Permaculture Resources

Permaculture defines resources as the energy or elements in a system. The non-living components can include sun, wind, rain and minerals,  and living components such as people, animals, plants and fungi.

One way of defining the resources we use is to take the “use and result” approach, and look at the consequences when we use these naturally occurring elements.

We view “use and result” in this way;

Those which increase by modest use: Palatable shrubs and grasses which, if managed carefully with techniques such as cell grazing, will continue to increase in yield. If these resources are over or under grazed, they can become either extinct or become tough and loose palatability. Information is also considered in this way: if used well, information will increase, if unused it becomes outdated.

Those unaffected by use: a good view, climate, a pile of stones used for mulch or a heat store and climate. Any well managed ecosystem will be unaffected by its use. Those which disappear or degrade if not used: An unharvested crop, grass which could be cut for hay, swarms of bees, ripe fruit, and water runoff.

Those reduced by use: overharvested fish and game stocks, clay deposits, mature forests, coal and oil.

Those which pollute or destroy if used: residual poisons, radio actives, large areas of bitumen or concrete and sewers running pollutants to the sea.

We can see in many parts of the world where natural systems have been permanently polluted or allowed to degrade beyond the ability to recover- hence famine and war prevail.

Permaculture design seeks to apply an understanding of how natural resources regenerate, so as to repair and restore degraded systems. This is not only for the health of that system in its own right, but for the flow on effects to human culture and activity.


Published at VaranasiEstate (on February 24, 2012)