Who We Are
The Permaculture Solutions for Climate Change working group is an ever-growing group of practitioners,educators, researchers and organizers from all over the world with the shared goal of promoting and supporting
integrative, whole-systems solutions to the climate crisis by coordinating our collective expertise, experienceand efforts. The group was originally formed at the International Permaculture Convergence in Cuba in 2012,
recently regrouped at the IPC in London in the fall of 2015, and continues to grow and expand today. Ourorganization is sponsored in Europe by the Permaculture Association and in the United States by the GlobalVillage Institute.

Our Mission
The goal of our organization is to promote and support
effective solutions that can help reduce the impacts ofclimate change and aid communities in adapting to thosechanges which are inevitable. We aim to establish a global
reach, offering mutual support, directing resources toregenerative programs, providing information andconnections to those wishing to get involved in their local
communities, offering education, training trainers andamplifying the voice of permaculture in discussions andpolicy-making. We are currently in the beginning stages ofestablishment, but are poised to achieve these goals, bothon the ground and via an online portal, once thenecessary funding and resources are secured.
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Permaculture Climate Change Statement
Permaculture is a system of ecological design as well as a global movement of practitioners, educators,researchers and organizers, bound by three core ethics: care for the earth, care for the people and care for thefuture. Permaculture integrates knowledge and practices that draw from many disciplines and links them intosolutions to meet human needs while ensuring a resilient future. With little funding or institutional support,
this movement has spread over the past forty years and now represents projects on every inhabited continent,
The permaculture movement offers vital perspectives andtools to address catastrophic climate change.
Human-caused climate change is a crisis of systems—
ecosystems and social systems--and must be addressed
systemically. No single new technology or blanket solution
will solve the problem. Permaculture employs systems
thinking, looking at patterns, relationships and flows, linking
solutions together into synergistic strategies that work withnature and fit local conditions, terrain, and cultures.
The Taos Pueblo, still standing after over 1,000 years, offers anEfforts to address the climate crisis must be rooted in social,

example of sustainable ways of building with locally-sourced,economic, and ecological justice. The barriers to solutions

natural materials.

are political and social, not technical, and the impacts ofclimate change fall most heavily on frontline communities, who have done the least to cause it. Indigenous
communities hold worldviews and perspectives that are vitally needed to help us come back into balance with
the natural world. We must build and repair relationships across cultures and communities on a basis ofrespect, and the voices, leadership and needs of frontline andindigenous communities must be given prominence in all efforts toaddress the problem.
Permaculture ethics direct us to create abundance, share it fairly,and limit overconsumption in order to benefit the whole. Healthy,
just, truly democratic communities are a potent antidote toclimate change.
Both the use of fossil fuels and the mismanagement of land andresources are driving the climate crisis. We must shift from fire toflow: from burning oil, gas, coal and uranium to capturing flows ofenergy from sun, wind, and water in safe and renewable ways.
Soil is the key to sequestering excess carbon. By restoring theworld’s degraded soils, we can store carbon as soil fertility, healdegraded land, improve water cycles and quality, and produce
healthy food and true abundance. Protection, restoration andregeneration of ecosystems and communities are the keys to bothVolunteers build affordable, efficient andmitigation and adaptation.

sustainable modern housing using natural
materials at Emerald Earth in northern California.

Permaculture integrates knowledge, experience, research and practices from many disciplines to restore
landscapes and communities on a large scale. These strategies include:A spectrum of safe, renewable energy technologies.

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Scientific research and exchange of knowledge, information and innovations.

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Water harvesting, retention and restoration of functional water systems.

Forest conservation, reforestation and sustainable forestry.

Regenerative agricultural practices—organic, no-till and low-till, polycultures, small-scale intensive
systems and agroecology.

Planned rotational grazing, grasslands restoration, and silvopasture systems.

Agroforestry, food forests and perennial systems.

Bioremediation and mycoremediation.

Increasing soil organic carbon using biological methods: compost, compost teas, mulch, fungi, worms
and beneficial micro-organisms.

Sustainably produced biochar for carbon capture and soil-building.

Protection and restoration of oceanic ecosystems.

Community-based economic models, incorporating strategies such as co-operatives, local currencies,
gift economies, and horizontal economic networks.

Relocalization of food systems and economic enterprises to serve communities.

Conservation, energy efficiency, re-use, recycling and full cost accounting.

A shift to healthier, climate-friendly diets.

Demonstration sites, model systems, ecovillages and intentional communities.

Conflict transformation, trauma counseling and personal and spiritual healing.

Transition Towns and other local movements to create community resilience.

