List of permaculture projects

Robert Hart's forest garden in Shropshire, England

A permaculture project is a deployment of permaculture practices on an ongoing basis.

Africa

Ethiopia

The Biofarming approach applied in Ethiopia has very similar features and can be considered permaculture. It is mainly promoted by the non-governmental organisation BEA, based in Addis Ababa.

Southern Africa

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has produced a report on using permaculture in refugee situations after successful use in camps in Southern Africa and Republic of Macedonia.

Zimbabwe

There are 60 schools designed using permaculture, with a national team working within the schools' curriculum development unit.

Oceania

Australia

The development of permaculture co-founder David Holmgren's home plot at Melliodora, Central Victoria, has been well documented. Geoff Lawton's Zaytuna Farm next to The Channon in northern NSW, Australia, is a 66-acre medium-farm scale example of permaculture implementation. It is the home base for the Permaculture Research Institute. Begun in 2001, the site is off-grid, and has multiple food forest systems, animal systems, kitchen garden and main crop areas, a large network of water-harvesting earthworks for passive hydration of the site, composting toilets, rocket stove powered showers, straw bale natural buildings, etc.

City Farm Perth is an example of community permaculture in an inner suburb of Perth, Western Australia. The farm was constructed on a brownfield site in 1994, and is a focal point for permaculture education, as well as community music and art.

Asia and the Middle East

Permaculture Institute of Asia

India

Living Ecology and Permaculture Patashala provide higher education to permaculture professionals through practical permaculture projects in small villages. The drylands projects help poor rural farmers with sustainable agriculture and permaculture design implementation,.

Thailand

Permaculture Institute Thailand is an institute representing Permaculture projects in Thailand. International courses and residencies as well as Natural building, aquaculture, Food forestry, vermiculture and many more courses and skills in self-sufficiency.

The Phayao Permaculture Center, Phayao, Northern Thailand, is a permaculture project demonstrating permaculture design including education open to all interested in permaculture.

Indonesia

Bumi Langit Institute is an initiative representing Permaculture projects in Indonesia, resided in Yogyakarta. The Institute founded by Iskandar Waworuntu Alhajj an environmentalist veteran in 2006. International and national courses and residencies as well as natural building, aquaculture, food forestry, vermiculture, bamboo culture, coconut culture and many more courses and skills in self-sufficiency, regenerative design and leadership.

Cambodia

A consortium of NGOs including Lom Orng and Ockenden is doing a post-flood livelihood and infrastructure regeneration project, in the country's northwest, which includes permaculture principles, and the establishment of a permaculture demonstration farm in Battambang Province which serves as a community farm and education site and includes a native tree nursery and biogas system providing clean cooking fuel and lighting.

Nepal

The Himalayan Permaculture Centre (HPC) is a grass roots non-government organisation (NGO) set up by trained and motivated farmers from Surkhet district (Mid-Western Nepal) in 2010 to implement sustainable rural development programs in Nepal.

Europe

Cyprus

GROL Garden — Girne: An Urban Permaculture Project that accepts Volunteers who come under a work-exchange agreement. GROL Garden provides food, accommodation, yoga classes, and hands-on learning in exchange for assistance on their Projects.

Spain

Red de Permacultura Ibérica (Iberic Permaculture Network)

Portugal

In Portugal there are several Permaculture projects. There's a bottom-up initiative that is mapping most of them called Rede CONVERGIR.

Tribodar Learning Center, located in the center of Portugal, provides an holistic learning experience that allows those involved in the learning process to gain growth on different levels. Having the freedom to learn at our own pace is another element of this learning approach.

