The word ‘permaculture’ was originally created by putting the words ‘permanent’ and ‘agriculture’ together. Today the focus is not only in agriculture so the word permaculture is better described as ‘permanent culture’. Permaculture can serve as a theoretical and practical handbook in how we can shape and share our time together on this planet. It goes beyonde theories and offers a range of solutions for many aspects of our daily lives. Even though the word originated from an agricultural movement in Australia in the second half of the 20th century, permaculture has been practiced by many pre-colonial civilizations for thousands of years.
In Pangaia we believe that we have a moral responsibility towards more-than-human animals with whom we co-exist in this planet so we decided to eliminate their abuse and exploitation from our permaculture practices. More-than-human animals are part of the ecosystems we are regenerating but they are not under human domination. The main principles of our permaculture practices are as follows:
- Earth care
- People care (this includes more-than-human animals)
- Fair and just share: “From each according to [their] ability, to each according to [their] needs” (- Étienne-Gabriel Morelly)
- Creation of circular inclusive economies
These 4 principles can be applied in the following manner:
- Observe and interact–we still have much to learn from nature and her cycles
- Collect, use and store renewable energy
- Obtain a harvest–cooperating with nature instead of destroying her
- Apply self-regulation–continue using what works, discard what doesn’t
- Don’t produce waste–think of circular production cycles not linear
- Design from big to small–think long term and then start with the small details of the big picture
- Use small, local solutions and don’t rush – don’t rush for change, nature needs time and people too
- Integrate and value diversity–work with polycultures instead of monocultures and create a diverse and inclusive community
- Use the margins and value the marginal–use the small marginal spaces, think creatively
- Respond to change with creativity–change is inevitable, it’s important to consider this and design dynamic adaptable systems