This is going to be an old-fashioned text only post because I have a lot on my plate, and I want to get this out today.
What makes our PDC different?
We know that there’s a lot of information available online about Permaculture and, truth be told, we encourage you to read and watch as much as you can before joining us. That way, when you come here, we can really get down to brass tacks and discuss and apply important core Permaculture topics and principles. That’s also why we hold 4 online classes before the on-site intensive.
To us, it’s not about the techniques like building herb spirals or marking contour lines – although we also cover those. To us, it’s about the ideas, concepts, principles, ethics, rules — learning and applying them in practice – these are the core. Here are some of the key Permaculture topics that we address:
Resource Use
According to Bill Mollison “A responsible human society bans the use of resources which permanently reduce yields of sustainable resources (such as) pollutants, persistent poisons, radioactives, large areas of concrete and highways, sewers from city so sea. Failure to do this will cause the society itself to fail.” From that stem the Rule of Necessitous Use and the Rule of Conservative Use, in addition to a hierarchy of resource use. Wouldn’t you like to unpack this with us?
Attitude Principles
Did you know that in addition to a series of design principles and ecological principles, Permaculture also espouses a series of Attitude Principles? That makes sense if you think about it. How are we going to get out of this situation we’re in if we don’t consciously develop different attitudes?
Self-Responsibility & Cooperation over Competition
These are two foundational concepts of Permaculture that, when seen together make it clear that we’re not talking about ego-centric reliance only on self but about taking responsibility for ourselves, our actions and their consequences, and that part of doing so involves cooperation. Let’s discuss!
Our focus on these core topics, in addition to the more often discussed design and ecology principles of Permaculture, provides participants with a more robust understanding of Permaculture and the ability to apply it to virtually any situation.
And – of course – it’s about designing
Learning to design is central to our PDC. We start discussing what it means and explaining how it’s done in Permaculture within the first few days of the course. Participants start designing early-on and we provide plenty of group and individual design time plus one-on-one support. By the end of the 2 weeks, participants develop both a group and an individual design — and they’re amazing!
Design your business, transition plan, house, garden, education plan, or the next steps in your life.
Join us on Finca Nueva Vida this August 17 – 31 for an immersive Permaculture Learning Experience.
This is a full PDC with over 90 hours of practice, instruction, discussion & skill sharing at a forming ecovillage in Panama. Complete information about the course & how to apply: http://8thLifePanama.org/PanamaPDC/