Permaculture and Climate Change Adaptation: Inspiring Ecological, Social, Economic and Cultural Responses for Resilience and Transformation

Permaculture is a design system for sustainable human habitats and the basis of a worldwide citizen-led movement present in over 100 countries. For decades, permaculture practitioners have devised creative responses to changes in local climatic conditions. In doing so, they have developed a collective knowledge and experience invaluable to global efforts to address climate change.

This book seeks to bring this expertise from the margins into the centre of policy debates and mainstream action. It describes in broad terms how permaculture’s underlying philosophy and perspective on climate change complements those of formal science and indigenous knowledge, provides detailed descriptions of practical applications drawing on case studies from around the world, and considers how global responses can most effectively draw upon the unique contributions permaculture has to make.

Dr. Thomas Henfrey is Senior Researcher at the Schumacher Institute and Research Fellow in the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Change (cE3c) at Lisbon University. Tom co-founded an ecovillage in Southern Spain, holds a permaculture design certificate, and actively collaborates on research and learning with Transition Network and the Permaculture Association (Britain).

Dr. Gil Penha-Lopes, an environmental scientist, is an Invited Professor in the Science Faculty at Lisbon University and Senior Researcher at the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Change (cE3c). He coordinates Lisbon University’s involvement in the EU-funded FP7 BASE Project, and the ClimAdaPT.Local project. He is also a certified Transition Network Trainer.