While it is very difficult to concisely define a movement as broad and as diverse as permaculture, there are several commonly used descriptions offered up by several key voices in the permaculture movement: If they are to succeed, permaculture designs must be deeply rooted in the particular place in which they occur: geography, ecology, climate, culture, economy, and the needs and priorities of the resident human community. It draws deeply from traditional knowledge and from contemporary scientific understanding in an attempt to weave human culture back into the fabric of living ecosystems.

Permaculture is at heart an integrative and eclectic movement.

Permaculture founders Bill Mollison and David Holmgren observed the devastating effects that agriculture and human settlements were having on the ecology of their homeland and they asked the simple question, “How can we meet human needs by patterning human developments after natural systems, rather than destroying natural systems?” This basic quest continues to the growth and proliferation of permaculture practitioners and communities around the globe today. From rather obscure and humble beginnings in Australia in the late 1970’s, permaculture has grown in just three decades into a vibrant worldwide movement.

Permaculture on a balcony