the need for a concrete roof. On top of a conventional roof frameworkand plywood sheathing, you fx 5 cm thick battens horizontally, in lines spaced60 to 75 cm, all over the roof surface—the battens will create barriers that willhelp keep the soil in place. You should also fx wooden planks all around theroof, going at least 10 cm higher than the roof surface, to hold the soil. Cover itall with a protecting liner that can be old carpets or blankets or other material, asturdy impermeable plastic liner and another layer of carpet—this way, theplastic liner will be protected from direct contact with the sheathing and the soil,preventing damage to the liner. Lastly, cover it all with a 10 cm thick layer ofplanting soil, and plant grass seeds or lay grass sod, and that’s it!

Grass sod should be laid in the rainy season so it survives without youhaving to do a lot of watering. Once it is established on the roof, you can plantother things such as fowers, herbs and veggies, etc. directly on your roof lawn.Now, if you don’t want grass on your green roof, you can simply cover thesubstrate with a good layer of mulch, that will prevent the soil from runningdown with the rain. As the straw degrades, you’ll have the natural, spontaneousgrowth of local plants which will stabilize the roof soil permanently with theirroofs.

There are three critical points that require attention regarding green roofs:structure, waterproofng and maintenance.

You should bear in mind from the beginning that green roofs can besubstantially heavier than other types of roofs, and they get yet much heavier onrainy days. Therefore, the whole house structure, from the foundation to wallsand the roof frame, must be build strong enough to withstand that weight.

Also, no one wants a leaky roof! Besides the nuisance, leaks also make theroof frame rot (if it’s wood), leading to serious risks to the roof and the building.Therefore, waterproofng measures must be taken rigorously, and any leaks thatmay appear must be fxed immediately.

You should bear in mind that green roofs are somewhat seasonal: in the dryseason, most plants will wither and dry, and your roof won’t look that green…just to fourish again in the next rainy season! Remember: all gorgeous greenroof pictures that we see were taken in the rainy season. Don’t expect your roofto look like that all year round. In theory, you could keep your roof irrigated, butin practice that is seldom done, also because it would represent an excessive andunnecessary consumption of water, which can cancel out at least in part theenvironmental merits of this kind of roof. So, I believe it is best to accept the

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seasonal character of the green roof.Another critical point is maintenance, especially with regard to trees

growing on your roof. You’ve got to keep an eye on it, and cut trees that appearon the roof, because they have the potential to pierce through the impermeablelayer with their roots and literally destroy your roof. But don’t try to pluck thetrees, because that will bring together a large chunk of dirt from your green roof.You should rather just cut them, leaving the roots where they are—they will staythere, helping structure and fx the soil on the roof, so they’ll be actually useful.

Domes

Domes are rounded roofs or vaults that are characteristic of many ancientcivilizations. The use of domes as roofs for homes is quite rare in the modernWestern world, so dome homes have an exotic look.

Domes can be built with adobe, cob or earthbags, and also stone or brickmasonry. They can be hemispherical or egg-shaped, and the latter are easier tobuild, stronger in structure and also more resistant to rain.

Earthen roofs require sealing, for obvious reasons. Traditional techniquesinclude the use of fresh cow manure, and lime with cactus juice. Suchtechniques work very well in desert climates, where domes are traditionallycommon. However, in more humid climates, with higher rainfall regime, suchnatural materials have very limited durability, requiring constant maintenance,which makes them unpractical. In such cases, you can use ceramic or slate tilesand stone shingles, fxed with mortar. Castor oil-based polyurethane polymer canalso be used to seal earthen domes.

Conventional roofs

Conventional roofs can be built with reduced environmental impact, alongthe lines of natural building and permaculture principles. You can reuse tiles

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Dome building. Technique used: superadobe


from demolitions and building renewal works. Tiles of diferent shapes and sizescan be skilfully combined in a roof, especially in separate rows, giving the roofan unusual and stylish look! You can also use demolition lumber, although itsavailability is normally very limited, and the price often prohibitive. Anothergood option is the use of round timber for the roof framework, which has amuch lower environmental footprint than sawn lumber.

Considerations regarding costs

In natural building, we prefer using materials that are available within theproperty or nearby as much as possible. This can bring the costs associated withmaterials purchases down substantially. However, the process is generally slowerand more laborious, because you’ll have to harvest those materials and transportthem yourself; you’ll have to make your own bricks (in case of adobe, forexample) rather buying them ready-made. Moreover, raw timber and bamboorods are irregular and crooked, so they are much more difcult to build with. Inother words, nothing compares to buying ready-made, regular and smoothbuilding materials, and having them delivered at your doorstep the same day, asis normally the case with conventional modern construction. For all that, it isoften said that in natural building, the costs associated with materials is lower,but the labour-associated costs are higher, so that the fnal costs of your buildingmay be equivalent or even higher than in comparable conventional buildings.

This is especially true when you hire skilled labour to build. The good newsis that you can choose to build yourself and with the help from volunteers,friends and relatives. In this case, natural building can surely be much cheaperthan conventional construction methods.

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Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 11. Ecological Sanitation

11ECOLOGICAL SANITATION

To understand what ecological sanitation means, we must frst defnesanitation.

Sanitation can be defned as the infrastructure and operational services forthe provision of safe drinking water and waste management for the maintenanceof hygienic living conditions and thus disease prevention. In this context, wastecomprehends sewage and municipal solid waste. Our following discussion,however, will be focused on sewage.

Importance of sanitation

Faeces are a potential vehicle for the transmission of countless and seriousdiseases including bacterial infections such as shigellosis, cholera and typhoidfever; viral infections including hepatitis, rotavirus and enterovirus (whichincludes poliomyelitis), and parasite infections caused by protozoans such asgiardiasis, amoebiasis and cryptosporidiosis, plus countless worm infections (e.g.ascaris). Diarrhoeas caused by such diseases have been one of the main causesof mortality, especially child mortality, throughout human history, and still todayin the least economically and socially developed countries, as in most of Sub-Saharan Africa. All the abovementioned diseases (plus many others such asleptospirosis and mosquito-transmitted diseases) can only be efectively

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prevented through sanitation. That is why the incidence of such diseases indeveloped countries is nearly nil.

History of sanitation

In pre-history obviously there wasn’t any kind of sanitation, and therelationship of people and their excrements was probably very similar to otherspecies’. The faecal-oral route is a disease transmission route in all animalspecies, and can be associated with signifcant morbidity and mortality.Nonetheless, in natural conditions, the impact of this transmission rout on thepopulations’ health is often minimized by relatively low population densities, or amigratory behaviour, etc. And that was probably the reality for the humanspecies too over the hundreds of thousands of years that we roamed as hunters-gatherers.

However, with the rise of the frst civilizations, human populations becamesedentary and created dense settlements and eventually cities, which greatlyfavoured faecal-oral disease transmission.

In classical antiquity, the association between cleanliness and well-beingand health was noticed, and specifc measures started being taken for thepromotion of public hygiene. Especially notably in this regard were the IndusValley Civilization, ancient Greece and Rome, which had complex seweragenetworks as early as 4,000 years ago. Such systems took domestic sewage awayfrom the cities and discharged in waterbodies—rivers, lakes and seas—whileclean water was brought in from remote areas through aqueducts.

However, with the fall of the Western Roman Empire, also the idea ofsanitation disappeared from all Europe. Therefore, in the Middle Ages the normbecame… shitting anywhere. Defecating in the streets, or inside of home andthen dumping it in the street. Whoever lived nearby a stream or river surewouldn’t miss the opportunity to dump their excrements directly there. Also,water supply was done on an “every man for himself” basis, fetching water frompolluted rivers or digging domestic wells that would get contaminated easily.That caused a brutal upsurge of faecal-oral and waterborne diseasestransmission, including cholera and typhoid fever, among others.

In many places where sewage was collected, its potential as an agriculturalfertilizer was soon noticed. Raw sewage was used in agriculture in many parts ofAsia for centuries, and the same practice was also documented in places such asScotland, France, Germany and the United States in the Modern Era. In Asia,this practice remained common until the mid-20th century.

This situation would only change after the Industrial Revolution, andespecially during the 19th century, with the scientifc discoveries by Louis

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Pasteur and others about microbiology, that is, the existence of microorganismsas disease-causing agents, and its implications for hygiene and public health.

In the 20th century, public sanitation systems started to be instituted incities around the world, but in greatly unequal rates, so that today, in the 21 st

century, you still have examples of all stages of sanitation development describedabove in the diferent regions of the world, from open defecation, broadlypractised in Africa and India, etc., to precarious sanitation systems such as openraw sewage canals, cesspools (soak pits), raw sewage discharge into waterbodies,to sewage treatment plants, which are the norm in developed countries.Sometimes, in developing countries, you have examples of all stages of sanitationevolution within a single country, depending on the region. Often, within a singlecity, you have an area served by sewage collection and a sewage treatment plant;other areas have collection, but no treatment (sewage is discharged raw towaterbodies), and peripheral neighbourhoods or suburbs where there is no publicsanitation, so you have cesspools, raw sewage canals which can be extremelyprecarious, running between homes, with children playing all around, exposed toall types of diseases… a true tragedy.

Conventional sanitation

The standard public sanitation system today basically consists of a watersupply network (raw water collection, treatment facilities and distribution) andwastewater systems (collection, treatment and discharge of treated sewage). Withthis system, segregation between humans and their excrements is achieved, thusinterrupting the faecal-oral transmission of diseases.

However, this obvious public health beneft comes together with terribleenvironmental efects, of which the most common is water pollution of rivers,lakes and seas. To check it for yourself, just pay a visit to any stream or riverwithin your city and have a close look at the water, or the sea water quality inmajor coastal cities, and compare it with what you fnd in preserved naturalareas.

Of course it can be argued that such environmental damage is in fact aresult not of the conventional sanitation method itself, but rather the lack orinadequacy of the systems in most places. However, this is only partly true,because even where you have a compliance with the wastewater treatmentstandards, the effluent is far from being free from contamination! Of course thelevels of organic matter and pollutants in general are greatly reduced relative toraw sewage; nevertheless, sewage treatment plant effluents still have loads ofbacteria and chemical compounds of countless types and sources, so they arestill an important pollution source to the waterbodies where they are discharged.You wouldn’t want to swim or bathe there.

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Besides the problem of environmental pollution, this model of sanitationalso brings other big problems: excessive water use and soil nutrient waste.

The basic composition of domestic sewage is approximately 1% humanexcrements and 99% water, and about 30% of that water was used to fush thetoilet (think about it: clean, treated, drinkable water being deliberately mixedwith faeces and urine with the sole purpose of fushing it away), while the restwas used for numerous purposes such as bath and shower, laundry, doing dishes,general cleaning, etc.

Now, regarding our excrements, of course they are the fnal result of theprocessing of food by our body. So what happens is: the soil nutrients are takenup and utilized by plants to make the food we eat, then we process that food andthe fnal result is faeces and urine, which contain those nutrients. When humanwaste is discharged in the form of sewage into rivers and seas, that means thenutrients contained in them will never be returned to the soil where they camefrom. Therefore, in this system, you have a continuous transfer of nutrients fromthe soil where they would have the capacity to create life and produce food, tothe seas where they accumulate as pollution. So you have on one handprogressive impoverishment of soil fertility and decreasing food productioncapacity, and on the other hand progressive destruction of marine ecosystems,also reducing food production there. Now, project the situation in the future,with ever more people and ever less food producing capacity, and you’llunderstand why sustainability is important, and why the current sanitation modelis seriously fawed.

Ecological sanitation

Ecological sanitation (commonly abbreviated to ecosan) is a set oftechniques, infrastructures and hygienic practices that allow for the interruptionof the faecal-oral and waterborne disease transmission routes, thus fulflling thesanitation goals while not consuming excessive water, polluting the environmentor wasting nutrients, or causing any other harmful efects to the ecosystems, sothey are highly sustainable.

There are ecological sanitation techniques which are appropriate for allscales, from individual to large collective systems—for whole cities, for example.However, the implementation of large-scale systems depends on the publicadministration and, therefore, political will; as apparently our society is happyenough with the current model of “discharging shit into the river and lettingnature deal with it”, in practice small-scale systems are the only viable options tomost permaculturists for now.

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Ecological sanitation techniques

Composting toilet*

The dry composting toilet (also called simply compost toilet) can beregarded as the most ecological and sustainable model of ecological sanitation,and that’s why it is a permaculture’s favourite. In this system, human waste(faeces and urine) are deposited in a container and covered with a variety ofnatural materials called “cover materials”, in layers. That is left untouched for alength of time that can be of 6 months in tropical climates, to one year intemperate or two years in cold climates. During that period the process ofcomposting takes place, in which microorganisms naturally present in thosematerials grow, digesting that organic matter and converting it into humus, anorganic agricultural fertilizer packed with soil nutrients.

In the composting process, the intense microbial competition leads to thetotal destruction of potential pathogens present in the faeces, ensuring the safeuse of the humus in soil fertilization for food production, without risks to humanhealth. The temperature rise in the thermophilic composting process** and thepresence of ammonia derived from urea degradation† also contribute to thedestruction of potential pathogens. Besides pathogenic microbes, chemical anddrug residues are destroyed by the biological and chemical processes that takeplace during composting.‡

The dry composting toilet has great advantages:

• It does not consume water. Think about it, using a toilet for all your lifewithout having to use a litre of water!

• It does not produce sewage or any other kind of pollution.

• Great quality organic fertilizer is produced, allowing for the safe returningof nutrients to the soil for food production, environmental restoration, etc.In other words, soil nutrients in the excreta are not wasted, but completelyrecycled.

* Joseph Jenkins’ The Humanure Handbook is the most complete composting toiletreference.** Germer, J. et al. Temperature and deactivation of microbial faecal indicators during smallscale co-composting of faecal matter. Waste Management. 2010.† Jensen, P. K. et al. Survival of Ascaris eggs and hygienic quality of human excreta inVietnamese composting latrines. Environmental Health. 2009.‡ Kakimoto, T.; Funamizu, N. Factors afecting the degradation of amoxicillin in composting toilet. Chemosphere. 2007.

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Types of composting toilets

Broadly speaking, there are basically two types of composting toilets:vertical and horizontal. If you do some research, you’ll fnd many variations andeven commercial models available in many countries, some of which can bequite expensive, and sometimes require electricity to work, etc., but such“sophistications” in fact ofer no efective advantage over simple, inexpensiveDIY models. For that reason, we’ll focus our discussion on the basic models,which are also the most popular.

Vertical composting toilet

In the vertical dry toilet system, the toilet is built on top of a compostingchamber. The toilet itself is a box-like structure with adequate dimensions forsitting, an opening and a conventional toilet hinged seat with a lid. It can also bea squat toilet, i.e. with the opening at foor level, which is a common type oftoilet in many Asian countries, and many people regard as more natural andhealthy than sitting toilets.

The composting chamber is built right under the toilet. It must be fttedwith a vent pipe for exhaustion of gases produced in the composting process,and an access door for periodic emptying.

When you go to the loo, your excreta fall into the composting chamber.After each use, instead of fushing with water, you throw a certain amount ofcover material into the toilet, just enough to cover your excrements. And that’sit! The toilet is ready to use again.

Cover materials (also called bulking materials) include a range of naturalmaterials such as sawdust, wood chips, rice hulls, leaf mould, chopped straw,grass clippings and other plant residues such as mowed prunings and branches,etc. Other natural materials such as soil and ashes can also be added, as long asthey don’t make up a major part of the cover material. Kitchen scraps can alsobe added to the composting toilet as cover materials.

The cover material’s main and most obvious function is to block odoursderived from the organic matter degradation during composting. Other functionsinclude: absorbing excess humidity in the compost, keeping aeration andfavouring aerobic and thermophilic decomposition of organic matter, providing aporous substrate which is ideal for microbial activity, enriching and balancingthe nutrient content of the compost, etc.

When the compost chamber gets full, the toilet unit must be shut for theentire composting period (6 months to two years, depending on the localclimate). During that period, another unit must be used. For that reason, verticalcompost toilets are commonly built in double modules—two identical toilets side

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by side, with their respective composting chambers, which are used alternately:six months one, six months the other.

Once the composting process is complete, the chamber is emptied—thecompost is now ready to be used as fertilizer. The composting chamber sizevaries according with the number of people using the toilet, generally rangingbetween 1 and 2 cubic metres. Because the chamber is indivisible from the toilet,a minimum of two units must be built, even if for only one user. A sufcientnumber of toilet units must be built to allow for the closure of each unit for theentire composting period.

The advantage of this dry toilet model is its ease of use, as it can be usedcontinuously for months without any need for maintenance—that is done onlyonce at the end of each cycle.

However, this system also has disadvantages and limitations. Because theexcrements fall a long drop to the bottom of the composting chamber, even ifyou try to do your best at adding the cover material, you’ll probably fail to “hit”right on. Therefore, the covering is less efcient, which is a common cause ofodour problems. This problem can be mitigated to some extent with adequateventilation of the toilet (window) and compost bin (vent), and adding more covermaterial. Also, the unit must be well sealed, with a toilet lid and compostchamber door tight enough, and the vent must be ftted with a screen to preventfies from entering and breeding in the compost chamber.

Another disadvantage of this composting toilet model is the lack offexibility. Let’s say you build dry toilets for a three person home. However, forsome reason you get a long-term visitor, an extra dweller, or you have a veryactive social life, and the toilet is used more than expected. You may end up witha composting chamber full before the the other unit gas had enough time for thecompletion of the composting process, thus creating a problem.

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Vent

Toiletdoor

Composting chamber

Hinged seat

Compost chamber

door

Vertical composting toilet scheme (double module outhouse)


One limitation of this system is that it is generally not possible to retroft anexisting toilet with it. Sometimes it is possible to design and build a verticalcomposting toilet attached to the house if the topography is favourable, as thetoilet must be at least 1.5 m higher than the outside ground level, allowingenough space (height) for the composting chamber. Also there must be enoughroom outside to allow for the regular composting chamber clearing operation.However, in practice most people who utilize this system opt for building thetoilets as a separate structure outside the house (that is, an outhouse), which canrepresent a substantial cost, demands considerable space and can be consideredinconvenient (imagine you having to go out of the house to go to the loo in acold rainy night!).

All that being said, it should be pointed out that a lot of people utilize thissystem and are happy enough with it.

Horizontal composting toilet

In this system, the compost bin is detached from the toilet itself. It isdisconcertingly simple, consisting basically of a 15 to 25 litre plastic bucket, astandard toilet seat and a compost bin built outside of the house. To use thetoilet, all you have to do is remove the bucket’s lid, ft the toilet seat on top of itand use it as if it was a conventional fush toilet. After each use, add a handful ofcover material, just enough to completely cover the stuf you just did. Before thebucket is completely full (that is, before the material in it starts getting “tooclose”), it must be emptied: take it out to the compost bin and dump its contentsin there, adding a layer of cover material on top. The inside of the bucket mustbe cleaned after each emptying—you can wash it with water and an ordinarytoilet brush, and throw the water onto the compost bin. Alternatively, you canjust clean the bucket with the bulking material: right after dumping its contentsinto the compost bin, throw some sawdust in and rub it against the inside of thebucket with a dedicated “spatula”, a wood or bamboo strip. Dump that sawdustinto the compost bin as cover material. Cover the bottom of the bucket with alayer of new bulking material, and it’s ready to be taken back to the toilet forfurther use. So, not even to clean the bucket you need water! You can sanitizethe bucket’s inside applying a fne coating of wood ash, but that is not necessary.

When the compost bin gets full it must be coved with a generous layer ofcover material, have the date written on a visible spot and be left to rest for theentire composting period according with the local climate as previouslydescribed, after which it can be emptied—the compost will be ready to use asfertilizer. During that composting period, you must use another compost bin.You must have a sufcient number of compost bins to allow each one to restundisturbed for the entire composting period—that is vital.

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The fnal layer of straw or sawdust should be relatively thick, because thisgives extra thermal insulation, favouring the development of thermophiliccomposting.

Most people prefer to build a cabinet for the horizontal dry toilet bucket,which can be an easy DIY project. You can use scrap wood (salvaged pallets, forexample), sawn lumber or plywood. The bucket goes inside the cabinet, and theconventional hinged toilet seat with lid is attached to the cabinet top, which inturn is also hinged to the cabinet body to allow for easy removal of the bucket.

You don’t have to empty the bucket immediately after it’s full—you cankeep a few buckets ready, and replace them as they get full, and plan to emptythem all once a week, for example. Just keep the full buckets with the lid on and

you won’t have anytrouble—no smells, nofies, nothing.

The compost bin sizeis variable, but onecubic metre isgenerally adequate.They can be built withsalvaged constructionplanks and boards orold pallets, lumber oreven logs, etc. Dry

toilet compost bins should be well built so that they keep in shape for the entireflling and composting period (about a year at least). When scrap wood is used,which is often untreated softwood, the planks tend to rot quickly and many can’tbe used more than once, having to be replaced at the end of each cycle.Hardwood or treated planks can be used for many years.

The compost bins are built outside the house, but preferably not too far, forthe sake of convenience. It is generally a good idea to provide them with a roofto prevent excessive humidity loss during the dry season, and overwetting in therainy season.

You can build individual compost bins or a double module with a centralcompartment for cover material storage (see illustration below). The roof isftted with gutters and a tank for rainwater collection, which can be used to washthe buckets. The compost bins are used alternately: while one is in use beingflled, the other one which is already full is kept untouched for the entirecomposting period. If one compost bin gets full before the other one is ready foremptying, additional compost bins must be built.

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Horizontal compost toilet


In contrast with the vertical composting toilet system, the horizontal systemis extremely easy to use in your home with hardly any need for retroftting—allyou have to do is take the fush toilet away and put a bucket instead, and build acompost bin in the backyard, bring some bags of sawdust from the locallumberyard or woodworking shop, and that’s it! You are all set to start using adry composting toilet!

One of the things that make this system very interesting is its extremely lowcost, as it can be done entirely from reused materials. You don’t have and evenshould not buy a brand new bucket—there are many products which are sold inbulk in buckets of adequate size (15 to 25 litres), such as margarine for industrialuse, wall paints, water-repellent concrete sealers, chlorine for water treatment,industrial grease, etc. The used containers (buckets) can usually be found inscrapyards, big service stations and construction sites. These are nearly alwaysgreat quality, sturdy and durable buckets, with truly hermetic lids, and best of all,they can normally be got for free or hardly any money! The same goes for theother materials needed for this dry toilet system: wood planks for the compostbins which can be scrap wood, and sawdust which is normally given away at sawmills, lumberyards and woodworking shops.

COMPOSTING TOILETS FAQ

What should I do with toilet paper?

Toilet paper should be collected in the same toilet receptacle. Paper ismade of cellulose, which is nothing more than plant material. It decomposes

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Sawdust

Double module compost bin with central bulking material storage compartment

Adapted from: Joseph Jenkins. The Humanure Handbook (3rd ed.). 2005.


extremely fast in a compost pile, contributing to the organic matter content ofyour compost. It also gives a modest contribution absorbing excess moisturefrom your compost. There is absolutely no downside of adding used toilet paperto the dry toilet and compost bin.

Should I separate the urine?

Urine can be separated or collected together with the faeces. Althoughthere are advocates for either option, the fact is that both approaches have theiradvantages and disadvantages. This topic deserves a more thorough discussion,so we’ll deal with it in a dedicated topic further below.

To turn or not to turn?

It is a common practice among composters and especially organicgardeners to turn the compost pile frequently during the composting period. Thispractice would bring the following advantages: aeration of the compost favouringaerobic decomposition; fragmentation and homogenization of the compost, andalso a better distribution of the moisture content, allowing for a faster and morecomplete organic matter break down, yielding a fnal compost with improvedcharacteristics.

However, though all that is true, practice has shown that turning a compostpile is not necessary—maybe you’ll have a longer composting time, or your fnalcompost will be a bit less homogeneous, but in the end you’ll have your good,safe compost anyway.

The turning process has two main disadvantages. The frst and mostobvious of them is the labour involved in turning the compost, especially if it is abig volume. The other problem refers to health hazards: during the organicdecomposition process, there is intense proliferation of fungi in the compost,and the turning throws up in the air a large amount of spores which can pose athreat of allergies and even respiratory infections.

All that taken into account, and also the risk of faecal environmentalcontamination (that is, with faecal material before the completion of thecomposting process), the fnal conclusion is that dry toilet compost piles shouldnot be turned. Leave the compost alone during all the recommended compostingperiod, and you’ll have your compost. It should be pointed out that most of thescientifc research that has demonstrated the efectiveness of composting ineliminating pathogens has been carried out without compost turning, whichproves it is unnecessary.

Won’t it stink?

The short answer to this question is: no. A composting toilet shouldn’tsmell, and neither should the compost bin. Now, there are indeed two briefmoments in which you’ll inevitable have odours. One of them, obviously, is whenyou go to the loo, especially for taking a shit. Not only because it stinks in any

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toilet, but also because of a little additional factor: in fush toilets, the faecesonce dropped are immediately submerged in water, which helps blocking odours.In a dry toilet, on the other hand, you don’t have this efect, so while you do yourjob, before you add the cover material, you do have a higher release of faecalodours than in a fush toilet. But honestly, the diference is not so much.

The other moment is when you empty the bucket in the compost bin, in thecase of the horizontal dry toilet system. This will take about fve minutes, for youto dump the bucket’s contents into the bin, clean its inside and cover the stuf inthe bin with bulking material. Five minutes, once a week—it is not a big thing toask, is it? This is certainly a small sacrifce that is completely worth it,considering the enormous benefts associated with the composting toilet. Anywayif you let this discourage you, you still have the of vertical composting toiletoption.

Except for the abovementioned moments, well managed dry toilets andcompost bins should never stink. The only reason for odour problems is theinsufcient or inadequate addition of cover material. Some cover materials areless efcient in blocking odours: wood shavings and straw, for example. Choosemedium grind saw dust or a mixture of diferent particle sizes for best results.Straw, tree leaves and other plant residues should ideally be chopped, ground orshredded to use as bulking material. Wood ashes from your stove and oven,barbecues, bonfres, etc., which usually contain some charcoal residue, can alsobe added as cover material and are useful in eliminating odours.

