Boundless Abundance: Embun Pagi

Permaculture is a design methodology that fuses appropriate technologies and scientific knowledge with ancient wisdom and contextual understanding, for the creation of highly productive arrangements of human settlement patterned after ecological processes. Short for ‘permanent-culture’, the methodology is an ethically driven, holistic approach to crafting integrated, place-based, regenerative systems that create conditions conducive for life. From my perspective permaculture is the most comprehensive and widely applicable theoretical framework for truly addressing the issue of planetary human sustainability—the move now is to explore making the abstract tangible, a process that is inherently unique for every locale. The manifestations of this process vary widely, reflecting the dynamics of resident ecology, unique sets of needs, available resources and the creativity of the practitioners. A growing global web of solution seekers is employing permaculture thinking (often without that label) to radically re-imagine how we inhabit this planet. My travels have taken me to a number of these projects and by lending a hand I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside and learn from those passionate about actualizing an alternative to the dystopia of life as we know it.

Just beyond the fringe of sprawling Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in the small town of Batu Arang, lies Embun Pagi—Malay for morning dew. Embun Pagi (EP) is a permaculture project started two years ago by Malaysian Sabina Arokiam after she returned home from completing her Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) at the Lost Valley Community outside of Eugene, Oregon, USA. Fueled by passion Sabina has tirelessly worked (with admirable success) toward creating her dream of a permaculture education and demonstration center—a hub for propagating knowledge, community collaboration and the exploration of contextual solutions for empowering individuals to create systems that provide food, water, energy and shelter on a local scale. Working with a very limited budget Sabina has resourcefully employed volunteer labor, found objects, donations and a DIY ethic to move the project forward. The site has hosted two PDCs, which has brought together reputable permaculture teachers from abroad with over 60 students from around the world, inoculating them with a problem-solving framework to be infectious spores of change.

The influence of Embun Pagi is international

There is a lot stacked on the 1 acre site

Only two years in the project is very much a work in progress, but in a dynamic world where the only constant is change, sustainability must be thought of as an evolution not a destination--as a verb rather than a noun. This systemic evolution, or development, is cyclical not linear—it’s rhythmic, with the practitioners seeking to orchestrate an ever greater harmony amongst the parts. The greater the harmony, or emergent functionality and efficiency, the greater the ratio of system outputs to inputs known as net yield. Since the potential to increase this harmony is theoretically infinite then so are the potential net yields of the system. In this way a permaculture designer is only limited by their imagination and willingness to seek improvement. Sabina is well on her way to exploring this potentiality in practice, the essential outflow of mental abstractions into useful physical form. I spent two great weeks at EP and relished the opportunity to learn from her wisdom, exchange knowledge and dream big about the future we are co-creating. I look forward to watching her success in years to come.

To learn more about Embun Pagi check out: http://embunpagi2009.wordpress.com