And many more!
None of these tools function alone. Each unique place onearth will require its own mosaic of techniques and practices
to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
To deepen our knowledge of these approaches and refine ourability to apply and combine them, we need to fund andsupport unbiased, independent scientific research.
Each one of us has a unique and vital role to play in meeting
this greatest of global challenges. The crisis is grave, but if
together we meet it with hope and action, we have the tools
we need to create a world that is healthy, balanced, vibrant,
just, abundant and beautiful.
UpGarden in Seattle, Wa is the largest publiclyaccessible community garden in the U.S.
Adopted by the General Assembly of the International Permaculture Convergence, London, 2015.

Frequently Asked Questions
What is permaculture?
Permaculture is a system of ecological design that works with nature to meethuman needs while regenerating the environment around us. It is also a global
movement of practitioners, educators, researchers and organizers, with projects
on every inhabited continent, which is is poised to make critical contributions toaddress the climate crisis.

How can permaculture help the climate crisis?
Climate change is a social crisis as well as an ecological crisis. Permaculture isguided by three core ethics that bring together ecological and human wellbeing earth care, people care, and care for the future.We can only truly address theclimate crisis in a framework that integrates social, economic, and ecologicaljustice.
Permaculture focuses on solutions, and has the capacity to inspire and energize people to make change on a large scale.

What makes permaculture-based solutions different from others?
Permaculture encompasses many solutions to reducing carbon emissions and safely pulling excess carbon out of theatmosphere and sequestering it in ways that build resilience. But more than that, permaculture embodies a way of thinking
that is holistic and looks at patterns and systems, not single solutions. Yet permaculture solutions and understandings are notoften present in climate change discussions, programs and negotiations.
The climate crisis is the product of a system, and must be addressed systemically. No single new technology or blanket
solution is capable of addressing the challenges that we face. Permaculture offers a holistic framework in which to integrateknowledge and practices that draw from many sectors and disciplines, and links them into regenerative solutions.

Why should we go beyond reducing carbon emissions
to focusing on carbon sequestration? How can this beachieved?
We are already beyond the tipping point for climate change.
We must immediately reduce carbon emissions, and we mustfind ways to take carbon out of the atmosphere. Rebuilding
damaged soil and repairing damaged environments are the key
approaches that safely sequester carbon.
The world’s soils have a huge carbon debt. Meeting that debt
can pull carbon out of the atmosphere and use it to restore soil
fertility, repair damaged water cycles, reverse desertificationand support revegetation and reforestation.
We can pull carbon out of the atmosphere and sequester it
into the soil using nature’s own methods: plants, compost, andother techniques that build healthy soil. Doing so has nodangerous side effects, and it is exactly what we need to do toregenerate ecosystems and the true basis for abundance.

A model of a regenerative food forest in Southern Australia.
Photo: Graham Brookman

Why is it important to build community?
Resilient communities, participatory democracy, and local control ofresources are key to addressing the climate crisis. Industries andenterprises must be rooted in ad responsible to communities.
Regenerating ecosystems goes hand in hand with renewing local
participatory democracy, and reviving failing economies to generatereal abundance and a higher quality of life.

Why is it important to protect and build relationships withfrontline communities?

A community tea station, public bench and free librarybox at this beautifully painted intersection shows anexample of the community-building work that City

An effective response to the climate crisis depends on the leadershipof frontline communities. The concerns and needs of thesecommunities, who bear the brunt of environment degradation anddisasters, must guide our responses to the climate crisis. In order totake action that is both effective and just, those of us now shieldedfrom the climate crisis must seek out, and respect, the leadership offrontline communities.
...what about indigenous cultures?

Indigenous cultures hold world-views and perspectives that aredesperately needed to help us make the shift to a balanced world.
These cultures are extremely varied and diverse around the world, but most hold a common thread of values that see nature
as sacred and promote reverence, connection and balance. We need that wisdom today.

Repair has successfully initiated in Portland, Oregon.

Many indigenous communities are also on the front lines of climate change, have taken the lead in resisting destructive
practices, and need support in their real struggles for survival and justice.

What are the barriers keeping existing solutions and tools from implementation?
While the need for scientific research is real, the barriers are not technical,
they are social and political. Key policy shifts are needed:Governmental policies should be adopted to encourage regenerative
practices and discourage destructive ones.
Governments and institutions must be held accountable to the needs
and leadership of frontline communities.
Funding must be directed to support meaningful research, training,
and the material needs and economic costs of this transition.
Research is needed to continue to document and improve theeffectiveness of these practices and prevent misapplications.
Wealthy countries (who have contributed most to climate change)must greatly reduce consumption of energy and material goods,
while paying their climate debt to the developing world by funding
locally-led, sustainable, carbon-friendly development there.

How can I get involved?
We must advocate for these changes with every tool at our disposal, including education, persuasion, lobbying, developing
models, running for office, protest and nonviolent direct action. Individuals can each find their niche in this work, and we canvalue those differences in approach that help us reach a common goal of systemic change.

Contact us
Email: stephanie@urbiculturecommunityfarms.org | Web: http://www.permacultureclimatechange.org