Permacultura | Permaculture

The Permaculture Research Group at UFSC (NEPerma) in partnership between the Architecture and Urbanism Post-graduate Program and UFSC Publisher releasing the book Teaching Permaculture.

The book is a NEPerma’s experience synthesis on teaching permaculture at the academy. Released in two ways, printed and e-book versions, Teaching Permacultura aims to encourage educators/instructors on PDC teaching.

Teaching Permaculture comes to attend the growing requests on how to teach permaculture. The book is a combined effort from professors, technicians and students stimulating the permaculture teaching throughout different learning grades, being more suitable for academic instruction. The publication brings a series of classes and methods to teach including basic contents, substantiated on Bill Mollison’s PDC syllabus and adopted to Brazilian universities’ needs. Its 16 chapters suggest how to teach each thematic inside a PDC and provide the needed interactions to reach a systemic teaching, where students are invited to be the protagonists of their own learning.

The e-book version on PDF format is available on the UFSC Publisher’s website and NEPerma’s principal webpage.

The authors expect “Teaching Permaculture” be a tool for all permaculture instructors, working in universities, governmental/nongovernmental organizations and institutes seeking, like us, to propagate and spread permaculture knowledge on its reachable zone and beyond.

Would like to translate this book to another language? Please, contact us by e-mail .

[in Portuguese] Você tem interesse em traduzir a obra para outras línguas? Entre em contato conosco pelo e-mail .

Essay: Arthur Nanni

Review: Alexandre Nanni

Arthur Nanni presenting results of UFSC Permaculture Study Group Photo: Paolo Martins.

The UFSC Permaculture Study Group (NEPerma) participated on 2º Permaculture, Agroecology and environmental education Seminar, promoted by Permacultura Lab institute and Environmental education from “El Sur” Group (GEASur). The event happened at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State.

It was presented by NEPerma the results of six years on teaching, research and extension. “Permaculture on academia” was the theme developed. Arthur Nanni talked a synthesis about permaculture initiatives on universities around world and Brazil scenarios, highlighting the results and products generated by NEPerma/UFSC.

Borned in academic environment on 70’s, permaculture as a grassroots movement, is now widespread around world and present in more than 150 countries, linked basically to farms and institutes. In the past decade, a brew of teaching, research processes and application of several techniques, brings permaculture back to the academia, recognized as a holistic and socio-environmental science. Its recent insertion on academia is providing advances on adoption of its philosophy for environmental education and social organization on a sustainable way.

The discussion of insertion of permaculture on academia agenda is not a recent and involves different and important aspects. One of them, is about permaculture movement/science institutionalization to beyond traditional institutes and farms, that supposes a weakening of anarchical and self management way of development originally purposed by permaculture. The NEPerma’s researchers are working on it discussion and understands the role of academia on permaculture promotion, as a technical-scientific supporter, looking for improving teaching methods and pedagogical instruments, as well as to validate scientifically used processes and techniques of land management. Thus, it is aiming strengthen through research, teaching and extension actions for both, permaculture movement and science, following such as the agroecology development on Brazilian universities and it several undergraduate and post-graduate programs.

The Permaculture on academia lecture’s content is described on article Building permaculture on Brazilian academy [in Portuguese], published recently.

More information about the Seminar and Instituto Permacultura lab [in Portuguese].