Macro-economics for permaculture (report)

Regenerative Capitalism: How universal principles and patterns will shape our new economy

For the past few years, Capital Institute has been on an evolutionary learning journey…searching for a path that will lead beyond our current unsustainable economic system and the finance-dominated ideology that drives it. They call it Regenerative Capitalism. Ex-Wall Street economist John Fullerton writes in his introduction:

'My most startling discovery  was that the modern scheme of economics and finance formed the root cause of these systemic crises. My struggle to find a credible alternative framework for economics and finance sharpened my interest in the intellectual and scientific underpinnings of “systemic” or “holistic” approaches. I began by studying how we might apply the lessons of living systems to economic systems...I then discovered that scientists were turning the rules by which living systems sustain and regenerate themselves into empirical principles of systemic health and development, which applied as much to nonliving systems, including economies, as to ecosystems and living organisms.'

Education to spread agroecology (report)

Education for Agroecology

In this report, Nicole Vosper shares the key findings of her research exploring education and agroecology. She presents successful models from around the world that have been inspiring and supporting people to practice agroecology. This report shares insights into how successful agroecology learning opportunities have been designed, structured and resourced. It also includes commentary on the various curriculums, as well as the common forms of pedagogy (the method and practice of teaching). Finally, it highlights the role of education in accelerating agroecology and gives recommendations to organisers and educators in this field.

UK Parliament report on soil health (report)

The Environmental Audit Committee Report into Soil Health published on 2nd June 2016

The Government’s ambition to manage the UK’s soil sustainably by 2030 will not be met unless further action is taken, the Environmental Audit Committee has warned in a report published today on the health of UK soil. Failing to prevent soil degradation could lead to increased flood risk, lower food security, and greater carbon emissions. Key recommendations: 1) The Government must set out specific, measurable and time-limited plans to increase the amount of carbon retained in soil. 2) Rules with greater scope, force and ambition are required in order to meet the Government’s stated goal to manage soils sustainably by 2030. 3) The Government should introduce a rolling national-scale monitoring scheme for soil health to ensure that adequate information about the state of the nation’s soil.

Helping communities to save energy (report)

 Smart Communities: Working together to save energy?

Smart Communities was a three and a half year 'behaviour change' community energy project. In broad terms, the Smart Communities findings support the contemporary policy focus on demand-side action, community energy and energy consumption feedback. At the same time, the project highlights the long term and challenging nature of these strategies, and the implications of this for the funding of demand-side community energy. The findings emphasis a lack of 'energy know-how' among householders as a key constraint on change, and identifies ways in which more widespread know-how might be developed. The project also emphasises the benefits of action on energy within a primary school, and the ways in which this prompts engagement with energy in the home. 

Moving to sustainable eating habits (report)

Changing what we eat: A call for research & action on widespread adoption of sustainable healthy eating

Government leadership and substantial investment in research are needed to shift global consumption habits towards eating patterns that are both healthy and sustainable, say academics, industry and NGOs representatives in this report. Research is now needed in three key areas, say those involved in the report:

• What are healthy sustainable eating patterns?
• How do we eat now, why, and what are the health and sustainability implications?
• How do we achieve positive change?

The report is based on the discussions of a workshop organised by the Food Climate Research Network, funded by the Wellcome Trust and the UK’s multi-agency Global Food Security programme.

UN Special Rapporteur advocates agroecology (report)

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter 

Final report: The transformative potential of the right to food

(From The Guardian online). In his final report (pdf), Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, offers a detailed critique of industrial agriculture that has boosted food production over the past 50 years, yet leaves 842 million – 12% of the world's population – hungry. As an alternative, he champions agroecology; both more environmentally friendly and contributing to improved nutrition. Other measures to improve the system would be to abandon mandates for biofuels and cut down food waste in rich countries and post-harvest losses in poor countries.

Scaling up agroecolgy (report)

Scaling-up agroecological approaches: what, why and how? 

The objectives of this paper are:

•To contribute to ongoing debates on agroecological approaches and their centrality for more sustainable agricultural and food systems;

•To provide key evidence and arguments for supporting advocacy work calling for the scaling-up of agroecological approaches.

The paper includes four main parts:

Part I explains what agroecology is, situating it in light of peasant and industrialized agricultures and introducing its three interconnected dimensions as a science, an agricultural approach and a movement. Part II clarifies how scaling-up an agroecological transition can contribute to achieving sustainable agricultural and food systems. Part III identifies the main challenges to be met for scaling-up at a higher stage agroecological approaches.The conclusion formulates recommendations that help in addressing major challenges involved in scaling up agroecological approaches

Want to prevent flooding? Fix your soil (report)

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Agroecology

Briefing Paper 4: February 2014 Land management, soil quality and flood prevention

In the light of recent extreme weather and severe flooding across large parts of the UK, there has been much debate about how to prevent similar problems in the future, how to manage rivers and waterways and discussion on the future of farming in areas such as the Somerset levels, which are prone to flooding.

One way of addressing multiple issues at the same time is to ensure that the type of farming that does take place works to decrease rather than exacerbate flooding. In particular, the health of the soil has a great effect on how much water it can hold, how much water runs off, and how much the soil itself is eroded – silting up rivers and streams. In most rural areas the key determinant of the health of the soil is the way that land is farmed.

