by Anne MacLennan
The International Permaculture Festival of Wild Ideas held last month, was an online festival ‘featuring inspiring thinkers, doers and creatives from around the world exploring permaculture and wilding’. As such, it provided inspiration and hope for the future. Not just about gardening, it embraced social justice, art, economics and more.
Among the contributors was Rob Hopkins, co-founder of Transition Towns, who exuberantly talked of the future that can be, illustrated by innovative examples from around the world. He calls on us to use our imagination to picture, then love and aim for, this wonderful future.
Kate Raworth, an economist known for devising the Doughnut Economics framework, was another stimulating speaker. The doughnut illustrates the basis for achieving ‘human prosperity in the 21st century, aimed at meeting the needs of all people within the means of the living planet.’ The doughnut represents an ecologically safe and socially just space in which humanity can thrive. Moving into the centre means lack of essentials for a healthy society, and moving outwards breaches the boundaries of a healthy planet. She reimagines economics as a tool for human and ecological wellbeing through work with the Doughnut Economics Action Lab.
John Liu is an ecologist and film maker. He was gently passionate about large scale ecosystem restoration and was the founder of the global ecosystem restoration communities movement in 2016.
You can listen to these and many others by registering (free) on the Permaculture Education Institute website and/or you could explore the Institute’s collection of short videos on permacultue topics.
Next up, the Institute is screening 4 films during June to mark World Localization Day. Free to watch by registering These celebrate the localisation of economies, communities and food systems. Each film will be followed by a discussion.