Permaculture: Contributing to Sustainable Development by Designing Resilient Communities

Abstract

In the face of a late response from the institutions to the climate crisis, - it was not until 2015 that the Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development (SD) was established-, grassroots movements and community-based initiatives appeared. Permaculture was one of these initiatives. This study aims to better understand the concept of permaculture and to point out how it can contribute to SD by designing resilient communities. Three characteristics make permaculture a worthwhile contributor to SD, it is a design system, a culture/ way of living, and an international network. Fieldwork was conducted in Permatopia, a permaculture ecovillage located in Denmark. By analyzing the structure, governance and the inhabitants’ perspectives, this work reflects on the possibilities to widen its application. Findings that are drawn state that permaculture is valuable not as something that could contribute to SD, but as something that does so already. As a result, it should be acknowledged as a proposal that encourages a paradigm shift by valuing small, local, and decentralized actions by a great number of practitioners and in a variety of scenarios (both rural and urban areas, as well as in different dimensions of a community). Additionally, it suggests combining permaculture with other bottom-up proposals that collaborate and contribute to the process of SD.