Permaculture Design Certification Question

Hi everyone!

Does anyone know how it works in the USA to get fully certified with the permaculture design diploma?

I took the 80-hour permaculture design class in London, some years ago. The teacher explained what I would need to do, according to the British Permaculture Association, to get fully certified and be eligible to teach the class myself. Since then, I have been working in various countries (doing eco-construction building and workshops), and I have learned that every country has its own Permaculture Association with its own rules about getting fully certified.

Now I'm living in the USA and I'd like to complete the process here. I know that living and acting in accordance with permaculture principles doesn't require a piece of paper to certify me for it, and in fact I don't plan on teaching permaculture design classes anytime soon. But it would be nice to finish the certification process, since I believe I'm halfway done already.

Thanks in advance for the help!

- Ben

As far as I know, all you need to teach a PDC is the certificate from when you took your PDC. There are, of course, other certificates you can get such as a peer review of your work, but they are not necessary. This is what makes Permaculture so great, you don't have to jump through giant hoops(some even in flames!) to get out and teach. As long as you follow the curriculum as it was laid out by Bill Mollison in Permaculture: A Designers Manual, you'll be okay. You can always teach extra stuff though, such as highly detailed information on a specific environment, cob house construction, etc.

It probably would be a good idea if you've actually done some permaculture work and not just studied it, though.

I think this explains it the best.

Generally you would take a Teachers Training Course before you taught a PDC, though I don't believe this is necessary.