Additives

Many composting manuals recommend the application of agricultural limeto compost piles to neutralize acidity, sanitize the compost, provide nutrients(calcium, magnesium), etc. The same goes for wood ash, which has similarcomposition and properties.

You can add small amounts of ashes or lime to your compost, be it in thedry toilet bucket, mixed with the cover material, or on the compost pile, but thatis not necessary. The addition of big amounts is not recommended, as it willinterfere with the biological degradation of organic matter process and unbalancethe compost’s chemical and nutrient composition.

As already mentioned, adding ashes to the compost can help solving odourproblems (although it is generally not necessary).

Problems with pests

Here is a common concern for many people interested in starting using acomposting toilet, or doing composting in general: “won’t it attract pests? fies?rats? cockroaches?”

That is a pertinent question, as you’ll have the concentration of a largeamount and variety of organic materials which are known to attract pests.However, just like with the potential odour issues, in practice none of that should

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be a problem because of the “magic” performed by the cover material. As longas you add appropriate cover materials in adequate amounts you should be freefrom odour and pest problems.

Now it should be stressed that microbes are not the only organisms workingin the composting process—macroorganisms such as fungi, insects, larvae,worms, annelids, etc. are an important part of composting. Earthworms arewidely known for being common in and benefcial to any composting process,and they are often intentionally added (vermicomposting), although that is notnecessary. Native earthworms also tend to migrate and colonize compost piles.

Another type of animal that frequently shows up in compost bins arebeetles—they deposit their eggs in the decaying organic matter, where they growinto larvae which can be quite big (e.g. rhinoceros beetle).

Fly maggots are also a common occurrence. Here, we must make adistinction: not all fies are the same! There are countless fy species, and not allof them are pests. Of course no one likes seeing house fy or blowfy maggots intheir compost bins. If that happens, you can cover your compost pile with a fnelayer of wood ash, as it inhibits such larvae.

On the other hand, it is common to fnd black soldier fly larvae in compostbins. These fies are not pests—they won’t touch our food or transmit anydiseases. They don’t even like to get close to humans. Their larvae are extremelybenefcial in a compost bin, assisting in the organic matter breakdown.Moreover, those grubs bring other big advantages: they completely inhibit the

growth of pest fies larvae; they have been shownto reduce pathogens (Escherichia coli 0157:H7 andSalmonella enterica) and a host of toxicsubstances, plus helping eliminate odours.* Theyare also great feed for fsh, birds, reptiles,amphibians, etc. with high protein content, and areoften bred, bought and sold for that purpose.

Black soldier fy larvae are more common inmore humid and alkaline compost piles, and woodash addition seems to favour them (contrary toother fy species).

Is it really safe?

Human waste composting and its use as agricultural fertilizer, althoughunknown to many people, are a solidly established practice worldwide, and itssafety and efectiveness have been proved by countless scientifc studies. Thispractice is particularly widespread in Asian countries, where it is encouraged by

* Newton, G. L. et al. Research Briefs: Black soldier fy prepupae – a compelling alternative tofsh meal and fsh oil. Annual meeting of the regional research committee, S-1032 “AnimalManure and Waste Utilization, Treatment and Nuisance Avoidance for a SustainableAgriculture”. 2008.

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Larva, pupa and imago black soldier fy


governments. A noteworthy example is Vietnam, where over 90% of farmers usecomposting toilets and use the compost as fertilizer routinely in their crops,following governmental technical guidelines which are based on scientifcresearch.*

Of course that safety is dependant on the following of the aboverecommendations, especially regarding the strict observance of the compostingperiod. It should also be stressed that nothing replaces good food hygienepractices, especially washing food that is consumed fresh such as fruits andvegetables before eating them.

Can you compost pets’ poop too?

That is a common concern, and because of insufcient knowledge manypeople end up mistakenly including cat and dog faeces in a list of things youshould never compost.

It is a fact that as well as human faeces, cat and dog faeces too have thepotential to carry diseases (zoonoses), especially visceral larva migrans, causedby Toxocara canis, and toxoplasmosis, caused by Toxoplasma gondii—theformer a roundworm that parasites dogs’ intestines, and the latter a coccidianprotozoan that has cats as their defnitive host. However, it has been scientifcallydemonstrated that the composting process efciently removes such roundwormeggs and protozoan oocysts.** Therefore, regarding human health, cat and dogpoop can and should be composted the same way and with the same rigour ashuman faeces (just throw them together in the compost bin), and the compostcan be used as fertilizer, no problem.

Further considerations on composting

Organic materials of all types, that is, all that came from the earth, shouldreturn to the earth, and that can be done in several diferent ways. One of themis composting. Others include just depositing them on the soil (e.g. mulch),burying, etc. The best option will depend on the material type. Most organicstuf can go to the compost bin, no problem. Now, you’ll often see peopleclaiming that you mustn’t compost food products such as meats, fsh, dairy, etc.,as this could attract animals such as rats, dogs, etc. that could cause problems. Itis true that food products—rice, beans, pasta, meats, fsh, cheese, bread, cakes,pizzas, etc.—added systematically and in big amounts to your compost bin willprobably attract not only rats and dogs, but also cats, crows, vultures, raccoons,bears, etc. (depending on where you live). But that is not a problem ofcomposting, but rather a symptom of a preceding and more serious problem

* Jensen, P. K. et al. Hygiene versus fertiliser: the use of human excreta in agriculture – aVietnamese example. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health. 2008.** Amorós, I. et al. Prevalence of Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts in raw andtreated sewage sludges. Environmental Technology. 2016.

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which is the awful habit of wasting food! Food should be consumed, not wastedor composted.

So, when we talk about food scraps, we mean only peels and inedible parts.These are supposed to be composted, don’t worry, because they’ll generally notattract unwanted visitors. Now, a small food waste—for example when you don’tpay attention and some food ends up spoiling—that can go to the compost bintoo, no problem. The problem only arises, as just explained, from the habit ofthrowing food away, which many people unfortunately think is OK.

It should be stressed that for efcient composting there must be a balancein the materials being composted—you should add varied products in balancedamounts. The greater the variety, the better your fnal compost as you’ll have allnutrients which is important both for the fnal compost’s value as fertilizer interms of nutrients to the plants and for the composting process itself (theorganisms responsible for organic matter degradation also need the nutrients).Therefore, if you compost your dry toilet stuf together with your kitchen scraps,grass clippings, prunings and bulking materials (of which sawdust is the mostcommon), ashes from your wood stove, etc., your compost will certainly be a hit.Remember also that you must keep an adequate humidity content in yourcompost pile during the composting process, that is, always damp but notoverwet, and strictly observe the minimum time required for completecomposting, which is vital when human or pet’s faeces is being composted.

Composting toilet challenges

As previously mentioned, the composting toilet is the most perfectsanitation technique, as it preserves natural resources, human and ecosystem’shealth. However, its widespread adoption bumps on two cultural obstacles:laziness and faecophobia.

• Laziness. We got too used to fush the toilet and just walk away withouteven thinking about it. That is certainly much more convenient. However, thishabit is causing terrible problems as we’ve been discussing. Therefore, we mustchange. Unfortunately, lifestyle changes are always difcult, especially when theymake things less easy.

• Faecophobia. Faecophobia can be defned as an exaggerated aversion, anirrational fear of faeces. Unfortunately, a culture has been created in whichpeople fnd themselves too good to deal with their own excrements. Even talkingabout faeces is taboo!

Faecophobia is not a very ancient thing—as previously mentioned, up untilless than 200 years ago, nobody really cared for faeces or hygiene. It was thescientifc knowledge on diseases and their causes and transmission cycles leadingto sanitation policies, that is, the adoption of measures to curb disease

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transmission, that caused that to change. With that, the collective consciousnessand unconsciousness was impregnated with the true notion that faeces aredangerous, potential disease transmission sources.

The fact is that the sanitation techniques that were developed andimplemented worldwide, and are now considered standard, have worked all rightfor public health, but not for the environment. Fortunately the dry compostingtoilet technology was created that promises to give us the best of both worlds.Although disconcertingly simple, this technology is very recent—compostingwas developed since the 1940’s, with the organic farming movement, and humanwaste composting would only start in the 1970’s. The dry compost toilet as weknow it only started to become popular with the publication of the frst books onthe subject in the 90’s—a mere two decades ago!

Morality-based constipation:

“When I realized that I was literally shitting in clean, treated,drinking water, I went constipated for years. Fortunately, I discovered thecomposting toilet technology, and that’s enabled me to be pleasantly,comfortably regular ever since.”

—Brad Lancaster, author of “RainwaterHarvesting for Drylands and Beyond”

Now, nobody wants to go back to a situation in which cholera, amoebiasis,giardiasis, worm infections, typhoid fever, etc. are part of the everyday life,killing people, especially children. Therefore, although we must fghtfaecophobia with scientifc information and leading by example, showing that thecomposting toilet is a viable, ethical, safe and healthy alternative to sanitationboth regarding human and ecosystem health. But above all, it is fundamental thatwe do so with the maximum seriousness regarding the good compostingpractices described above, especially regarding containment (preventing leaks,environmental contamination with faeces before composting) and strictobservation of the composting period which as already discussed should be noless than 6 months in tropical climates, extending to one year in temperate andtwo years in very cold climates, to ensure complete sanitization of the compost.Otherwise, we’ll be running the risk of bringing back diseases that have beenlong under control, and causing this wonderful ecological sanitation technologyto fall into discredit—a terrible kickback in our struggle for sustainability.

Urine

As mentioned above, a matter of frequent contention regarding compostingtoilets is what to do with urine: should it be separated from or collected togetherwith faeces?

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You’ll fnd people passionately recommending the segregation of urine,while others are equally assertive in advocating that it should not be separatedfrom faeces in the dry toilet. So, to get a clearer picture, let’s discuss the prosand cons of each approach.

The greatest presumed advantage of collecting urine together with faeces isgreater convenience—you’ll use the dry toilet similarly to a fush toilet, that is,both for “number ones” and “number twos”. The advocates of this approach alsoargue that urine will help keep the moisture content in the compost pile, besidesadding important nutrients, particularly nitrogen (which is the soil nutrient mostabundant in urine) thus leading to a fnal product of greater value as fertilizer.Another advantage is that the urea in urine degrades to ammonia, contributing topathogen removal during composting, thus increasing its safety as previouslydiscussed.

However, collecting all urine together with faeces in the composting toiletalso brings important disadvantages. One of them refers to volume: urine isproduced at much greater volumes daily (ten times more, on average) thanfaeces. Therefore, when you collect all urine together with faeces, that meansyour buckets (in case of the horizontal system) and compost bins will fll upmuch faster, which refects in a greater workload maintaining your system, inother words you’ll have to empty buckets and manage compost bins with greaterfrequency, which will consume more of your precious life time. Besides, morevolume means the need for more compost bins, or bigger ones, which willinevitably take more space. You’ll also need to collect bulking material moreoften, as greater amounts will be needed, especially to cope with absorbing allthat humidity excess represented by urine.

Another big disadvantage of collecting all urine together with faeces isnutrient loss, especially nitrogen. As previously mentioned, nitrogen is containedin urine in the form of urea, and during the composting process that urea isconverted to ammonia. Ammonia is volatile, and a great part of it is lost to theatmosphere during the composting process—up to 90% loss of this vital soilnutrient.*

The opposite approach is segregating pee from poo—faeces are dealt withas described above, while urine is collected in a separate container. This greatlyreduces the volume to be composted, therefore reducing the system’smaintenance workload, the need for bulking material and the room occupied bycompost bins.

It should be stressed that only faeces must be composted, because asdescribed above they have a potential for disease transmission. By contrast,

* Zavala, M. A. et al. Biological activity in the composting reactor of the bio-toilet system.Bioresource Technology. 2005.

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normal urine is practically sterile (as a matter of fact, it is now known that urineand the urinary tract are not sterile, but contain a specifc microbiota that mayplay important roles in health).*

Urine is richer in soil nutrients than faeces: of our daily excretions, 90% ofnitrogen, 50 to 65% of phosphorus and 50 to 80% of potassium are contained inurine. Dry urine solids are composed of of 16% N, 13% C, 3.7% P, and 3.7% Kon average.** This makes clear its potential as soil fertilizer.

Segregating urine means you’ll have separate containers for faeces andurine (urine diverting toilet models have been created, but this is not necessary).That can be seen as a downside regarding convenience, but the advantages payof. Here, one thing should be made very clear: when we talk about separatingurine, a lot of people get paranoid about that small amount of urine commonlyreleased when you go for a “number two”. That is nonsense! Nobody should beworried about that. Segregating urine does not mean that any small amount ofurine will cause trouble—it just means you won’t use that toilet when you gospecifcally to take a pee. So, that casual, incidental pee is totally fne, don’tworry!

In fact, a certain amount of urine is always benefcial to the dry toiletcomposting process, even when you opt for the urine segregation approach, as itwill help keeping the moisture content and assist in the removal of pathogens, aspreviously discussed.

So, although both approaches (urine together with or separated fromfaeces) exist and have supporters, my conclusion is that the middle way is best:separate the bulk of urine in a dedicated container for straight use as fertilizer(as will be discussed next), but also add a certain amount of urine together withthe faeces in the dry toilet—that incidental pee during “number twos”, plus someoccasional intentional urinations, just enough to keep the compost’s moisturecontents. This way, you combine the advantages of both approaches.

Urine use as fertilizer†

Urine can be used as a liquid fertilized immediately after it’s produced orafter storage for practically any length of time. Its use allows for the immediateutilization of the nutrients it contains, rather than having to wait for months or

* Whiteside, S. A. et al. The microbiome of the urinary tract – a role beyond infection. Naturereviews. Urology. 2015.** Rose, C. et al. The characterization of feces and urine: a review of the literature to informadvanced treatment technology. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology.2015.† This subject is discussed in depth in the book Liquid gold: the lore and logic of using urine to grow plants, by Carol Steinfeld.

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years as in the case of composting, besides preventing nutrient loss as alreadydiscussed. Moreover, its liquid nature allows it to reach the absorptive parts andtherefore be taken up and utilized by the plants much faster comparing to whathappens when you apply compost to the soil surface. That is particularly usefulwhen treating plants with nutrient defciency. You’ll see your yellowish, sadlooking plants getting beautiful green and resuming growth rapidly—noticeableimprovements in a matter of a few days to a few weeks.

Urine use as fertilizer can be done basically in two forms: soil applicationand foliar feeding. In either case, it should be diluted before use, because in itsundiluted form it has a high salt concentration that can damage most plants.

Soil application

Diluted human urine can be applied to soil as a fertilizer. The minimalrecommended dilution rate is 1:10, that is, one part urine to ten parts water.Such relatively strong preparations can be used especially in the rainy season,once or twice a week, at a volume of 5 to 10 litres per plant (sapling), which canbe increased as the plant grows and according with the fertilization needs. Applythe urine preparation into the planting basin, on top or under the mulch layer.The same urine preparation can be used in fower or vegetable gardens, at a rateof 5 to10 litres per square metre of soil; however, for vegetables it is moreadvisable to use sub-surface application (which will be discussed further on).

In the dry season urine should be diluted to lower concentrations, maybesomething between 1:40 to 1:100, and applied at higher volumes. This way, theapplication serves two purposes: providing nutrients and water at the same time,i.e. fertigation or “ferti-irrigation”. In the dry season, particularly, the soil mustbe kept covered with a generous layer of mulch to prevent excessive water loss toevaporation. These two measures—higher dilution and thick mulch—areimportant to prevent urine salt build up in the topsoil, which could be harmful toyour plants.

Foliar feeding

Plants are able to absorb nutrients not only by their roots but also throughthe leaf surface and even the stem. That allows for nutrient supplementation byleaf application. Foliar feeding is a widespread practice both in conventional andorganic agriculture. Its main advantage is the absorption speed, which ispractically immediate, in contrast with soil application, as in the latter it takessome time for the nutrients to difuse through the soil, and the roots to grow intocontact with them thus allowing for the take up and utilization by the plants. Acool thing about foliar feeding is that you end up also doing soil application atthe same time, as the excess liquid inevitably drops to the soil.

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Diluted urine is an excellent foliar feed, as it contains balanced amounts ofthe main nutrients required by plants, both macro and micronutrients. Most plantspecies can beneft from foliar feeding at a 1:10 dilution rate. However, somespecies have leaves that are particularly sensitive to chemical burning by urine.That is not so common, and even if it does happen, that doesn’t mean your plantwill die or anything—it may look a little sad, but when you stop the urineapplication it will recover quickly, so you need not be afraid of doingexperiments to know how the urine foliar feeding will work for your plants. Ofcourse you can do some research to try to know which plants can and whichcannot be fertilized with urine foliar feeding, but the information you get willnot necessarily match your reality. I’ll cite my own practical experience: I foundin an article that tomato plants are very sensitive and should not be foliar fedwith urine; however, I found that tomato plants beneft a lot from this kind offertilization, without any signs of harm. Of all plant species I have tested (tens ofthem), the only one that didn’t like urine foliar feeding at all was jabuticaba (alsocalled Brazilian grapetree), which exhibited clear signs of leaf burn after urineapplication at a 1:20 dilution rate, which is the dilution I normally use. They do,however, beneft from soil application, without any detrimental efects. So, youshould do your own experiments to fnd out exactly how foliar feeding will workfor your plants. If any of your plants get burned, you can test more diluted urinepreparations, or opt for soil application only.

Urine smell

A frequent and totally relevant concern regarding urine use as fertilizerrefers to smell. After all, nobody wants a stinky garden!

Unfortunately, there is the smell thing. We all know urine is not odourless,and its application in the environment tends to produce… a stale urine stench.That smell can be stronger or weaker, depending on many factors. The morediluted the urine, the less the smell. Also, soil application tends to stink less thanfoliar feeding. If you apply the diluted urine carefully inside the planting basinunder the mulch layer, the odour will be practically unnoticeable. At any rate,the urine smell tends to disappear in a few hours, so many people judge that is atolerable inconvenience. But it may be unacceptable in some situations; in suchcases, the best option may be to give up on foliar feeding and opt for sub-superfcial fertigation (we’re getting there).

Wood ash + urine

A combination that has become a sensation in organic agriculture andpermaculture is the combined use of wood ash and urine in soil amendment. Asmentioned in chapter 9 (“Rural Permaculture”), wood ashes have great value asit neutralizes soil acidity and provides important nutrients. Its association with

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urine has been shown to be very efective in improving plant production.* Now,the best is to apply that old principle: “all that came from the earth should returnto the earth”. Apply your organic compost, manures, ashes and urine together,and your plants will have a complete, perfect nutrition!

The combination of ash and urine has yet another great use: applied toplants or soil it has the ability to control aphids, larvae, snails and slugs, amongother pests and diseases. You can use it in several forms: diluted urine only, ashonly, or the two combined. You can sprinkle your plants with the diluted urinefrst and then the ash, so it sticks and coats the leaf surface, or you can mix urineand ash and apply the mix, etc.

Urine + ash acts by a variety of mechanisms in fghting pests and diseases:they change the pH and other chemical conditions on the plant’s surface, makingit unsuitable to the pest’s development; ammonia resulting from urea degradationis toxic to many pests and pathogens, helping keeping them down; theconcentrated nutrients in urine and ash nourish the plant making it strongeragainst infections, etc. And, best of all, they are 100% natural, safe and doublybenefcial to plants, as you’re doing fertilization and disease prevention andcontrol at the same time.

Greywater

Greywater is all wastewater from the house that do not contain excrements,that is, effluents from baths, sinks, washing machine, kitchen etc., excludingdischarge from the toilet.

Each person produces an average of 100 litres of greywater a day, makingthe bulk of wastewater production. Greywater is very diferent from sewage,having much lower total solids, organic matter and bacteria contents. Even so, itmay contain substantial organic matter and soil nutrients, so it is a valuableresource that is not to be wasted.

The best destination for greywater is topsoil, as irrigation or fertigation. Itscomposition is almost totally water (> 99.9%); moreover, organic matter and thenutrients it contains are benefcial to plants and the soil ecosystem. Its generallylightly alkaline pH helps amending soil acidity, an extremely common problemin many places. Although there is the risk of pathogen contamination, greywatersoil application does not constitute a signifcant environmental contamination ordisease transmission route, and it is considered a safe practice both

* Pradhan, S. K. et al. Stored human urine supplemented with wood ash as fertilizer in tomato(Solanum lycopersicum) cultivation and its impacts on fruit yield and quality. Journal ofAgricultural and Food Chemistry. 2009.

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environmentally and regarding human health.*’ **

A common concern regarding greywater use in irrigation is contaminationby the many chemical products contained in home and self-care products. This isa relevant concern, especially considering the unknown character of the chemicalcomposition of many such products. However, scientifc research has proven thateven intense and prolonged irrigation with greywater does not cause any problemto human, soil or plant health, so it is an environmentally safe practice. Thechemical contamination concern is still a valid one, but it should not preventpeople from reusing greywater in the soil, but rather lead to positive action,stimulating people to use more natural cleaning and care products, includinghomemade ones, and avoid using excessive amounts of harmful chemicals,especially considering that most of them are simply unnecessary!

In contrast with soil application, greywater discharge into waterbodiescauses serious environmental and health problems. Aquatic ecosystem damageoccurs in two ways: chemical alteration (pH, chemical toxicity, etc.) and nutrientpollution which leads to eutrophication (algal bloom) and oxygen depletionwhich kills most life forms from anoxia. Also, when discharged into cesspools,greywater sinks deep into the soil reaching the water table, polluting it withnitrites, nitrates and other pollutants (which in topsoil would be promptly takenup and utilized by plants, enhancing plant production). Moreover, greywaterdischarge into waterbodies leads to increased microbial loads that put bathersand other people who come into contact with that water at a higher risk ofdeveloping digestive, respiratory, eye and skin diseases.

Greywater can be used safely for surface irrigation (methods for such hasbeen described in chapter 9, “Rural Permaculture”), and the main advantages ofthis use is its simplicity, efectivity and maintenance ease. The other option issubsurface irrigation.

Subsurface irrigation

Here, the greywater will be delivered to the topsoil through perforatedpipes, buried at a shallow depth, maybe 10 to 15 cm, in your garden beds or yourplanting basins. You can use 1.5 or 2 inch polyethylene tubes with 5 to 8 mmholes drilled in them. In your garden, dig shallow trenches, 15 cm deep, whereyour beds will be built. Wet and tamp well the soil in the trench to reduce waterpenetration. Build the raised bed walls with cinder blocks, logs, cob, etc. Next,start flling the bed with planting soil; ft the perforated tube right at the centre ofthe garden bed, surrounded by a layer of gravel a few centimetres thick. Finish

* Busgang, A. et al. Epidemiological study for the assessment of health risks associated withgreywater reuse for irrigation in arid regions. Science of the Total Environment. 2015.** Water Research Australia fact sheet – health risks of greywater use. 2013.

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topping up the raised bed with planting soil, and it’s ready for planting.The subsurface irrigation tube inlet can be connected straight to the

greywater discharge pipes from the house, or you can pass the greywater frstthrough a mulch flter and a distribution tank. The distal end of the irrigationtube should be closed, forcing the water to leave only through the drilled holes,through the gravel and into the soil.

It is a good idea to renovate your garden periodically, changing the bedspots to prevent saturation of the soil there with humidity and organic matter.This measure is sufcient to prevent greywater from soaking into the subsoil, sothere is no need to seal the soil under the garden beds. When redoing yourgarden beds, you can reuse all materials—blocks, tubes, gravel—and you’llnotice that the soil is extremely rich in organic matter, full of earthworms.

You can do something similar, burying a perforated tube surrounded by alayer of gravel around your trees or saplings, but that is not necessary—if youjust place the tube in the planting basin and cover it with a thick mulch layer,that will do the trick. These subsurface irrigation systems can be used forfertigation with diluted urine, as previously mentioned.

Ecological alternatives for urban sanitation

It should be pointed out that the ecological sanitation techniques describedabove, although perfect for rural situations, are nearly always not feasible in anurban context, mostly because of space limitations. This holds especially true forpeople who live in apartments.

The impracticability of individual ecological sanitation solutions is only oneof the limitations imposed by an urban life, regarding a sustainable lifestyle.Other limitations include the impossibility of growing food in substantialamounts or doing large-scale environmental restoration (e.g. reaforestation).

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Dissection of a raised garden bed with subsurface irrigation tube


Nevertheless, it is impossible to ignore the fact that most people currently live incities (54% of the world population).

As previously cited, the current conventional urban sanitation systems areonly partly efective, as they do protect human health, but do so at highenvironmental costs. However, it is perfectly possible to apply the permacultureethics and principles in bettering the urban sanitation techniques, creating moreecological methodologies and systems. But the quality of sanitation depends notonly on infrastructure, but also on the actions and daily habits of people.Therefore, our discussion here will cover those two levels: individual actions andmunicipal-scale ecological sanitation systems.

Individual habits and urban ecological sanitation

Saving water is preventing polution

This is the most basic of our daily habits that must change aiming atsustainability. Water is an invaluable resource that is in decline because of manyfactors including wasteful use, environmental destruction, climate change, etc.Municipal water, which is treated, safe, drinkable, is perceived as cheap byconsumers, and although being cheap is good because it makes this resourceavailable to pretty much everyone, it unfortunately does not encourage people touse it rationally, sparingly, which leads to wasteful use. However, although it maynot weigh on your pocket, that water comes at high environmental costs, for thedamming and diverting of rivers, treatment and distribution impacts, and alsosewage treatment costs, considering that sewage production is a function of waterconsumption. The average per capita municipal water consumption is about 150litres a day. However, it is perfectly possible to live with only a fraction of thatwater without compromising on comfort or hygiene, just by cutting down onwaste!

When you cut back on water use, you also generate less sewage, so sewagetreatment will be easier, cheaper and more efcient, with benefts to the economyand the environment. Reuse, recycle your greywater; collect your shower waterin a basin and use it to fush the toilet (if you still use a fush toilet), and reducethe number of fushes a day. Reuse the laundry water for home cleaning. Use theremaining greywater to water your garden, etc.

