Permaculture: Living In Harmony With The Earth

What is Permaculture?

Permaculture (permanent agriculture and culture) is a practice that seamlessly blends human activity and nature in a symbiotic way. It’s used to design regenerative systems on all scales, from individual gardens to larger communities and bioregions around the world. As a philosophy, it encourages a connected approach, emphasising working with rather than against nature. 

The ethics of permaculture focus on three key concepts: earth care, people care and fair share. Earth care revolves around sustainable practices that minimise the negative environmental impact of human activity and create healthy systems that meet our needs within the means of the planet. People care focuses on providing individuals and communities access to necessary resources, such as food, eco-friendly transport or communal art spaces. The fair share principle is concerned with creating and distributing life-giving resources fairly amongst people, animals and plants. Rather than limiting people’s free movement, it seeks to support social strategies such as access to education, family planning, gender equality and conscious land stewardship for future generations. 

It goes beyond simple agriculture. Permaculture aims to improve the health of the planet and the lives of people by encouraging us to collaborate with nature rather than exploit it. It looks to provide sustainable solutions to current problems and prevent future climate crises. It’s a notion of harmony.

And the best part? We all have a role to play.

How Permaculture Benefits The Planet

There’s no denying that our current agriculture practices are unsustainable. One-third of all human-generated greenhouse emissions can be attributed to agriculture. It’s the largest single cause of deforestation as land is cleared for cattle grazing. Our current methods and systems are further contributing to the climate change problem and depleting planetary resources. 

That’s where permaculture steps in. It focuses on combating climate change and food shortage problems using sustainable practices. It uses agroforestry techniques and plants native trees and greenery which absorb carbon dioxide emissions, slowing the rate of global warming. 

It integrates a wide range of soil regenerative techniques that prevent the exploitation of land, decrease soil erosion and increase biological activity in the soil. All of this enables people to grow food sustainably, limiting the use of pesticides and harmful chemicals.

Permaculture also protects biodiversity. It aims to preserve the delicate balance of nature, with a commitment to rehabilitating degraded natural land and habitats. Covering anything from oceans to boglands, permaculture biodiversity projects are essential in preventing the extinction of endangered species. 

How Permaculture Benefits Our Communities

Permaculture promotes cooperation between people and encourages us to share surplus resources, whether they be material or more nebulous such as time. Just like in the gardens, social permaculture attempts to create social systems that favour nurturing and empowering relationships. It aims to create strong and connected communities that look after the land and after each other.

Social permaculture encourages meaningful diversity in communities. Bringing together people of various backgrounds, ages, ethnicities and cultures. Creating an atmosphere of growth within the community. People expand their perspectives, gain a deeper understanding of issues and events and foster understanding and empathy. This encourages people to actively engage in dismantling systems of oppression that keep us separate and leave people feeling disempowered. It aims to do away with exploitation and promotes effective communication in our communities, improving conflict resolution and problem-solving.

Social Permaculture goes beyond agriculture, it looks at the delicate ecosystem of human relationships and strives to improve people’s lives. The City Repair Project in Portland, Oregon is just one example of how this process can benefit community life. It repurposed existing public spaces through street painting, aiming to support sustainable community development in the area. Beautiful ecological landscapes such as food forests and pollinator habitats were also set up throughout Portland, integrating nature into the city. 

How Permaculture Benefits Our Health

Permaculture is also great for our health. Living in harmony with nature promotes our physical and mental wellbeing. All of us know how great it is to escape from the chaos of our workplace and get a breath of fresh air on our lunch break, how it calms and centres us. Studies show that green spaces help improve our mental health, interacting with nature alleviates stress and carves out moments of relaxation in our hectic lives. They protect us against mood disorders and depression, offering psychological and emotional restoration. Scientists found that those who didn’t grow up surrounded by green spaces had a 55% increased risk of developing psychiatric disorders. Integrating more nature into our cities and lives is extremely important for our health. 

Social permaculture promotes community engagement, which comes with a host of benefits. Our mental health is improved, those who feel that they belong and are part of a community are less likely to suffer from depression. Humans are social creatures, we thrive around other people. Positive relationships and social support improve our self-esteem and overall quality of life. 

Nature integration also helps mitigate the air pollution problem that so many cities are facing.  Air pollution negatively affects our health and kills an estimated seven million people worldwide per year. Green spaces help mitigate the urban island effect, cooling cities which helps to trap fewer pollutants in the air that we breathe. Shade provided by trees in urban areas also lowers the energy demand which indirectly helps improve air quality.

Permaculture brings a heap of benefits, not only to our planet but also to us and our communities. It’s a far-reaching practice that emphasises caring for nature rather than abusing it, and appreciating the abundance of natural resources that it provides us in return. You don’t have to own a farm or garden to benefit from permaculture, you simply have to look for ways to foster collaboration with nature in your own life. By reconnecting with nature and ourselves, we can improve our lives and preserve our planet for future generations.