Retreats, Fieldwork, Extended Study & The Permaculture Design Certificate Course

The Permaculture Design Certificate Course

The Permaculture Design Certificate Course is a training utilizing Bill Mollison's "Permaculture: A Designer's Manual" as the essential text. The goal is to achieve a working understanding in ecologically-based planning, site design and management. Areas covered during the course include:

• Permaculture principles

• Concepts and themes in design

• The local ecosystem

• Forms of eco-gardening and farming

• Broad scale site design

• The application of specific methods, laws and principles to design

• Pattern understanding

• Climatic factors

• Plants and trees and their energy interactions

• Water, soils, earth-working and earth resources

• Zone and sector analysis

• Food forests and small animal husbandry

• Harvest and natural forests

• Aquaculture

• Planning the homestead

• Structures

• Craftwork and chores

• Equipment, tools and vehicles

• Renewable energy and energy conservation

• Waste management and recycling

• Permaculture strategies for different climates

• Urban and suburban Permaculture

• Small farm and garden management and marketing

• Strategies of an alternative global nation

• Practical work on design

* Please see the Upcoming Events link for our current schedule

Permaculture is a copyrighted word of the Permaculture Institute of Australia. Graduates of the certificate course are permitted to use the word Permaculture in their choice of livelihood. Please contact The Permaculture Project for more information on scheduled courses, or if you would like to organize a course in your area.

Call For Sponsors For The Twelve-Day Permaculture Design Certificate Course!

 There is a great need at this time in history to educate ourselves with practical earth skills through systems such as Permaculture. 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.

 A central theme in Permaculture is the design of ecological landscapes that 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. More recently, Permaculture has expanded its purview to include economic and social structures that support the evolution and development of more permanent communities, such as co-housing and eco-villages. As such, Permaculture design concepts are applicable to urban as well as rural settings, and are appropriate for single households as well as whole farms and villages. From households to bioregional planning, Permaculture design is not limited by scale.

 Ultimately, we can achieve ecological balance by synthesizing applied biology, eco-technology and integrative architecture: the merging of renewable energies and biological earth-systems.

  Focus is in these four areas: 1) Site components: water, earth, landscape, climate plants; 2) Energy components: technologies, structures, sources, connections; 3) Social components: legal aids, people, culture, trade and finance; 4) Abstract components: timing, data, ethics.

The course is presented through lectures and practical, hands-on activities. A handbook of resources and bibliographical materials is included.

If you are interested in sponsoring and promoting a Permaculture course in your area, please contact Wayne Weiseman at The Permaculture Project.

Sponsors will participate in the full course free of charge.

The Permaculture Project also offers a series of retreats, fieldwork & extended study:

• Corporate and executive: renewal weekends and on-site consultation
• Interdisciplinary study and research
• Work with indigenous peoples: educating native peoples in the art of Permaculture
• Publishing educational materials and research
• Internships upon request

The Permaculture Project
510 West Pecan Street
Carbondale, IL 62901
618-713-0537
permacultureproject@gmail.com
www.permacultureproject.com