Fighting combined sewerage systems

A very serious and extremely common problem around the world issewerage systems that carry sewage combined with urban runof—the so-calledcombined sewers (a fancy name for inadequate sanitation). Rainwater and sewage

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are two completely diferent things, and mixing them is rather absurd. Thatcauses a huge increase in the volume of wastewater, and also tremendousvariations in that volume (think of a heavy rain day), which makes thewastewater treatment much more difcult, expensive and inefcient, bringingnasty consequences to the environment and, not rarely, also to public health.This problem spans all levels, from individual (home wastewater collectionsystems) to collective (municipal sewerage systems). At the individual level, it isup to each person to build or retroft their homes appropriately so as to preventrain runof from entering the sewerage system.

Avoid using toxic chemicals

The supermarket shelves are permanently full with an infnity of home andself-care products. That can lead people to the assumption that all such productsare useful, important or even necessary to modern life. However, in most casesthat is just not true—most of those products could simply vanish from existence,and the world would just not miss them at all. Many are “solutions” to problemsthat have never existed, and are nonetheless compulsively consumed by peopledriven by a type of paranoia that has been created by the chemical industrythrough marketing. The problem is that such products normally are packed withsynthetic chemical substances that have deleterious efects on the environment,such as triclosan, surfactants, etc. Therefore, we should stick to the basics, andlimit the consumption of home and self-care products to a minimum. Wheneverpossible, replace such products with natural alternatives, such as homemadesoaps, natural dentifrice, etc.

Turn away from consumerism

Home water usage represents only part of the city’s total waterconsumption and sewage generation. We must not forget that the production ofconsumer goods also consumes water and generates wastewater, so whenever youbuy a product, you are also responsible for the industrial water pollutionassociated with it. Therefore, rejecting consumerism is key to sustainability alsoregarding water conservation and sanitation.

Municipal-scale ecological sanitation – sewage treatment andapplication (not disposal) of its by-products

Sewage treatment systems have been developed over a century or so, andimprovements in sanitation techniques towards urban sustainability must bemade on the existing, operating systems.

A typical sewage treatment process is divided in two phases, the liquid and

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solid phases, which comprise the following steps:

Liquid phase:

• Physical removal of debris (garbage) by passing the raw sewage through abar screen, and of sand and grit in sedimentation tanks.

• Primary settling, which consists of temporarily holding the sewage in aquiescent basin where heavy solids can settle to the bottom. The settledmaterials are called primary sludge.

• Aeration, in which the liquid from primary settling is agitated for sometime to allow for the growth of aerobic bacteria, which consume theorganic matter in the sewage, converting it into biomass.

• Secondary settling, where the bacterial biomass from the previous step andother organic residues are separated from the effluent, forming thesecondary sludge. The effluent is then discharged into natural waterbodies(rivers, lakes, seas), often after chemical treatment with chlorine.

Solid phase:

• Digestion: after partial dehydration, the total sludge (that is primary andsecondary sludge combined) is processed in the digesters, where anaerobicbacteria break down organic matter with partial removal of pathogens andmethane gas production. Methane is normally recovered and used as anenergy source in the sewage treatment plant.

• Dewatering by compression of the sewage sludge.

• Now, the sludge can go down a few diferent routes:- Landfll disposal.- Dehydration by heat and incineration for thermoelectric power

generation.- Sanitization treatment by heat, chemicals or composting and land

application as fertilizer.

Looking at the general sewage treatment process described above allowsone to identify the main points which can cause environmental damage: thedisposal of the effluent and sludge.

Let’s focus frst on the sludge. Most commonly, sludge is dumped inlandflls, which is the typical “solution” to people who don’t want to deal withproblems, preferring instead to just hide them, take them away from view andpretend they don’t exist. Much like sweeping dust under the carpet.

To entomb such nutrient-rich material in landfll is an outrage, anignominy. It is most disturbing to think that in the future, impoverished,desperate people—our descendants—will possibly dig our old landflls in a

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miserably kind of mining to retrieve the nutrients we now waste, in order to beable to produce any food, in a struggle for survival.

In many places, the sludge is completely dried and used as fuel inthermoelectric power plants. That is a much more rational way to deal with thisresidue, as you recover the energy it contains and also many of the nutrients, thatremain in the ashes and can be used in agriculture. However, such practice alsohas downsides, as it produces air pollution and contributes to global warming,causes the loss of important nutrients such as nitrogen and sulphur, and allorganic matter contained in the sludge.

The application of treated sewage sludge, also called biosolids, to the landas an agricultural fertilizer is the most rational and ecological alternative to dealwith that residue. Again, it’s about the old principle: “all that came from theearth should return to the earth”. Fortunately, this practice is now common inmany parts of the world—more than half of the biosolids produced in theUnited States, and around 70% of the biosolids produced in France and theUnited Kingdom are productively returned to the soil, used in agriculture andenvironmental restoration programmes.*

Biosolids are extremely rich in organic matter and contain all soil nutrientsthat are vital to plants. Sustainability requires that biosolids be regarded as avaluable resource to be utilized rather than a nuisance, something to be gottenrid of. For this use to be safe, appropriate measures are necessary to keepchemical and biological contaminants within safe levels in the sludge and thesoil. Chemical contamination can be controlled by a combination of preventionat the sources (for example, by laws and regulations and monitoring of pollutionsources such as industries) and pollutant removal during the sewage treatmentprocess. Biological decontamination can be achieved by several methods,especially composting. Thermophilic co-composting of sewage sludge andmunicipal organic waste including home and industrial wastes plus shreddedplant material (grass clippings, prunings, sawdust, etc.) as bulking material is aproven way to produce excellent quality compost, with efective removal ofpathogens**’ † and neutralization of chemical contaminants such as heavy metals.‡

Now, regarding the sewage treatment plant effluent, discharging it into

* Lyberatos, G. et al. Sewage biosolids management in EU countries: challenges andprospective. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin. 2011.** Leite, T. A. Compostagem termofílica de lodo de esgoto: higienização e produção de biossólido para uso agrícola. Dissertação (mestrado). Faculdade de Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo. 2015.† Water Environment Federation. Land application and composting of biosolids – Q&A/fact sheet. 2010.‡ Smith, S. R. A critical review of the bioavailability and impacts of heavy metals in municipal solid waste composts compared to sewage sludge. Environment International. 2009.

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natural waterbodies is clearly an inadequate solution. Even after treatment, theeffluent still has a substantial organic matter load, nutrients and microorganisms,including pathogenic ones.* When in an attempt to efectively remove pathogensharsher disinfection methods are applied, that causes another problem, namelychemical pollution with disinfectants.

For a sanitation system to be regarded as ecological, it is vital that it is keptsegregated from natural waterbodies throughout the process, including the fnalby-products. Therefore, the effluents must have the same application as thebiosolids: the soil. That’s because topsoil is the natural system that is mostcapable of dealing with the effluent’s contaminants and the associated risks,acting by a variety of mechanisms: adsorption, microbial degradation,photodegradation by solar exposure, etc. The effluent must be taken, by gravityif possible or pumped if necessary, to areas where it can be used in agriculturalirrigation, especially of tree crops, forestry and agroforestry, and reaforestationprojects, etc.

This way, keeping the whole sanitation systems segregated from naturalwaterbodies and aquatic ecosystems, adequately treating and returning to the soilthe solid and liquid by-products of the wastewater treatment processes so as toencourage agricultural production and environmental restoration, we’ll be surelyable to say we have a true large-scale ecological sanitation system. Of course thiswill involve the expansion and improvement of the sewerage collection networksto serve the whole city, moving away from combined sewers, fxing leaks insewer pipes and tunnels etc., which are important sources of environmentalcontamination with sewage.

The wholesale application of the concepts and techniques described abovewill have profound impacts, especially if adopted in conjunction with themeasures described in chapter 8 (“Water in Permaculture”), leading to anextremely positive transformation of the urban environment and beyond. Thinkof a city with pristine springs, streams and rivers, full of life, fsh, birds, all typesof fauna, riparian vegetation (in the form of linear parks), etc. Well, that’s whatwe’re talking about. Not to mention the recycling thus preservation of the soilnutrients so we are able to keep growing food in the future!

Weighing the risks

Many people, organizations and governments are reluctant to accept thesoil application of biosolids and effluents from wastewater treatment plants,considering the potential risks to the environment and human health associatedwith the countless biological and chemical contaminants commonly present in

* Silva, M. C. de A. et al. Avaliação da qualidade microbiológica de efuentes sanitários tratados por sistemas de lodos ativados. Revista Caderno Pedagógico, Lajeado. 2017.

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sewage, such as pathogens, pharmaceutical residues, home and industry chemicalcontaminants, etc.

Doubtlessly it is a relevant preoccupation. However, is banning therecycling of the residues of our homes and our civilization the best way to dealwith such risks?

In any reasonably developed country or region, there are enough regulationsand control mechanisms to keep the contamination levels in biosolids andeffluents within acceptably safe limits, both to the environment and humanhealth, according to technical guidelines backed up by specifc scientifcresearch. Also the way those by-products can be applied to soil, regardingmaximum amounts, interval between applications, etc. is subject to regulations toensure efectiveness and safety. On the other hand, in economically and sociallyunderdeveloped countries and regions such regulations lack; however, there is nosewage treatment either! Therefore, in such cases, poverty eradication would bepriority.

Of course one can’t blindly trust the regulations, control measures andscientifc research mentioned above. On the other hand, hysteria regarding theenvironmental and health risks associated with the recycling of the nutrients andwater contained in our civilization’s by-products is hardly the way forward! Ifyou refuse to use biosolids and effluents in an environmental restoration project,you miss the chance to restore that land’s fertility and increase and improvebiomass and biodiversity, in other words, you are failing to restore the area soyou’re keeping degraded the very land you intended to protect. Likewise, whenyou reject using those resources responsibly, safely in agriculture, you’ll relymore heavily on chemical fertilizers which themselves also contain chemicalcontaminants and on top of that are non-renewable thus unsustainable, leading tomuch bigger environmental damage, not to mention their exhaustion, so you arecompromising the future generations’ food security.

The concerns exist and are valid ones, but they must not lead to thedemonization and banning of the productive use of biosolids and effluent; rather,they should lead to stricter control and good practices that make them as safe aspossible. The risks must be carefully monitored. Scientifc research mustinvestigate the characteristics and risks of new and old compounds, to orientcontrol and safety measures so they are efective, and that must be closelywatched by organized society, as substance control goes against the interests ofpowerful people and groups such as the chemical industry and corporations ingeneral. Adequate technologies must be applied and new ones developed toreduce pollution at the source—for example by modifying production processes,promoting the use of non-toxic or less toxic substances, implementingconservation techniques and reusing materials rather than putting them into thewaste stream. Where a non-polluting process is not possible, the activity shouldbe restricted until an ecologically sound alternative is developed. The same type

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of control should be done regarding home and self-care products: if they containpollutants of particular concern, they should be restricted or heavily taxed todiscourage both the producers and consumers, while the tax money should bereverted to the decontamination process for that particular substance, etc.

People have to understand that sewage treatment by-products are a hardfact of our civilization, and we can’t send them to outer space, as much as wecan’t bring soil nutrients from there in order to be able to produce food. We livein a closed system—the Earth—and we must sort out our problems here. Andthe best solution for the sewage treatment by-products is doubtlessly returningthem to the soil in a productive way, closing the nutrient cycle.

Final remark on ecological sanitation

It is a a true scandal that should cause widespread indignation that ourmodern society, with so much technology, still adopts the “throw the shit in theriver and let nature deal with it” approach as a “sanitation” strategy. Thetransformation of this picture, with complete replacement of such archaic modelwith ecological, sustainable sanitation systems is necessary and urgent, and it is thepermaculturists’ mission to lead this battle, teaching by example, using ecologicalsanitation techniques in their homes and lives, and also by spreading information,doing awareness raising and public mobilization, political pressure, etc., andcontributing with technical consultancy to help pave the way for this change tohappen at all scales.

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Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 12. Energy

12ENERGY

The energy addiction is one of the main characteristics of our civilization.As we have discussed in Part I, the total dependence on enormous amounts ofenergy for every aspect of our modern lifestyle brings terrible consequences forthe environment and sustainability. Therefore, in permaculture we must strive toreduce our energy consumption and our dependence on energy resources,especially non-renewable ones. In other words, permaculture is also a movementfor a low-energy lifestyle and preparation for a future of dwindling energyresources.

Many people who are concerned about the impending energy crisis, as wellas with the short-, mid- and long-term consequences of the prevailing energysources and technologies (e.g. climate change caused by fossil fuel use)concentrate their hopes on the development and dissemination of alternativeenergy sources of lower environmental impact such as solar and wind,geothermal, tidal power, etc. to replace the current global energy matrix andsolve or minimize such problems. However, although those alternative energysources have much value, there is no alternative known to humankind that canreplace the usefulness of petroleum as an energy source and raw material for theindustry, for the maintenance of our current lifestyles—not even all those energysources combined get anywhere close to doing that. Among the main exclusiveattributes of petroleum we can cite the extremely high energy density, ease tostore and transport, its versatility in the production of several types of fuels withminimal energy loss, such as gasoline, diesel, liquefed petroleum gas, etc., and

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as a raw material for countless products which are essential to our civilization.Therefore, even with a great deal of development in the renewable energytechnologies, it just won’t be possible to keep our current lifestyle for long. Ourcivilization as we know it was only made possible because of petroleum, and itsmaintenance depends inexorably on the abundant and continuous supply ofcheap oil—something we know will not last for long. Unless, of course, a newand completely revolutionary resource is discovered that can replace petroleum,which may be possible in theory, but certainly very unlikely. Counting on that islike lazily waiting for a miracle rather than doing what has to be done, what iswithin our reach to do.

Of course the growing adoption and development of renewable energies aresteps in the right direction. However, what is needed above all is a radical shift inthe way we live, that is, to adopt a low energy lifestyle in order to achievesustainability. To that, all available strategies must be deployed: localization (asopposed to globalization), that is, focusing on the local circulation of goods andservices thus reducing energy expenditure in transport; striving for theconservation of resources in general by adopting a permanent culture, as opposedto the currently prevailing disposable culture, which means rejectingconsumerism and cutting down on waste; fghting the artifcialization of life,cultivating a more simple and natural lifestyle; self-reliance in multiple levels,etc.

To reduce energy consumption, besides reducing its use we must also striveto prevent energy losses by applying the energy efciency principle (our principle#6) and all relevant techniques, as we have been discussing.

Another extremely important way to reduce our consumption anddependence on energy resources is through the application of the appropriatetechnology principle (Principle #13), which helps us getting away fromunsustainable and environmentally damaging energy sources (generallyassociated with most modern technologies) and use more natural, sustainable,and even primitive energy sources instead. Let’s list a few examples:

• It is generally not a good idea to use electricity for heating. Solar energy ismost often a better choice—not photovoltaic energy, but low-tech solarheaters, many of which can be made by ourself at low money andenvironmental costs, as we have seen in chapter 10.

• In rural situations, it’s easy to turn away from the dependence on gas tocook: you can use frewood instead, which can be grown in your propertyin a sustainable way (planting specifcally for that purpose, using fallenbranches and prunings, etc.) as we have already discussed. You shouldprefer high efciency stoves, which consume less wood and produce lesssmoke. You can also use the stove to heat water as you cook, by using aserpentine heat exchange system.

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• Avoid using motor transport, using human power (e.g. bicycle) instead,which means converting food in kinetic energy and locomotion, which isgreat for the environment and your health.

Appropriate technology use requires attention and common sense,otherwise you run the risk of causing even worse environmental damage thanyou would with conventional energy sources. For example, using frewood forhome heating and cooking, although useful in rural situations, is totallydisadvantageous in cities, as the resource cannot be produced locally, having tobe imported; you have no means to know whether the frewood you’re buying isfrom sustainable sources (probably won’t be); frewood is bulky (has low energydensity), having great money and environmental costs associated with transportand storage; if everybody used frewood in cities, that would certainly aggravateenormously the air pollution problem because of the high population density, etc.

Electricity

Many people dream of living completely of the grid, and there arenumerous reasons for that: they may wish to reduce their environmentalfootprint, or maybe hope to save money; in many cases, the wish to disconnectfrom public utilities is a refex of their rejection of our societal model,representing a departure from the dominant culture, etc.

Living of-grid is generally viable for water, using rain as the water source,as has been discussed in chapter 8 (“Water in Permaculture”). Now, regardingelectricity, the story is quite diferent, and the best approach should bedetermined case by case. That is because for water, the building and operation ofrainwater systems have minimal negative environmental impacts (you can citethe material use as representing an initial negative impact), which are easilycompensated by the environmental benefts of water fxation in the area,fostering life and production while reducing or eliminating the need for otherless sustainable sources of this resource. Now, regarding electricity, inevitablythere are more environmental costs involved, as substantial amounts of materialsand high technologies are needed, and generally there aren’t any positive impactson the environment—nature won’t beneft from lit bulbs and home appliances ingeneral, these are only for our comfort and convenience. There are exceptions,however, such as machinery that may assist in works that beneft nature (forexample an electric branch grinder used to make quality bulking material foryour compost), so that in some cases you can have an net positive impact,although that may be hard to judge.

Nevertheless, the most relevant fact is that, contrary to many peoples’ beliefand in contrast with water systems, individual electricity generation systemsactually tend to have higher economic and environmental costs compared tocollective, centralized power systems. That’s a point that often causes confusion:

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one may say “how can my wind turbine, or my solar panels, or my small hydroturbine generator cause more environmental damage than a big power plant?” Tounderstand that, we have to look at the big picture, contemplating all theelements in the system, and project that to appropriate scales. For example, whenyou talk about photovoltaic electricity, one often thinks of an “infnite” andsustainable source of energy (sunlight) being converted into electricity, which issurely great. However, rarely do people take into account all environmental costsof the fabrication of the solar panels, which involve industrial operations andextremely high technologies, rare mineral mining, etc. which take place in themost remote corners of the globe such as China and Africa, involvingenvironmental and social costs which are unknown to us (in fact most peoplenever cared to think about it). Also of great importance are the batteries, whichare essential—after all, without them you could never turn on lights at night, nomatter how much sun energy you were able to convert during the day. Thosebatteries are not something you buy once and is set for the rest of your life—they are expensive, and contain toxic chemicals to which there is no availablerecycling technologies, leading to environmental contamination. Moreover, thefuctuations, both in power generation and consumption, are much bigger at theindividual than the collective level, so for you to have a guaranteed supply you’llhave to have a relatively oversized system, which means proportionally biggerenvironmental impacts.

The same applies to other renewable energy sources at the individual scale.For example, you can install a micro hydropower generator if you have awaterfall in your plot, but that will impact that watercourse. Of course theimpact of a huge hydropower plant is much bigger, but the responsibility for thatimpact is shared by millions of people. Moreover, if you use the individualsystem, the big power plant damage will remain the same, but the waterfall nearyour house will not.

Another way to look at this situation, and reach the same conclusion: ifeverybody would go of-grid and have their own individual, stand-aloneelectricity generation systems, the summed amount of materials used, wastesproduced and environmental impacts in general would certainly be much biggerthan with the current centralized, collective systems.

The same goes for money saving, regarding individual electricity systems.When you invest in an of-grid unit capable of providing for your usual homeenergy requirements, the investment is always substantial. Typically, one doesone’s calculations and reaches the conclusion that the investment will pay of in amatter of 10 years, for example. So, one concludes it will be worth it—fromthem on, it’ll be “free energy” forever! However, that decision is made based onthe fawed assumption that one will only have to buy and install the system once,then just use and beneft from it indefnitely. But in reality it’s not quite like that:one will soon realize that there are inevitable maintenance and repair costs,

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battery replacement costs, etc. So, one redoes the maths, and concludes that theinvestment will actually pay of in 20 years time. But before that, the system hasbecome obsolete, or reached the end of its service time, so it has to becompletely replaced! At the end, one normally fnds out that there was absolutelyno economy at all.

Another common delusion is to think you are going to be able to build yourown alternative electric power generator utilizing scrap materials such as an oldcar’s alternator or battery, or a dynamo or an electric engine, making smartadaptations, etc. Invariably what you get is dysfunctional contraptions, hardlyuseful at all. You can make a light bulb go one precariously, or make a homeappliance work for a few minutes, and feel great about it; but between that andhaving an efective system which are capable of replacing to any degree theelectrical grid for doing useful work there is a big diference.

Therefore, individual of-grid electricity systems are not a miraculoussolution, either regarding independence, because they are technological productsthat you can’t develop, build and maintain without depending on industries, orregarding money saving or environmental protection.

Of course there are cases in which individual electricity generation systemsare more attractive, for example in far of places that are not served by the grid,or when because of the long distance the connection to the grid will beparticularly expensive, or consume too many resources (e.g. excessively longtransmission lines), etc. But generally speaking it tends to be more advantageousto use the grid power; in other words, it is generally not worth it either from aneconomy or environmental point of view to give up using the grid to which yourhome is already connected (or can easily be) and start using an individual systeminstead.

Now, in all cases, regardless of your electricity source, one rule alwaysapplies: save energy, use it wisely, rationally, efciently and sparingly, as this wayyou’ll inevitably be preserving the environment and saving money.

Sun, Moon, stars

The discussion above is valid especially with regard to electricityconsumption levels normally observed today, considering our modern lifestyle.However, that is not the only way! In some situations, particularly in the country,it can be a good idea to give up on electricity and live a more natural, simple andrustic lifestyle, like humankind has done for the near entirety of its history. Thatcan be a great way to reconnect with the natural cycles, and also develop alifestyle that is less dependent on technological inputs, rescuing traditional waysto do things and solve problems, “like in the good ole days”. Or else, you can optfor a minimalist lifestyle regarding electricity consumption, an in this caseindividual systems such as solar can be a good option. That’s a way to get the

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best of both worlds. If your need for electricity is very low, like just for makinga computer run, or turn on a light bulb at night or charge a fashlight battery, allyou’ll need is a small, cheap solar energy unit and you’ll have a great cost-beneftratio, both environment- and money-wise.

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Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 13. Urban Permaculture

13URBAN PERMACULTURE

As previously discussed, it is in rural situations that permaculture canachieve its potentials to the fullest, as there you have space to catch and storelarge volumes of rainwater, plant thousands of trees and restore ecosystems on agrand scale, grow organic food by the tonnes and also achieve a much greaterdegree of reintegration and connexion with the earth and all its elements, thenatural cycles, etc.

However, most people today live in towns and cities. Especially, it is a factthat most people who are interested in permaculture nearly always come from anurban context. That is not hard to explain, as city dwellers are the ones whosufer most with artifcialization, and also tend to be more acutely aware of theseriousness of the global environmental crisis.

For city folks to achieve a more natural and healthy lifestyle, in contact andharmony with nature, reintegrating with the natural cycles, efectivelycontributing to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment,growing food naturally, etc., ideally they should move to the country. It shouldbe acknowledged that that is not an easy shift, as we have seen in the precedingchapters, as it demands a lot of preparation, planning, seriousness, tenacity andcourage. Nonetheless, ideally, as the permaculture movements goes forward, weshould see a kind of urban exodus, that is, a great number of people wilfullyabandoning the cities and going back to the land, to work actively in itsrestoration and preservation.

However, to many of the permaculture enthusiasts that today live in towns

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and cities, maybe it is not possible or desirable to leave and start a new life in thecountry, at least in the near or foreseeable future. But regardless of that, theymay wish to do all that is within their reach to have a more natural andsustainable life. And of course there is always a lot that can be done. That’swhere urban permaculture kicks in.

The internalization and application of the permaculture ethics andprinciples in our daily choices, from the most trivial everyday actions to the biglife choices and plans for the future, inevitably lead to the development of aconscious and much more sustainable lifestyle. Such lifestyle is within reach toanyone who becomes aware of the crossroads humanity is at, once one acquiresknowledge of the ethics and principles of permaculture. The permaculturelifestyle will be discussed in detail in the next chapter. Other matters pertainingurban permaculture, relative to home design and water systems, have alreadybeen discussed in previous chapters. In this chapter, we’ll focus our discussionon productive systems in urban permaculture.

Resources

In an urban situation, the most limiting resources are space and soil. Soilcan be scarce, especially in highly urbanized areas where everywhere you lookyou only see buildings and paved surfaces. The little soil you see is in gardens,squares and parks, and you can’t take soil from there. So, oftentimes whenpeople wish to plant something in the city, they see themselves forced to buysoil. However, in suburban and peripheral areas, it is generally possible to getsome soil from yet unbuilt areas. Perhaps, the most limiting resource for urbanpermaculture is space, which we’ll discuss further below.

On the other hand, most other resources are easier and more abundant inurban situations, often even more so than in rural contexts. Sawdust is easily gotin lumberyards and woodworking shops; other cover materials and mulch such asdead leaves, prunings, etc. are easily found in parks and squares. Oftentimes, themunicipal maintenance service gathers fallen leaves and bag them to send to alandfll (a deplorable practice). Generally, all you have to do is ask for thematerial, and they’ll let you take it, already bagged, to your home or other placewhere you need it for composting, mulching, etc. Ashes can be acquired fromwood-fred restaurants and pizza places, for example.

Composting is an obligatory practice for permaculturists. You mustcompost all your home organic waste, both because it’s the most ecologicallyresponsible way of “disposing” of them, and because you’ll need the compost tofertilize your plants and grow food. If desired or needed, you can also ask yourneighbours to separate and give their organic wastes to you, so you can havelarger amounts of organic fertilizer to use in your activities. Now, if you have alot of room, like a huge backyard or a vacant lot, an engaged neighbourhood andease to get the other necessary resources, you can also think of doing larger scale

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composting and even sell your fnal compost, so besides getting an income out ofthat you’ll also be doing an amazing environmental work. This idea will befurther discussed in chapter 17 (“Consultancy and Service Provision inPermaculture”).

Water should not be a problem in urban contexts because you have anenormous roof/ground area ratio. It’s good to stresse that we should always userainwater for irrigation (and also greywater), and avoid using municipal waters tothat end, because that is an unsustainable practice.