Trees help farmers manage drought (report)

Managing the drought: A review of the evidence of the benefits of native trees species for shelter on the water regime of pasture and arable crops

This review assesses the benefits of native tree species for shelter on the water regime of pasture and crops. It draws on evidence from the UK, Europe and other temperate zones. Before the evidence is presented overviews are given of evapotranspiration, shelterbelt design and crop micro-climate. The evidence in the review suggests that under the right conditions native tree shelterbelts could enable UK crops to use water more efficiently. Shelterbelts can be viewed as an insurance policy. They may not provide yield increases every year, but they can buffer crop production when extreme weather events strike.

Drivers of environmental change (report)

World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability

In this report, the German Advisory council on Global Change explains the reasons for the desperate need for a post-fossil economic strategy, yet it also concludes that the transition to sustainability is achievable, and presents ten concrete packages of measures to accelerate the imperative restructuring. If the transformation really is to succeed, we have to enter into a social contract for innovation, in the form of a new kind of discourse between governments and citizens, both within and beyond the boundaries of the nation state. Factsheet 5 includes detailed descriptions of 'Drivers of Transformation', such as permaculture activists and transition towners. 

Learning and innovation networks for sustainable agriculture (online)

Final Report of the SOLINSA Project

This report outlines results of the project “Agricultural Knowledge Systems in Transition: Towards a more effective and efficient support of Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture” (acronym: SOLINSA). The project considered new ways of transition from “productivist” practices to more sustainable agriculture, where traditional institutions in charge of fostering innovation are not always relevant. The project proposes a new organisational pattern aimed at fostering innovation for transition. It illuminates the role of learning and innovation in transition processes, explores networks as drivers of innovation and proposes the concept of Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture (LINSA) to help farmers and rural actors generate innovations for transition. The consortium was comprised by 11 research institutions from 8 European countries.

RSPB State of the UK's Birds 2013 (report)

The State of the UK's Birds 2013 (RSPB)

Permaculture Research Digest

This is the 14th The state of the UK’s birds report. It contains results from annual, periodic and one-off surveys and studies from as recently as 2012 to give an up-to-date overview of the health of bird populations in the UK and its Overseas Territories. It draws on the Bird Atlas 2007-11, perhaps the most ambitious bird-monitoring project ever attempted in Britain, to give new maps of the distribution of all regular breeding and wintering birds.

Survey of Community Energy in the UK (report)

Community Energy in the UK

Seyfang G, Park JJ, Smith A (2012)

Presents new evidence from the first UK-wide survey of community energy projects and assesses the policy needs of the community energy movement. Concludes that community energy groups are highly diverse and deeply rooted in civil society, quite different from large energy companies. Policy support therefore needs to be long term and consistent if this new approach to energy provision is to succeed.

Permaculturalists have a lower eco-footprint (#journal)

Relative benefits of technology and occupant behaviour in moving towards a more energy efficient, sustainable housing paradigm

Pilkington B, Roach R, Perkins J (2011)Energy Policy, v.39, nr.9, pp.4962-4970

Based on two small research projects, the authors argue that occupant behaviour is as important as technology in determining the energy used by a household. Householders who were trained in how to maximise the energy-saving benefits of their houses generally used considerably less energy than those who did not, while permaculture practitioners had an environmental footprint considerably lower than those who lived in purpose built eco-homes. Thus housing policy, which focuses solely on technology, may be missing an important factor in energy efficiency.  

Polyculture trials reveal high yields (report)

Mixed Vegetable Polyculture Trials reveal very high veg yields

A joint investigation by the Permaculture Association and Cumbria University discovered that mixed vegetable polyculutres produce slightly more productive yield than monoculture. However, the really surprising result was the amount of vegetables gardeners produced from a very small area.

UK Ecosystems Knowledge Network launched (report)

UK government launches new Ecosystems Knowledge Network

The Ecosystems Knowledge Network is a resource for anyone wanting to share knowledge or learn about the practical benefits of an ecosystems approach to landscape management. This approach is much more holistic than previous government landscape policy approaches. It produces a quarterly newsletter.

Science discussions from Rio 2012 (report)

Rio Summit Science and Technology Forum

The Rio summit produced some very interesting discussions of the role of science, technology and innovation in global sustainability. You can read the outcomes of these discussions on their website. The sessions on food security and indigenous knowledge make especially interesting reading for permaculture practitioners.

UN Global Environmental Outlook 2012 (report)

United Nations Global Environmental Outlook Report 5

Published in advance of the Rio +20 summit, this report assesses progress on 90 environmental targets agreed by governments. It shows that significant progress has only been made in four areas, including clean water supplies and a reduction in ozone damaging chemicals. 24 areas show little or no progress, including action on fish stocks and global warming. Global CO2 output has increased 40% since 1992.

OECD predicts a bleak future (report)

OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050: The Consequences of Inaction

This extremely thorough report models the environmental future to 2050 if current demographic trends and economic policies continue. It also suggests policies that can make a difference. It focuses on four 'red light' areas requiring urgent attention: climate change, biodiversity, freshwater and the health impacts of pollution. Unsurprisingly, its conclusions do not make happy reading.

WWF report on endangered species 2012 (report)

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WorldWildlife Fund Living Planet Report 2012

A sobering survey of the threat humans are posing to thousands of species of animals around the world, and to our own future. The report, which measures the health of 9,014 populations of more than 2,600 species, reveals a 30% decline in the health of species since 1970, and shows that we’re consuming 50% more natural resources globally than our planet can sustainably produce. The report is published every two years in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network.