United Kingdom

There are a number of example permaculture projects in the UK, including:

• Agroforestry Research Trust, managed by Martin Crawford, is a not-for-profit organisation based in Dartington, Devon that runs a 2-acre (8,100 m²) forest garden and publishes the journal Agroforestry News
• Chickenshack Housing co-op, a fully mutual housing co-op established in 1995 using permaculture design principles. Based in rural North Wales, the community has 4 dwellings and 6 residents on a 5-acre (20,000 m²) site. Features include a biomass and solar district heating scheme, a half-acre forest garden and various wildlife conservation and habitat creation strategies. The community is very active in regional sustainability projects such as the Machynlleth Transition Towns initiative. It runs occasional courses in permaculture design and regularly receives visits from interested parties.
• Middlewood Trust, a permaculture-based farm in North Lancashire running courses in permaculture, crafts, forestry and sustainability
• Plan-It Earth Eco Project offers a variety of environmental education programs, courses and events, and eco-holidays at a traditional smallholding near Penzance, Cornwall
• Plants for a Future, a vegan-organic project based at Lostwithiel in Cornwall that is researching and trialing edible and otherwise useful plant crops for sustainable cultivation. Their online database features over 7,000 such species that can be grown within the UK. A collaborative version of the database is in development by the permaculture.info project.
• Prickly Nut Woods, a 10-acre (40,000 m²) woodland near Haslemere, Surrey that is managed by Ben Law. He uses a 'whole system' permacultural approach, using a wide variety of woodland products and documenting a complex web of relationships. He built a house almost entirely using products from the woodland, which was featured in Channel 4's Grand Designs TV series.
• Ragmans Lane, a 60-acre (24 ha) farm in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.
• The RISC Roof Garden, on top of a development education centre in Reading city centre and inspired by Robert Hart's permaculture forest garden in Shropshire, is an excellent example of urban permaculture design. It is used by schools, educators and designers as an educational resource for sustainable development and is a member of the National Gardens Scheme. The garden is composed of dense plantings of over 180 species of edible and medicinal plants and is fed by rainwater and composted waste from the centre.
• Tir Penrhos Isaf, near Dolgellau, developed by Chris and Lyn Dixon since 1986.
• The Sussex Roots Society, a community permaculture garden initiated by Mischa Nowicki and Integralpermanence at Sussex University, collaborating with the student union as part of the countries first "Eco- University" initiative.
• Eastside Roots- is a (not for profit, worker co-op) community garden centre and hub which evolved from Bristol Permaculture Group. 'Waste' ground owned by First Great Western has been leased and is a garden centre with ongoing education, social projects and outreach into the wider community. The project promotes sustainability and permaculture.

Other projects tend to be more community oriented, particularly in urban areas. These include Naturewise, a north London based group that tends a number of forest gardens and allotments as well as running regular permaculture introductory and design courses; and Organiclea, a workers cooperative that is involved in developing local food-growing and distribution initiatives around the Walthamstow area of east London. The Transition Towns movement initiated in Totnes and Kinsale by Rob Hopkins is underpinned by permaculture design principles in its attempts to visualise sustainable communities beyond peak oil.

The UK Permaculture Association publishes an extensive directory of other projects and example sites throughout the country.

North America

The Permaculture Association of Teachers and Organizers on WiserEarth maintains a US listing.