Space

The most obvious limitation imposed on urban permaculture is space, asmany people live in apartments and even those who live in houses often don’thave a garden area, or have a very small one. Public spaces in general are alsovery restrictive regarding plant production and environmental restorationactivities, as they are mostly occupied by buildings, pavement and otherinfrastructure. Therefore, urban permaculture is marked by a constant quest foravailable spaces and highly rational and productive utilization of such spaces,often requiring high doses of creativity and unconventional strategies andtechniques.

Let’s explore the possibilities, starting with what’s closer: inside the house,our zone zero.

Zone zero

As we have seen in chapter 9 (“Rural Permaculture”), the inside of thehouse is a place with food production potential. For those who live inapartments, that will often be the only space available to grow anything. Luckily,there are many factors that allow for intensive gardening in the house. Thesefactors are: proximity, which allows for a high degree of control; relativelystable, controlled temperature and humidity, which minimizes problems such aswater stress and freezing—in other words, the house works as some sort ofgreenhouse. Another big advantage of zone zero is the abundance of water, asthe roof is right there allowing for easy catchment and storage; also it is in thehouse that nearly all greywater is produced, which should be used for plantproduction. Some people tend to think of elaborate and sophisticated greywaterrecycling systems with fltering, pumping, automated irrigation, etc., but none ofthat is necessary—all it takes is for you to put a basin in your kitchen sink, abigger one in the shower, and big (60 litre) buckets collecting water from thelaundry machine. Greywater from the kitchen sink can only be used forwatering, but greywater from the laundry, bath and shower can also be reused forcleaning purposes and fushing the toilet.

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Of course all plants need sunlight, so your window areas and inside of glassdoors are ideal places for having potted plants in the house.

The sustainable home design concepts discussed in chapter 10 (“ThePermaculture Home”) should all be applied in urban contexts. For passive solardesign and high energy efciency, also in the city you should have big windows,except in very hot, arid climates, where smaller windows give better energyefciency and thermal comfort. Another great advantage of big windows is thatthey give you more room for growing plants, at the window sill, in windowboxes, etc.

Verandas and balconies have also great productive potential, as long as theyget enough sun. Sunned verandas have higher temperatures than other places inthe house as they accumulate solar energy while being partly protected from thecooling winds. That can increase the productive potential, but also makes itnecessary to be extra careful about water stress, that is, more frequent wateringmay be required. On the other hand, verandas facing the shaded side (facingnorth in the northern hemisphere, and south in the southern hemisphere) orshaded by other buildings, will have a much lesser productive potential, but evenso you should try to plant things there, because sometimes their performancewill exceed your expectations.

Attached greenhouses and sunrooms also have great use in urbanpermaculture in cold climates. They are a bit hard to classify: are they “in” thehouse? Or are they “out”? Zone zero or zone one? You decide. They are greatbecause they are not only useful to grow plants like fowers, herbs, vegetablesand tree seedlings, but also a great place for you to relax and read a book, orhave some guests for a cup of tea or cofee, enjoying the pleasant warmth in anotherwise cold afternoon.

Zone 1

Let’s deal now with the outside of the house, that is, the front andbackyard, corridors, garage, etc.

The backyard

Suppose you have a backyard with a reasonable size—which unfortunatelycan be seen as an extravagance these days for most who live in cities. Thatbackyard has an obvious food production potential, though less so in thoseunfortunately common cases where it is permanently shaded by surroundingbuildings. Now, in a better scenario, where you have a nice backyard and areasonable sun exposure, you should certainly use that space to grow food andother stuf like fowers, herbs, medicines, etc. The backyard will be your zoneone, and everything we discussed about it in chapter 9 (“Rural Permaculture”)applies equally in urban situations. Swales, terracing, mulch, greywater

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watering… everything. Also shrubs and small fruit trees are very welcome inyour backyard.

Now, many permaculturists like to talk passionately about elaborate,frankly over-the-top permaculture garden design ideas, using modern andsophisticated-sounding terms etc. that can impress some people. However, thefact is that none of that is essential or even important, because practice has failedto prove any advantage of such systems regarding productivity or efciency. Asin practically everything else in life, simplicity is key. My grandmas, and Ibelieve most people’s too, especially those who have a country or small townbackground, would chuckle if they saw most present-day permaculturists’gardens with their herb spirals, mandalas and other recurrent design ideas in thepermaculture world. They would laugh simply because the gardens they havealways had in their backyards, in the simple old days fashion, have always hadmuch greater production and diversity, and nobody gave lectures or courses, oreven bragged about that! For that reason, here’s a hint that I consider very useful:whenever possible, try to meet older folks in your area who grow gardens in theirbackyards and allotments, and try to learn something from them. Talk about thesoil, plants, their species and varieties, their usefulness, how to grow them, bestplanting season, etc. They generally feel valued and happy to share theirknowledge, and highly rewarding relationships can arise from that, both ways.Older folks, especially country ones, often have a deep practical understandingof how to have a beautiful, rich, highly productive zone one (of course they don’tcall it zone one!)—traditional knowledge that has been passed on throughgenerations, which unfortunately is being lost quickly as people move to citiesand apartments, and as the newer generations just don’t get into gardening forlack of interest, time or knowledge.

It should be stressed that there is no reason to confne food production tothe backyard. Wherever there’s a front yard, there’s food production potential,and that should be used too. But beware that you’ll probably be admired by thewhole neighbourhood! That’s an excellent way to arouse curiosity, make peopleinterested, have them over to talk with you about food growing, which gives youopportunities to reveal the permaculture universe to them, which will fatallyinspire others to follow your example, so it can potentially change many peoples’lives.

Besides fowers, herbs and vegetables in general, it is also a good idea toplant shrubs or small trees in strategic places around the house. That can giveyou many benefts, such as food production, beauty, privacy, shade, acousticcomfort, etc. They also tend to attract birds, making your life more cheerful.

Vertical gardens

There are many ways to plant a vertical garden. You can use any wall,outside the house and often also inside, as long as there is enough sunlight. You

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can make them with pots of all shapes and sizes, hanging them in series withchains or ropes; you can easily make a “pallet vertical garden” from salvaged oldpallets, and cascading vertical gardens using plastic bottles, cutting them andarranging them in a cascade fashion, hung with ropes, chains or wire. You canbuild a green wall in one afternoon using cinder blocks: all you have to do is drillholes in the blocks’ bottom to allow for water drainage, fll them with potting soiland build a wall in an open, loose staggered arrangement so that the spaces leftbetween the blocks in the same row make room for the plants planted in the rowbelow to grow. In many situations, you can replace curtains with cascading “potplant curtains”, etc. The materials and design options are practically unlimited!

External, corridor and boundary walls are all great places for a verticalgarden. The advantages of this type of garden are many: they practically don’ttake space and convert dull walls into beautiful food production sites. They givegood acoustic comfort, as they absorb noise, and also sun and thermal comfort—you know that unpleasant glare when the sun hits light coloured walls and foors?Now, imagine that sunlight being absorbed by plants, transformed byphotosynthesis into beauty and food production!

Vertical gardens are easy to water: you water the top plants, and as theexcess water drains it waters the lower ones automatically. Put a drainage trayunder the vertical garden to collect the drained water, and use that water again towater your vertical garden next time. This way you don’t waste any water, andthat will help keep your foor dry and clean too. It is a good idea to discard thetray water occasionally, though, to prevent salt build up in the vertical gardensoil.

Now going back to zone zero a little, also inside the house, bathroom andkitchen walls and also the living room can be good places for potted plants orvertical gardens, as long as there’s enough sunlight. Of course, although verticalgardens don’t take much space, in really tight rooms they may not be feasible.

Rooftop gardening

In chapter 8 (“Water in Permaculture”) we discussed green roofs and howthis technique can help solve or mitigate some of the city’s problems. Greenroofs are also a great way to grow food in the city! This is doubtlessly thesmartest way to use this space, normally kept idle, for a productive function. Andhere you’ll hardly have problems with lack of sun!

However, when your goal is food production, not all type of green roofs arethe same—fat concrete roofs are best. That is because for a substantial andcontinual production, you’ll need a good amount of soil, with enough depth,which is normally only feasible on fat concrete roofs, as they are stronger andnearly level. If your roof is very watertight you can make your garden beds righton top of it, but it is more advisable to make them on a humidity barrier (such astarpaulin) to ensure there will be no infltrations in the roof. Or else, you can

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make lifted garden beds or standing planters, which can be made of wood planks(preferably scrap wood), cut plastic drums, etc. placed on top of bricks or cinderblocks. This way, you can plant any kinds of fowers, veggies, herbs, etc. andeven shrubs and small trees. You can keep fruit trees at a dwarf size by using thebonsai technique, which can allow you to produce fruits on your roof and otherplaces that wouldn’t normally ft a tree.

Even with a garden on it, the roof remains a place for rainwater catching.You can use the strategy described in chapter 8 of building your rainwater tankon the ground or underground and using a solar panel-powered water pump tosend the water to a rooftop tank, to use in the garden (watering) and the house.

Public spaces

When you start practising urban permaculture, that inevitably changes theway you look at things and places. You start seeing underused places withunrealized production potential virtually everywhere—room for more urbantrees, including fruit trees (why not?), abandoned/mistreated squares, parks andpublic garden areas… vacant lots, useless lawns and even that neighbour’s frontyard which is completely unproductive. Inevitably, you’ll start to “covet” suchspaces—not in the sense of possessing them, but of having the opportunity toapply the permaculture concepts and your eforts in them, for the beneft ofnature, the city more (making it more beautiful) and yourself and others, ofcourse, by producing food and other useful products and services. Naturally, theless space you have to grow things within your house or your lot, the bigger this“coveting” for other spaces will be. In other words, if you have a house with alarge backyard, maybe that won’t even cross your mind, but if you live in a tinyapartment, with other people, maybe such public and other people’s spaces willbe your only chance to plant anything.

Let’s discuss some of the places and approaches that can be tried out toincrease the available area for you to plant.

Pavements (sidewalks)

In many places, the street design and landscaping contemplates urbanaforestation, so the pavement has those open, usually square or rectangularunpaved spaces with soil for tree planting. However, depending on the city, someof the trees are never actually planted, or they are, but many end up dyingbecause of lack of care and are never replaced, so that the open space startshousing overgrown grass and not rarely rubbish instead of a tree. You can decideto “take justice into your own hands”, and take on the job of planting a treethere! Ideally, you should ask for permission from the council and also have theconsent of the neighbours. In small towns, it will be easier to talk to the peoplein charge at the town hall, and most often you’ll have immediate approval. In bigcities, on the other hand, it may be much more difcult to gain access to the

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person in charge of urban maintenance, with all bureaucracy etc., and even ifyou get there, the person you’re talking to probably doesn’t even know about thatstreet, let alone that tree. For all that, it may make more sense to just plant yourtree and see what happens.

It is important that you plant trees which are adequate to urbanaforestation, considering future implications regarding utility facilities (buriedpipes and wires, overhead cables, etc.), impact on the pavement as the rootsgrow, tree height and the possible consequences of its falling, etc. Many localgovernments have ofcial instructions or guidelines for urban aforestation, withspecifc recommendations as to which species to use and other informations. Insuch cases, it is best to stick to the ofcial recommendations, to avoid problemsin the future. We permaculturists always tend to want to plant food-producingtrees, especially fruit trees, as we are passionate about the idea of growing foodin the city. You may try to do that. But, if your council has specifcrecommendations ruling out fruit trees in urban aforestation, or if yourneighbours are against the idea, you’d better not go against them. If you insist onthe idea, what will often happen is: you plant the tree and take care of it foryears; while it is still young and small, no one cares about it. However, as soon asit starts producing, they’ll probably decide to cut it down, which will cause yougreat indignation and frustration. You can complain and protest, but that will beuseless. Therefore, it is best to prevent such problems in the frst place, whenchoosing the tree species you will plant.

Just planting is not enough—you’ll have to take care of your baby andyoung tree. The most obvious care needed is watering. But you’ll also have toprovide a solid protection for your plant, preferably a steel bar tree guard or atree grill—sticking wood or bamboo rods around your sapling just won’t do!Although the tree guard will cost you money, it is essential to give visibility andrespectability to what you’re doing. Otherwise, many people just won’t see thediference between a baby tree that was planted and is being taken care of bysome dedicated citizen, and a random plant that is growing there. In such cases,passers-by can end up treading on or breaking your baby tree, or the citymaintenance team may destroy your tree, accidentally or intentionally.

Whenever the space you are considering using is not strictly in front ofyour house, it is always very important to have your neighbours’ approval andcooperation. Oftentimes, people just don’t want a tree planted in front of theirhomes, for a number of alleged reasons, one worse than the other (e.g. “theymake the street untidy”, referring to the fallen leaves, or “they can hide burglarsand muggers”, etc.). So, if the municipality plants a tree in front of their house,they may accept it because it is an authority; but if it’s you who planted the tree,maybe they won’t accept it. They may agree and cooperate if you talk to them ina friendly and respectful way, but they won’t necessarily. Therefore, it is alwaysbest to start by talking to people. If they don’t buy into the idea, look for anotherplace.

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Now, of course trees are not all there is—in the remaining space around ityou can plant fowers, herbs, etc., making it super pretty. The same goes forgarden areas along street sides and on the pavement. You can even plantvegetables, but that’s generally not a good idea here. Many people are not proneto respecting vegetable gardens in open public spaces, so your veggies will bevulnerable to all types of “attacks”: brutes will tread or litter your plants; otherswill pick all your fowers, or harvest your veggies even before they are even readyfor that, so the chances of you harvesting anything are pretty low. In someplaces, the municipality itself can destroy what you planted, if they judge that“that’s no place for that”. Planting veggies alongside roads and pavements is atime-tested recipe for harvesting disagreements and disillusion. But of courseyou can try; maybe you’ll be lucky in your particular neighbourhood. Now, amuch safer way to do that is planting unconventional food plants (UFCs),because they won’t even be recognized as food by the vast majority of people,except those who are into UFCs, who are almost invariably people with a higherlevel of conscientiousness, therefore you’ll have higher chances of getting toharvest what you plant.

Your neighbour’s garden

Maybe you have neighbours with a good roomy front or backyard whichthey just don’t tend, maybe because they don’t care, or don’t have the time, orthey may simply not know how to, so it’s permanently lying abandoned, sadlooking, untidy, overgrown, etc.. You can try to talk with them to see if they’lllet you take care or use their yard. There are basically two ways to do that: formoney or for free. The former case means you’ll be ofering a permacultureservice, which will be discussed in chapter 17. Now, you can propose to takecare of your neighbour’s garden for free, in exchange for part of the productionyou’ll have. This way everybody benefts: your neighbour won’t have to worry orcare for the yard, and they’ll have a beautiful garden instead of the usual mess orbarrenness. And they will still get fowers, herbs and vegetables! While you willbe gaining access to another planting space.

Now, if you want to convince anyone to let you use their garden area, youshould frst show what you’re capable of using your own front and backyard (ifyou have one, of course). Transform it in a true Garden of Eden, arousing yourneighbours’ curiosity and admiration, and it won’t be hard for you to make themlet you do the same in their yards. Of course you’ll also have to overcome theprivacy obstacle—not everyone likes the idea of having someone in and out oftheir yard every day; that will probably involve making a key copy for you to usetoo, and this kind of thing may put some people of. However, this kind ofneighbourliness can also rescue a sense of community that urban neighbourhoodshave been losing over the last decades, so it can be enriching and positive to allinvolved.

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Vacant lots

Not all districts have vacant lots—they tend to be rare in central parts ofthe city, and common in peripheral and suburban areas. If they exist in yourarea, they are generally great opportunities for urban permaculture. Theirproductive potential is obvious; moreover, they are a constant worry to theirowners, who have to keep them tidy and clean, free from rubbish and overgrowththat could harbour pests, rats, snakes, etc.

Seek to identify the owners of the vacant lots you’re interested in using, andpropose a mutual agreement: the owner lets you use the lot for gardening for apre-established period of time, let’s say 6 months or one year, so they won’t feellike they’re losing autonomy or right over the lot, and you commit to keep thelot nice and tidy, and maybe share the produce with the owner, so that everybodywins! Actually the whole neighbourhood benefts, as they lose an abandoned lotand get a beautiful garden instead that will bring beauty and inspiration.

You can agree that the owner is free to harvest whatever they want, becausein most cases they’ll actually pick close to nothing, but the simple fact that theagreement preserves their liberty to go in and harvest what is being produced intheir own lot removes whatever insecurity they might feel regarding the rightsconcession over their estate. More often than not, that will actually inspire themto get involved, help with the work, which will mean not only more hands, butalso a strengthening of the permaculture movement!

Practically all zone one techniques described in chapter 9 can be appliedhere, equally.

Now, a vital point is the water source for watering your garden. Vacant lotsas a rule don’t have tap water, and even if they do, that is not an appropriate usefor that water. The best option is to harvest rainwater from the neighbouringhouses’ roofs (if they still don’t catch and use that water, as most often is thecase). You should ask them for permission to bring the water from their roofgutters through pipes into the lot you’ll be using. To store that water, you can buya plastic water tank or polyethylene cistern with capacity for some 2,000 to5,000 litres, but that is sure to mean a substantial cost. Now, a valid andextremely cheap alternative is to build a temporary underground cistern: dig asquare hole in the ground, with dimensions 2 × 2 × 1.25 m (length × width ×depth). You can use that dirt to make contour swales, or cob raised bed walls,etc. in the lot, or just pile it somewhere. Now, line the inside of the hole with aHDPE liner. Cover the liner’s borders outside the hole with a layer of soil,forming a raised edge for your cistern, which will prevent runof from entering.Keep your cistern covered with shade netting on a wooden frame to preventmosquitoes from entering and breeding there, and on top of that place a hardcover that can be made with wood boards or planks. You now have anunderground 5,000 litre cistern for a fraction of the price you’d have to pay for acommercial one of similar capacity. The only new materials that you’ll have to

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buy are a 5 × 5 m piece of plastic tarp, a 2.5 × 2.5 m piece of shade netting, 8 mof wood strips for the mosquito net frame and the boards for the hard cover (ifyou can’t fnd suitable scrap wood planks).

To draw water from the cistern, you can use a hand pump that you canmake yourself of PVC pipes and fttings, at a very low cost.

If the lot is not fenced or walled, you’ll have to provide that to give yousome privacy and protect your garden from animal and human invaders. You canmake pretty wood fences with salvaged pallets—in most cases, that will beenough. Another great option is to plant a living fence or a hedge, with hibiscus,for example, which can be propagated from cuttings and grow quickly. Hibiscusis great also because they don’t have thorns and they give beautiful fowers!You’ll have to keep your living fence trimmed, which will give you a continualsupply of mulch for your garden. You can also opt for edible hibiscus species,and planting more than one species, which will make your hedge even morebeautiful and productive, yielding fowers for your salads, pickles and teas.

Parks and squares

In many areas, public parks and squares exist but in a decadent state due tolack of maintenance, which translates into disorderly vegetation overgrowth,especially grasses, trash build up and the progressive deterioration ofinfrastructures such as pavement, lighting, fences, trash bins, benches,playgrounds and leisure equipments in general. Demanding solutions from thepublic administration is generally fruitless.

Such spaces can also be seen as places with productive potential that maybe available to someone who’s willing to work on them. If the work includesclearing of trash, landscaping, maybe some infrastructure maintenance,associated with environmental conservation and restoration works such asfxating rainwater, increasing biomass and biodiversity, plus food production,surely everybody wins! In fact, this happens a lot in many areas, thanks toindividuals and community mobilization.

For design and planning purposes, here you can apply all conceptsdiscussed in chapter 9 referring to zones one, two and three, possibly even four,depending on the size of the area. That is, you can have fower and vegetablebeds (it is always a good idea to focus on UFPs), shrub and tree agroforests, andalso areas with a more native reaforestation.

However, diferently from the cases we have been discussing so far, this isnot the type of work that can or should normally be done by a single person. Thereason for that is that we’re talking about public spaces, that belong toeverybody; therefore, if you just ask the relevant authorities for permission towork on that area, you’ll hardly ever get an approval. Even if you get suchpermission and start a beautiful work there, you’ll often not get a broad supportfrom the local community because many may feel you’re usurping that public

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space.Now, none of that means it’s impossible or not feasible to do a great

restoration, revitalization work on such spaces, associated with food production,but it must be done the right way, which is with the community. In other words,you’ll have to start a movement, a community organization (if it still doesn’texist), to achieve the full legitimacy to carry out your project in such publicspaces. This is simpler than it may sound. Follow these steps:

✔ Elaborate a project. Draw a plan of the space (park or square) on whichyou wish to work, plotting on it the main landmarks and reference points(streets, a lake, infrastructure, etc.) Use aerial images (e.g. from GoogleEarth) to make a decent, respectable plan.

✔ On that outline, mark the activities and improvements you are proposingwith your project: indicate terraces, planting beds, trees to be planted, etc.You can make an artistic representation of what things should look like inthe future, when the project is established and mature.

✔ Besides the productive elements and activities, indicate also otherrestoration activities that you wish to carry out, such as clearing of trashand litter, renewal of walls and fences and playground equipments, etc.

✔ Make a step-by-step schedule for the execution of the project.

✔ Attach recent photos of the space, emphasizing its decadence: overgrowth,trash, litter, decaying infrastructure, etc.

✔ Attach also a sign-up sheet for neighbours and community members whowish to participate or at least support the project.

✔ Now, visit all houses in the neighbourhood, showing your ideas, invitingeverybody to join and asking for their support by signing the sign-up sheet.

✔ All that being done, you’re all set to take your project to the council ortown hall. Contact and make an appointment with the person in charge ofthe space in question. You should not go alone to the meeting—bring alongat least two other participants of the movement. That increases a lot theodd of your request being approved and you work authorized.

When you start a movement of this kind, especially if it’s the frst time youget involved with a community association or cause, you’ll often get overexcited,with that impression that you’re starting a revolutionary movement that couldchange the world. And it actually might; however, you should manage yourexpectations. Community associations are made of people, and you should beprepared that not everybody that supports an idea will have the samecommitment, disposition and perseverance as you.

You should do all that mobilization work and really wish that joint work tohappen. That can have a profoundly transforming efect on your neighbourhood

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at multiple levels: in an improvement in the way the neighbourhood looks, in thereclaiming of a leisure option for all, in the rescue of a sense of community,improvement of the social relations, inspiration for change involving people ofall ages and walks of life, etc. However, you must also be prepared to doeverything alone! Oftentimes, a bunch of people join up at the beginning butgive up quite fast, and the attendance to the activities can fall progressively untilthere is only you. Even if that happens, it is vital that you do not give up. At leastyou did your part, and importantly, you got what you wanted in the frst place,which is the legitimate access to that space for use in production andenvironmental restoration purposes. Done this way, you’ll hardly run the risk oflosing that right, because you started the right way.

Now, of course there are cases in which the mobilization has greatadherence by the community and it becomes a growing movement that can getbig and serious. When that happens, you, together with the other communitymembers, can opt for formalizing the association as a registered NGO. That willallow your association to develop more ambitious projects, and give it access to awider range of funding opportunities, both from private and public sectors.However, you should bear in mind that this expanded reach comes together withbigger bureaucracy and new responsibilities. But you don’t have to worry aboutany of that at the beginning. The best way to do it is starting small and simple,focusing on what can be done with minimal resources, and adapting as the thingfows.

Another very important thing to be stressed: when you are revitalizing aspace or doing any activities that include planting, be it for production orenvironmental restoration or both, the easiest part is the start—the harder yetessential part is to keep up the work. That actually applies to any permacultureendeavour, be it a rural or urban project, in land you own or other people’s orpublic spaces, and also other social and environmental activities in general. Aspreviously mentioned, most people’s adhesion to such initiatives tend to be just afash in the pan, that is, they join with apparent great enthusiasm at frst but endup dropping out quite fast. It is crucial that you do not allow this to be your case!As mentioned in chapter 9 (“Rural Permaculture”), planting a sapling is theeasiest thing—caring for it to become a tree, that’s the hard part! I know fromexperience, and also from reports by many other people, that if you plant asapling, wherever you may, but especially in a public space, and simply turn yourback on it thinking you’ve done your part, when you go back there after sometime you’ll hardly ever fnd your sapling, let a lone a tree. So although that maygive you some momentary satisfaction, that feeling that you are some sort ofhero that just helped save the world, the fact remains that planting a tree and notcaring for it afterwards is practically the same as not planting at all. It isnecessary to really take care of your young tree, which means frequent visits andinterventions such as maintaining the tree guard, redoing the planting basing,applying mulch, fertilizing and watering, etc. for a period of a few years. Only

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then can you say you actually made a diference.

Important recommendation: don’t cling to what is not yours

When we want to plant in the city we normally face space limitations whichforces us to look at underused private and public spaces such as untended frontyards, vacant lots, street sides, parks and squares, etc. Although it is oftenpossible to gain access to such spaces, as we’ve been discussing, you shouldalways bear in mind that people in general often don’t share your points of view,which may derive from a lack of environmental awareness on their part. As aresult, one thing that often happens is that, although you got permission to usespaces that are not owned by you, as soon as you start your activities that maycreate some dissatisfaction in other people, which leads to tensions that cancause you problems. There are various possible reasons for that, including:

• A culturally rooted aesthetic sense in which aridity and monotony arevalued over life and productivity, especially in the urban setting.

• Ego-related problems: the mediocre attitude which is characteristic ofsome people who can’t do anything positive, and feel terrible psychologicaltension when they see others stand out for doing great, beautiful things—inother words, jealousy.

• Fear of losing control. If someone is the owner, or in any way is in chargeor have power over whichever space, that person will often feel threatenedif you start caring for that space and make it beautiful and productive,feeling you may “steal” their possession, control or authority over thatspace, etc.

For these and other reasons, unfortunately it is very common that, in spiteof your gaining consent for using a space, at any moment down the road in thedevelopment of your project this consent may be withdrawn. Therefore, youmust always keep in mind that no matter how beautiful your plants are, and howproductive your patches… no matter how much love and care and efort youhave deposited there, someone can come at any time and simply deny your rightand destroy everything.

