In Europe, permaculture teachers, diploma tutors, apprentices and learning communities explore how to strengthen our existing diploma pathways, improve the quality of our diplomas and how tutors can be supported. Each from a different angle, from a different perspective.
All those in-person conversations matter. They shape the future we, especially the teachers, tutors and our apprentices, then have to live with and in. They also influence who becomes a tutor, who can access the diploma pathways, and how their learning and experience are shared across countries and cultures.
While in-person gatherings, which are often done via EU funding, can play an important role in this work, it is not equally possible for everyone.
Travel requires money, time, health, mobility, documents, language confidence and often also freedom from care responsibilities. A mother with two kids, a person using a wheelchair, a permaculture designer with low income - they all couldn’t just travel to Italy in July to be part of a tutors’ meeting. It is simply not realistic for some to travel across Europe.
But if European permaculture collaboration becomes centred around those who can attend in-person meetings, we risk creating an invisible hierarchy: those in the room shape the future, while those who cannot travel are invited to catch up afterwards.
Permaculture is grounded in Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share, and we need to take such exclusion seriously. After all, we have to “integrate – not segregate”.
Why is online participation always treated as a second-best option?
In-person gatherings are useful, without a doubt, but an effective permaculture design should include from the beginning the possibility to participate remotely – otherwise physical presence becomes the default measure of commitment, legitimacy or influence. For those who are not present, usually no one actively represents their needs. Looby McNamara clearly says: “Consider those not present at the table” – because they are the ones who had no say and then have to live with other people’s decisions – and, of course, they are not being heard when they later come to the table.
A more regenerative tutor culture needs a meaningful, ethically aligned infrastructure and participation from a wide audience from the beginning. Real online collaboration can do a lot more than just be used as a messaging backbone between in-person meetings. It can, if well designed, unlock a lot of potential – co-created documents, shared open-source tools, exchanged assessment practices, discussed case studies – in general, open access to it – and low-barrier entry for everyone from everywhere – and by that support people who cannot travel for whatever reason they have.
The Permaculture Network as an existing alternative
Here at the Permaculture Network, we already offer digital infrastructure. Is it sponsored or funded? – yes. Is it imperfect? – yes. But it is not owned by multinationals – it is people from within the community – people like you and me. Too often, community-built tools are treated as less reliable than corporate platforms, even when the corporate tools are less aligned with our ethics.
In general, decisions like “let’s use a WhatsApp group and share our documents in Google Docs” at a time when digital independence and sovereignty are becoming increasingly important across Europe – and then calling this “decentralisation” – are highly inappropriate and ethically questionable. As for the permaculture principles, we could apply “Use multiple elements for important functions”, but it has to also align with “Use and value renewable sources”.
Here at the Permaculture Network, we offer permaculture teachers, projects, places, events and learning communities the possibility to be visible to others – visible to the public – not behind a walled garden like Facebook or LinkedIn or other large-scale social media providers. The number of people who are looking for teachers and projects is as high as ever and continuously rising. With multiple programmes, we help people make connections with people they have never met before.
The question is not “Where can tutors meet?” The question is: “How can tutors stay connected, support each other, and develop shared practices in a way that is accessible, transparent and regenerative?”
But the more pressing question is: "Do the existing tutors actually want that?"
How does the Permaculture Network see the future of permaculture education?
In Europe, we have a rich landscape of permaculture education – diverse and locally rooted. Our research has already shown that there are multiple diploma systems in Europe – as we say: use and value diversity.
The challenge we constantly find ourselves in is to connect this diversity without flattening it. The Permaculture Network has no interest in becoming a single central authority – or an authority in anything at all.
We are interested in transparent professional standards – the same rules for everyone. We want open access to information and we do this by using only open-source tools. We want equity for everyone involved in permaculture – every voice heard.
We have experimented with a forum, a chat system, Signal, etc., but within the permaculture community nothing like that works. The topic needs to be extremely controversial to provoke action. Only a handful of people are actually contributing meaningfully to the continuous discourse online.
The Permaculture Network has, since its resurrection, valued in-person connections – but without making them the centre of legitimacy.
We can support tutor development without creating closed circles. We can build quality assurance without losing cultural diversity. We can use digital tools not as a replacement for human relationships, but as a way to make those relationships more accessible, continuous and fair.
The Permaculture Network is already a place where many of these connections are forming.
If you are a permaculture tutor, teacher, diploma apprentice or part of a learning community in Europe, we invite you to become part of this conversation. Register, add your teacher profile, connect your project or place, share your events, post in our forum, say hello in Signal – and help shape a European culture of permaculture education that is not limited to those who can afford to be in the room.
Because the future of permaculture education in Europe should not be built only by those who can travel.
It should be built by all of us.