Geoff Lawton (born 10 December 1954) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

-born

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

permaculture Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using Systems theory, whole-systems thinking. It applies t ...

consultant,

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

and speaker. Since 1995 he has specialized in permaculture education, design,

implementation Implementation is the realization of an application, execution of a plan, idea, scientific modelling, model, design, specification, Standardization, standard, algorithm, policy, or the Management, administration or management of a process or Goal ...

, system establishment, administration and

community development The United Nations defines community development as "a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems." It is a broad concept, applied to the practices of civic leaders, activist ...

Career

Since 1985, Lawton has undertaken a large number of jobs consulting, designing, teaching and implementing in over thirty countries around the world. Clients have included private individuals, groups, communities, governments, aid organisations, non-governmental organisations and multinational companies. Lawton's aim is to establish self-replicating educational demonstration sites. He has educated over 15,000 students in permaculture worldwide. These include graduates of the Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) Course and courses focused on the practical design of sustainable soil, water, plant, animal, energy, structures, legal and economic systems. Lawton's 'master plan' is to see

aid In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Th ...

projects being replicated as fast as possible to help ameliorate the growing food and water crisis. In 1996 he was accredited with the Permaculture Community Services Award by the permaculture movement for services in Australia and around the world. In October 1997

Bill Mollison Bruce Charles "Bill" Mollison (4 May 1928 – 24 September 2016) was an Australian researcher, author, scientist, teacher and biologist. In 1981, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award "for developing and promoting the theory and practice ...

, upon his retirement, asked Lawton to establish and direct a new Permaculture Research Institute on the 66 hectare Tagari Farm developed by Mollison. Lawton further developed the site over three years and established The Permaculture Research Institute Australia as a

not for profit company A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

. PRI was eventually moved to Zaytuna Farm, in The Channon, where it continues today. Lawton is the managing director of The Permaculture Research Institute Australia and The Permaculture Research Institute USA, a registered not for profit organisation that has tax deductible gift recipient status. Establishing sustainable aid projects as permaculture demonstration sites that also function as education centres for local and international students has become a major focus with the establishment of permaculture research institutes in Jordan, Afghanistan, Spain, Malaysia, Vietnam, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Thailand, China and many more countries underway. Lawton and Mollison have taught a number of courses together. Lawton is also a presenter in Mollison's teaching DVD set. Lawton is friends with John D. Liu, a Chinese-American film-maker and ecologist who documented large scale ecological recovery in the

Loess plateau The Loess Plateau is a plateau in north-central China formed of loess, a clastic rock, clastic silt-like sediment formed by the accumulation of Dust#Atmospheric, wind-blown dust. It is located southeast of the Gobi Desert and is surrounded by t ...

, China after a government project set to rehabilitate an area the size of

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. Lawton appears in Liu's documentary ''Hope in a Changing Climate''. Recently, Lawton has achieved success in establishing a permaculture ecosystem in

Wadi Rum Wadi Rum ( ''Wādī Ramm'', also ''Wādī al-Ramm''), known also as the Valley of the Moon ( ''Wādī al-Qamar''), is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southern Jordan, near the border with Saudi Arabia and about to the east of ...

, in southern

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

. He has also helped to begin the

Al Baydha Project The Al Baydha Project, in rural, western Saudi Arabia, is a land restoration, poverty-alleviation, and heritage preservation program, based on principles of permacultural and hydrological design. Located roughly south of Mecca, in Makkah Pro ...

, a

land restoration Land restoration, which may include renaturalisation or rewilding, is the process of restoring land to a different or previous state with an intended purpose. That purpose can be a variety of things such as what follows: being safe for humans, pl ...

program, in western Saudi Arabia. On 31 March 2012 Lawton appeared at

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

conference in

Ajman Ajman ( '; Gulf Arabic: عيمان ''ʿYmān'') is the capital of the emirate of Ajman in the United Arab Emirates. It is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, fifth-largest city in UAE after Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Al Ain. Loca ...

. In 2019 Lawton opened enrollment to his online PDC 2.0, which began January 30 and, lasting 28 weeks, will be the longest course he has taught.

Works

* * "The Sleeping Jaguar" (co-author), ''Permaculture International Journal'' * "Ecuador" (co-author), ''Permaculture International Journal'' * "Permaculture Aid in the Balkans", ''Permaculture International Journal'' * "Future Food Security", ''Green Connections''

Films

*''Harvesting Water the Permaculture Way'' (2007) *''Establishing a Food Forest'' (2008) *''Introduction to Permaculture Design'' (2009) *''Greening The Desert II'' (2009) *''Permaculture Soils'' (2010) *''Urban Permaculture'' (2011) *''Green is the new Silver (Lining): Crisis, Hope, and Permaculture'' (2019)

Awards

* The Permaculture Research Institute Australia won the Humanitarian Water & Food Award for 2010 for their initiative "Greening the Desert". * The Permaculture Research Institute and founder Geoff Lawton, based in Australia, were the 2015 winners of the Energy Globe Award. * The Permaculture Research Institute recognised with

UNCCD The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa (UNCCD) is a Convention to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought through ...

Accreditation

References

External links