Abstract. Flores JJM, Buot Jr. IE. 2021. The structure of permaculture landscapes in the Philippines. Biodiversitas 22: 2032-2044. Biodiversity plays a crucial role in sustainable agriculture. Permaculture is a design philosophy that values this role as it consciously integrates diverse components into the farm landscape. The purpose of the study was to characterize the general structure of permaculture landscapes in the Philippines and identify the landscape components that comprise its farming systems. The research was conducted in 12 permaculture farms in 11 provinces in the Philippines in 2018. Aerial photography and farm inventory were employed for data collection. A crop diversity survey was conducted using a modified belt transect method with alternating 20 m2 plots within a 1 ha sampling area. Full enumeration of plant species in each plot was performed to determine species richness and samples were manually counted to compute for the Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index. Results of the study showed that permaculture landscapes were organized into six spatial zones: ‘house,’ ‘garden,’ ‘grazing,’ ‘cash crops,’ ‘food forest,’ and 'wilderness.' It was identified that each zone contained components belonging to six categories: abiotic, biotic, man-made structural, technological, socio-economic, and cultural. 'Biotic' results showed that all sites recorded high species richness (>20-65) with the highest found in Glinoga Organic Farm with 65. Aloha House in Palawan had the highest diversity with a score of 0.311. An analysis of the ratio of plant species per plant category showed that the vegetable/cereal crops dominated the landscape in 50% of sites. While 20% were characterized by tree/fruit-bearing crops. Perennial species were the most abundant in all sites with 75-95% of the total plant species. In conclusion, permaculture provided a design framework for restructuring our agricultural landscapes into diverse and productive ecosystems for human settlement and food production.

The study investigates the effect of imposing an n-child policy by forecasting the population of the Philippines using a discrete age-structured compartmental model. Based on the results of the projection, a policy promoting a maximum of two children per couple leads to a transient stabilization (i.e., the population eventually declines after attaining zero-growth rate). A three-child policy may also lead to stabilization yet may converge beyond the calculated Verhulstian carrying capacity of approximately 200M. However, overshooting the carrying capacity can be resolved by increasing the available resources that can support the escalating population size. A child policy dictating a maximum of four or more children per couple results to a similar population growth as the status quo due to the inherent declining birth rate. With the declining birth rate trend in the Philippines, population DA Talabis, stabilization is realizable even without implementing a child policy but only after 100 years. Furthermore, this study estimated the future age structure and the resultant GDP per capita income associated with each child policy.

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The study identified permaculture practitioners and determined how network relationship patterns can help in the mainstreaming of permaculture in the Philippines. Social network analysis was conducted to determine network structure and discover relationship patterns. Results of the study identified 204 permaculture practitioners with 75 individuals belonging to 53 projects that fall under nine project types. This is the first systematic documentation of practitioners in the Philippines. The network structure had a low density (0.185598) suggesting the high diversity of members in its network composition. Degree centrality index (max=92) revealed the network's prominent practitioners while local clustering coefficient (max=0.999) identified the presence of eight organizations and local government offices implying that membership was not limited to the participation of individuals. In conclusion, the way the permaculture network was constructed gave it a strategic position to mainstream permaculture to a broader audience which includes farmers and non-farmers.

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