by David Gearing and Chris Marsh, Permaculture Magazine Vol 1 No 3 ISSN 0967-5663, Summer 1993, Permanent Publications

For several years before discovering permaculture we had pursued a personal mission to alert people to the problem of land degradation. It is an area still not fully dealt with by the big environmental pressure groups, who are the public informers. But it remains an environmental horror story of global proportions and it is overlooked because of the ‘developed’ world’s alienation from the land in favour of urbanization and industrialization. Hence the problems obviously connected with that way of life, such as pollution and waste, are more immediately appreciated. Permaculture goes beyond the need to broaden the environmental agenda by concentrating on rectifying the underlying problems caused by modern land use practices.

The first permaculture publication we acquired was Permaculture Two. An extract on the back cover read: “If there is a single claim that I could make, in order to distinguish Permaculture from other systems of agriculture... it is that Permaculture is primarily a consciously designed agricultural system ...” This says’ two things worth bearing in mind: permaculture is an agricultural system; and it involves conscious design.

One general definition of a system is:

“An assembly of components connected together in an organised way. The components are affected by being in the system and the behaviour of the system is changed if they leave it. The organised assembly of components does something. The assembly as a whole has been identified by someone who is interested in it.”

This definition can certainly apply to permaculture and brings out two interesting points in relation to what happens on a permaculture plot: firstly that it can be usefully planned and studied as a set of interrelated processes; and secondly that it is designed to achieve some definable objectives.

Working to create a permanent fully productive agricultural system is the essence of permaculture as conceived by Bill Mollison. So, although the people associated with the permaculture movement are involved with activities other than agriculture (such as energy efficient building, sewage treatment and LETS) these on their own cannot be said to be permaculture. Nor can the practice of some form of agriculture, such as organic vegetable growing or keeping free range chickens, be called permaculture unless it is part of a design consciously and deliberately drawn up. So there is a distinction between activities associated with permaculture, which can be valuable components of a permaculture design, and permaculture itself – which is specifically a consciously designed agricultural system with defined objectives.

In order to develop a mature, productive permaculture plot, it is necessary to consider the starting situation, the projected elements within the finished system and the time scale to get from one to the other. Each stage includes ground plans of the sort usually associated with a permaculture design. It is also necessary to include an assessment of the current and target environmental impact. Progress from current (adverse) impact to target (beneficial) impact is reflected in stages towards maturity and increasing yields from the developing system.

It is worth referring to Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual for ideas on appropriate and achievable objectives. Section 2.14 gives a summary of ethics, principles, resources and yields. There are some reminders of the errors and dangers in current land use methods to help decide what aspects of the current environmental impact to concentrate on reducing or reversing.

From the objectives, ground plans, and timescales – adjusted to reflect intermediate goals, costs and benefits – specific activities can be identified and an implementation plan drawn up. Once the implementation of the permaculture project is underway, a method of recording progress is also needed.

This is where the idea of ‘permaculture audit’ comes in. It is based on ‘environmental audits’ as now undertaken by businesses or by consultants on their behalf. Environmental audits involve assessing the effectiveness of procedures to minimise or reduce the environmental impact of a business operation, compared with the organisation’s own policies and targets, with best practice in equivalent situations elsewhere, and with any relevant laws or regulations.

Applying this model to permaculture, an audit becomes an independent assessment of:
• the progress made against the design and implementation plan and associated targets, and
• the effectiveness of the system as currently operating and planned compared to permaculture principles and ethics, and to what is regarded as best practice.
This is undertaken by a combination of physical inspection, discussions with the practitioner, and by examining plans and records.

The end product is an audit report that typically includes sections on:
• findings related to each key element of the design;
• an assessment of the processes of planning, target setting and record keeping;
• overall performance in terms of yields, resource conservation, sustainability , diversity, stability etc.;
• suggestions or recommendations for improvements or future action.
At this point, readers may be feeling that what we are describing belongs to the bad old world of big business, and hence alien to the permaculture vision of local community self-reliance. But environmental audits are part of the process of reducing adverse environmental impacts, and this is a central aim of permaculture -particularly reducing the land degradation caused by industrialised agriculture by providing for our needs from our own land. The practice of permaculture audit undoubtedly evolves from the form in which it is first applied, in order to accommodate the wide variety of possibilities within permaculture.

Audits also provide a framework that encourage designers and practitioners to focus on goals, milestones and working towards mature, fully productive systems. Just drawing up a formal implementation plan identifying activities, priorities, costs, and dependencies is beneficial in itself. The audit process provides an opportunity periodically to review the options considered, decisions made and progress to date with a knowledgeable outsider. The resultant reports not only provide a record of achievements for individual practitioners, but are also a ready source of successful -and not so successful – practices and techniques.

If this idea appeals to some of the free thinkers out there, we would like to offer permaculture audit services – initially free – to develop the techniques, and subsequently perhaps in exchange for STARS. Our qualifications include much experience between us of systems analysis, project planning and implementation, and management consultancy -including the aforementioned environmental audits. The permaculture principle of not wasting anything ought to apply to skills and experience as it does to materials – it would be good to be able to apply otherwise unused experience to help speed the progress of permaculture and enhance its reputation.

We look forward to hearing from you!