UPLB TTBDO to Start a Permaculture Garden

Photo from the UPLB Technology Transfer and Business Development Office Facebook Page

Last August 25, the UPLB Technology Transfer and Business Development Office (TTBDO) invited Permaculture Research PH to conduct a permaculture seminar for its office staff. The 2-hour event introduced the participants to permaculture ethics, design principles, and local examples while contextualizing it in relation to the current global climate crisis.

TTBDO director, Dr. Emil Cabrera, envisions the permaculture garden to be a source of food and recreation for its staff. The garden will feature a rainwater harvesting system, aquaculture, and vegetable garden beds along with windbreaks along the garden edges. 

This is our second collaboration within the UPLB campus. The first one is the Kids' Garden at the UPLB Organic Agriculture Research, Development, and Extension Center (OARDEC) where we were invited by Dr. Blesilda Calub to design the garden.

Looking forward to more collaborations! The climate crisis is real. We better step up and initiate more positive action in our communities. 

Before Anything Else, Let's Harvest Rainwater

Here's the context behind this blog entry just in case you're not yet updated with what's happening around the world:

Serious drought hitting Europe, wider world

Much of Europe and the Northern Hemisphere is battling either wildfires, low water levels, harvest warnings, water use restrictions or a mixture of all these. DW rounds up the situation.

Europe’s rivers run dry as scientists warn drought could be worst in 500 years

Crops, power plants, barge traffic, industry and fish populations devastated by parched waterways

Now what can we do here in the Philippines?

Solar panels are good but are too expensive for the average household. Gardening and composting are too time-consuming and labor intensive. But rainwater harvesting is a one-time installation event. You just let the weather do its job. So we need to save rainwater now while it's the wet season. 

I have come to realize that we can't teach permaculture as one grand concept. It's too complex. Instead, it should be broken down into tiny bits because we need to do something now and act fast. 

Here's some good news for you future rainwater harvesters:

1. Our houses have roofs 

When it rains do you notice where the water goes? For those who have gutters, it goes straight to the drainage canal. But for those who don't have gutters, the water splashes directly on the soil or concrete pavement. This undirected water causes floods. If we can divert rainwater into our rainwater harvesting systems then we can lessen the amount of water that collects on the ground. 

2. It's easy to prioritize

Our rainwater harvesting system was one of our top priorities when our house was built. Hopefully, engineers and architects would prioritize this feature when designing homes and buildings. I hope it comes to a point where this would be as normal as including a toilet in any structure. 

3. We have the policy instrument

Don't worry, we have the RA 6716: Rainwater Collector and Springs Development Act of 1989 to support our rainwater harvesting efforts at the barangay level.

SECTION 2. Water Wells, Rainwater Collectors and Spring Development.—The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) shall, within thirty (30) days after the approval of this Act, undertake construction of water wells, rainwater collectors, development of springs and rehabilitation of existing water wells in all barangays in the Philippines in such number as may be needed and feasible, taking into consideration the population, hydrologic conditions, costs of project development and operations, financial and economic factors and institutional arrangements: Provided, however, That the DPWH shall deduct not more than five percent (5%) for supervision, engineering, technical and other overhead expenses or fees: Provided, further, That each barangay in the country shall have at least one additional potable water source.

4. Success indicators

Measuring success is easy. Check your neighbors' houses. Check your place of work. Check your barangay. Do they have rainwater harvesters installed? We're making progress if the answer is yes. But we have to do this quickly.  

How to Use the Permaculture Bibliography

"Lack of scientific literature."

This is a common line in most, if not all, published research on permaculture. Does the lack of studies mean that the topic is not important? I don't think so. Honestly, permaculture is a very difficult subject to tackle. By that I mean, it's a challenge to pinpoint which aspect of permaculture you should do your research. Will you study permaculture as a paradigm? As a social movement? As a design philosophy? As regenerative agriculture? As a landscape? Will you study each permaculture design principle?

Since the academe is confined (and limited) by its disciplinary boundaries, it's pretty hard to designate which departments, colleges, or institutes should confront(?) or embrace permaculture with a scientific point-of-view. In Cornell University, it's the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; in Oregon State University, it's the Department of Horticulture in the College of Agricultural Sciences; while UMASS Amherst has its own Permaculture Initiative. 

Permaculture Research PH is currently supporting undergrad and grad students from different universities in their own permaculture research no matter which discipline they are coming from. One of the ways we support these students is by providing free resources, consultations, and mentoring. 

The Permaculture Bibliography was curated to help students jumpstart their academic research with a good review of literature. Also, we can identify which countries are lacking in permaculture research. The bibliography is a public Google Spreadsheet so other students can add permaculture-related publications. In this way, we will all be updated with the newest permaculture research around the world.

