Due to the great potential and interest, the Permaculture Association has launched an international research project.

At this stage, it consists of a series of four surveys:

Survey 1: Who's doing what?

Go to Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (simp), Chinese (trad.), Swahili or German version

Report on survey 1: Whos' doing what?

Survey 2: What research is wanted?

Survey 2 is now also available in Portuguese!

Survey 3: How do researchers learn and communicate?

Survey 4: What do researchers think about a potential research protocol?

This project is aimed to work on an international, multi- lingual scale. Therefore, it can only be a project defined by collaboration. We cannot carry this project out on our owns – we need to collaborate with you and find ways to make this network self- sustainable. If you want to get involved, please email us: [email protected]

UPDATE

Six weeks has passed since the first survey was launched, and we are happy to be able to give you a first quick update.

 

We have collected almost 200 responses from practical and academic researchers all over the world! The survey has been launched in 4 languages so far (English, French, German and Italian), and a Spanish and Portuguese version are about to be launched.

 

An amazing pool of practical and academic research questions and investigations came together through this survey. Practical research takes place around issues such as soil management, intercropping, building techniques nitrogen fixers for cocoa, application of permaculture to dry- and wetland, urban eco-systems and much more. On the more academic side, we received responses from researchers who investigate the psychological aspects of permaculture, the impact of permaculture on food security and malnutrition, the relevance of permaculture to pedagogy, possible connections between religion and ecological awareness, and other interesting investigations.

 

Furthermore, the list of countries being represented by the participant is impressive and very encouraging! So far, we collected responses from people from over 50 countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, DR Congo, Ecuador, El Salvador, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Macedonia, Malawi, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Netherland, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Peru, Scotland, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Uganda, UK, USA, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe!

 

We are really happy with this result and see a lot of potential for this project to become truly international, and a real success!

In order for this to happen, however, we also need your help. This project is not funded and relies on people working on a voluntary basis (like myself, for example) – that is why your engagement is so important to us! One main challenge at the moment is to find a sustainable and effective way to translate surveys and documents into different languages, so that everyone can access and express relevant information. We would for example love to translate this newsletter in as many languages as possible – so if you are bilingual and able to translate for us from English into a different language, please contact us! Your engagement will be much appreciated and truly beneficial for this project and the international permaculture research community. Please don’t hesitate and write an email to [email protected]

 

Our next step will be analysing all collected data and develop a strategy for connecting researchers and distributing research most effectively. Apart from translating, we will also define more specific roles for people who would like to get involved and would like us to help with networking and co- operating. If you have any suggestions or ideas, please don’t hesitate to contact us either.

 

Very warm wishes and a big thank you for all the amazing work you are doing!

 

Anna Schmidt