Tuesday, June 23, 2009

All Permaculture Principles!?!


Ever notice that there seems to be a plethora of permaculture principles? And that every permaculture teachers tends to use a different set?

How could this have happened? Is this a lack of consensus in the permaculture movement? Is there a definitive set of permaculture principles?

To understand these questions better, I started to collect EVERY PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLE that I've ever seen anywhere. I've created a first-draft graphic collection of all the principles that I've found so far, organized by originator/lineage -- take a look below!

You can download a .pdf of this first draft at here.

What do you think? Is this useful?

Have you encountered a principle that's not on this map? Let everyone know in the comments below!


(Thanks to permapower for the post that encouraged me to post this!)

7 comments:

Linnea & Benjamin said...

I consider David Holmgren's set to be the "principles" recognised all over the world, while I see the others more as guidelines or paralell (more or less integrated) ideas.
I agree that there is somewhat a lack of respect and regognition of the elders – when a new idea emerges, its originator often has his/her own name or organisation attached to it, instead of connecting it to the lineage of the idea, which would make it easier to understand and give cred to others, and coherence to the movement.

Anonymous said...

I having been thinking about your post and I have asked my blog users to support your project. I have created a "Helping others" page on my blog that lists your post. I hope it will help you source more support for your project.

http://permaculturepower.wordpress.com/helping-others/

David ;-)

tierramor.org said...

personally, I think Holmgrens PC Principles are really the efficient outcome of 30 years of Permacultura practice and research, they are working perfectly for me

Regen said...

Hola Ethan my friend. A few thoughts. Looks like your set has a north american flavour indeed. David summed it up and evolved it considerably...but I sometimes find that students get bills set easier. I reckon you should look at capra´s 6 principles and add them to the mix. To clarify a set of core principles is an important conversation to be having globally, with the full capacity of our collective wisdom. I think the IPC and longer term the chaordic institute are probably two good places to start that conversation. In the meantime. Have fun. Hugs from Chile, Grifen

Ian Graham said...

Peter Bane at PermacultureActivist has a set of principles that echo Holmgren's but are different enough to be noted.

Anonymous said...

Your link doesn't work any more...
but I'd like to see it!
J

Unknown said...

The link dont work, can you fix it or can I download the pdf somwhere else? Thanks!