That should not dishearten or prevent you from at least trying to use suchspaces for productive purposes—as long as you don’t make big expectations orattach excessively to that spot and the plants you planted, otherwise you’ll beplanting disillusion and frustration.

Concerns regarding soil contamination

Urban soil utilization for food production brings up an important questionregarding safety towards human health, considering the possible contamination

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of the soils and foods with chemical pollutants derived from human activities,especially heavy metals.

That is a relevant preoccupation, as it is known that the heavy metalcontents are commonly increased in the city air, dust and soil. The main sourcesof heavy metals in the city are motor vehicle trafc, because of heavy metalscontained in fossil fuels, and past and present industrial activities in the area.

However, although there is in fact an increase in the levels of such elementsin cities, in most cases they remain within acceptable limits for agricultural soilsand do not represent a threat to health through consumption of food grown insuch soils.* Even when present in higher levels, the bigger risk to human healthresides in the accidental ingestion of soil, rather than plants, as the heavy metaluptake by plants is very low. Therefore, basic food hygiene measures, that is,washing fruits and vegetables before consuming them, are normally enough toeliminate risks of human contamination.

Even so, it is important to adopt soil decontamination practices whenpractising urban agriculture. One essential practice is amending soil acidity,bringing the soil pH to the 6.5 to 7 range through liming or wood ashapplication, because that causes the fxation of metals reducing theirbioavailability to plants. Another practice that is efective for remediation ofsoils contaminated with heavy metals is composting—both the addition andincorporation of organic compost as well as co-composting of soil together withorganic wastes have been proven to be efective in the immobilization of heavymetals in the soil, eliminating health risks.**

The contamination risks are higher in highly polluted places, that is, alongheavy trafc routes and around industrial areas with heavy metal pollutingfactories such as metallurgic industries, mining sites or around thermoelectricpower plants, etc. In such cases, it is recommendable to take soil tests for heavymetal levels before starting planting, and evaluate remediation options in case ofincreased levels. However, it may actually be best for you to consider moving outof that area, as such contaminations bring health risks in other forms, such asthrough ingestion, skin contact and inhalation of air and dust with high heavymetal levels. Such risks are substantially higher for children.†

It should be stressed, however, that to date there are no epidemiologicalstudies linking urban agriculture or the consumption of its products with anincreased incidence of whatever diseases related to heavy metals or other urbanpollutants.

* Hough, R. L. et al. Assessing potential risk of heavy metal exposure from consumption ofhome-produced vegetables by urban populations. Environmental Health Perspectives.2004.** Barker A. V.; Bryson, G. M. Bioremediation of heavy metals and organic toxicants bycomposting. The Scientifc World Journal. 2002.† Sun, G. et al. Metal exposure and associated health risk to human beings by street dust in a heavily industrialized city of Hunan province, central China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2017.

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Permaculture in the public sector

So far we’ve been discussing things that you can do alone or at acommunity level in urban permaculture—what you can do with your house tomake it more sustainable, or how to grow food in and around your home, etc.But urban permaculture does not stop there!

Cities are an inexorable part of our civilization, and they are generallyextremely unsustainable. Now, there’s a bunch of things that can be done tomake the cities more sustainable and productive through the application of thepermaculture principles, so it is up to us permaculturists to work also at abroader level as a transforming force to improve the city and the lives of peopleregarding sustainability, quality of life, environmental health, etc. That can bedone in several ways: in the form of voluntary individual and collective actions aswe’ve been discussing, or through service provision and consultancy; workingwith environmental education, awareness raising and social mobilization, maybethrough NGOs, and also working in technical areas in the public sector, in thegovernment at any levels or in the legislature, etc.

Some of the major problems of cities regarding sustainability have alreadybeen discussed, and solutions proposed, in the preceding chapters. For example,how the hydrological cycle is disrupted in the city and how that can be reverted(see chapter 8, “Water in Permaculture”), or the terrible problem of waterpollution and nutrient waste by sewage (chapter 11, “Ecological Sanitation”).Now, there are many other things that can and must be done so that citiesbecome more sustainable and also healthier, more humane and pleasant. Forexample, increasing the efciency of solid urban waste recycling, or reducing thedependence on individual motor transport, bettering urban public transport andstimulating the use of human power for locomotion (e.g. cycling), or pushing fora more sustainable, renewable energy grid by subsidizing and promoting theinstallation of rooftop grid-connected solar panels, etc.

You can contribute to all that in several ways. You can take yourpropositions and demands to the relevant authorities—mayors and legislators, forinstance. Of course if you try to do that as an individual, that will be anextremely precarious attempt, with virtually zero chances of success; however, ifyou do so through some sort of community association or another type of socialmobilization, such as through a petition, you may have much better chances.That necessarily includes information and awareness raising campaigns, which isdoubtlessly an extremely important role of permaculture.

Another way to try to change public policies is becoming yourself a publicauthority, be it as a professional in some public post with decision power orrunning yourself for an elected ofce, upholding the sustainability fag, seekingthe people’s support and adhesion to such projects so that, if you get elected, you

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can help put in place adequate public policies towards solutions for the city’senvironmental problems.

Now, of course all that is easier said than done, especially when youconsider that you’ll depend on other people, who mostly are not sensitive to thesustainability cause or even aware of the severity of our environmental crisis, andthe roles they play in this crisis, so they normally have other priorities, most oftimes quite self-centered. Regardless of that, it is our responsibility to dowhatever is possible to make it happen, because if we permaculturists don’t do it,who will? It is vital, though, that you go easy on your expectations. The goodnews is that even if none of that works, that is, even if you fail to infuencepublic policies and solve the big sustainability problems of your town or city,there’s still a lot you can do for and with your community, your neighbourhoodand yourself. Besides all examples we’ve been discussing in the preceding pagesand chapters, you can also do projects in schools, for example, coordinatingactivities with the students such as an organic garden and composting, includingrainwater harvesting from the school’s roofs for watering; you can also givelectures and workshops about environmental issues and sustainability at schools,churches, associations, etc., or even start a permaculture circle or club, carryingout such activities collectively, and thus furthering the permaculture movement.All of that represents a fundamental groundwork, as you’ll be preparing theterrain to allow for a societal evolution towards sustainability in the light ofpermaculture.

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Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 14. The Permaculture Lifestyle

14THE PERMACULTURELIFESTYLE

The diligent application of the permaculture ethics and principles to ourdaily choices and actions invariably leads to a more natural, healthy andsustainable lifestyle, and the adoption of the permaculture lifestyle is anindispensable condition for humanity to attain sustainability. Had the worldadopted that lifestyle a long time ago, we’d never see ourselves into anenvironmental and civilization crisis such as today’s; likewise, if we adopt thepermaculture lifestyle now, it may be possible to revert our collision course withthe natural environment and its terrible implications. That may be our onlychance for long-term survival as a species, as well as for the biodiversity onEarth.

The permaculture lifestyle is characterized by:

• A simple, frugal and natural life, valuing the essential things while rejectingconsumerism and the artifcialization of life, etc.

• Constant attention and measures to avoid unnecessary or excessive resourceconsumption (water, energy, food, materials in general), preventing wasteand production of residues (garbage, sewage, air pollution, etc.), and alsodoing whatever possible so that any residues are efectively recycled.

• Continuously seeking a reintegration with nature and its cycles.

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• Working with the earth for the production of natural, healthy food andrestoration of the environment and its ecosystems.

• Focus on cooperative relationships, rather than competition.

• Proactivity and engagement, acting on the greater society around us toamplify the reach of the positive efects of our actions, taking knowledge,awareness and inspiration to more people, thus strengthening thepermaculture movement.

Adopting the permaculture lifestyle is the most basic and essential point toanyone interested in permaculture, be it urban or rural. It is actually an entry wayto permaculture practice, as it consists of habits and practices that are withinreach to all who learn the permaculture concepts, long before they have the toolsto grow food in big amounts or do large-scale environmental restoration projects,etc., so it is a starting point for a transition towards a sustainable life.

Step-by-step

There is a host of very important though simple measures that are withinthe reach of practically anyone, and the transition to a sustainable lifestyle andsociety must necessarily start from those—there’s no use trying to change theworld without changing yourself frst.

For example, on the frst day you can start sorting your waste: organic,recyclables (plastic, metal, glass, paper), non-recyclables. It’s not difcult!Reduce your consumption: don’t buy anything that is not essential. Don’t buy anew pair of shoes, or a new purse (you surely don’t need one!). Don’t buy a newhome appliance because the old one broke—take it to the repair shop. Keep aneye on the lights and turn of any that is not in use. Take a quicker shower, andturn of the water while you soap yourself. Flush the toilet less times—youcertainly don’t need to fush it after every number one! Etc.

On the second day, why don’t you dust of your bicycle, pump up thetyres… and put it to work! Leave the car in the garage, and go to thesupermarket by bike, or even on foot. Try, it won’t hurt! When buying food,avoid excessive packaging. Better still, go to a farmers market and buy loads offresh stuf, with no packaging at all! Get a reusable shopping bag, and take itwith you every time you go buy something. Don’t take any disposable shoppingbags! Simply refuse to take them, and never forget your reusable bag. Make thata matter of honour. But if for any reason, like you forgot your bag, or in case ofan unexpected need, etc., no frets: take the bag and, after using it, fold it andstick it in your purse or backpack. Next time it happens, you won’t have to take anew one—reuse the same one! And keep doing it, as long as it lasts, and it willlast a long time, you can be sure. The so-called “single-use plastic bags” don’t

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have to be used only once—that’s just stupid! You can use them on and on, untilit fnally tears. You’ll be surprised with how many times it is possible to use suchbags! And you’ll catch yourself thinking: “and I’ve been throwing away all thoseperfectly good bags all these years!”

Turn away from the disposable culture of our throw-away society. Whencontemplating buying anything, think of and assume the responsibility over allthe environmental impacts involved, from the extraction of raw materials,through manufacture, transport and commercialization, and down to the disposalat the end of its service life; think of all energy spent, resources consumed,pollution created, etc. Think about all that, and buy only what is essential.

On the third day, don’t eat processed food. It is part of the permaculturelifestyle to seek a healthy diet, based on natural, local-grown foods and organicas much as possible; to eat loads of fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grainmeals, and less meats, dairy and refned products such as sugar and white four,for example. Permaculturists in general don’t have the habit of eating processedand ultra-processed foods such as biscuits, favoured chips, carbonated drinksand whatever kinds of fast foods, as we know they are no good for our healthand the planet.

“Believe in the transforming power of small and simple actions”

Make all those changes habits. It is precisely there that the transformationpower of the small actions resides. You’ll feel great with your new habits. You’llprobably notice a reaction of confusion and perplexity in some people aroundyou when they see your attitude, but don’t let that shy or discourage you. Soonerthan you think, you’ll see some of them following your example, and that’ll makeyou feel even better—you’ll be making people think in a diferent way, helpingthe movement grow.

Now, here is an important recommendation: don’t brag about your newawareness and sustainable habits, don’t try to force people around you to do thesame, because that is an arrogant attitude, typical of immature, insecure peoplewho want to show of and look superior to others—that is what you’ll look liketo other people’s eyes if you do so, so no one is going to get inspired by you ortake you seriously. Just do your thing, and let your example (and not words)speak for you.

Once those actions and habits are incorporated to your life, start homecomposting, recycling all your organic wastes! And why not plant somevegetables and fowers in your backyard next weekend? Or you can use that long-forsaken garden box at the entrance of your building, or vases on your windowsill…

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Plant the seeds of the fruits you eat in empty milk cartons; follow up thegermination and growth of your seedlings (your babies!), and when they’re bigenough, plant them somewhere. How about revitalizing that untidy, mistreatedsquare in your district? Invite friends, clear the place of trash and litter, mow thelawn, plant your saplings, put up tags with the species identifcation. Go back towater them some twice a week, and check if everything’s OK (this matter hasbeen discussed in the preceding chapter, “Urban Permaculture”).

Another very cool thing to do is study about the native tree species of yourarea. Take up the habit of watching the trees, including those in the streets andparks in your town, and learn to identify them. Research and organize afowering and fruiting calendar of the native trees in your area, that will help alot with the identifcation job. Collect seeds, grow saplings to use in yourprojects. Take part in seed and seedling sharing groups, engage in reaforestationprojects as a volunteer, and you can contribute with your own saplings too!

Consider catching, storing and using rainwater in your home, as much aspossible. Start small and simple, with a drum placed under the gutter, while youplan more efective systems.

Let’s go back to the waste sorting in your home. Now, you have grown usedto separating organic wastes (which you are now composting!) and the drywastes, and you know it doesn’t hurt, right? Now, how about making that evenbetter? Don’t limit yourself to separating dry and wet wastes—sort by materialtype: paper, plastic, glass, metal and, lastly, what cannot be recycled. Analyse thenon-recyclables bin contents: can’t you stop consuming, or replace those items inyour daily life, so as to prevent that waste?

With your new habits, you’ll inevitably see that the amount of wasteproduced is greatly reduced. So, you can go beyond, and start separating yourwastes even further: white papers from brown papers and cardboard; glass toosorted by colour; steel sorted from aluminium, etc. Those materials will berecycled separately, so who’s the best person to do the sorting, if not theproducer at the source?

If you usually spend a lot of time in trafc, commuting to work or collegeetc., consider moving closer to your job/school, or getting a job closer to whereyou live, so you can cycle or walk to work, thus preventing the excessive energyconsumption with locomotion, and also air pollution and all other associatednegative impacts. Don’t be hasty in doing such changes, but start thinking aboutthem, check your options. If your job or study is in a function or feld that goesagainst your principles, for example for being intrinsically unsustainable,consider changing them. But be prudent, avoid making risky moves. The mostimportant is that you do not allow yourself to get stuck in that situation. Look innew directions.

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There are several ways to have permaculture as your lifestyle, but the bestway to start is this, with what is easy and immediately in your reach, and thenprogressing step by step. From there, you have many possible paths: rural orurban permaculture, education, service provision, consultancy, environmentalprojects through NGOs, work in the public sector, etc. See the options, contactexisting groups, talk to people. Start devising your strategy to move from whereyou are to where you want to be. This transition process usually takes years, butit is much better to do it right and slow than hastily throwing yourself intosomething just to regret it later. No one becomes a “sustainability hero”overnight!

We need more people to make permaculture their lifestyles, to consumeless and pollute less, to preserve and help restore the ecosystems with their littleday-by-day actions, and who inspire others with their example, helping themovement grow. What we don’t need is more people who just talk aboutsustainability without changing their habits, as we so often see.

To work the land

Oftentimes we see people overexcited talking about permaculture, and theysometimes actually adhere to some or most of the practices described above,without however doing any relevant work with the land, that is, without anymeaningful efort towards food production or environmental restoration such asreaforestation. Although it could be argued that that is better than nothing, itshould be stressed that this type of halfhearted adhesion to permaculture willnever be enough to solve any of the big problems facing humanity.

One must not forget that, at its beginning, permaculture stood for“permanent agriculture”, and although its meaning has been expanded to“permanent culture”, the work with the land to grow food and restore ecosystemsremains a central, indispensable point of permaculture. Therefore, the truepermaculture lifestyle is one of working with the earth, hands and feet on theearth. And working hard, because that’s the only way to achieve any meaningfulresults. Whoever is not willing to take that will never be a true permaculturist.

Caught between two worlds

Now, of course you can’t suggest that everybody evacuate the cities andmove to the country to live self-sufciently ever after. That would not only beimpossible or impracticable but also in many respects undesirable. If all left theirurban jobs (of course that’d never happen, but just as a supposition), that wouldmean the sudden loss of all modern technologies and a return to the Stone Age!A return very few would survive, by the way. So, what is being suggested is notthat we abandon civilization, but rather that we reinvent it.

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In other words, all professions and trades (OK, not all, but most) willremain important, necessary; therefore, it is not part of the permacultureproposition to abandon those activities. The problem is that it has become thenorm for people to dedicate full time to a whatever urban job, depending on thesalary to buy all the stuf to provide for their needs (not to mention the excessesand superfuities), while nature is being massacred without anyone feelingresponsible for that. So, what is being proposed here is a balance betweenactivities for the direct and indirect provision for the human needs in asustainable way, preserving and restoring the land, water and ecosystems, andthe conventional activities which are necessary for the positive aspects ofcivilized life.

As we have covered in chapter 9 (“Rural Permaculture”), keeping yourconventional profession or occupation is desirable and often even necessary inthe preparation and throughout the establishment phase of your permacultureproject and therefore your transition to this lifestyle; when your transition is doneand your project is mature, you can opt for keeping the old occupation alongwith your permaculture activity, or leave the old life behind and dedicate fulltime to your new permaculture life.

It should be stressed that some professions are particularly compatible withthe permaculture goals as they can contribute a lot to the solution of problemsassociated with our environmental and civilization crisis. That depends on thekind of work you do and how you do it. For example, you can be an engineerwho works on the development of more efcient recycling technologies andprocesses (which is good), or make products with planned obsolescence thatreinforce consumerism and waste (which is bad); you can be a teacher thatstimulates critical thinking and brings relevant information to your students, oronly force them to memorize loads of useless or even false or misleadinginformation to pass exams; you can be an architect dedicated to sustainablebuilding, or work in the construction of luxury skyscrapers for evil corporations.You can be a politician or public servant who’s aware of environmental andsocial issues and work for societal progress by addressing such problems, or justplay the old dirty game of demagogy, populism, etc. to achieve and maintainpower, serving obscure interests, etc.

There are other professions and occupations that don’t really have acontribution to give with particular regard to the environmental crisis (e.g.medic, accountant, mechanic, dentist, electrician, salesman, etc.); however, theyare useful to society and can be useful to make your transition to permacultureviable too, which is great. Unfortunately, there are also occupations which areinherently harmful towards the environment, or do not contribute in any positiveway to society, and some are frankly degrading, etc. Such activities, which go

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against the permaculture ethics and general morality, don’t have any place in thepermaculture movement.

Proactivity and engagement

We permaculturists don’t hang around just waiting for things to happen sowe adapt to them; neither do we just observe and criticize, complaining aboutthe ways of humanity—we take on the job of making happen, we takeresponsibility for our actions, for being the change we want to see in the world.Proactivity is part of the permaculture lifestyle.

Now, if you dream alone, that will be but a dream—we must dreamtogether so the dream can come true! In other words, we must unite, seekcooperation both between permaculturists and with the bigger society around us.

It’s not that you can’t work alone, of course you can. But it is much betterthat you establish networks with other people who have similar interests, and dosimilar work. Do networking with other permaculturists to allow for a fow ofideas, information, work exchange, seed exchange, etc.

Seek also a positive, reciprocal engagement with the rest of society:participate in associations or NGOs, be they formal or informal, or evengovernmental activities, if possible, creating or participating in social andenvironmental projects such as environmental education, reaforestation projects,stream/river cleanup eforts; organizing activities in schools and other publicspaces such as an organic garden or composting; organize or take part incommunity-led eforts for the revitalization of public spaces such as parks andsquares. Give lectures, interviews, write articles for local newspapers, magazinesand radio stations, talk about the environmental crisis and permaculture, showingthe results of your own work, seeking to inspire and engage the community andcontribute to furthering the permaculture movement.

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Recommendation for the youth: don’t give up your studies, don’t dropout of college!

Many people develop an acute awareness of the current environmentaland civilization crisis and come into contact with permaculture when they areat college, or are preparing for entering college. There’s a number of reasonsfor that: at such time, you have enough maturity and contact with the world tonotice there is something wrong, and often your course at college, that is, thecontents being taught, help you see that, which is a cause of disappointment,as you notice you’re being trained to become something you actuallydisapprove of. In such cases, it is common for the student to feel disillusionedand even regretful of being in that course, and think of abandoning the studiesand that career because that is not what they want for their lives.

Although it may be really discouraging to study so many apparentlyuseless things and unsustainable ways to live and work and do things, none ofthat mean you’ll have to do things that way. In fact, it is important and useful tolearn such stuf for a deep understanding of how other people do things andhow society works, so in many cases you’ll actually be learning what not to do.However, in the future you’ll probably be surprised at how often theinformation learned in college will be useful in your life, including permacultureactivities. It will also very probably be important at the beginning of yourjourney, for your transition into the permaculture life, by enhancing yourchances of employment and income that will allow you to make the money tobuy land and all other stuf that you’ll need to start your rural or urbanpermaculture projects. Needless to say, without fnancial resources everythinggets much more difcult or even impracticable. Knowledge and formal trainingare vital also to do permaculture activities within specifc areas which arelegally regulated, such as engineering, architecture, biology or ecology,environmental management, etc.

For all that, I make this strong recommendation: don’t give up yourstudies. It may be a good idea to change directions towards areas which areparticularly applicable to permaculture, though.

The frmness when facing an uncomfortable yet transitory situation, thatis, not quitting because you know that will open doors and enhance yourchances of success at what you want to do, is in fact part of that essentialpackage of essential virtues which are necessary to permaculture—seriousness, tenacity, persistence, etc. That attitude is crucial not only foryour personal success with permaculture, or actually with anything in life, butalso for the success of the permaculture movement itself in fulflling its noblemission. As Bill Mollison once said, “We have got to let experts loose on theground. We need hundreds and hundreds of them”.

Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 15. Communities in Permaculture

15COMMUNITIES INPERMACULTURE

People who embrace permaculture do so because they want to achieve anatural, simple and healthy lifestyle, in contact and harmony with nature andother humans, preserving and restoring ecosystems. Such aims in life areradically diferent from, if not straight opposite most peoples’, considering that inour modern society the norm is to seek material growth, competition,consumption, keeping up appearances and often hedonism—life goals that showa world view deeply marked by individualism.

People who share the permaculture ideals exist spread around the world. Ifwe consider, just for illustrative purposes, as there are no data available, that weare 0.1% of the world population, and considering a total population of over 7billion, that means we are more than 7 million people desiring a life in harmonywith nature! Which surely isn’t few. Now, the problem is that we are dilutedamidst a huge mass of people who are ignorant or unconscious of theenvironmental and civilization crisis and its terrible implications.

And that’s exactly what weakens us—the fact that we are insulated fromone another, surrounded by people who do not understand us, who are constantlytrying to make us believe we are “crazy”, idealists, that our concerns are baselessor exaggerated, that our expectations aren’t realist, that what we’re trying to dowill never work, etc. We can spend our entire lives without ever meeting orgetting to know anyone who shares our ideas, values and visions, which is

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certainly very discouraging.

Family, friends, colleagues, bosses, society in general puts a lot of pressureon you to ft in with the norm—the way you dress, the car you drive, your shoes,your talk, your ideas, etc., everything must be in line with a set of pre-defnedoptions, regarded as “normal”, from which you are “free” to choose. If you stepon the line, they give you a funny look; if you cross the line, you run the seriousrisk of being ostracised. Everyone who does not ft in with the implied normsimposed by society feel the burden of that pressure. In the face of that, you havebasically two paths to follow: give in or not give in—in other words, submissionor “rebellion”.

Many end up giving in to society’s pressures and trying to adapt to the rulesof the “normal”, and because of that they sufer from normosis, a syndromecharacterized by apathy, low self-esteem, depression, etc., often leading todestructive tendencies such as misanthropy and suicidal tendencies.

On the other hand, those who do not give in to the pressure and keepfaithful to their own essence often end up isolating (or being isolated) frompeople and society, which also fatally leads to chronic unhappiness, as no man isan island. However, you need only fnd someone, or preferably a group of peoplewho share your world views and ideals, and you get better immediately! Thatmoment, all pressure from society immediately becomes something distant,irrelevant, and you feel immensely strengthened, capable of looking with hope atthe possibility of an exciting future, and an equally exciting journey to get there.

If isolation is what makes us weaker, then only through union can webecome stronger. Union allows for the fux of ideas, which leads to maturity; theexchange of knowledge and experiences, which teaches and encourages; thesharing of work, which makes it lighter and more productive, and the healthy,respectful contact, which allows for a happy life. Hence the importance ofcommunities to permaculture.

There are many ways in which you can make part of a community, and allthose ways are valid, and they complement each other.

Virtual communities

The easiest and most accessible form of community in permaculture arevirtual ones, through the internet. For example, there are countless permaculturegroups in virtual social media, with thousands of members. Another example arethe permaculture forums on the internet, some of which are linked to renownedpermaculture centres and institutes.

When we talk about virtual communities, many people are put of as theyjudge those are not “real”. And of course, if the only permaculture you do isover the internet, that certainly won’t make a big diference in your life, let alone

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the world. But it is important not to underestimate the value of that tool. Tomany people, that will be the only option available to brake the isolation barrierand get in touch with other people involved with permaculture, especially inthose cases where no one in the physical world around them cares or even knowabout permaculture, which unfortunately is very common. Now, you just join apermaculture group or forum, and you’ll be immediately in touch with hundredsor thousands of people involved with permaculture around the world, and you’llprobably even fnd people in your own area who otherwise you’d likely never getto know. From that, you can move on to physical, real contact with those people.This tool opens numerous types of doors for you: exchange of ideas, informationfow including publications and all types of learning materials, information oncourses, workshops, opportunities for volunteer work and practical learning, etc.

But you should be aware of something: of the thousands of members ofsuch virtual communities, only a minority efectively practises permaculture toany degree, while the majority are only interested in the subject. It is importantto stress that the world is in no shortage of “virtual permaculturists” or any othertype of “keyboard warriors”. Compulsively interacting in social media (reading,sharing, commenting, etc.) these days is a typical way for one to do nothing andstill have the impression that one’s done a lot, so we don’t want to be in thatgroup. So what I’m saying is that virtual platforms are useful tools, if usedappropriately.

Associations

In Chapter 13 (“Urban Permaculture”), we discussed ways to engage thelocal community in permaculture activities, that is, environmental projects suchas revitalization of parks and squares, maybe including food production;vegetable gardens in schools and underused or abandoned areas, environmentaleducation activities, etc., which can be done through formal or informalassociations (NGOs).

Joint works, aimed at the common good of people and nature, generallygain support and appreciation of all. That makes people think, and startunderstanding, respecting and actually admiring your work, your motivations,your points of view. Many people will adhere to your causes and activities,inspired by your actions much more than by your words.

