Have you heard of Permaculture Education? It is a term that is heard more and more within the circles of people involved in sustainability and agriculture.
It would be important to clarify that Syntropic Gardening Queensland is indeed about organic agriculture, as many people tend to think, but it also goes much further than that.
Permaculture, in its most basic definition, is a science of DESIGN. It is a way of looking at the world and relating to it. The application of permaculture begins with yourself, with the design of your life and then the design of your home, your community, and ultimately, the entire world.
Permaculture is both the recognition of how unsustainable modern civilization is and at the same time it is the same map that guides us and prepares us for a different future, in which the world is no longer powered by fossil fuels.
Permaculture is based on a very simple and at the same time very deep idea. It is an idea that indigenous cultures innately understood (and understand) but that we in modernity and the “developed” world have forgotten: the best Permaculture Teacher that exists is Nature itself and our ability to create a better world, resides in our ability to study, learn, and imitate the patterns and relationships found in Nature.
Brief history of permaculture
The concept of permaculture was born in Australia (Tasmania) in the early 1970s; his two parents: Bill Molligan, professor and David Holmgren, university student. The word permaculture came from their discussions about how to create a system of “Permaculture Land Sale”, understanding how unsustainable conventional industrial agriculture was (and is). Then they changed perspective. They began to use the term "permaculture" in a broader sense to mean "permanent culture."
In other words, permaculture is a science that seeks to create ecologically sustainable and therefore permanent human settlements.
What are the topics and content of the course?
Introduction to Permaculture
It is Ethics, principles and methodology; observing patterns in nature as a design tool; Principle of design by zones and sectors, learning in action.
The environment: climate, soils and design practices
Microclimate, topography, soil types, mapping and graphic representation.
Bioconstruction
Bioclimatic design and materials in bio construction Syntropic Farming Community. Green and natural construction methods, design for climate and culture, site selection.
Renewable Energies and Appropriate Technologies Renewable energy
Strategies and appropriate technologies for heating, cooling, transportation, cooking, and construction, decrease.
Water management
The cycle and capture of water, Keyline design and natural tanks, cisterns and pools. Gray and black waters in the design of the system; aquaculture.
Agriculture and garden design in Permaculture.
Agroecology, garden design, compost, vermicompost, irrigation, planting schedules, seed bank, nendodango, pest management, integration of animals and insects, Syntropic Farming Queensland.
Edible forest or Forest Garden
Edible forests, analog forestry, permaculture forest design; hedges, windbreaks and protection strips. Identification of wild edible plants from local forests.
Permaculture application in the social Permaculture community
Ecovillages, community and human relations in Syntropic Gardening Queensland. Ecological ecology and law and local networks of social capital; Permaculture in education. Peoples in Transition. Deep Ecology. Health and nutrition. Next steps to put Permaculture into practice in your life. Group of project design presentations, show non-talent and the final party.