Why Become a LAND Centre? 

  • Has permaculture transformed your life and now you want to share your knowledge and experience with others?
  • Have you designed features at your site that you think might inspire visitors or volunteers to create a more regenerative life for themselves?
  • Do you have access to land or resources that you would like to benefit a greater number of people?
  • Are you keen to deepen your own permaculture learning and to have your site recognised as a great example of practical permaculture? 
  • Do you want to be part of a vibrant, supportive community of permaculture practitioners and changemakers? 
  • Are you currently doing your Diploma in Applied Permaculture and want to have a clear focus for your design work? 
  • Do you want to host open days, workshops or courses or work with permaculture educators in our network? 
  • Do you enjoy meeting new people and enjoy showing them what you have achieved on your site? 


 If the answer is YES, then becoming a LAND Centre might be the next step for you!

Watch this video where permaculture educators Looby Macnamara and Chris Evans talk about their reasons for becoming a LAND Centre at Applewood Permaculture Centre in Herefordshire. 

What does LAND Stand for?

Learning outside about foraging

Learning

LAND Centres are places to come and learn, whether this is through a site tour, interactive activities, workshops, educational signage or formal courses. Each LAND centre will design their own learning programme based on their audience, scale, capacity and unique features. 

People gathering to discuss something

Action

LAND centres are places of practical permaculture doing, where people can learn skills and techniques so that they can take action in their own lives. They can also be catalyst centres of transformation, activism and change both within their communities and in the wider world.  

Graham Bell at Cottage Garden open day with people sharing produce

Network

LAND Centre hosts are also committed to being part of a wider network of permaculture learning and activism. In order to become a LAND Centre, you must be willing to participate within our wider projects and LAND network, sharing your knowledge, feedback and resources with others. 

Signage at Hulme Community Garden

Demonstration

Each LAND centre will demonstrate how permaculture has been used on site. This might be done by showing visitors around and explaining what you have done and why, through clear signage on aspects of your site, through self guided activities  or workshops. 

Lean to at the Hidden Mill

What do we expect from you as a LAND Centre? 

It is up to you to design your offering as a LAND Centre, so that it is approriate for the scale of your project and your personal capacity. However there are some basic things we require from every centre in our LAND network:

  1. To be a member of the Permaculture Association and signed up to our Projects and LAND network
  2. To have Earth Care, People Care and Fair Shares clearly embedded in your centre design
  3. To meet the LAND criteria in your site design as is appropriate to the size and scale of your centre
  4. To commit to running at least two open days a year
  5. To have a full risk assessment and public liability insurance in place
  6. To have your LAND Centre profile on our Projects and LAND Map
  7. To have a full site design on display
  8. To have a programe of educational activities on site (whether formal or informal)
  9. To display our Permaculture Association and LAND logos on your website
  10. To participate in the Permaculture Association Projects and LAND network
  11. To be a welcoming and inclusive space for visitors, volunteers and students

How do I Become a LAND Centre? 

There are two pathways to becoming a LAND Centre. 

The first is an independent pathway, where you have an initial assessment with a LAND tutor, work through the criteria, create your site design and have a final assessment when you feel that you are ready to become a LAND Centre. If you are already an experienced permaculture practitioner, with a well established site and are confident that you are pretty much there already, this may be the best pathway for you.

The second pathway is our new LAND Learner programme which is currently under development. This twelve month programme will include a monthly, LAND tutor led online session, where we will work through each of the LAND criteria. There will also be supporting resources, a handbook, designs and activities to do between sessions and you will be allocated a peer learning guild to keep you on track. This pathway is particularly suitable for people who want additional support to develop their demonstration site, or who wish to do a deep dive into creating a resilient, comprehensively designed permaculture project. We will let you know once the programme is ready to start.

We are updating the process to become a LAND Centre. Get in touch with our Project & LAND Coordinator if you are interested in becoming a LAND Centre. 

Expression of interest
Criteria Self Assessment form

Frequently Asked Questions

How long will it take? 

This depends entirely on what stage of development your site is currently at and the amount of time and energy you have to spend on the process. Some projects may already meet all of the criteria and can move very quickly through both assessments. Other projects may have several areas that they wish to develop before feeling ready to be an official demonstration site. We aim to support you through the whole process in two years, however some of you may wish to take longer, especially if you are developing your LAND Centre as a part of your diploma. Your LAND tutor will be able to give you an idea as to how much you need to do in order to complete the process.

What will it cost?

We currently don't have funding for the development of new LAND Centres, so there will be some associated costs. This is why we want you to be clear at the initial expression of interest stage that becoming a LAND Centre is going to be of benefit to you. Initial assessment will cost you approximately £150 for three hours of LAND tutor time plus travel expenses and a small fee for administration (tbc). Your final assessment will cost approximately £150 plus travel expenses. You may also wish to arrange some extra LAND tutor support along the way. LAND tutors currently charge £30-35 per hour.