3. Permaculture, a sensitive approach to the relationship between humans and living things

3.1 Aboriginal inspiration

Permaculture design is both the conception of a landscape as a material object and the subjective creation of a personal world. This dual dimension means that the design process cannot be based solely on the kind of objective rationality that would be that of the scientist or engineer, based on exhaustive analytical knowledge of the ecosystem, its components and its mechanisms. Exhaustive knowledge of a concrete, localized situation would be unattainable even by the most learned ecologist. How can we hope to make it accessible to the various permaculture audiences, from the urban Westerner to the landless Brazilian or Indian peasant?

The ecological intelligence that the permaculturist must apply is inevitably the product of a sensitive...