Have you read permaculture studies or news lately? You can add it to our bibliography. 

Take Action Now! 5 Permaculture Things You (the Middle-class) Can Do to Make a Difference Today

We often forget about the role of the middle class in the climate crisis. Educated, financially stable (relatively), mobile, and residing in geographically favorable neighborhoods, the middle-class are the least likely to be affected by climate-related events. But at the same time, they are the most concerned, and yet they have that feeling of helplessness to make any significant impact. 

If you're reading this blog, you probably belong to this demographic. You have the resources and the time to do so. While the rich may have the resources, they don't have the time to read an unknown blog site like this one. 

So here are 5 permaculture-based things based that you can do to jumpstart your paradigm shift to a regenerative way of thinking (take note: baby steps). 

1. Harvest rainwater (Permaculture Design Principle # 2: Catch and Store Energy)

Take advantage of the rainy season (while we still have one)! Rainwater is usually a wasted resource. So instead of just funneling it down the drain, why not use the roof of your house to catch it then store the water in a drum, a bucket, or a cistern? This will come in handy especially if you're in a place where water supply is erratic. You can use it to flush your toilet,  clean your house, and water your garden. Imagine the amount of fresh water we can save if we save and store rainwater. Read more about rainwater harvesting here. 

2. Start a garden (Permaculture Design Principle # 3: Obtain a Yield)

Once you have your rainwater harvester/collector set up, you can now afford to irrigate your garden. Now the goal of the home garden is not self-sufficiency because that is impossible (or not practical) unless gardening is your fulltime job. Start by growing at least one crop and learn how to use it. Don't grow something that you won't cook or eat. Don't worry about the surplus, help your community by giving away surplus crops. Once you have strengthened the linkage between your garden and your kitchen, add more crops to your heart's content. 

3. Practice composting (Permaculture Design Principle # 6: Produce No Waste)

Related to gardening, you can feed your soil with homemade compost. Now this is a bit tricky because there are appropriate ways to compost depending on how much space you have. You can read about it here. Personally, I stick with the open air/heap composting method because I would just pile biodegradables and let the sun, rain, and worms do the work.  

4. Support local businesses and entrepreneurs (Permaculture Design Principle # 10: Use and Value Diversity)

The pandemic has produced diverse home-based businesses in our area. Take the opportunity to choose local businesses over large corporations whenever you can. Help your neighbors, help your community, support the local economy, and reduce your carbon footprint (compute your carbon footprint here). 

5. Discuss solutions with your family and friends (Permaculture Design Principle # 12: Creatively Use and Respond to Change)

We live in a rapidly changing world. But let's be proactive and discuss sustainable and regenerative strategies for our households, neighborhoods, and communities. Our problems will continue to pile up as we experience climate change on a global scale. But we can only move forward. Watch: The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it (Dr. Katharine Hayhoe)

Read about the permaculture design principles here. 

Brainstorming Permaculture-related Research Topics for 2022

Food security, public health, biodiversity conservation, and climate change are crucial topics for research if you are interested in doing a study on permaculture for your thesis, dissertation, or for work. 

There aren't a lot of people doing research on permaculture yet, especially research related to the aforementioned topics. This is unfortunate because more attention should be given to permaculture, especially now that the effects of climate change is ravaging our country (i.e. typhoons, extreme heat, diseases). And yet, this is also a good thing because it means you have the opportunity to conduct ground-breaking and pioneering research on permaculture. 

We have a Google Sheets resource based on Ferguson's (2016) "permaculture research sectors" framework. There are four sectors: design, practice, movement, and worldview. In the third column of the spreadsheet, we listed down the published work done (journal, book chapter, news article, etc.) for each sector. In this way, we can fill in the research gaps for permaculture. So far, the 'design' sector has the most available literature while 'practice' and 'worldview' are still lacking content. 

For the 'practice' sector, these are the research questions:

1. How do we distinguish permaculture practice from other systems?

2. What evidence exists, in science and land use traditions, to support permaculture practice?

And for the 'worldview' sector:

1. What is our impact?

2. When and how are we successful in shifting paradigms?

3. When is it worthwhile to promote permaculture as 'permaculture,' and when is it best to let go of the term?

4. How can we best exert influence without evangelizing? 

Given these topics and research questions, some serious reflection is needed to ponder what kind of research will have the most immediate impact in our communities. 

Time is not on our side this time. As researchers and scientists, we need to act now and communicate the relevance of our work to the masses. 

To know more, you can watch this documentary on permaculture in the Philippines released in 2018. 

How to Use the Permaculture Map: Layers and Symbology Explained

The Collaborative Permaculture Map of the Philippines was a project we started in 2017. The purpose was to consolidate and connect the network of permaculture practitioners that we were studying (2017, 2021) to create a strong and vibrant permaculture community. We hope that this tool would help address the inquiries we were receiving from people. Which permaculture site can I visit? Where are the permaculture schools? Where can I get farm/garden supplies? Those kinds of inquiries. 

