Each Important Function Is Supported by Many Elements

Definition and orientation

This principle shifts attention from what an element can do to how a necessary function will continue when one support fails. Water, access, fertility, shelter, communication or income may warrant several sources or pathways. Genuine redundancy needs enough independence that one drought, breakdown or decision does not disable every support simultaneously.

Practical meaning: Name the function and minimum acceptable service before selecting elements. Identify failure modes, seasonal limits and shared dependencies. Combine complementary supports, assign monitoring and decide when backup becomes active. More elements are not automatically more resilient if they rely on the same vulnerable input.

Questions it can guide:

• Which function is important enough to require backup?
• Could one event disable all proposed supports?
• What capacity, trigger and maintenance does each support need?

Origins, lineage and attribution

This page belongs to the ecological principle tradition published by Bill Mollison and Reny Mia Slay. The displayed title follows the authorised Academy catalogue; the closing acknowledgement records the nearby source wording where it differs.

Similar themes appear in David Holmgren’s twelve principles, but overlap is handled through explicit cross-links. The formulations are not represented as one list, and authorship is not transferred between traditions. The Academy paraphrases the practical meaning rather than reproducing substantial passages from the source books.

Ethical and principle context

Functional analysis clarifies what must continue; Input-Output Analysis exposes common dependencies; diversity can reduce shared vulnerability when the supports are genuinely different.

Use Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share to test purpose, consequence and distribution. A provocative principle can widen judgement, but it cannot certify a preferred action. Pair it with evidence, a counter-question and a named review point.

When and how to use it

1. Name the decision, scale, affected people and living systems.
2. Translate the principle into context-specific questions rather than repeating it as a command.
3. Add a counter-question about safety, consent, urgency, maintenance or unequal effects.
4. Use a suitable framework or tool to gather evidence and compare alternatives.
5. Choose a proportionate action, state uncertainty and distinguish proposal from completion.
6. Record what observation or feedback would trigger adaptation or stopping.

Application in Mark’s Diploma and at Vila Pinheiro

Design 08 records biochar and mulch piles positioned near planting zones and labels the decision Each Function Supported by Many Elements. Read alongside green manures, goat trampling, compost teas and panchagavya on the same page, the design gives soil preparation and fertility several supports. This does not verify nutrient balance or long-term soil outcomes.

Evidence boundary: the representative connection was checked in Mark D’Cruz, Design 08: Regenerative Silviculture, controlled Diploma PDF, PDF page 20. The master register records broader use across Designs 1–10, but declaration alone is not converted into a public case result.

Limits, critiques and common misuse

• Adding duplicate equipment that shares the same power, supplier or failure mode.
• