Why do Permaculture Research? Rationale of the Study

SUSTAINABLE BY DESIGN: APPLICATIONS OF PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLES IN THE DESIGN OF DIGITAL AGROECOSYSTEM LANDSCAPES FOR FOOD SECURITY AND THE ADVANCEMENT OF ECOLOGICAL AGRICULTURE PRACTICES IN THE PHILIPPINES

 

Permaculture is an ethics-based, green ideological framework that focuses on the design of sustainable living systems. It includes alternative agriculture practices (such as organic, biodynamic, natural farming, etc.), ecology-based engineering and green architecture, and indigenous knowledge systems compiled and packaged into a holistic approach by two Australians, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, in the 1970s. Permaculture was conceptualized as a response to the Green Revolution and its direct and indirect consequences on the environment. The sudden rise in population puts pressure on the environment to produce more food. Given this, attention to the design of food production and living systems is crucial. Decades later, the practice of permaculture has reached the Philippines and have spread fast among netizens via tightly-knit networks on social media, like Facebook, and yet is largely ignored by mainstream agriculture, the academe, and policymakers as a practical solution to food security, climate resilience, and community solidarity. Unfortunately, permaculture is often reduced to a fad for small-scale farming enthusiasts and alternative living hobbyists. To gain more knowledge and generate new data on the spread, practice, and evaluation of permaculture, the study will conduct a nationwide survey of both self-proclaimed and trained permaculture designers and document and evaluate their social networks, communication strategies, farm systems, technologies and on-site practices.  

There are no official documented records of either permaculture practitioners or sites in the country. A major reason for this is the lack of standards and assessment tools that could determine what can qualify as a permaculture practice or project. And because there are no standards to consider, methods and practices may vary from one site to the other depending on the practitioner’s background or personal interpretation of permaculture. The scale of the practice (personal space, house, farm, or community level) is also unknown. Information transmitted via social media channels is a main source of permaculture knowledge and the identification of focal nodes (or key persons) is crucial to determine the level of knowledge of the members within the social network. The network nodes (members) then become focal nodes themselves creating a virtual landscape filled with permaculture design practices expressed in digital content such as status updates, blogs, photos, and videos.

The study aims to create a comprehensive Philippine permaculture database and reference book consisting of an inventory of online social groups, typologies of practitioners, and maps and characterizations of project sites. Also included is the documentation of the design, methods, and practices employed by these practitioners. The data obtained will be used to craft a systematic assessment of permaculture design. A documentary film on Philippine Permaculture will be released to mainstream the concept to the general public. All of these outputs can be used to formalize permaculture research and become the foundation for future studies.