Such community mobilization works are of critical importance, as theybring people closer together, forming a true sense of community.

Ecovillages

When we talk about permaculture communities, the most common thoughtis a group of people living in settlements, normally in the country, where they

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plant what they eat and eat what they plant, seeking a life that is highly self-sufcient and really integrated with nature, through the application of thepermaculture principles and techniques—in other words, an ecovillage.

An ecovillage is an intentional community of people who seek a simple,natural, healthy life in contact and harmony with nature and human beings.

The ecovillage’s “glue”

The glue is a shared ideological component that makes the link between themembers of an intentional community, and practically defnes the community’sidentity. It can be a spiritual or religious belief (e.g. Amish, Hare Krishna, SantoDaime, monasteries of several religions, neopaganism, etc.), an ideologicaldoctrine or practice (e.g. anarchism, communalism, naturism, animalliberation/veganism, etc.), among other types of world views. The main glue ofany ecovillage is permaculture. An intentional community may have more thanone glue.

What’s in an ecovillage?

An ecovillage is essentially a collective settlement, therefore it will containpeople, dwellings and productive systems. Now, basically everything related topermaculture can and should be present in an ecovillage—it can be said that themore permaculture principles are in efective use, the more “eco” the village.Examples of elements typically present in an ecovillage include natural building,ecological sanitation, organic food production, rainwater harvesting and use,waste and pollution prevention, low energy use through high energy efciency,and possibly using alternative energy sources; environmental conservation andrestoration eforts, such as reaforestation, agroforestry, etc.; solidarity economy,etc.

Other things such as commercial activities can be present, which we willdiscuss further below. Depending on the size and maturity of the ecovillage, itcan also have its own school to serve primarily the children of the community,but also possibly other children of the area too. Such schools normally employalternative pedagogies and contents, to match the ecovillage people’s worldviews.

What does an ecovillage live off?

Economic viability is one of the key points for the success of anyecovillage project.

Some permaculturists have self-sufciency as their main goal, but not alldo. There are also those who prefer to keep integrated to the conventionaleconomy, producing, selling and consuming goods and services, but committed

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to sustainability and nature conservation, and ethics towards people, etc. Thesame can be said about ecovillages.

If you set self-sufciency as your goal, there are some things to bear inmind:

• Absolute self-sufciency à la Swiss Family Robinson is not a realist goal.Therefore, when we say self-sufciency we are actually talking about levelsof self-sufciency, that is, to provide as much as possible for your ownneeds, therefore depending as little as possible from external goods andservices.

• Regardless of the desired level of self-sufciency, it will take time toachieve it, and we’re talking years. Therefore, throughout that period you’llneed to keep economic activities, sources of income, etc. to survive. Thoseeconomic activities can be gradually phased out as you reach higher levelsof self-reliance.

• For practical purposes, we can consider to be self-sufcient someone wholives of their own production of foods and other things, by consumingthem and selling or exchanging surplus produce, without any need forexternal work or sources of income for their survival, and consumingexternal products minimally.

No matter whether your ecovillage project focuses on self-sufciency ornot, one or more sources of income will invariably be necessary, at least in theestablishment phase, and those can be maintained, changed or discontinued asthe project develops, as we have discussed in chapter 9 (“Rural Permaculture”, in“Establishing a rural permaculture project”). The options for economic activitiesthat can be done are practically unlimited, but they may not be obvious, andchoosing (or inventing) ones that will work, and making them work, is a vitalpoint for the survival or any ecovillage and its members.

Of course the viable options for economic activities will vary accordingwith several factors, such as: the plot’s potentials, available markets, particulartalents, skills and interests of the ecovillage’s members, available fnancialresources, etc. However, some types of businesses are notably common inecovillages—amongst them, we can cite: eco-lodging, hosting events such ascourses and workshops, holistic therapies, arts and trades in general (e.g.handicrafts), and conventional, external jobs.

It is very important that the sources of income are compatible with thepermaculture’s ethics, for the sake of coherence. For example, it is no good towork all day for a big corporation doing predatory capitalism, or dealing withpesticides, developing GMO crops, doing marketing campaigns for junk foodsfor children, working in the energy sector promoting fossil fuel use, etc., andthen go to sleep in an “ecovillage”.

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How are ecovillages organized?

Although the details vary a lot, there are basically three ways in whichecovillages are organized, regarding land ownership and decision making:shared, centralized and individual property ownership.

Shared property ownership

In this model, which is similar to a condominium, a group of peoplepurchase a piece of land to establish an ecovillage. Normally, the rules are pre-defned, with agreements and guidelines expressed in a bylaw or constitution. Asa rule, decisions which impact the whole of the community are made byconsensus among the members at the regularly held meetings (assemblies).

This model can be described as one in which “nothing’s anybody’s andeverything’s everybody’s”, at least as far as land and buildings are concerned, andthe decision-making process by consensus means that the solutions adopted arenot simply the most voted for, but rather solutions built from the collaboration ofall community members so that, although not necessarily everyone’s favourite,they are at least acceptable by the whole of the community. This type oforganization attracts many people who are sympathizers of communalism.

Shared property pros:

• Many people associate this model with a strong sense of life in community.

• The shared purchase of land can make the access to an ecovillage easier(cheaper) for each member, compared to individual property.

Shared property cons:

• The making of an ecovillage of this type involves overcoming an importantfrst obstacle: the difculty in forming a group from scratch, reaching allnecessary agreements to form the community, as there are many points tobe defned. For example: where will the ecovillage be? how big a plot ofland? what’s the budget? how many people (members)? which activitieswill be developed? etc.

• A tendency for many conficts. Much as consensus decision making meansto try to reconcile everyone’s views and expectations, it still often means asuppression of individual freedoms, because one often wishes to dosomething, but it is not approved by the assembly, while one is also oftenobliged to do things against one’s will because it was decided by theassembly, etc. This leads to frustrations that tend to accumulate over time,weakening the community bonds. Moreover, there frequently occur severaltypes of parasitism—for example, people who never show up to plant orcare, or do any hard work, but are always there for harvesting, eating, and

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enjoying; or people who are always bringing undesirable guests, who hangaround forever in common areas causing disharmony in the group, etc.Such factors often contribute to a certain instability of the community,causing it to have a high member turnover rate, and often brings ecovillagesto a premature end.

Centralized property ownership

This is a common scenario: a person has an estate, maybe inherited, anddecides to set up an ecovillage there. They write up a bylaw with general termsand conditions, building guidelines, membership processes, entitlements andobligations, decision-making rules, etc., and start to admit new members throughsome type of selection process, possibly involving an experience period, andgenerally also involving the purchasing of a membership share. From the pointof view of general functioning, this model is basically similar to the former(shared ownership), at least in theory.

Centralized property pros:

• It is easier to start, as it depends essentially on only one person, thefounding member, owner of the land, therefore skipping at least two biginitial obstacles of the former model, namely the fnancial resources topurchase land and the difculty in choosing a spot for the community.

• It may be more afordable to new members, depending on the membershipshare value, which sometimes can even be free.

Centralized property cons:

• In this model, there is no equality among members, because in the end,despite of any bylaw, the legitimate land owner will always have more say.This inequality is sometimes metaphorically associated with a feudal manorsystem.

• The other members are in a vulnerable position. Oftentimes, after havingbuilt, planted, invested money, dreams, expectations, years of their lives onthe project, something happens: the land owners may change their minds,or die, or get married, and maybe the spouse or heirs think diferent, etc.,and suddenly the ecovillage members may have the rub pulled out fromunder their feet, and it will be hard for them to get their rights back, andeven if they do, the fracture of the community is practically inevitable.

Individual property ownership

In this model, the village consists of a neighbourhood where each memberowns their plots of land, where they’ll develop their projects, over which each

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respective member is the sole responsible. The members help each othermutually as much as possible and desired, considering the afnity of their views,goals and eforts, assisted by the close proximity, leading to mutual strengtheningand the realization of the so desired sense of community. New members join bypurchasing adjacent land, resulting in the growth of the ecovillage byaggregation, or by the splitting of plots within the community.

Individual property pros:

• Preservation of the individual freedoms, as each member has the right todevelop their own projects, the opportunity to try their ideas, doexperiments, etc. without needing approval from other members. Also,they don’t have any obligations to do or take part in things they don’t agreewith. This prevents many conficts.

• Security of rights, as each member is a lawful owner.

• It tends to attract more mature, prepared, responsible people, leading to ahigher chance of long-term survival of the community.

Individual property cons:

• The upfront costs for each member can be higher, as individual plots ofland tend to be more expensive per area, and the costs of building, etc.won’t be shared between members.

• A lesser sense of communal life, with greater tendency towardsindividualism.

General considerations on ecovillages and life in community

Living in a permaculture-based community is a beautiful idea that attractsmany people. However, it is very important to take care with unrealisticexpectations, because they normally lead to disillusions that can hurt somepeople to the point of making them give up completely on the idea of anecovillage.

Next, we’ll list and try to demystify some of the main delusions that arecommonly created around the idea of ecovillages and life in an alternativecommunity:

• To think that it’s gonna be easy. We have already discussed that peoplefool themselves when they think establishing a rural permaculture project iseasy. Well, the exact same applies for collective projects such as anecovillage. The fact that there will be more people surely facilitates in someaspects, but on the other hand it also brings important new challenges. Thesuccessful making of an ecovillage requires a lot of preparation, theoreticaland practical knowledge, huge doses of efort and commitment from

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everyone involved, a lot of hard work for protracted periods, and alsofnancial resources.

• The red carpet delusion. This consists of thinking you’ll fnd anestablished ecovillage, with many families living happily in harmony withnature, where you’ll simply pop up, without any money to buy a plot or ashare, and will be accepted as a member, and all other people in the villagewill not only help but practically build a house for you, etc., and you’ll livethere happily ever after. That may be in a dream, or a flm, etc., but hasabsolutely nothing to do with real life.

• Illusion of control. Many people feel oppressed by society, which imposesnorms upon them with which they don’t agree, and see the ecovillage as away to escape such situation, which is good. However, some people actuallysee the ecovillage as a way to become the oppressor themselves—a placewhere they can impose their own ideas, norms, values, points of view, etc.on others. So, the person decides to start up an ecovillage: they write up aconstitution packed with rigid, arbitrary rules that defne their own pointsof view, and penalties for those who break those rules. For example: “everymember has to adhere to a vegan diet”, or “the members can possess orutilize no motor vehicle”, or “everybody has to practice transcendentalmeditation”, etc. Not that those ideas or practices are bad or wrong; theproblem is that such impositions or prohibitions hurt people’s rights toindividuality and liberty. That makes evident an egocentric, arrogant,controlling type of attitude on the part of the founders of the community,and difculty dealing with diferences, which is certainly not good, and itfatally leads to unbearable discontentments and the rupture of anycommunity. Of course it is important to be faithful to the ultimate goals ofany ecovillage, which are to live a more natural, healthy, sustainable life inharmony with nature, but it must be acknowledged that there is nouniversal recipe for that. Every one of us in this journey is learning, andwill go through a diferent process to reach that goal. Living in communityis all about teamwork, which means focusing on the common views andgoals, rather than trying to control and suppress the diferences.

• The specialization of functions myth. It is a recurrent idea among groupsthat are trying to set up an ecovillage that each member will contribute onlywith their main skills and interests, and that the combination of thediferent contributions by the many members will form a functional andharmonious community. Then, you start talking to people and realize thatone of the prospective ecovillagers is a mystic and plans to contribute withastrology and cartomancy; another one, who thinks is some sort of shaman,wishes to contribute with holistic healing; the next one likes to cook, sothey plan to do only that, and yet another one is an artisan, and wishes tocontribute with their art, and so on. So, you ask: “and who will do the hard

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work? Like building, planting...” and everybody vanishes from theconversation! In another typical scenario, a moneyed member decides toput in the money, therefore they won’t need to do anything else; the othermember, who “read a book” or “took a course”, decides they will be thetechnical consultant, while yet another one, who doesn’t have the moneyand didn’t read the book but has lots of disposition, will contribute with thehard work. After some time, the third guy realizes that he’s been the onlyone working hard, being told what to do by the second one, but actuallyworking for the frst one; building for others in land that will never be his,so he decides to quit. The frst and second guys also give up as outdoorlabour is not their thing, and that’s the end of the ecovillage.As has been mentioned, the making and long-term survival of anyecovillage require dedication, commitment and hard work from everyoneinvolved.

• Weekend ecovillage. This is when people work all week in some notsustainable at all activity in any big city, and on the weekends drive 100 or200 km to their “ecovillage”, where they pretend to live in harmony withnature for one or two days, to “recharge”, just to go back to their jobs andtheir usual unsustainable lifestyles the next Monday, without any realintention to ever actually move to the ecovillage, or change their lifestylespermanently to something more sustainable. Surely, they are just foolingthemselves, and what they have is not an ecovillage, but rather a countrycabin.

• The isolation error. Some people think of an ecovillage as a “bubble”,isolated from the rest of society which they disapprove of. Oftentimes,when starting the ecovillage, they choose a piece of land at a remotelocation, creating a considerable geographical isolation, and they do that onpurpose, to stress that departure from society. That is a mistaken approachthat destroys any chances of success of an ecovillage project even before itstarts, for at least two reasons. Firstly because of the additional obstacles tothe building of the ecovillage that are created by that extra distance. Ifbuilding an ecovillage already is a huge challenge, everything gets muchharder with the distance—think of the transportation of all materials, orthe difculty commuting to keep a source of income throughout theestablishment phase, or to sell your produce, or for the children to go toschool, etc. Moreover, what happens is that, when you seek the utopia of a“pure” community (which actually has everything to do with the illusion ofcontrol discussed above), that in fact leads to the perfect scenario for thecreation of a true dystopia—the inevitable internal conficts, aggravated bythe isolation and the enormous practical difculties to survive can create atrue hell on earth, which leads to the demise of the ecovillage and many abroken heart. For any ecovillage to be viable, healthy and long lasting, itmust be integrated with the bigger society around it so that its members

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can beneft from it, keep in contact with family and friends, and also for theecovillage itself to fulfl its mission to play a role in transforming thatoutside society as well.

Living in an ecovillage is like permaculture in general: a possible dreamthat is full of meaning, but also full of challenges. The above description isextremely simplifed—in fact there are countless possible models, diferent waysto make that dream come true, both in rural and urban situations. There is nosuch thing as an ideal model: in fact, the ideal is that all possible models betested by whomever believes in them, so that time and practical experience willtell us what works and what doesn’t, in diferent situations and for diferent kindsof people. Let all possible models coexist, so they complement one another andserve the greatest possible number of people, with their diferent needs andpotentials. Only that way ecovillages can fourish and grow, both in size andnumber, emerging as a viable option for ever more people, allowing, who knows,at some point in the future, for an urban exodus and a transition at a global scaletowards a sustainable model of social organization and lifestyle in the light ofpermaculture (we’ll discuss this further in chapter 18, “Proposition for a GlobalTransition”).

It is a radical lifestyle change, and a reality that has to be constructed. Youshould bear in mind that the desired fnal results in terms of an ecovillage, withplenty of natural dwellings and families living and growing food and forests,schools for the children, etc., can only be attained in the long run, and for that toever come true, massive doses of love, preparation, planning, seriousness,dedication, tenacity are needed. As previously cited for rural permacultureprojects in general, a solid transition strategy is needed, which will contain thesteps to be taken in the short and mid term, to allow for the long-term success.All that being said, it is good to stress that although not easy, this change is fullof meaning, and in fact a necessity if we are ever to reach the ideal of asustainable society.

Solidarity economy

Solidarity economy is a set of economic and social activities organized on afree and voluntary basis, largely independent from the monetary and fnancialsystem. It comprehends a variety of practices including the production of goodsand service provision, barter trade, fair trade, etc. which are organized in theform of cooperatives, associations, exchange groups, self-managing enterprises,cooperation networks, etc. It is a form of economy centred on valuing the humanbeing over the capital; an alternative form of organization of work, productionand wealth distribution that integrates producers, sellers, barterers andconsumers based on the principles of self-management, democracy, solidarity,

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cooperation, respect for nature and fairness. While in many regards bearingresemblance with the economic organization of primitive, tribal and pre-capitalist societies, as it is often based on direct exchange and sharing of work,assets and services, solidarity economy is generally seen as a more humanealternative to the prevailing big-corporation-, large-shareholder-dominatedeconomy which is marked by high alienation at multiple levels, individualism anda general disregard for people and nature.

Solidarity economy is based on a spirit of collectivity, of community.Therefore, it is an essential component to all permaculture communities.

Within this context, volunteer work deserves special mention. Volunteersdedicate some of their time and eforts in favour of a cause, generally of socialor environmental nature, without any pay in return. The motivation for one toengage in volunteer work normally stems from a desire to contribute with causesin which one believes, seeking to do one’s bit for a better, more fair and unitedworld, so it is a mostly moral motivation.

Volunteer work is often done in assistance, relief and humanitarianinitiatives (education, social and health assistance; orphan, elderly or disabledpeople support, disaster relief and humanitarian aid, animal protection, etc.),environmental endeavours (environmental restoration, reaforestation, beach orstream clean-up drives, organic agriculture, recycling, environmental education,etc.), and others such as sports, cultural and recreational events, etc. Thevolunteers beneft by gaining knowledge and experience, productive socialinteraction, network formation, strengthening of teamwork skills, expandingworld views, etc., and that is a great source of motivation too.

Volunteers are important to all steps of the permaculture work. Mostpermaculture projects and ecovillages take volunteers regularly to help withvaried tasks such as building, planting, harvesting, general maintenance, etc. Thehosts beneft greatly not only from the volunteers’ labour force but also from thesharing of ideas, informations, diferent world views, etc. with the helpers.Moreover, volunteer work also helps promoting permaculture, making it known,and inspiring future permaculturists by ofering the opportunity for a truly life-changing experience.

Doing volunteer work in permaculture projects is a great way to learnpermaculture skills and techniques before you venture doing your own projects,and by helping existing projects volunteers are helping further the permaculturemovement. So, it is a situation in which everybody wins, and permaculture ispushed forward.

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Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 16. Learning Permaculture

16LEARNINGPERMACULTURE

When permaculture was “created” in the 1970’s by Bill Mollison and DavidHolmgren, naturally there wasn’t any permaculture books or learning materialsas such. But of course neither was permaculture just created from thin air. Whatexisted then was a great collection of knowledge and information in the shape oftechnical and scientifc literature, traditional and ethnic knowledges, personalexperience and world views of the movement’s pioneers who catalysed theagglutination of those elements in the creation of what was then calledpermaculture. Perhaps the creation of permaculture does not represent theinvention of a sustainable lifestyle, but a viable way to reach a sustainable life—apath (worth pointing out) that is still under construction.

Back in those early days of the permaculture movement, the scanty, difuseand incomplete nature of the literature and other learning resources availableabout the matters concerning the environmental crisis and sustainable livingrepresented a great obstacle to its learning and teaching. It was in that contextthat the Permaculture Design Certifcate (PDC) courses were created, becomingthe standard model for permaculture teaching at that time, which continue toexist today.

The PDC is a course format developed and initially taught by Bill Mollison,and soon also by his disciples, eventually snowballing to hundreds or thousands

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of teachers around the world as the movement spread. It is a short but intensivecourse, normally 72 to 90 hours long, covering the main topics pertinent topermaculture.

In the frst decades of the permaculture movement (that is, in the pre-internet era), that was a fantastic model which was indeed necessary for thespread of permaculture. In a time when information was scarce and hard to get,a PDC was truly a deeply transforming experience to all attendants, because itwas often the frst time they’d ever have contact with such kinds of information—both the startling facts about the path to self-destruction humanity is goingdown and the hope-giving directions and solutions presented by permaculture.Moreover, the close contact with a group of people who shared the same idealsand concerns regarding the future of the world (humanity and nature), and thewill for change, certainly made it an extremely inspiring and motivatingexperience to all who attended such courses.

However, four decades later, the reality has changed a lot. Now there isgreat abundance of information and learning resources covering all aspects andelements which are central to permaculture, from the most basic to the mostadvanced, including books and pamphlets, technical and scientifc articles,videos, etc. Moreover, most of those materials are freely available on the internetto practically anyone interested, in several languages—the only limiting factors isthat one must have internet access, and know how to search it.

Of course PDCs still exist and continue inspiring thousands of peopleevery year, so they are still relevant. However, it cannot be said that they are stillnecessary to the learning of permaculture. It should be stressed that the amountof information and theoretical knowledge that can be gotten in a 72-hour courseis very limited, therefore such courses are intrinsically superfcial. That contrastswith the vast amount and depth of information that can be obtained by studyinglearning materials available on the internet.

Now, the practical learning of permaculture cannot be overlooked, astheory without practice is mostly worthless, and here too you have a similarsituation: while in a typical PDC the practical, hands-on activities are extremelylimited by the short course duration, anyone interested can have a much morecomprehensive and deep practical learning through volunteer work inpermaculture projects, as we shall discuss further on.

Finally, there is the money aspect: PDCs are paid courses, and althoughtypically scholarships, discounts and alternative payment forms are madeavailable, the cost of such courses is still a restrictive factor to many interestedpeople, which contrasts with the free nature of the learning materials availableon the internet and volunteer work.

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Permaculture Courses

In spite of there being alternative ways to teach and learn permaculture, in-person, on-site courses must always exist, for the following reasons:

• Diferent people have diferent learning needs, and learn by diferentmechanisms—which doesn’t mean being more or less intelligent.Therefore, while some people fnd it easy to learn on their own from booksand other materials, others will need in-person, interactive courses for anefcient learning.

• The immersion in the permaculture world, with close contact with peopleand the intense sharing of ideas and information for a better world in a typeof “retreat” that permaculture courses normally represent, is a transformingexperience, a source of inspiration and motivation for change that fnds noparallel in the solitary study of permaculture.

• A course is a social event, and as such it tends to reach people whootherwise wouldn’t be interested in reading a permaculture book, forexample. Many can sign up for a course just because their friends areattending, and end up being completely snatched by the concepts learnedalong the course—maybe becoming even more enthusiastic than the friendswho invited them.

• No form or way of transmission of permaculture should be neglected orabandoned. The more formats, the better for its spread.

Types of permaculture courses

There are countless formats for courses on permaculture and relatedsubjects, from one-hour lectures and workshops to weeks- or even months-longcourses; from the most elementary and general levels to highly specialized ones,etc., and it is natural that it be so, as long as there’s a public for them—specifccourses for publics with specifc interests and needs.

Introductory lectures

This is the simplest form of “course”, being quick, cheap and easy toorganize, and is probably the most important one. Practically anyone with areasonable notion of permaculture, who’s been applying it to some degree intheir life, can talk about permaculture, in the form of a relatively simplepresentation.

Introductory talks are the most important because they are the mostaccessible, both to the lecturer and the general public. Therefore, this is the type

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of course that can reach the greatest number of people, catching many “bysurprise” and awakening them to the terrible reality of the current environmentalcrisis, about which many are completely unaware and often even numbed by thedistorted, anaesthetizing way it is dealt with by the education system and themedia. Such talks are also vital to give projection, visibility to the wordpermaculture, and its propositions, raising the awareness and interest of peopleso that they can, from there, start to research by themselves, or get interested indeeper courses, potentially starting a journey of positive changes in their lives.

Lectures generally last for 1 to 4 hours and can be hosted in practically anyspace available such as a school or college, NGOs, associations, etc. or even inyour own house. Presentations on permaculture can also be done by students as aschool assignment, or shown at school science fairs, etc.

Because of the limited time and introductory nature, the contents must becarefully picked, and focused, trimmed down to the essentials:

• The global environmental crisis, its origins and consequences- Industrial agriculture- Cities- Technology, industry and consumption- Deforestation- Pollution- Future scenarios

• The Permaculture Solution- Ethics and Principles- Organic farming and agroforestry- Natural building and ecological sanitation- The permaculture lifestyle- Environmental restoration, reaforestation, water decontamination, etc.

Introduction to Permaculture courses

The permaculture universe encompasses a wide array of complex,intricately intertwined matters. Therefore, of course a simple lecture won’t beable to convey more than a general outlook, but may be enough to briefy informand raise interest in people so they seek further information in other ways.Hence the importance and usefulness of longer, bulkier introductory courses ofwhich the PDC, as proposed by Bill Mollison, is still the preferred model(although I argue that the name PDC is inappropriate and should be abandoned,as we shall discuss further on).

Introduction to Permaculture courses vary a lot in the details, but not in

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their essence. They can be taught practically anywhere and even as distancelearning, but typically they are in-person, on-site courses, hosted in permaculturecentres and institutes, associations and community centres, colleges or in privateproperties whose owners plan on starting a permaculture project, etc.

The topics typically covered in an introductory permaculture course are:

• Introduction (a portrait of our time and the justifcation for the need forchange):- Global environmental crisis

° Historical perspective° Current situation:━ Industrial agriculture━ Cities ━ Overpopulation━ Technology, industry and consumption━ Deforestation━ Pollution━ Ecosystem destruction and mass extinction

° Future scenarios:━ Resource depletion━ Peak oil━ Climate change

• Permaculture: - History - Ethics - Principles - The permaculture lifestyle- The permaculture house

° Natural building° Energy and water efciency° Ecological sanitation

- Ecosystems° Soils° Forests° Arid and semiarid landscapes° Deserts

- Water and Energy- Rural permaculture

° Water systems

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° Zone planning° Agroforestry° Animals in permaculture° Aquaculture ° Permaculture in the humid tropics° Permaculture in the dry tropics° Permaculture in temperate climates

- Urban permaculture- Communities in permaculture- Learning permaculture- Consultancy in permaculture- Proposition for a global transition- Conclusion

Besides the theory contents, courses must also include:

• Field trips to demonstrate negative examples such as monocultures, erosion,deforestation, water pollution of streams, rivers and seas, landflls, etc., aswell as positive examples such as polycultures and agroforests, naturalbuildings, rainwater systems, aquacultures, forests in diferent stages ofregeneration, ecological sanitation systems, etc.

• Demonstrations and hands-on activities of natural building techniques,planting of trees and gardens, composting, etc.

