The Tropical Permaculture Handbook by the Permatil (Permaculture Timor-Leste) NGO in East Timor has been completed after years of dedicated work by a team of authors, editors and content contributors, led by Ego Lemos and Lachlan McKenzie, working together with East Timorese illustrators.
Other partners involved in the production are xpand Foundation (an Australian social enterprise working predominantly in Timor-Leste) providing governance advice and project management, Disruptive Media (providing design and strategic communications for the NFP/NGO sector) who provide all the graphic design, marketing and media content and Kargan Media who designed, built and manage the website.
Permaculture Australia also assisted, through the Permafund committee, by supporting a variety of funding contributions. Many other individuals and organisations have made contributions in various ways to keep the project ticking over.
Ego Lemos and Lachlan McKenzie presented the Guidebook project at APC 14 in Canberra, where it received generous support. In the above photo left to right: Lachlan McKenzie, John Champagne, Ego Lemos, David Holmgren and Costa Georgiadis discussing the Guidebook at APC14.
On the 1st of October 2018 the English online edition was launched. This has raised substantial interest and been well received with orders from over 80 countries in only one month. In India, where Ego and Lachlan presented last year at the IPC 13, it has been most popular, and can hopefully be an important contribution to their fast-growing permaculture and agro-ecology movements.
Next Steps
The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook International Edition has been updated and written in English. This provides broad access to the guidebook, however for most tropical countries English isn’t the national or working language. This is especially true in rural areas.
The next step is to translate and re-create the guidebook in many languages. Currently fundraising and translating has started for the Tetum language version, for the guidebook’s ‘home’ country, Timor-Leste. Next are Spanish, Portuguese and French – prominent regional languages in the tropical countries, and there are many national and even sub-national languages as well.
An English edition of the Tropical Permaculture Guidebook will be printed and distributed when 100 orders have been received. The printed edition can be ordered on the website. It will be available first in Australia, with other countries and regions to follow.
About the guidebook
The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook builds on the success of their original Guidebook published in 2008. It focused on East Timor whereas the new, greatly expanded edition applies to tropical regions globally. “The core ethos and vision of the original book is retained and enhanced in this new edition, providing practical knowledge to anyone who reads it, especially in poor, low literacy and disadvantaged communities.”
The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook is a comprehensive resource of permaculture design, food sovereignty and environmental regeneration strategies. “Designed as a training, program and project base as well as a practical reference guide which can be used by a wide range of organisations, it will improve the results of all permaculture/non-permaculture projects and is a complete tool for farmers and communities.”
The Guidebook has been divided into three volumes: Permaculture & People, House and Garden and Regenerative Agriculture. The three sections are available for download individually or the Guidebook can be downloaded as a complete volume.
The Guidebook is provided online on the basis of “access for all” and is available at no cost for people and organisations that cannot afford to pay while those who are able are asked to ‘pay what you can’. All money raised will go toward further developing this project.
We encourage you to explore the Tropical Permaculture Guidebook and support this worthwhile project.