Northeast US

• Prospect Rock Permaculture is one of the region's longest established permaculture education and demonstration sites, and Vermont's oldest permaculture design firm. They grow a diversity of nuts, fruit trees, vines, berries, vegetables, medicinal and culinary herbs and teas, produce eggs and honey, and host a variety of workshops, permaculture courses, advanced permaculture design internships, and other educational programs.
• The Northeastern Permaculture Network brings together enthusiasts in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. The Northeastern Permaculture Convergence has been held every summer in a different location in the northeast. There is also the 501(c)3 P.I.N.E (Permaculture Institute of the Northeast).
• People's Garden Pittsburgh is building a one-acre food forest on an abandoned landslide in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, which is considered a food desert.
• Sowing Solutions Permaculture Design & Education offers a Permaculture Design Certification Course twice a year in Western MA, either as a twelve day summer intensive course, or as a weekend series in the spring/ fall. The course includes visits to numerous permaculture demonstration sites in the region, and guides students through the ecological design process.
• UMass Permaculture<ref="UMass"></ref> is a university permaculture initiative that transforms marginalized landscapes on the campus into diverse, educational, low-maintenance and edible gardens, according to UMass officials. During November, 2010, "about a quarter of a million pounds of organic matter was moved by hand", using all student and community volunteer labor and no fossil fuels on-site. The process took about two weeks to complete. Now, the Franklin Permaculture Garden includes a diverse mixture of "vegetables, fruit trees, berry bushes, culinary herbs and... flowers that attract beneficial insects."
• Burlington Permaculture is an ad-hoc community group based out of Burlington Vermont. BTP unites neighbors to promote urban agriculture and reforestation, enhance neighborhoods, and strengthen the web of community resources as we look beyond sustainability towards a vibrant healthy relationship with our landscape. The group was founded by Michael Blazewicz of Round River Design, Mark Krawczyk of Rivenwood Crafts, and Keith Morris of Prospect Rock Permaculture.
• Green Phoenix Permaculture, offers design courses and workshops, demonstrating forest gardens, natural building, permaculture designs, and a community of many permaculture designers & teachers including AppleSeed Permaculture and Sowing Solutions Permaculture Design & Education.
• The websites FLXpermaculture.Net and the Upstate NY Permaculture Network are email lists and web sites for permaculture practitioners in New York state.
• The Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute offers an annual Permaculture Design Certification course, apprenticeships, and workshops that are often held at area sites designed using permaculture principles. The Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute was founded by Michael Burns, Steve Gabriel, and Karryn Olson Ramanujan in 2005.

Southeast US

• Shades of Green Permaculture Design, Inc., Atlanta, GA designs and builds ecological landscapes that provide organic food, medicine, beauty, fertile soils, and clean water, while building resilient communities and local economy. In addition to leading a 6-month Permaculture Design Certification course annually, this design firm serves clients ranging in scale from project management of new development, to institution-level research farms, from broad-acre restoration and conservation, to small-scale residential homesteads. In addition to their extensive client sites, they have demonstration gardens based in Pine Lake, GA.
• The Farm Ecovillage Training Center, Summertown, Tn provides examples drawn from 4 decades of ecovillage living, including cob, earthbag, round-pole and strawbale buildings, constructed wastewater wetlands, fish, ducks and chickens, organic and biodynamic gardens, orchards, shiitake production, biofuel production, solar photovoltaics, herbal tinctures and plant medicines, humanure and other composting practices, and community conviviality processes.
• Spiral Ridge Permaculture Gardens, Summertown, Tn
• Cedar House Inn Bed and Breakfast/Permaculture Lifestyles Permaculture Demonstration Project, Dahlonega, Georgia{http://www.permaculturelifestyles.com Permaculture Lifestyles}, Tours given to guests of inn and clients.
• The Edible Plant Project implements and promotes elements of permaculture through a nonprofit nursery and workshops in Gainesville, FL (home of University of Florida).
• Georgia Permaculture Institute, Central Georgia
• Knoxville Permaculture Guild, Knoxville, TN.
• Northern Virginia Permaculture Guild
• Sweet Aspect Permaculture, the steward of one acre of land outside of Asheville, NC, is experimenting with permaculture principles, design, and implementation. Sweet Aspect focuses on small animal management, including lambs and chickens, gardens, orchards, edible forest management, shitake production, rainwater catchment, greywater systems, natural and green building, fermentation, herbal tinctures and plant medicines, humanure and other composting practices, and alternative fuel and energy harvesting.
• The Urban Permaculture Institute of the Southeast in Walterboro, South Carolina practices permaculture on a 1/2 acre lot in the middle of the city with chickens, fish, bees, food forestry, vermiculture, insect production, greywater systems, passive solar, mushroom production, rainwater catchment, floating hydroponics and partial hydroponic systems.
• Spring Village / New Community Project in Harrisonburg, VA practices and teaches permacture at a small urban site.

