All Permaculture Principles!?!

Ever notice that there seems to be a plethora of permaculture principles? And that every permaculture teachers tends to use a different set?

How could this have happened? Is this a lack of consensus in the permaculture movement? Is there a definitive set of permaculture principles?

To understand these questions better, I started to collect EVERY PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLE that I’ve ever seen anywhere. I’ve created a first-draft graphic collection of all the principles that I’ve found so far, organized by originator/lineage — take a look below!

You can download a .pdf of this first draft here.

What do you think? Is this useful?

Have you encountered a principle that’s not on this map? Let everyone know in the comments below!

(Thanks to permapower for the post that encouraged me to post this!)

8 thoughts on “All Permaculture Principles!?!

  1. I consider David Holmgren's set to be the "principles" recognised all over the world, while I see the others more as guidelines or paralell (more or less integrated) ideas.
    I agree that there is somewhat a lack of respect and regognition of the elders – when a new idea emerges, its originator often has his/her own name or organisation attached to it, instead of connecting it to the lineage of the idea, which would make it easier to understand and give cred to others, and coherence to the movement.

  2. personally, I think Holmgrens PC Principles are really the efficient outcome of 30 years of Permacultura practice and research, they are working perfectly for me

  3. Hola Ethan my friend. A few thoughts. Looks like your set has a north american flavour indeed. David summed it up and evolved it considerably…but I sometimes find that students get bills set easier. I reckon you should look at capra´s 6 principles and add them to the mix. To clarify a set of core principles is an important conversation to be having globally, with the full capacity of our collective wisdom. I think the IPC and longer term the chaordic institute are probably two good places to start that conversation. In the meantime. Have fun. Hugs from Chile, Grifen

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  5. Living in Taiwan for years away from conversation about permaculture (apart from talking to myself) but needing to teach/share permaculture with my peers and students, it was necessary for me to create a list of principles in Chinese that I could teach well with and be understood. I spent about a hundred hours examining Mollison and Holmgren principles and came up with a fusion of 14 principles. I added another a few years later. As my understanding grows, I see a need to continually adjust the examples I give people in explaining principles. I don’t see my 14 principles as my own, but rather a fusion of insights from BM and DH, and to them I owe everything as far as my understanding of permaculture. I don’t think one set of principles is any better than the other, and I think it is good for people to digest (and continually re-digest) these principles and put them in their own words if necessary. I see the principles as an interconnected web (more connections the better) where its easy for one principle to blend into another and easy to explain a certain situation using several principles. Thanks for compiling all these. If anyone needs some principles in Chinese, send an email.

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