Adding an Entry to the Map

If you have a personal permaculture project (group, organization, garden, farm, initiative, education, media, etc.), feel free to add it to the map if you want people to connect with you and visit your site. If you have visited a permaculture site yourself, you can also add it here and include photos and some descriptions (your name, date of visit, some observations). 

To add to the map, click this link and go to the search bar and type in your address (or the address of the site you visited). Select the entry and then click "+ Add to map." This will automatically add to the "Permaculture Sites, Projects, Initiatives" layer. The symbology used for this layer are icons in blue. It's up to you which icon you will use. Right now we have icons for farms, resorts, hotels, retreats, museums, and others have their own company logos or FB group icon. The rules for which icon or symbol to use are not strict. But we suggest that only the color scheme be followed. 

Data Layers

When you add an entry, it automatically adds to the first layer. To contribute to the other layers, you need to click on the layer box (you will see a vertical blue highlight on the left side to indicate you have selected the layer). Here are the layers explained:

Wildlife Observations - If you're in a permaculture site and spotted some wildlife, you can add them here. Again, to add an entry, type the address on the search bar and click "+ Add to map." Rename the layer by adding the year in parenthesis. In the description, you can add the common name of the species, the scientific name, description of the location of where it was photographed, the time it was taken, and a photo. This data will help us monitor biodiversity in permaculture sites. The icon color we use for this layer is purple.

Crop Diversity Inventory - This layer is used to monitor the diversity of crops in permaculture sites. gain, to add an entry, type the address on the search bar and click "+ Add to map." Rename the layer by adding the year in parenthesis. In the description, you can add the common name of the species, the scientific name, description of the location of where it was photographed, the time it was taken, and a photo. If you can count the number of trees, plants, shrubs, indicate the number visible in the photo. The icon color we use for this layer is green.

Agri Products, Services, Suppliers - This is not a "permaculture" layer but we added this to connect practitioners to places and people where they can get farm services and supplies. If you recommend a certain place for these needs, please add them to the map also. The icon color we use for this layer is orange.

Zone Designs and Landcover Maps - This layer is for maps. If you would like to share a map you made of a permaculture site, you can share them here so others would have an idea how to design in a permaculture way. The icon color we use for this layer is red.

Research Publications, Articles, Studies - This layer is for students, researchers, journalists, and bloggers. If you have written literature about a permaculture project, you can add it here. Include a short summary and a link to the article. The icon color we use for this layer is light orange.

Natural Ecosystems Near Permaculture Sites - This layers is for those doing earth observations and aerial and landscape photography. If you know a permaculture site close to natural ecosystems such as mangroves, forests, coastal areas, rivers, etc., feel free to add it here. You can include a short description why these ecosystems are important in the landscape plus a photo. The icon color we use for this layer is green.

Convergences and PDC Courses - Since people are always keen to know when and where the next trainings would be, to those who organize and conduct events such as these, feel free to add to the map and include important details such as date and time. Include also a link to the main page of your event. The icon color we use for this layer is light green.

Agri Orgs, Agencies, Offices - To strengthen linkages with the agriculture sector, we included a layer for government, non-government, and private organizations to facilitate collaboration and cooperation between permaculture practitioners. The icon color we use for this layer is yellow.

Farmers' Markets and Bazaars - For the farmer-entrepreneurs, this is a useful layer to help guide consumers where to buy produce from permaculture practitioners. Consumers can also inform the permaculture community where they can market their produce. If you know a local market, you can add it in this layer. The icon color we use for this layer is brown.

If you find it difficult to follow the instructions, click this link and we will do the work for you: https://forms.gle/TcSYWa3XD4dP9gR6A

If you see your project already added to the map, feel free to update and edit your information (or remove, if you prefer not to be included for personal or data privacy reasons). 

For assistance, you can e-mail permacultureresearchph@gmail.com.

Why Permaculture is Not Working in the Philippines

Permaculture is a potential approach to addressing our climate change and food security challenges in the country this decade. But in spite of its advantages and the wealth of information available online, it still hasn't reached mainstream consciousness. Why is this so? Here are some observations. 

- Large network, weak linkages

Our research showed that there are at least 200 self-proclaimed permaculture practitioners discoverable online in the Philippines. Though not all of these people are verified, they were all connected by common practitioners, organizations, and permaculture teachers. Some of the projects are individually strong, meaning the permaculture designs are ecologically sound on their own. But what is lacking is the establishment of strong relationships and friendships with fellow practitioners while creating biophysical linkages with projects in proximity (in Tagalog, walang permaculture projects na magkakatabi or magkaka-kapitbahay). Permaculture sites in the Philippines exist in isolated "islands." Which leads to the next point.