Midwestern and Rocky Mountain region

• Permaculture Research Institute for Cold Climate.
• The Round Mountain Institute in the Gunnison valley of Colorado is a nonprofit that is dedicated to sustainable agriculture high in the rocky mountains near the continental divide.
• Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute.
• The Urban-Suburban Sustainability Initiative based in Belleville, Illinois is a local grassroots organization in the process of starting up. Its focus will be on permaculture, bioremedification, environmental education and Local Exchange Trading Systems.
• Bloomington Permaculture Guild, Bloomington, Indiana
• High Altitude Permaculture Institute is based in Ward, Colorado, which is west of Boulder.
• Midwest Permaculture delivers up to a dozen PDC Courses per year (in the Midwest and elsewhere) along with many other kinds of permaculture trainings.
• The Center for Sustainable Community asked Midwest Permaculture to do a permaculture design for the 8.7 acres of land that immediately adjoins the local community in Stelle, Illinois.
• Bur Oak Farm in SE Wisconsin, approximately 40 miles north of Milwaukee
• Urban Permaculture Design a city lot with over a hundred perennial edible varieties. Permaculture land acquisition discussion. Urban Classes.
• Sunrise Ranch Intentional Community near Loveland, Colorado. Farm to table internship programs, permaculture design course, farm/garden internships.

Latin America

Costa Rica

Saint Michaels Sustainable Community started building their Permaculture Ranch in 2001 in the mountains of Esterillos, Costa Rica 3.5 Kilometers from the beach. By 2015 they have become internationally recognized model of regenerative agriculture. The building of the community was accomplished by interns, volunteers, woofers, ecological experts, a NASA scientist,agriculture students, permaculturists, local farmers, and environmentalists (some that formerly worked for oil companies)and a regenerative rancher, Justin Dolan. Under Dolans' leadership five living roof homes have been designed and built using permaculture principals and two other homes have been built with rainwater harvesting roofs. A natural salw water swimming pools was installed in a food forest containing over hundreds of types of fruits, medicinal herbs, a free energy aquaponics system, 12 rotational pastures, chickens, lambs, a herd of cattle, reforestation, an equestrian center, organic orchards, and a disc golf course. The Community is home to the Permaculture Country Club of Costa Rica (PCC). The club teaches a Journeyman Apprentice Program. The Candidates need to demonstrate expert knowledge and experience of satisfactory performing the duties involved from start to finish of each area of Permaculute Namely:

Aquaponics design, feeding, harvesting of the fish, inputs and outputs Hugleculture BioChar Swales: building design, planting Edible Landscaping Terrace gardening Rotation of crops and gardens Cover crops Keyline design Basic Organic animal care Rotational Grazing Organic orchard management Introduction to medicinal plants and holistic animal care Driving cattle Agroforestery Food forests Energy efficiency Check dams Plant propagation Planting seedlings, transplanting seedlings, planting trees in square holes, Pruning closer together and pruned in for less water and higher yield Harvesting Building garden beds Gilds Zones Making compost tea; Higher recipe for fruit trees Weed identification, weeding Rain water harvesting Composting methods Natural Building Soil regeneration and ecology Patterns and edge planting Holistic management Bio Dynamics Sustainably intrigued with living Living roof design and construction Twelve design principles of Permaculture Zero Waste / Upcycling/ recycling - Producing no waste And Disc golf

Guatemala

The Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura (IMAP) was founded in 2000 by a group of Mayan farmers and professionals in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala. It is a not-for-profit community organization focused on the development of self-sufficient communities through the responsible management of natural resources, using permaculture techniques and ancestral and traditional knowledge. Areas of focus include: the cultural and biological diversity of Mesoamerica; food security and food sovereignty; organic production systems at the community and familial level; and permaculture education and environmental stewardship.

Cuba

Since 1993, Cuba has transformed its food production using low-input, or organic agriculture and, to some degree, permaculture. Havana produces up to 50% of its food requirements within the city limits, much of it organic and produced by people in their homes, gardens and in municipal spaces The transformation in agriculture originated as a response to a crisis which is known as the Special Period. Starting in 1993 Australian permaculturists traveled to Cuba to educate Cuban gardeners in permaculture practices.

External links

• The Worldwide Permaculture Network
• The Permaculture Research Institute
• The Permaculture Association