It may be best to discuss Design Principles in
context of overall permaculture design philosophy:
The list i submitted
was part of a big treatise on the subject : Natural system and design.
Beneath the principles in my ideas
structure, flows strategies. (and above principles
are the over-riding ethics of care and
respect)
Within permaculture strategies are
methods/features/opportunites such as local resources (good and bad).
Dan
Earle and I spent much time sorting out what were principles and what we
strategies. The Design Handbook seems to muddle the two.
Maybe you are right, maybe we need to
more strongly emphasis appropriate
technology as a principle. (it was listed but maybe it needs defining to show
that it
promotes local resources and techniques.
Permaculture is not about absorbing someone elses
writing, it is about triggering observation.
For me, there was no sense in
reinventing the wheel, i read, i collated, (which is part of my personal
working where it counts principle) i shared, (which is part of my
share of surplus ethic)
and
then i tried lot of things such as sheet mulching, composting, water harvesting,
LETS, seed saving,
erosion control, weed management, intergrated pest
control, native species regeneration by succession (all these are
strategies)
and most
importantly I observed what works for me.
I am pleased to know i will never have all the answers. this is one field that continues to provide me with intellectual awe.
as for setting principles "in stone" we would not be able to converse on the internet if early man hadn't bothered to develop some standards - some common tools eg. basic language, if someone following hadn't bothered to concieve writing, if no-one bothered to form schools, to teach us some basic language tools and millions of us hadn't bothered to learn how to plug the things together and link up on the net.
Permaculture is
growing up (it is 21!),
it needs a language, a base from which to
grow. it needs strength in its foundations and there has to be an
improvement, a future beyond
the designer
manual.
I'm not
afraid to re-order and update the stones or dare suggest we
make some extra ones. :>
April
-----Original Message-----
From: Judith Hanna
[mailto:jehanna@gn.apc.org]
Sent: Friday, 25 August 2000
9:13
To: permaculture
Subject: RE: all theory thread DESIGN PRINCIPLES
used in our course
notes.
"askpv" <askpv@ozemail.com.au>
forwarded a useful summary of permaculture
design principles. But it lacks
one of the fundamentals -- focus on local
resources.
This needs to be
clear in the discussion of 'relative location', and of
'minimise energy
inputs' (where it is lightly hinted at), and of 'context'.
It is also an
important consideration for 'diversity' -- which, as Toby
flagged up a while
back, is a more complicated aim than may appear on the
surface.
I've
found myself shocked at times by people on this list blithely
discussing
introducing plants from here, there and yonder -- some of them
already
labelled as invasive weeds -- without discussing appropriateness to
context,
effect on existing local ecology, or exploring potential local
plants with
the relevant characteristics. Someone even dissed those who
raised such
'context' concerns as 'eco-fascists'.
It seems to me the essence of
permaculture as design is *intelligent
application* of the broad principles
-- with understanding of the
complexities and interactions underlying the
soundbite mnemnonics. Any
principle can be misapplied by following it blindly
and to extremes.
Nonetheless, having a handy
checklist of principles to
test what you're doing against is better than
operating blind. And the
permaculture principles -- albeit not yet set in
'tablets of stone'
authorised canon -- are one of the best aids so far to
getting things
right.
And people writing their own summaries, the mnemonics that work
best for
them, is a way of gaining greater understanding than comes from
simply
absorbing what someone else has written.
Judith
Judith
Hanna
jehanna@gn.apc.org
15 Jansons Rd, Tottenham, London N15
4JU
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