[Scpg] Rudina Permaculture Research Institute in Macedonia a message

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

Hi everyone
	with all that has happen here in the USA  this week, it is good to reflect 
on all the positive energies we will need to move forward in the world 
which is so interconnected and fragile at this moment Yes I am shocked at 
the loss of innocent life.
	Just a reminder of how in areas that have suffered with effects of war and 
refugees Permaculture has given folks hope and solutions. Read about the 
amazing transformation of a Landscape in Macedonia and the people involved. 
This area was the dumping ground for Refugees from the Balkan Wars and war 
has also invaded Macedonia this year too.
	I met some of the Permaculture Teachers from Macedonia 
(nwlcc.com/pdfs/vol3_1.pdf ) when I was in Louisiana at Northwest Louisiana 
Commerce Center last year( thanks Vic Guadago and Kippy Clark). The NWLCC 
www.nwlcc.com  is doing amazing work in starting the steps to set a 
training center for peoples from around the world to come and get 
Permaculture Training and more to restore their landscape and people after 
wars and more.
	This kind of work in Permaculture will continue, the personal grassroots 
world with positive solutions and the opening of choices for people where 
they felt there was few. Then they come to the US  remind us "Permaculture 
offers positive solutions to the problems facing the world; using ecology 
as the basis of designing integrated systems of food production, housing, 
technology and community development." . This is the beautiful exchange 
that is still happening in this world
								wes

http://www.rudina.org.mk/english.htm
Rudina Permaculture Research Institute


What is Permaculture?

The word Permaculture was coined in the 1970’s by Australian ecologist, 
Bill Mollison, as a contraction of permanent and agriculture or culture.

Permaculture is a design system which applies sustainable solutions to 
problems in the human environment and teaching people to live without 
damaging the earth, whithout using chemicals and inappropriate technology 
which in the beginning seem profitable but are ecologically destructive in 
the longer term .

Permaculture is about designing ecological human habitats and food 
production systems. It is a land use and community building movement which 
strives for the harmonious integration of human dwellings, microclimate, 
annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, and water into stable, 
productive communities. The focus is not on these elements themselves, but 
rather on the relationships created among them by the way we place them in 
the landscape. This synergy is further enhanced by mimicking patterns found 
in nature.

Permaculture offers positive solutions to the problems facing the world; 
using ecology as the basis of designing integrated systems of food 
production, housing, technology and community development.

A central theme in permaculture is the design of balance ecological 
landscapes which produce food. Emphasis is placed on multi-use plants, 
cultural practices such as sheet mulching and trellising, and the 
integration of animals to recycle nutrients and graze weeds. However, 
permaculture entails much more than just food production. Energy-efficient 
buildings, waste water treatment, recycling, and land stewardship in 
general are other important components of permaculture.

Permaculture is based on a system of ethics :

-           Care of earth
 includes all the things that surround us: 
plants, animals, land, water, air;

-           Care of people
 promotes self-reliance and community 
responsibility.

-           Return of Surplus - contribution of surplus time, labor, money, 
information, and energy to achieve the aims of earth and people care.

These three ethics are interconnected and interdependent between each-other 
and with all non-living and living things in our planet. The continued 
existence of the earth as an ecologically balanced system  depends on how 
much attention we pay to this. We can learn to balance our personal needs 
with the requirements of the natural world .

Permaculture teaches us how we can become free from our ego in order for 
our life to be re-created in a productive way and interdependent with 
natural systems or ecosystems. Permaculture can be applied in any 
ecosystem, no matter how physically or chemically degraded . Permaculture 
techniques help degraded and eroded ecosystems to recover their health and 
their wildnesses .

Permaculture adopts traditional and conventional methods and techniques and 
creates a mutual connection between those old ways and the new technology 
for the goal of setting up  sustainable habitats and human societies.

Permaculture is based on the wisdom contained in traditional farming 
systems and modern scientific and technological knowledge. Permaculture is 
working with rather than against nature and it looks at plants and animals 
in all their functions, rather than treating elements as a single-product 
system.

In other words it designs systems that have the energy equation “it 
produces more energy than it consumes ” All systems should be measured 
according to this equation , as this is the meaning of the much used and 
little understood word “sustainable” .

Permaculture uses appropriate technologies such as: composting toilets, 
energy efficient housing, solar and wind power, solar green houses, solar 
food cooking and drying, the edge effect, and many other characteristics 
missing in mono-culture systems. Permaculture is tangible in all spheres of 
life and it increase biological diversity and helps human beings find 
solutions to provide their organic food, energy consumption and everything 
else needed in life without destroying the natural systems which might 
result in catastrophic consequences for future generations.

A large part of Permaculture is observation of natural patterns and 
applying those patterns to the implementation of various tasks and everyday 
activities, for creating sustainable human environments.Permaculture 
teaches us that it is in the best interest of our planet and people to have 
exchange of information and mutual respect, no matter what the education or 
the material level of the people.

Permaculture shows us that cooperation not competition is the key and 
harmony with nature is a must and that can be achieved only if we abandon 
the idea of the superiority over the natural world. If we attack nature we 
attack ourselves. All living things are an expression of life.

Permaculture is a system by which we can exist on the earth by using energy 
that is naturally in flux and relatively harmless, and by using food and 
natural resources that are abundant in such a way that we don’t continually 
destroy life on earth.

When the needs of a system are not met from within the system, we pay the 
price in energy consumption and pollution.
Think about the long -term consequences of your actions.

Permaculture studies the diversity in a system and its elements are placed 
in such a way that they for perform as many functions as possible.

Permaculture makes us diverse and polycultural. This provides stability and 
helps us to be ready for change, whether environmental or social.

Permaculture designs systems that are largely self-maintaining and 
self-regulating.

Permaculture gives us insight into creative processes and the 
interdependence of human societies and the natural world . It shows us how 
to use biological resources without depleting their reserves .

All these permaculture principles, methods and strategies, can be applied 
in urban and rural regions. Permaculture is very useful no matter where you 
live, in hilly places or flat places, in productive areas with a good soil 
or unproductive areas with deserts or rocks. Permaculture can be practiced 
in all kinds of climatic conditions and always offers solutions and 
improvements to the challenges of life on the earth.

"Permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally 
productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability and resilience of 
natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and 
people providing their food, energy shelter, and other material and 
non-material needs in a sustainable way.

Permaculture design is a system of assembling conceptual, material and 
strategic components in a pattern which functions to benefit life in all 
its forms.

The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with, rather than 
against, nature, of looking at systems in all their functions, rather than 
asking only one yield of them, and of allowing systems to demonstrate their 
own evolutions."


Bill Mollison , “ Permaculture – A Design’s Manual “ 1988