• Group activities on permaculture design.

• Get-together activities.

Of course there aren’t two permaculture courses that are the same—described above is just a general idea of the contents of a typical course, buttopics can be fused, expanded, have a diferent order, new topics can be created,etc. at the discretion of the teacher, and the exact structure of the course alsovaries according with the local reality, the specifc public’s needs, etc.

Courses on permaculture-related topics

Besides the general, introductory permaculture courses, there are a growingnumber of courses on topics which are related to permaculture, in which one ora few of the subjects and techniques pertinent to or useful in permaculture aredealt with in a more specifc and detailed manner. Such courses may target apublic with specifc interests, such as natural building in general or someparticular technique (e.g. cob, thatched roofs, bamboo structures, etc.), orecological sanitation (e.g. composting toilets), or agroforestry, or rainwater

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harvesting, etc.

Topics courses can be useful to give people a better grip on specifc areasor techniques, even to people who already are permaculturists. They can also bean “entry door” to permaculture for people who may have a particular interest insome area, and along the course can discover a much bigger world ofpossibilities through permaculture.

Two types of course deserve special mention here: permacultureconsultancy courses and permaculture teacher formation courses.

Permaculture consultancy courses are designed to assist and prepareexperienced permaculturists who may need specifc help on how to start orimprove their consultancy businesses in a professional way—when there isdemand, and the permaculturist believes they can fll that demand but hasdifculties because they lack familiarity with the management of a consultancybusiness. Technical and business administration education professionals canparticipate in the preparation of the course and lecturing, dealing with generalmatters related to consultancy. The topics covered must include market analyses,marketing, technical projects elaboration, budgeting, labour relations, contracts,accounting, etc.

Permaculture teacher formation courses. We all know that there arepeople who know how to do something but don’t know how to teach, and teacherformation courses must be targeted at that specifc type of public:permaculturists who are thinking of starting teaching permaculture but are notprepared or don’t feel prepared for teaching, or organizing courses, etc.Permaculture teacher formation courses should be taught by people who areexperienced and well established both in permaculture and its teaching.Professional educators and other teaching experts, whether permaculturists ornot, can and should participate in the preparation and lecturing of the course,contributing to the course structure and proper teaching techniques inpermaculture.

Topics to be developed in a teacher formation course include: how toorganize an event (the venue, learning resources, board and lodging, advertising,etc.), the course structure (contents and their organization), teaching techniques,complementary activities (e.g. social activities), etc.

It should be stressed that the main focus of permaculture consultancy andteacher formation courses must never be permaculture itself, as the courseattendants are supposed to master that already. Such courses must targetexclusively experienced permaculturists, and beginners shouldn’t be allowed byany means—and that includes those enthusiastic neophytes who have attended abunch of courses and proudly faunt their certifcates, and are craving for more,

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but who still don’t really have any practical experience and often don’t even applypermaculture to any degree in their daily lives.

The certifcate industry

We often see advertisements of permaculture and related topics coursesproudly emphasizing: “with certifcate”.

Of course there is nothing wrong in printing a certifcate of completion fora course or event; however, the fact that that is announced so boastfully does saysomething about the people involved, both the organizers and at least part of thepublic: that they are trapped into the certifcate delusion.

This “certifcate” thing is carried over from our appearances-based society,which is focused on images, illusions. People cultivate a piece of paper as if itwould say something real about them, or as if it would open any doors. Clearly,however, a certifcate hardly says anything about anyone—about their character,motivations, talents, competences, etc. Neither will it open any doors for you, atleast in permaculture: it won’t help establishing your systems or making themproductive, or get you a job. On the contrary, in this certifcate industry, most oftimes the only thing that piece of paper will “entitle” you to is more courses:“advanced permaculture”, “permaculture teacher”, etc., progressively moreexpensive, and each of them too coming with a certifcate, all of them equallyuseless.

It is truly sad that people still remain attached to such pieces of paper, andpersist in this culture of images and illusions, a culture of insignifcance. It isequally reproachable that permaculture educators reinforce that certifcateculture and utilize it to try to convince prospective students that the money paidfor a course will be worth it.

Precisely because of all that, the name PDC, which stands for PermacultureDesign Certifcate, is inadequate and should be abandoned—because it maintainsand reinforces the certifcate delusion. A name such as “Introduction doPermaculture Course” would be much more adequate and even more honest,because, given the dimension of the permaculture universe, any course of a fewweeks duration will never mean more than a brief introduction to it.

Independent learning of permaculture

Today, thanks to the internet, it has become extremely easy to learnpermaculture alone. Just google permaculture, and you’ll have thousands ofresults, a sample of the permaculture universe with an infnity of usefulinformation. Check all the links, browse for more on permaculture, ongoing

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projects, learning materials, etc.Include the term PDF in your search, and you’ll get mostly learning

materials such as books, pamphlets, articles, etc. Download all of them, andstudy, trying to focus on the better quality ones, of course. Check out all videosabout permaculture too, on websites such as Youtube, Vimeo, etc. There you’llhave lots of useful and inspiring information, permaculture projects, interviewswith some top permaculturists, etc. Join permaculture forums on the internet—there you’ll fnd interesting discussions and good sources of information. Askpeople for more learning materials, and they’ll send you links to some greatmaterials that you probably wouldn’t fnd by yourself.

Tips on permaculture self-learning:

• Downloading is not enough—you have to study! With the developmentand spread of digital media, people have been getting used to accumulatingdigital fles. To illustrate the situation, I’ll make a parallel with music: back in theday, to get a new record of your favourite band was a big deal—the songs werelistened to exhaustively, the liner notes read on and on, song lyrics memorized,and building up a record collection was truly a matter of pride. By contrast,today you ask somebody, “Do you know Led Zeppenin?”, and the personanswers, “Oh, yeah; I got all their discography on a USB drive”—but often theycan’t even cite the name of a single song by the band, and they might actually bemistaking it for a completely diferent band! The same goes for digital books:many people these days are PDF accumulators—not rarely, they have hundredsor thousands of books saved in their computer hard drives or other devices, butnever actually read any of them. Nevertheless, they keep compulsivelydownloading more and more fles.The psychological explanation for that phenomenon is simple: saving a fle is fastand easy, and it gives an immediate satisfaction, and even a feeling of “power”,because you can read all that, so you have the potential of a great knowledge. Onthe other hand, reading the books is kind of hard as it takes some time andefort. In a society growingly characterized by short-termism and superfciality,the delusion of “I have thousands of books” (in PDF or any other formats),therefore I know all about the subject” is seducing and even feels natural to manypeople. However, it should be stressed that it is far better to have only one bookand actually read it, than having thousands and not reading any! Therefore, tolearn about permaculture (as well as any other subject), you need discipline andseriousness, and actually read, reread, study hard, “devour” the availablematerials!

• Not all that was written deserves to be read. Of course in the universeof learning materials you may come across, some will be great; others, good; andothers yet will be, well, not so good. Use common sense to flter the materials

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you fnd. Judge: does that you’re reading make sense to you? Be suspicious ofanything that sounds too good to be true, and keep your eyes open forpseudoscience. Prioritize good reputation books and websites, and make gooduse of your study time.

• Persevere. Permaculture represents a whole new world to be discovered,learned; a universe of informations, knowledges and skills which are necessaryfor a life in harmony with nature, and simply weren’t taught us at school, or bythe media and society in general—those only teach us knowledge and skills thatallow us to live in society, have a job, pay taxes, consume and pollute.Learning any profession or even how to play an instrument, speak a foreignlanguage or becoming good at any sport or art demands years of dedicatedstudies and practice. And of course it couldn’t be diferent with permaculture! Itis crucial that you do away with short-termism and sluggishness, and have theguts, the courage and determination to dedicate intensely and for a long time tothe study and practice of permaculture in order to achieve the necessary degreeof comprehension and ability which are needed to succeed in this life change.

Learning permaculture in practice

The best way to learn anything is doing it—in fact, that is the only way toactually learn. You’ll only build a solid practical knowledge of permaculturedoing it, practising it intensely for years, developing your own projects. However,you mustn’t try to “reinvent the wheel” at any new project or activity you start!You should always try to get as much theoretical and practical knowledge fromwho’ve been doing it for some time, and in the case of manual skills andpractical knowledges that means being someone’s apprentice. Fortunately, manypermaculturists, maybe most of them, take volunteers to help with the workbuilding and maintaining their systems, at their permaculture projects.

As mentioned in the preceding chapter, volunteer work benefts both ways,the volunteer and the host. The volunteer gets the opportunity of learning inpractice several skills which are necessary or useful to their life with nature, suchas planting, harvesting, general maintenance, building, ecological sanitationsystems and techniques, establishing food forests, raising animals, managingresidues, composting, etc. Of course you’ll hardly fnd all that in just one projectin a short period, so it is best to engage in volunteer work at several projects,over a substantial length of time.

Besides all that practical learning, as a volunteer you’ll also have theopportunity to deepen your theoretical knowledge through productivediscussions with the hosts and other helpers. Moreover, volunteering is normallya rich cultural experience, often international, which can contribute a lot to theexpansion of world views of everyone involved. To many volunteers, the

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permaculture experiences are deeply transforming and motivating, encouragingto take the permaculture path and start their own projects, so they can be reallylife-changing experiences.

To the host, the most obvious beneft is the help with the work in theproject activities, However, taking volunteers also brings great learning, withnew knowledge and techniques brought by the volunteers who often haveconsiderable amounts of life experience. Moreover, also the host benefts fromthe cultural exchange with the helpers.

Most permaculturists who take volunteers are truly willing to contribute tothe furthering of the permaculture movement and ofer opportunities towhomever wishes to practice and learn, and the presence of more people whoshare this spirit is very encouraging to them, making life and work lighter andmore joyful.

Volunteering or apprenticeship?

Although they are sometimes used as interchangeable terms, apprenticeshipis normally used for programmed events in which a certain set of practicalcontents is taught over a predetermined period of time, usually a few days.Normally, a fee is charged from the apprentices, and usually board and lodgingare included. It is like some sort of “practical course”, where the host who iswilling to teach a skill they supposedly have, for example a certain naturalbuilding technique, in the building of a new structure, say a house, ofersinterested people the opportunity to learn that technique in practice byparticipating in the construction works. It is fair to say that in most such casesthe host is mostly interested in the income from the collection of theapprenticeship fees from the attendants, rather than the actual help with thework.

On the other hand, the term volunteering is normally used for volunteerhelp with whichever activities are being carried out at a given project at the time,from the most routine to the most exceptional. Normally, no fee is charged fromthe volunteers, neither is there any pay for the work; however, most of times thehost provides the helpers with board and lodging. These conditions may varyaccording with the case and previous agreements between the parts.

There are several websites dedicated to mediating the contact betweenhosts and volunteers, amongst them WWOOF, Workaway, HelpX, etc. There,the host creates a profle with the details of the project, location, types of work,accommodations, etc., and prospective volunteers can get in touch to arrange forthe exchange. These platforms usually have pre-established rules, such asregarding the obligation or not of ofering board and lodging, limits to thenumber of working hours per day or week, etc.

Another option to fnd places for volunteer work, or to get volunteers for

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your own project, is through dedicated groups in social media platforms andpermaculture forums on the internet.

Considerations about the costs of courses, apprenticeships andpermaculture learning materials.

Of course there is nothing wrong with charging for permaculture learningmaterials, after all they demand lots of efort, time and cost money to make.However, I do believe that they should be ofered at the lowest price possible, fortwo reasons:

1. The main goal of whoever is ofering a course or learning material shouldbe the furthering and strengthening of permaculture, rather than proft.Charging money can be necessary precisely to make that activity viable,ensuring the continuity of that service, to ensure it will reach ever morepeople. Now, to restrict access to information on the basis of economicpower is questionable to say the least, especially as we are talking aboutinformation for the good of humanity and the planet. Moreover, the focuson proft tends to corrupt, pervert, to void anything from its essence byturning it into merchandise. If permaculture teaching is to be allowed tobecome mere merchandise, it will fatally go down the same rout asjournalism, for instance, where what is transmitted is not necessarily whatis true, but what sells better.

2. Permaculture teachers are not supposed to need much money, preciselybecause they are permaculturists. If one is putting oneself up as apermaculture teacher, and is charging for that teaching, presumably thatperson is an experienced, competent permaculturist, right? Now, the betterthe permaculturist, the less money they need, because they should be highlyself-sufcient, or get enough income from selling their surplus produce, etc.

We often see permaculturists who say they depend on permacultureteaching as a source of income, for their own survival. However, by doing sothey are admitting to be some sort of charlatans, because considering that one ofthe main promises of permaculture is the abundant production of food, allowingfor a high degree of self-sufciency and even feeding the world, such teachers arein fact “teaching” something they have never managed to do themselves!Therefore, one should always get suspicious of permaculture courses,apprenticeships and learning materials that are excessively expensive. Seek toverify the merits and achievements in terms of practical results of the teacherbefore buying a course, rather than the image they managed to build forthemselves. Always bear in mind that building a glamorous image has muchmore to do with marketing skills than the actual merits of the person ororganization associated with that image.

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Permaculture college

There is an old debate over whether there should be college degrees inpermaculture or not. The idea is defended by many based on the argument thatpermaculture is an extremely complex and vast science, encompassing elementsfrom the varied felds of human knowledge including agriculture, ecology,architecture, urbanism, sanitation, social sciences (anthropology, sociology),philosophy, etc. It is no exaggeration to say that permaculture is as complex andbroad or more than any college-level profession, thus justifying a universitydegree course. Moreover, it can be argued that permaculture is more relevant tothe world than any other profession, as it is the only one which promises tochange the humanity’s current path to self-destruction.

Certainly a 72- or 90-hour course is not sufcient to prepare anyone forhardly anything. You can’t learn to be a tyre repairman, a bricklayer or a baker,or a hairdresser, etc. in such short time. It would be good for permaculture,permaculturists and society to have well prepared people to guide and contributeto the transition towards a sustainable model—people who understand theworld’s problems and challenges ahead of us, and know what should be done,and how to do it. There simply isn’t any professional category that fulfl suchneeds, so the creation of permaculture degree courses at graduate and post-graduate levels could make a great contribution.

However, the idea is not without its detractors, starting with Bill Mollisonhimself, who feared that, if put in the claws of those who control the formaleducation system, permaculture would inevitably be destroyed. Permaculture is atool to change the world, while universities and the formal education system ingeneral are actually a branch of the system, so they are rather an instrument forthe maintenance of the status quo. The academia does not accept anything thatchallenges society’s dominant paradigm; therefore, it would probably neveraccept the creation of a higher permaculture course, except for the specifcpurpose of subverting it, precisely to neutralize it as a threat to the status quo. Toput in the hands of the universities the mission of transforming the worldtowards sustainability through the teaching and development of permaculturewould be like putting the wolf in charge of the sheep.

All that is particularly true of public universities, as they are controlled bygovernments. Now, of course there’s nothing stopping private universities fromcreating permaculture degree courses, as long as there is enough demand forthat. However, care should be taken to prevent it from making permaculture anelite thing that not everyone can do, as that would betray its very essence, ortransforming it in a mere merchandise subjected primarily to market demands,as it would lead to its degradation.

Whether there will be college degrees in permaculture or not, only thefuture will tell. However, regardless of that, it is vital that permaculture remains

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truthful to its essence, and free to be learned independently, accessible to anyonetrough freedom of information, constant production of ever higher-qualitylearning materials, opportunities for permacultural practices, sharing of workand experiences, etc. Ideally, every permaculturist should be engaged in thedevelopment and spread of permaculture so it reaches everyone and makes a realdiference in the world.

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Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 17. Consultancy and Service Provision

17CONSULTANCY AND SERVICE PROVISION IN PERMACULTURE

When someone knows permaculture, masters its principles and hasacquired enough experience and skills with its techniques, that creates thepossibility to provide services and consultancy to people, groups and institutions.

Examples of potential clients for permaculture services include:

• People who are not permaculturists but wish a specifc job done, such as agarden that is beautiful, productive and low-maintenance, or technicalguidance on establishing an integrated orchard or food forest, or thereaforestation of an area, building a rainwater harvesting system, or acomposting toilet, help with composting, a natural building job, etc.

• Beginner permaculturists who need help from someone more experiencedfor designing a property or some specifc job like the ones mentionedabove.

• Farmers who wish to incorporate permaculture design principles to theirsystems so as to make them more efcient, reducing or eliminating theneed for pesticides or chemical fertilizers, reducing energy and waterconsumption, preventing pollution, etc.

• Groups or institutions wishing to incorporate sustainability concepts intheir facilities or activities. For example, a contractor planning to build a

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sustainable housing development; businesses wishing to become moresustainable by lowering the environmental impact of their operations ordoing some sort of compensation, harvesting rainwater, increasing energyefciency, cutting back on waste; governments interested in theconstruction or retroftting of parks, squares, university campuses, etc. forgreater ecological efciency, etc.

It is perfectly possible to take permaculture service provision jobs, fromthe most humble and simple to the most ambitious and complex. The key to getinvolved in ever bigger projects is reputation. Now, that’s not something you canbuy—reputation must be built step by step, that is, starting small, trying to dothe best job possible, accumulating practical experience, getting known, earningpeople’s respect; studying a lot along the way, learning from hits and misses.

Becoming a service provider or consultant

To become a permaculture consultant or service provider, obviously thefrst step is becoming a permaculturist. Below is a step-by-step guide tobecoming a permaculture consultant.

1. Acquire theoretical and practical knowledge of permaculture (see chapter16, “Learning Permaculture”).

2. Practice permaculture in your life, incorporating the practical applicationof the permaculture principles to your day-by-bay, as discussed in chapter14 (“The Permaculture Lifestyle”).

3. Start by your own house, and then move on to applying permaculture inother available spaces: squares, vacant lots, friends’ and relatives’ homes,your school, etc. You can start doing it for free, as voluntary communitywork, maybe in conjunction with an association or NGO, etc., or in thecase of other people’s homes and lots just sharing the produce with theowners, for example. Voluntarily revitalize some abandoned, derelictsquare (all this has been discussed in chapter 13, “Urban Permaculture”).Ofer yourself to do simple rainwater harvesting systems installations (e.g.gutters and tanks) as you’ve done in your house; ofer gardening services,using permaculture principles; convince people to do composting, andteach them how to do it. How about making and selling compost bins?Take pictures of your systems, make a portfolio.

4. Show yourself and get known. Start giving talks about permaculture, try totalk about it at the local radio station, write articles for the local newspaper,write a blog, use the social networks. Talk about the environmental crisisand the permaculture proposition, and show the results of your work.

5. When you start getting some attention, you’ll start being asked to give talks

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and interviews, and soon will be ofered consultancy jobs. At the beginningit can be a bit intimidating, but don’t be afraid! Start slow, with simple jobsant things you’ve done before. Be honest: when taking the challenge of abigger job or something new to you, let the client know. Seek help frommore experienced permaculturists and skilled labour if necessary. Don’ttake a job if you don’t think you can do it well.

6. With practice, you’ll be able to take ever bigger and more complex jobs.You can opt for becoming a specialist in a certain area or areas, or being ageneralist and teaming up with specialists as necessary.

Of course the bigger the project, the bigger the costs and responsibilities. Incontrast with small jobs for individual clients, to get contracts with bigbusinesses and governments for big jobs you’ll need to present well structured,professionally made projects, and have a formal business of your own. Veryimportantly, you’ll have to be able to stick to budgets and schedules. All of thatwill come with practice, and that’s why you must start small and simple, and asyou acquire experience you can gradually increase complexity. That’s how youbuild experience and reputation. If you do it this way, the sky is the limit—maybe someday you’ll be developing international permaculture projects withmulti-million dollar budgets, like famous permaculturists such as Geof Lawtonand Sepp Holzer.

Service provision

This is a typical scenario: someone is interested in a certain service, likeestablishing a permaculture garden or building a house or other structure withnatural materials and techniques, for example. Of course calling a randomgardener or builder is not going to work, so the person calls you, the town’spermaculturist. That’s not only possible, but actually happens all the time,especially for natural building, making it one of the most attractive andpromising subfelds in permaculture nowadays. In any case, you can choose to dothe job yourself, or just making the design with detailed instructions and letsomeone else do the job; you can supervise the execution of the job, assistingother professionals such as gardeners and builders, etc.

But there are countless other ways to provide services to society as apermaculturist. For example, you can start up your own business in any feld thathas a contribution to make for a more sustainable society, like a recyclingbusiness, or a large-scale composting operation, using municipal organic wastand maybe sewage sludge, producing and selling high quality compost; you canopen a plant nursery, thus contributing with gardeners and farmers andreaforestation projects, etc. As we have discussed in chapter 13, you can alsowork in the public sector or NGOs, contributing to a better waste management

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in your town or city, etc. So the options are practically unlimited.Now, in many cases it may be useful, important or necessary that you also

have a formal professional qualifcation that will entitle you to do somepermaculture-related works. A degree in architecture or urban planning is surelyan advantage and may be a requirement for signing home and housingdevelopment design contracts, while a degree in agronomy or forestry may beimportant or necessary for signing large-scale reaforestation contracts withcorporate clients or governments, etc., so if you don’t have such qualifcations,you may have to associate with professionals who do. It is essential that we havepeople with formal qualifcation in all relevant felds of knowledge inpermaculture.

Consultancy

Consultancy is a special kind of service where the permaculturist givesdirections or elaborates a detailed technical plan that meets the client’s needs. Itcan go from a punctual job, such as a rainwater harvesting system, or a garden ora natural building, etc., to the designing of a whole farm, a rural self-sufciencyproject, an ecological housing development, etc.

Of course there is no universal recipe, as each project is unique, but thestandard procedure for the consultancy job is more or less the same. Below we’llgive an overview of the main aspects of a permaculture consultancy work.

The consultancy job starts with a detailed conversation with the client,when they’ll explain what they have in mind. Most of times, the client won’t bevery sure—they’ll have just a vague idea, and will often make propositions thatare quite far-fetched or inviable. Therefore, this frst conversation must be quiteinteractive: the consultant must orient, helping the client decide what exactlythey want within realist limits. Not rarely the client, although well-meaning, willhave ideas that would go against the permaculture ethics and principles. In suchcases, the consultant must intervene, explaining why that is not a good idea, andsuggesting alternatives. If the client remains infexible, the consultant must refusethe job.

Next, the permaculturist must do a thorough research to get to know theconditions and available resources for the project: the property and the areasurrounding it, employing plans and maps when available; the localcharacteristics, such as altitude, climate, rainfall regime, types of soil, nativebiome, etc.; agricultural activities and others that are or have been developed onthe site and surrounding area; current local environmental conditions, such as thedegree of degradation (soil degradation, erosion, chemical contamination, etc.)or the degree of spontaneous regeneration; resources available locally, includingmaterials, energy, water, skilled and unskilled labour, market opportunities, etc.

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The client’s particular skills must also be known and taken into account whenelaborating the project design.

Then, the consultant will move on to elaborating the design itself, and willprovide the client with a report, a project design plan with detailed technicalrecommendations, the budget and other informations. The report often includesa comprehensive, overall plan that can be prepared based on an aerial view mapof the area, which can be taken from the internet (e.g. Google Earth), on whichthe property’s plan with all elements included in the project are plotted. Detailedplans for each individual element are also included as necessary, as well as athorough description of the recommended techniques to be employed, lists ofthe plant and animal species to be used and informations on the number,placement, planting and raising techniques, etc. Materials lists and maybe pricequotes also go here.

In the report, you must also give specifc instructions regarding the project’sestablishment phases. That is, you can’t just pass on a bunch ofrecommendations and let the client decide where to start—they must be orientedas for the most rational and efcient sequence of events possible (theestablishment phases for a rural permaculture project have been discussed inchapter 9, “Rural Permaculture”).

In the report, you can recommend specifc skilled labourers to execute eachpart of the project, such as natural builders, gardeners, etc. So, it is important tohave a good network of permaculturists and other competent professionals. Addalso a references list and further reading recommendations.

The consultancy job normally doesn’t end at the report. The most commonis to provide further services, be it in the execution of the works or in thecoordination or supervision of the activities.

Now, there is an important consideration to be made regardingcomprehensive project designs such as self-sufciency projects or sustainableliving in the light of permaculture, be they rural or urban. Although that kind ofconsultancy job may sound very attractive both to consultants and clients, it canbe said that it will only make sense if the client is a permaculturist too. It shouldbe stressed that permaculture is, above all, a culture, a lifestyle; therefore, it isimpossible for anyone to become a permaculturist just by hiring a consultancyjob. What’s the point elaborating a complete project, implementing a whole setof systems, if the person who will be living and working there has no idea whatto do, and most likely will tend to try to live exactly the same way they’ve alwayslived? Of course that’s never going to work. So, the consultancy report will serveas a guide which, no matter how complete, will by no means eliminate the needfor the client to acquire a solid knowledge base of permaculture, so they’ll knowwhat to do with that (the learning of permaculture was discussed in chapter 16).

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Charging for consultancy jobs

The rates you charge for consultancy should be in agreement with the job’sdimension and complexity, and the time and efort it took you to make it. Usecommon sense.

Of course the consultant’s experience level and reputation also tend toinfuence the price, as well as the client’s spending power, and the generalmarket’s supply and demand law, etc. Moreover, if you are dealing with aspecifc area in which you have formal qualifcations or certifcations, therelevant category’s schedule of fees will also be taken into account. However,also here one should take care not to overcharge, preventing permaculture frombecoming a privilege of the elites, as this goes against its ethical principles.Therefore, it is recommendable that even the most highly skilled and sought afterpermaculture consultants keep in their agendas some space for some sort ofquotas for clients with limited fnancial resources, especially for services withgreater social transformation power, or bigger positive environmental impact.

Do I need a certifcate to provide permaculture services?

The short answer to this question is: no. Now, this may upset manypermaculture teachers, because they depend on courses (e.g. PDCs) to surviveand, therefore, they’ll do anything to defend the certifcate culture. But never letanyone tell you that you need a certifcate to provide permaculture services andconsultancy. What you do need is to know what you’re doing, to assume fullresponsibility over your work, and adhere strictly to the permaculture ethics andprinciples.

