Mollison's Permaculture Principles: Design with Nature

 I know of three very brief (adjective + noun) but accurate definitions of Permaculture: 

(1) Ethical Design

(2) Energy Audit

(3) Applied Ecology

While the first and third tier of the Mollisonian Permaculture Pyramid created by his student, Brett Pritchard, address ethics, energy, and design, the fourth tier, consisting of five cards, addresses principles from nature, or applied ecology. Here they are:

http://www.permaculturefundamentals.com/?p=57

And here, as always, are the five associated "mind maps" that Pritchard has created, drawing on Mollison's Permaculture Designer's Manual and relating it to the insights of later Permaculture teachers, starting with his protege David Holmgren:

http://www.permaculturefundamentals.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/8_BIOLOGICAL_RESOURCE_USE.pdf

http://www.permaculturefundamentals.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/9_DIVERSITY.pdf

http://www.permaculturefundamentals.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/10_EDGE.pdf

http://www.permaculturefundamentals.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/11_INTENSIFICATION.pdf

http://www.permaculturefundamentals.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/12_ACCELERATE_SUCCESSION.pdf

The remarkable thing to me is how virtually all later ramifications and developments of Permaculture theory and practice since this time are so clearly rooted in Mollison's insights.  To take one example, the first principle here, of preferring biological to nonbiological resources, has been beautifully elaborated by Toby Hemenway, Andrew Millison,  and others in their distinction between degenerative, generative, and regenerative investments. Here is Andrew's instructional presentation on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2S27NHIdEE&list=PLNdMkGYdEqOCvZ7qcgS3efKm26exq5E3K&index=19

In essence, Permaculture offers us a blueprint for shifting our culture from a parasitic to a symbiotic relationship to our biological support system, Gaia.