Common Questions About Permaculture Education

No. The movement’s founders, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, created a fully-decentralized discipline with no one person or organization as a central authority. The movement was created this way by design, partly as a response to Mollison’s negative experiences working in academia.

Mollison noticed how so many disciplines (Architecture, Forestry, Agriculture, Economics, etc.) had significant “barriers to entry” in the form of expensive education requirements from only “accredited” institutions. In addition, many professions are strictly governed by state boards and licensing agencies – further restricting access to these disciplines. Mollison wished to prevent this from ever happening to Permaculture Design! So, instead, he created a fully-decentralized structure and issued simple directives for teaching and practicing Permaculture Design. Most Permaculture Designers, Teachers, and Consultants worldwide follow Mollison’s directives for teaching and practicing in the field.

The choice to keep the discipline fully decentralized has both advantages and disadvantages. The obvious advantage is that Permaculture Designers, Teachers, and consultants worldwide are free to operate without having to obtain licenses, pay fees, or be subject to the whims of any central authority. As long as they follow Mollison’s directives for teaching and practicing Permaculture Design, their work and efforts are “internationally recognized.”

The disadvantage of operating in a fully-decentralized discipline is that there are some operating in the field and using the terms “Permaculture,” “Permaculture Teacher,” and “Permaculture Consultant” who have not been properly trained and are not following Mollison’s directives. In addition, individuals and organizations are teaching “Permaculture Courses” and “PDC Courses” that do not follow Mollison’s directives for teaching Permaculture Design.  Given that there is no “Permaculture Police” or central authority to govern the activities of unauthorized individuals and others whose activities hurt the reputation of Permaculture, Mollison’s instructions were to “let the cream rise to the top.” After many years, he saw that some unqualified teachers were teaching rubbish and calling it “Permaculture,” but they always disappeared over time. The designers and teachers doing the best work always remained.

Over the years, a few fringe groups have attempted to create central authority organizations and impose their standards on professionals in their countries or regions. Still, they are routinely ignored by the global community in favor of keeping the movement fully decentralized and advocating adherence to the original directives passed down by Mollison.