As cited in the preceding chapter, a certifcate is nothing more than a pieceof paper that says nothing about you, your knowledge, skills, motivations,competence, etc. Moreover, the idea that a two-week course will make you apermaculture consultant (as the PDC name implies) is a total fallacy—that takesyears of studies and practice, if you want to be ale to do anything withseriousness and competence, except for really simple jobs, which you can do as abeginner while you build up enough knowledge to embrace more ambitiousprojects, as we have already discussed.

Some permaculturists argue that making the possession of a certifcatemandatory for consultancy work could protect permaculture from deviating fromits original purpose. Although that is indeed a pertinent preoccupation, clearlythat criterion (certifcate) is not efective by any means. Traditional, formallyestablished professions such as medicine or engineering, etc. have legallyconstituted regulatory bodies to that end. Perhaps giving permaculture such agoverning body could be benefcial in that sense. However, that would depend onthe creation of an ofcially recognized college-level permaculture degree which,

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as we discussed in the previous chapter, is uncertain.

Lastly, it is worth remarking that Bill Mollison himself has never possessedany permaculture course certifcate, the same going for David Holmgren, SeppHolzer, Masanobu Fukuoka and so many more of the world’s most celebratedand infuential permaculturists.

Not all jobs should be taken

We have cited the case in which a client, though well-meaning, has theintention to do things that go against the permaculture ethics and principles—forexample for having deleterious efects on the environment such as disrupting theecosystem balance, or unjustifably suppressing native vegetation or fauna,consuming resources or creating wastes excessively, etc. Now, there are evenworse cases in which the client simply is not well-meaning. For example, theymay be willing to do an enterprise that will cause great environmental damageonly for the sake of big profts, and they may wish to hire your services to helpthem do so in a way that looks ecological, just to get the license from theenvironmental authorities, or they may want to do greenwashing, like when abusiness causes terrible environmental damage, then does an insignifcantenvironmental compensation project only to use that as a marketing tool toconvince people that by buying their products they’ll be contributing to theenvironment. In fact, that only helps the business to proft more, and sell more,and pollute and degrade the environment more! So the net environmental impactis very negative. Permaculturists shouldn’t take such types of consultancy jobs, asthey go against the permaculture essence. Permaculture was conceived as a toolfor solving some of the world’s biggest problems, and it is critical that we don’tlet it be used as a tool for the perpetuation and aggravation of the sameproblems.

A focus on consultancy?

Although permaculture consultancy can contribute signifcantly to solvingsome of the world’s problems, it should be stressed that it should not be thepermaculture’s main focus. That is because, from a human point of view, theworld is made essentially of people. Therefore, when we say the world hasserious problems because of unsustainability, that is the same as to say peoplehave serious problems, and in fact, it is people who, voluntarily or not,consciously or not, are causing those problems because of the way they’re living,and it is people too who will sufer the consequences when our civilization’sbubble bursts (unfortunately all other living beings on the planet will sufer too).

Therefore, the potential permaculture has to change the world lies mostlyin its potential to change people’s lives—their way to see the world and relate toit, changing their lifestyles to a sustainable model, in harmony with nature (we’ll

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talk more about this in the next chapter, “Proposition for a Global Transition”).

This should be made clear to everyone, and specially permacultureteachers. An excessive focus on consultancy has been a common mistake inmany permaculture courses, from the beginning. That is a problem because youare selling an illusion to people, at a time when they are having their frst contactwith permaculture, that the next week they’ll be “certifed” permacultureconsultants, and there will be a demand for that consultancy, and they’ll developgreat projects, and will earn a lot of money, etc., while none of that matchesreality, not only because the course is not enough to prepare anyone, but alsobecause the demand is still scanty, especially for people with no experience. So,the students get a harsh reality shock after the course completion, which meansdisappointment and frustration. Moreover, this approach may attract the wrongtype of people to permaculture—people who are much more interested inworking for pay, keeping the current paradigm of worker’s alienation and focuson proft, a seller’s mentality, etc., and little interested in changing their ownlifestyles or actually contributing to the solution of the world’s sustainabilityproblems.

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Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 18. Proposition for a Global Transition

18PROPOSITION FOR AGLOBAL TRANSITION

Because it is a system that promises to provide for the human needs and atthe same time preserve the natural resources, protect the environment and helprestoring ecosystems, permaculture has the obvious potential to change the worldand, in the best case, prevent the collapse of our civilization, the ruin ofhumanity and the biodiversity on planet Earth.

But how can we achieve such grand goal? It doesn’t seem reasonable toassume a single individual, be it you or me, starting a garden or catchingrainwater from the roof, or starting a self-sufciency project on a small farm orhomestead, will have any chance of changing the ways of the world, does it?That surely can and will have a great efect on the person, though, bringing greatself-realization and meaning to life. But regarding a global perspective, whatchances do permaculture stand to actually make any diference?

David Holmgren, co-founder of permaculture, seems to have the answer tothat question. He explains:

“...The other way to think about permaculture is as a way to change theworld, because a lot of people are motivated around permaculture as apositive ‘we can change the world in a positive way’, rather than just endlesslytrying to stop the world we don’t want. Permaculture has always been about‘how do we create the world we do want’.

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Well, when you start to think about those issues, most people think abouthow we change public policies, how you get the leverages of power pulled ina diferent way so all the big structures in society get changed.

That’s an old way of changing the world. The sort of new way that’s now sortof well proven, but still a lot of the politicos, the people who think about howdo we change the world haven’t caught on, that actually by changing yourselfand what you do yourself, that is actually not just a little stepping stone tocontributing to a larger change—it’s actually arguably the most powerfulthing that you can do.”

Holmgren’s proposition is equivalent to the famous quote often attributedto Ghandi, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” He goes on:

“And some of the reasons why, frstly if you’ve got a strategy or anything inpermaculture, from owner building to community-supported agriculture,right back to just growing your own food in your backyard; when you dosomething for yourself that you beneft from, that refects the ethics anddesign principles of permaculture, you’re doing something for yourself andyou’re also reducing your adverse impact on the world. But by doingsomething that you beneft from, that is potentially attractive to other peopleto say, ‘Ah, I’ll do that too’, whereas the hard-bitten person who is doingsomething just to atone for our sins in the world is not very attractive tomany other people—you know, a small proportion are motivated by suchthings—for most people wanna get something out of it, and especially getsomething directly. So, the permaculture strategies beneft the early adopters,and on top of that they’re simple, low key things that other people can copy.And they often don’t need permission of the authorities, of the banks toprovide funding, to do it. And that’s really important, because a lot of thesechanges, if they are done even by a proportion of the population, represent areal threat to a lot of the power structures in society, a lot of thosecentralized systems: the corporations, the governments with their taxpayers… So I would understand that a lot of this self-reliance stuf associatedwith permaculture is actually subversive. So, if it really took of in a largeway, it might be not just not assisted but attempted to prevent it. If that’s likesome advanced technology or very large-scale project, it’s very easy forpower relates to say ‘No, you can’t do that’, and we can see the struggles overrenewable energy versus fossil fuels; but if it’s something that you could do athome, it’s very, very hard to stop it. So, on top of that, that copying allows arapid evolution where you improve a thing because you do one example, andthen you copy it, and do another, and you get this incremental improvement.If we did big projects that are all driven by sustainability concepts butrepresent massive reallocations of society’s resources, it always will end up asa mess because somehow the complexity of those things… you might havethe ideas, but when you actually go to do it, it’s never quite right. So, thesmall-scale replication, rather than big, giant projects, is a good learningprocess, and it also allows people to adapt the solutions to diferent situations,and that’s very, very important because every situation is slightly diferent.

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And then, when you get more people doing it, that gives you, if you like, thelobbying power of ‘well, there’s all of us over here doing this’. We’ve got a bitof a power base through autonomy, not a power base through shouting louderto get the authorities to change the policies, ’cause that’s really a powerlessway to go about things. And we can see in the last 30 years how massmovements took it structures to change direction, whether it’s due toengaging in foreign wars or weather it’s to do with climate change, haveactually been harder and harder to get those changes, and requiring more andmore mass movement resources, whereas why don’t we just do somethingthat supports ourselves and provides an example to others? It’s actually alsothe leverage towards a larger positive change.”*

In short, it is pointless for people to just criticize the system and endlesslytry to think of ways to change the world while not changing their own lives toserve as an example. That’s a sterile approach, the typical attitude of inefectual,fake revolutionaries.

The only way for permaculture to make a diference in the world is througha pacifc revolution that starts silently, from the base of society through pointsthat spread, link and converge. Changing the world through permaculture maylook like an impossible or not feasible mission; but changing your own world,your role in the world, your life in the light of permaculture, that is certainlypossible, viable and full of meaning, although not simple or easy, and that’s thenumber one task for all who are interested in making a more fair and sustainablesociety. And from there, inspire others by example, so they too take this path,and together we may work for the development and spread of permaculture.And, in that process, form communities that link and integrate and mutuallysupport and strengthen one another.

So, this is the way to change the world with permaculture. It’s pointless towait or hope for change to come from the top, the elites—it must come from thebottom, from ourselves, each one of us who long for change, spreading throughthe base and creeping up to reach the whole of society.

“Changing the world starts by changing yourself. If you can’t change yourself, you can’t change anything.”

None of that means that political activity in other senses, such as activismor conventional political representation, are useless or should be abandoned—much on the contrary. But it does mean that all those ways to try to change thecurrent reality can only be efective if preceded and accompanied by concretelife examples by those who defend that change, otherwise such eforts are boundto be fruitless. So, for the conventional political representation to have any viable

* David Holmgren explains how you can change the world with permaculture – Interview for the Pip Magazine. 2014.

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participation in a more global transformation of society towards sustainability,frst the permaculture movement must have grown and become too big and toostrong to be ignored.

Can permaculture really feed the world?

This is a common question that often creates confusion and preoccupation.It is argued that industrial agriculture, through selective breeding, moderncultivation techniques involving large-scale mechanization and irrigation, andpesticide and artifcial fertilizer use, etc., has brought a tremendous increase inproductivity compared to older, more natural and traditional techniques withwhich organic agriculture and permaculture are often associated.

That is true, but only partly so. A serious mistake that is always made iscomparing permaculture and conventional agriculture taking into account onlythe harvested production of a certain product (e.g. maize, milk, oranges or trout)per unit of harvested area. Such analysis is incorrect, invalid, for at least threereasons:

• You can’t take into account only the harvested crop as production, but alsothe environmental services produced. As we know, industrial agriculturedoes not provide any environmental service—it does not foment fauna andfora or biodiversity, does not favour rainwater penetration into the soil andits retention in the landscape, so it does not help maintain the hydrologicalcycle or protect the climate stability, it does not protect the soil, etc. Muchon the contrary, it destroys the hydrological cycle, the soil, the climate, thebiodiversity. By contrast, permaculture productive systems provide all ofthose environmental services. Unfortunately, there is no pay for suchservices despite their being essential to human well-being and humanity’slong-term survival.

• Another key point is production diversity. While industrial agriculture isbased on monocultures, permaculture is based on integrated polycultures.Of course in a maize monoculture you’ll have a much bigger maize yieldthan in a polyculture containing maize among other things. However, theglobal output can be higher and is surely more diversifed in a polyculture.

• Moreover, a critical factor that practically nobody takes into account or iseven aware of is the actual relation between resource consumption andproduction. The analysis that is normally done is “how many tonnes ofproduce per hectare per year”, but there lies a terrible error! That’s becauseindustrial agriculture depends heavily on resource importation—fertilizers,water, livestock feed, fossil fuels and electricity to move machinery… Allthose resources are not produced in the property—they come from outside,from the places where phosphate rock and lime is being mined, and

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petroleum is being prospected and refned, the aquifers and surfacewaterbodies where water is extracted, faraway farms where animal feedcrops are grown, etc. How can anyone think of calculating yield per areawithout taking into account all those external areas used to allow for thatproduction? Not to mention all industrial and road infrastructure and othersneeded for the production and transportation of such inputs. If you do thiscalculation right, that is, considering all area efectively used in and out ofthe property in question to reach that production, you’ll see that the realyield per area of industrial agriculture is much lower than commonlybragged about by its proponents! Likewise, the far-of environmentaldamage being duly taken into account will review a new dimension of theenvironmental costs of that agriculture model. By contrast, in permaculturewe focus on the rational and sustainable use of local resources, especiallyfrom within the property, for crop production, preserving and seeking theperfect recycling of resources such as water and soil nutrients, withminimal resource importation and minimal generation of waste andpollution.

This way, stripping industrial agriculture from the fallacious mantle inwhich it hides, the myth that it is more productive, or that it alone can feed theworld, is defnitively busted.

Permaculture can indeed feed the world much better than industrialagriculture, not only in quantity but also in quality and variety, and avoidingpesticides and other chemical contaminations of the environment and the foodwe eat. Moreover, it promises to do so in a sustainable way, through thepreservation and restoration of the natural resources that are necessary to theproduction of food and the provision of other human needs. As for industrialagriculture, it is known that it has been feeding a growing proportion of theworld’s population for decades; but how long can it do it? It is indisputablyunsustainable, as it totally depends on the very resources it voraciously consumesand destroys (water, soils, chemical fertilizers, fossil fuels, climate, amongothers). So, it is part of a sick, autophagic paradigm. We can’t count on it,because if we do, if we insist on this mistake, when the resources fatally run outhumanity will be doomed to starve to death. It is staggering that most of thehuman population, including agronomists, are unaware of this terrible fact!

The challenges of permaculture

It can be said that permaculture is an extremely ambitious movement, as itconfronts the status quo, proposing a way of life that is radically diferent, evenopposite to the modern society conventional lifestyle, and embraces the missionof changing the ways of the world, reverting our current environmental andcivilization crisis, preventing the foreseeable tragic consequences of our current

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way of living as a society.

I wasn’t there in the late 70’s–early 80’s when Bill Mollison started to teachhis permaculture courses around the world, but I am sure, from the records ofthat time,* that it must have been an extremely exciting moment to all whoparticipated in such courses, the permaculture movement’s pioneers—the feelingthat they were part of a historic moment in which a group of people, championsof the Earth, were building a way of life that was benign, harmonic with nature,in a movement that would snowball, inaugurating a new chapter in the history ofhumankind.

However, in these nearly four decades since its inception, althoughpermaculture has indeed spread around the world and gathered thousands ofpassionate adherents, it has to be acknowledged that that growth still is far belowwhat would be necessary to efectively make a diference in the world and reverthumanity’s stride to self-destruction. The pioneers would probably bedisappointed to learn that, today, instead of in the process of being solved, eachone of the problems that make up the environmental and civilization crisis haveactually seriously worsened since that time, and the proportion of people who arepractising permaculture, or even know it or have at least heard about it still makeup but a tiny minority of the global population.

Now, that doesn’t mean that permaculture has failed, or that we should giveup hope. Permaculture still is the best way to deal with humanity’s situation, andgiving up the fght is certainly not an option. However, we can’t pretend we aredoing everything right, or fool ourselves into believing the movement is doingperfectly fne; we have to apply our principle #18 (constant reassessment) inorder to identify and fx the faws and mistakes, what we as permaculturists andas a movement have been doing wrong, to make the movement evolve andprogress so it can fulfl its noble mission. And that should be done with a greatsense of urgency—there is just no time to lose, as the crisis aggravates everydayand a point of no return can be reached anytime.

Change of attitude

It is common for people to assume permaculture is an easier way of lifecompared to the conventional options of work and lifestyle in modern society.That is a serious mistake, and a dangerous illusion.

None of what we do in permaculture we choose to do because it is easier.That can’t be overstressed. We do what we do for a variety of reasons: becauseit’s more ethical, morally correct; because we seek a more natural and healthylife; because we want independence from things we disapprove of in the world,

* A great example of such records are the transcripts of a Permaculture Design Coursegiven by Bill Mollison in 1981 and turned into a series of pamphlets titled “PermacultureDesign Course Series”, edited and published by Yankee Permaculture.

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because we don’t want to be perpetrators or accomplices of the destruction oflife on the planet, or maybe because we want to stand better chances of survivingthe looming societal collapse, etc. But not because it is easier.

Some stuf are actually easy: sorting your waste for recycling—that’s easy.Saving water and energy, having healthy eating habits, rejecting consumerism…But that is just the beginning, the frst steps. Although important, such measuresalone obviously won’t save the environment or society. Now, living of the land,growing healthy, natural food and working efectively for the restoration ofecosystems, that is not easy. But we do it, because it has to be done.

That misconception that permaculture is easy is due at least in part to acommon shortcoming of permaculture courses and teaching materials.Unfortunately, when “selling” permaculture, teachers and authors often end upadopting a seller’s mentality which, as previously mentioned, tends to warpthings, voiding them of their essence as successfully selling becomes the maingoal. The problem is that easy things sell better, so many of the hardships in thepermaculture way end up being omitted or downplayed by such teachers andauthors. Instead, many put emphasis on stuf like group hugs, circle dancing,etc., which ends up reinforcing the illusion that permaculture is easy, the attitudeof thinking that playing guitar around bonfres, singing to the earth or applaudingsunsets will in any way change the world. Of course there is nothing wrong indoing such things, but it has to be put clearly that that is not what permaculture isabout.

One negative result from that is that many people then adhere topermaculture without being adequately prepared, without having a notion ofwhat they are putting themselves into. They start their projects hastily andprecariously, without caring to seek to acquire as much knowledge as possible,both in theory and in practice, and they don’t give planning enough importance,don’t bother elaborating a solid transition strategy, etc. Many people, at thebeginning of their permaculture journey, talk excitedly about it all the time, butit is an excitement that does not translate into seriousness with the work, or thetenacity required for the success of any permacultural endeavour or in factanything in life.

“If someone tells you permaculture is easy, that can only mean two things: either they don’t know what they’re talking about, or they want your money”.

So, we have to change that mentality. Breaking away from the dominantparadigm is totally possible and full of meaning, but we must build this newpath. Therefore, we need people to join permaculture with a mindset ofpioneering, and even heroism; people who are prepared to face and overcomegreat challenges. We have to bear in mind that there is no victory withoutsacrifce.

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Furthering permaculture in practice

Unfortunately, concrete examples of successful permaculture people—thatis, people who really have achieved a highly sustainable, self-sufcient lifestyle,producing food in abundance and playing a substantial role in environmentalrestoration—are still scanty. This has to be acknowledged. Most people whoclaim to be involved with permaculture just talk about permaculture; some dopractice it to some degree, but very few manage to live of their produce, forexample.

We need more success cases, concrete examples of highly productivesystems which are efcient, resilient, associated with preservation andconservation of the ecosystems, examples that can be replicated and inspire andshow the way to new permaculturists and society in general. To that end, it isvital that we adopt the mindset of seriousness, commitment and hard workdiscussed above.

“It is time permaculture took on the responsibility of food production.”

We need the felds flled with people who grow food and restore theenvironment through permaculture. It is pointless and incongruous to try toconvince farmers to grow food this or that way, with our words, with arguments,if we ourselves grow nothing! Neither should we expect farmers to take onpermaculture so we can consume (buy) ecological foods. What we must do isroll up the sleeves and take on the task of growing natural, healthy, ecologicalfood for ourselves and the market, in an efcient and abundant way, throughpermaculture, thus making the now hegemonic ecocidal model obsolete. Thisway, the other farmers will naturally, gradually adhere to permaculture, makingit snowball.

“To live of the land is to live on the land”

Above I argued that permaculture can very well feed the world, somethingI frmly believe. And I discussed about the yield per area; however, there isanother very important point that must be dealt with. It is indisputable thatindustrial agriculture has a higher yield per farm worker, that is, per persondirectly involved with farm work, compared to organic agriculture, and that’s duemostly to mechanization. As we all know, industrial agriculture depends on ahigh degree of mechanization which reduces demand for farm work, leading tothe expulsion of the peasantry from the land; by contrast, natural and sustainableagricultural systems are much less suitable for mechanization, thus requiringmore human labour and presence on the land.

So, while it is not an illusion that permaculture or organic farming can feed

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the world, it is an illusion to think that that can be done with practically all worldpopulation living in cities. Therefore, for humanity to attain sustainabilitythrough permaculture, it is critical that we have a big enough proportion ofpeople living in the country, working on the land, growing food and restoringecosystems. It is fundamental that we see a reversion of the crescent trendtowards urbanization, shifting to a process of ruralization, and this fow must beled by permaculture people.

Gaining visibility

One of the main obstacles restraining permaculture is its current lack ofvisibility in society. As already mentioned, the vast majority of people simplyhave never even heard about permaculture, so to them this alternative simplydoesn’t exist. In fact, most people are not even aware of the environmental crisiswe face, or its seriousness, therefore they may not think there’s any need forchange. That can be explained at least in part by the fact that the big power elites—corporations, governments, media—are not in the least interested in change.Those powers largely determine what people know and what they think, as theycontrol formal education and mass communications.

Now, of course we can’t count on any help from the system to change thesystem! For permaculture to fulfl its mission, it is vital that it reaches thegreatest number possible of people, and for that we must deploy all availablemeans. In this context, alternative media, especially the internet, should behighlighted. Websites, blogs, videos, articles and social networks, etc. are allvalid and have been extremely useful in spreading information aboutpermaculture, its concepts, techniques, ongoing projects, etc. Whenever possible,we must also utilize conventional media outlets, especially local radio stations,news outlets and magazines, which are the most commonly available oraccessible.

Moreover, we must never underestimate the power of word of mouth, andinspiring people around us by our own example. That is probably the mostpowerful tool for strengthening and spreading permaculture. But for this tohappen on a grand scale, it is vital that we have more and more concrete successcases of permaculture applied to people’s lives, as discussed above.

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Part II – The Permaculture Alternative 19. Conclusion

19CONCLUSION

Our industrial civilization is at the height of its boom: population growing,economy growing, life expectancy growing in practically every country, everycorner of the world. Everyday there are more people, more cars, more houses,more aeroplanes, more ships, more factories, etc. than the day before.

That could lead the unwary to conclude everything is alright, that we are onthe right path and there’s nothing to worry about. However, nothing could befarther from the truth, as the price for this boom is the dramatic, continuous,progressive decline of the natural resources that are vital not only for thatgrowth, but to the maintenance of our civilization, human life itself and in factcomplex life in general on the planet. We will inevitably have to pay the price forthis folly, or if not us, our descendants. Humanity will not escape theconsequences of its actions.

The majority of people are simply unaware of this terrible fact, becausethat decline is happening away from their eyes, or because they do notcomprehend the nature of the resources, or are not capable of understandingtime scales appropriately, etc. And it seems clear that the masses are kept in thisstate of numbness and ignorance deliberately by the system’s hidden masters,interested in maintaining the status quo.

On the other hand, also people who are awakened to the sombreness of thecurrent situation in their majority fail to make any concrete moves to change this

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history, or at least their role in it maybe because they’re lost and don’t know whatto do, or maybe because they don’t have the fbre to do what needs to be done, orin many cases probably a combination of both.

However, I don’t think it is productive to point fngers and lay blame for thecurrent situation. The fact is that the real cause for the crossroads we’re in is onlyone: our civilization. Now, how can we condemn it, when it has allowed us todefeat child mortality and erase terrible diseases like variola and poliomyelitis?When it has allowed for the development of science which gave us an objectiveperception of nature, the universe around us and our place in it? How todemonize the civilization which allowed us to travel and know the world, andlive much more comfortable and safe lives than before, among other countlessformidable advances which now we take for granted?

For all that and so many more things, it is certainly not possible ordesirable to abandon civilization. However, if we want to stand a chance ofsurviving and leaving the future generations conditions for a life with any level ofdignity, and preserve the life and beauty of our planet, we must reinvent ourcivilization. Just the good old “turn of the tap”, “turn of the lights”, “putrubbish in the bin”, etc. will never be enough—what we need is a wholesalerethinking of the way we live and relate with the natural world and society; adeep change in our goals in life and lifestyles, with a massive application of allsustainability concepts. This big package of changes is precisely whatpermaculture represents, hence its immense importance and relevance, and thatis why it is crucial that it be furthered, developed, propagated, multiplied toreach the greatest number possible of people, allowing them to engage in thismovement before it is too late. Actually, many believe it is already too late, whileothers believe a big enough number of people will never embrace permaculture,due to faws and shortcomings of the human nature itself. They may be right, buteven if so, we must try anyway—after all, what else can we do?

This small book is just a collection of informations, ideas and concepts thatI have been putting together over years of intense studies, attentive observationsand practical experimentation. I reiterate that this book does not contain all theanswers by any means—the universe of scientifc and traditional knowledges,informations and techniques which are necessary or useful to a sustainable life isvast and wouldn’t ft in any book, or any person. That universe lies open for us toexplore and learn throughout our lives. The attentive mind never ceases to learn.

Many questions remain unanswered, therefore there is still a lot to develop.There are many people thinking hard about ways for us to get out of this messwe created, and that alone is great news. So, we have three missions: to applywhat we already know; to develop what we still don’t know, and to attract asmany people as possible so they get involved, taking knowledge and inspirationso they too embrace the ideal of sustainability. We’re still at the beginning of this

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journey, this struggle to invent a way of life that is at the same time abundantand comfortable, but also ecologically responsible, healthy, sustainable—anendeavour unprecedented in human history.

To revert our current trajectory toward self-destruction is an immensechallenge, but surely there cannot be a more worthwhile one. Now, we must takethis challenge with a lot of courage; we must adopt that mindset of pioneeringand even heroism in the face of the difculties that we’ll fatally encounter. That’sthe only way for us to stand any chances of succeeding, be it in the individual,collective or, who knows, global level.

I have dedicated a considerable amount of efort and time of my life intowriting this book, which I did with great dedication and love. It was decidedfrom the beginning that it would be put in public domain, so it can reach asmany people as possible, in the hope of contributing to the furthering of thepermaculture movement. If this book ever manages to infuence a single personinto joining us, permaculturists, embracing the mission of truly taking care ofour beautiful planet, my eforts will have been rewarded.

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“The healing of the land and the purification of the human spiritis the same process.”

—Masanobu Fukuoka

reproduction and dissemination of this book or any …...reproduction and dissemination of this book...

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