- Focus on personal resilience, not the community

The main motivation for most practitioners is personal resilience and farm-scale (or home-scale) sustainability as documented in a chapter in this study. This is understandable because permaculture usually appeals to those who have tried to break away from mainstream agriculture or consumerist culture in general. It is indeed too difficult to convince the entire community to be on board on such a paradigm-shifting concept, one that is necessary but out of the normal way of life. 

- Many students, few teachers 

There are many people inquiring online about permaculture training. The problem is that there are only few teachers scattered across the country. I remember my own permaculture teacher, Bert Peeters, tell our class back in 2014 that once we finish our permaculture training we can teach others in our community. Unfortunately, we have no tracer studies yet to follow up on the progress of permaculture alumni in the Philippines. Hopefully, they are teaching permaculture somewhere. Feel free to add to the map if you are a permaculture teacher. 

- Permaculture is knowledge-intensive and prone to information overload

There have been may efforts to reshape and reimagine agriculture in our country. There is Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and RA 10068 or the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010. Unfortunately, these haven't been promoted and adopted as much as we wanted to. Introducing a "new" concept like permaculture, which has ecological and social components, could be quite intimidating to farmers and people in general. During one of my lectures, someone commented that there is so much to know when applying permaculture. The first design principle of permaculture is to "observe and interact." On that principle alone, it is expected that we be mindful of our surroundings and learn from them. It's a complex world that we live in. That's why we need to invest in education and promote critical-thinking.

- No promotion from any sector

Permaculture awareness in the Philippines has been streaky for the last 5 years. Interest in the topic is difficult to sustain because social media pretty much controls what we see in our newsfeeds. If you don't have any interest in permaculture at all, then you won't see permaculture-related content. Except for an online course that's been in development since 2016, we haven't received any true partnerships or collaborations with any sector.  

- Lack of research

I think every permaculture study that has been published always mentions that there has been a lack of research or literature on the topic. We've been compiling studies since 2016, you can check it out here. When we published in 2017, we thought that this would spark interest in the topic. Honestly, this is not a topic that will get you funding right away (though we did get funding from DOST and SEARCA). So whoever is doing permaculture research right now, good luck and kudos to you. We hope you succeed in your endeavor. But don't expect attention, rewards, or accolades. It's a difficult topic but it's worth it. 

What do you think are other reasons why permaculture is not working in the Philippines? 

How to Use this Publication: The Structure of Permaculture Landscapes in the Philippines (2021)

What does a permaculture farm or landscape look like? What's in it that makes it different from other agricultural systems or farm designs? This paper published in Biodiversitas in 2021 hopes to answer these questions. 

The study discusses the configuration of landscape components found in each permaculture site. Components refer to 6 categories: biotic, abiotic, manmade, technological, socio-economic, and cultural. These categories are based on observable physical characteristics observable on the ground and on the air via drone photography.

Biotic refers to plants, animals, and people. Abiotic refers to water features, hills, mountains and other land formations. Manmade refers to buildings used for shelter or storage. Technological refers to installations, vehicles, and machineries. Socio-economic refers to spaces or structures that generate income such as stores, stalls, etc. While cultural refers to spaces with religious or cultural significance such as grottos, parks, monuments, etc. 

These landscape components are then discussed according to the 6 permaculture zones identified during our observations. Generally, the classic permaculture zoning in permaculture literature has been followed except for some modifications/variations.

Zone 0 is always the house structure. Zone 1 is a vegetable, herb, or ornamental garden. It's always close to Zone 0. Zone 2 is dedicated to grazing for sites that have livestock and poultry. Zone 3 is interchangeable with Zone 2. This is where most cash crops are located like rice, corn, high value vegetables, etc. Zone 4 is consistently placed in the outer zones where fruit trees, native trees, shrubs, and windbreaks are located. And Zone 5, the 'wilderness' area, can be included within private property or outside of private property such as montane forests, ocean, mangroves, etc. 

We're sharing here a map gallery that was not included in the publication. In this interactive gallery, you can see each component geotagged on the site. The lines connecting each component indicates a relationship between the two (i.e. if plant is connected to goat, then goat eats the plant).

This is the first detailed description of 12 permaculture sites in the Philippines. Hopefully, this will lay the foundation for many more studies. It can also be useful if researchers would be able to compare the results of this study with permaculture designs in other countries.

You can access the map gallery here.

Link to the publication: https://smujo.id/biodiv/article/view/8192?fbclid=IwAR0KLGYsdh2XUFhfVq-lbj5bDA0KHTffwHSeCPGGYCZUqr-bHGhRrnNOoSk