from Alan Savory´s Holistic Management,
Humans have a massive impact on ecological processes: we are either creative in our interactions,or tremendously destructive.
Permaculture is a design system trough which human interactions can enhance the life processes of ecologies to improve the quality of life on Earth,for everything thta lives on it,rather than destroying life as we are doing it often now.
Permaculture is based on ecological models & principles and creates a cultivated ecology,whic is designed to produce more human and domestic aminal food than is generally found in nature.
THE FOUR ECOSYSTEM FOUNDATION BLOCKS:
Any action applied to one building block will affect the others.Therfore looking at an ecosystem holistically informs our thinking so that we can design our systems to compliment the ecology and create the highest productivity.
To achieve this,we need to observe the four foundation blocks constantly to create effective design and management strategies.
ENERGY FLOW (Carbon Cycle)
The other three foundations blocks are dynamic processes that govern the ways in which all life in this planet
relates as one whole.The first block,energy flow,adresses the question of fuel to keep all processes and life functioning.All fuel orginally came from the sun-some of it easy to renews and others would take thousands of years.
The energy flow in our environment is often referred to as carbon cycle.This suggests that storage of energy in living organisms always involves carbon.It misses the point as the natural living world runs on solar energy.Our design and management strategies determine how much solar energy is stored and put to use.
Our goal as designers and managers is to reduce energy loss as it moves trough the trophic pyramid by using the following strategies:
WATER CYCLE:
The following principles have big implications when designing and implementing changes to any environment:
In other word,we ``plant the water ``first and this guides the rest of our design.
MINERAL CYCLE:
Like water,minerals and nutrients follow a cyclical pattern as they are used and reused by living organisms.
SUCCESSION or Community Dynamics:
Succession is the process of change and development in communities of living organisms,promoting change from simple to more complex systems.
Succession happens on various levels,each one more compley than the previous level.Each level improves conditions so more complex plan and animal populations can evolve.
Complexity,productivity,and stability increase until something limits the progress,i.e:
Humans have a massive impact on ecological processes: we are either creative in our interactions,or tremendously destructive.
Permaculture is a design system trough which human interactions can enhance the life processes of ecologies to improve the quality of life on Earth,for everything thta lives on it,rather than destroying life as we are doing it often now.
Permaculture is based on ecological models & principles and creates a cultivated ecology,whic is designed to produce more human and domestic aminal food than is generally found in nature.
THE FOUR ECOSYSTEM FOUNDATION BLOCKS:
- ENERGY FLOW
- WATER CYCLE
- MINERAL CYCLE
- SUCCESSION
Any action applied to one building block will affect the others.Therfore looking at an ecosystem holistically informs our thinking so that we can design our systems to compliment the ecology and create the highest productivity.
To achieve this,we need to observe the four foundation blocks constantly to create effective design and management strategies.
ENERGY FLOW (Carbon Cycle)
The other three foundations blocks are dynamic processes that govern the ways in which all life in this planet
relates as one whole.The first block,energy flow,adresses the question of fuel to keep all processes and life functioning.All fuel orginally came from the sun-some of it easy to renews and others would take thousands of years.
The energy flow in our environment is often referred to as carbon cycle.This suggests that storage of energy in living organisms always involves carbon.It misses the point as the natural living world runs on solar energy.Our design and management strategies determine how much solar energy is stored and put to use.
Our goal as designers and managers is to reduce energy loss as it moves trough the trophic pyramid by using the following strategies:
- Increase storage capacity of the environment (in water infrastructure,plant communities and healty soils)
- Increase recycling of non-available energy to usable forms
- Maximise the energy base of the trophic pyramid by increasing plant cover and leaf area across landscape
- Consider the fact that eating more vegetables and plant based food consumes much less energy than involved in producing meat
- Effective mineral and water cycles
- Succession to highest possible level.Proper grazing regimes
- Permaculture techniques that increase water and mineral cycles provide shelter,protection and species selection (focusing on perennial species rather than annual)
- Reducing unnecessary burning of land
- Proper placement of elements where they can work best within the ecosystem and make optimum use of conditions
WATER CYCLE:
The following principles have big implications when designing and implementing changes to any environment:
- In an effective water cycle plants make maximun use of rainfall
- Little evaporates directly off the soil
- Any run-off causes no erosion
- A good air to water balance exists in the soil,enabling plant roots to absorb water readily.
In other word,we ``plant the water ``first and this guides the rest of our design.
MINERAL CYCLE:
Like water,minerals and nutrients follow a cyclical pattern as they are used and reused by living organisms.
- An effective mineral lcycle implies a biologically active living soil that can sustain an abundance of organisms
- A continous suplly of decomposing plant and animal residues,as an effective mineral cycle cannot function on a dead soil
- Because plants are the agents for lifiting mineral nutrients to the surface soil needs good crumble structure and depth so deep healthy plant roots can grow
- The minerals that plants take from the soil and the air in some cases are returned to the soil by decomposition,breakdown.
- Water and animal life are sometimes required to take nutrients underground to complete the cycle
- The key to health of the mineral cycle,like the water cycle,ultimately lies in the surface of the soil being protected.Eroded and exposed soils support little or no life.
SUCCESSION or Community Dynamics:
Succession is the process of change and development in communities of living organisms,promoting change from simple to more complex systems.
Succession happens on various levels,each one more compley than the previous level.Each level improves conditions so more complex plan and animal populations can evolve.
Complexity,productivity,and stability increase until something limits the progress,i.e:
- Climate
- Some obstruction to further soil development
- Ineffective water and mineral cycles
- Inappropriate plant communities (i.e. invasive plants that can be replaced with productive indigenous ones)
Permaculture systems are usally speeding up successional processes towards more complexity and are constantly evolving and making more energy available for life to proliferate,Therefore in the long-term,permaculture systems become abundant and more and more possibilities for productions and yield emerge.
It is vital to understand the full potential of the land and design towards that,studying the climax(mature) natural ecosystems in the area will inform us as to what is possible.
Permaculture systems are constantly driving foward successional processes and are constantly evolving and making more energy available for life to proliferate.Therefor in the long-term,permaculture systems become abundant and more and more possibilities for production and yield emerge.
Secondary succession:
Secondary succession:
- - this text is taken from my PDC Manual i recieved in 2010 with Alex Kruger in Malawi-Thanks for that!!!! - -
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