Permaculture
Permaculture is a powerful development tool because it integrates every element in a given environment by utilizing a range of established sustainable management and design systems.
"...the goal of efficiency and sustainability..."
In essence, permaculture is a land-use-design system and culture of building self-sufficient human settlements. Permaculture design combines plants, animals, buildings, water, people and other elements of the environment in a way that produces more energy than it uses, recycles all nutrients and waste, and imitates nature as much as possible. Permaculture principles promote biodiversity through the preservation of flora and fauna, integrating humans with their environment to create sustainable ecologies. Permaculture offers positive solutions to food scarcity, peak oil, energy depletion and climate change. It offers a better life and an abundant ecological future.
Permaculture utilizes various established strategies to achieve the goal of efficiency and sustainability. For example, the Holistic Resource Management (HRM) approach focuses on developing goals that will sustain the production systems of land. HRM provides, promotes and teaches holistic land management, which works in concert with natural processes. Also, by engaging ZERI’s (Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives) approach to waste and energy management, permaculture views pollution as misplaced energy. In this view, permaculture sees waste as a resource and seeks solutions using nature's design principles as inspiration. Therefore, a permaculture system reclaims trashed environments, harvests water, banks carbon, builds soil, reduces fossil fuel consumption, and ultimately saves energy.
Our permaculture demonstration site in Johannesburg... By combining these strategies and many others, KwaNzira has established an Urban Farming permaculture demonstration site in Johannesburg, South Africa. In addition to sustenance agriculture and animal husbandry, the demonstration site supplies surplus fruit and vegetables to local markets, seeds are collected for selling and future sowing and operate a nursery focused on indigenous trees, fruit trees, medicinal plants, and other useful plants. We also harvest rainwater, recycle greywater, and practice a wide range of sustainable living practices, all while focusing our business on outreach and onsite training programs in permaculture, sustainable livelihoods, and HIV/AIDS nutrition. We are currently developing a new household-level demonstration site in Rusape, Zimbabwe.
KwaNzira’s demonstration site and outreach projects have won numerous awards from the South African Department of Agriculture and other organisations involved in agriculture, landscape design, and sustainable living. These awards attest to KwaNzira’s focus on quality design consultation, training, and evaluation.
Join Us!
KwaNzira is actively searching for companies, organisations and institutions that believe they can align with our key ethics and values.
We are keen to partner with businesses and
organizations that are striving to develop new ideas and strategies for
Africa’s growth and development.
