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Welcome
to the
SANTA
BARBARA PERMACULTURE NETWORK
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"Permaculture, a design system that reconciles
human communities with the ecological imperatives of a living planet."---Ben
Haggard
PERMACULTURE:
the use of ecology as the basis for designing integrated systems of food
production, housing, appropriate technology, and community development.
Permaculture is built upon an ethic of caring for the earth and interacting
with the environment in mutually beneficial ways.
Permaculture design is site specific, client
specific, and culture specific .
Permaculture
principles focus on thoughtful designs
for small-scale intensive systems which are labor efficient and
use biological resources instead of fossil fuels. Designs stress
ecological connections and closed energy and material loops. The core
of permaculture is design and the working relationships and connections
between all things. Each component in a system performs multiple functions,
and each function is supported by many elements. Key to efficient design
is observation and replication of natural ecosystems, where
designers maximize diversity with polycultures, stress efficient energy
planning for houses and settlement, using and accelerating natural plant
succession, and increasing the highly productive "edge zones"
within the system.
Bill Mollison
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A
Bit of History...
In
1978 there was nothing quite like Permaculture. Twenty-two years later Permaculture
laps the globe, with over 4000 projects across 120 countries.
Australian
biologist Bill Mollison, co-founder and originator of Permaculture, has taught
and developed projects from the Arctic through Sub-tropics, and Equatorial regions
on the planet.
He
has been named Australia's "Man of the Year", and in 1981 received
the prestigious Right Livelihood Award. There are few countries left in the
world where he has not planted the seeds of Permaculture.
David
Holmgren
David
Holmgren is best known as the co-originator with Bill Mollison of the Permaculture
concept put forth in "Permaculture One" in 1978. Since then he has
written several more books, including most recently "Permaculture: Principles
& Pathways Beyond Sustainability", and developed three properties using
permaculture principles, and conducted workshops and courses in Australia, New
Zealand, Israel, Italy, France, Britain, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. He has
also consulted on and supervised urban and rural projects in Australia and New
Zealand.
As a
permaculture designer and consultant, his most recent work has focused on global
permaculture strategies addressing the issue of “energy descent”,
a concept that acknowledges a future of reduced fossil fuels, but plans within
a framework of gradual transition and adaptive strategies. In drawing links
to permaculture, in future design for homes, cities, and agriculture, he feels
lessons learned will need to be applied everywhere, rather than just First World
versus Third World type situations.
The permaculture
concept and movement have already changed the lives of thousands of people and
affected perhaps millions in myriad of ways. All this has occurred without any
substantial support from powerful institutions, corporations or governments.
Some would attribute its influence solely to the tireless energy, intellect
and charisma of Bill Mollison. Although his role in permacultures' initial global
spread is unquestioned, "its persistence, evolution an influence must be
attributed to its relevance to people's lives and situations".
For
more information on the history of Permaculture, see our Related
Articles and Links pages on this site
For
more information on David Holmgren's Santa Barbara appearance on Tuesday, August
2, 2005 see our Recent Events page
The
above photos (except for Bill Mollison and David Holmgren), were taken at the
Learning Center of Natural Design in Los Osos, CA and illustrate the various
elements of the permaculture garden which was designed by Larry Santoyo.
All photos © L.
Santoyo Designs http://www.earthflow.com
Web
Work by Wish Designs
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to our website host, http://www.rain.org
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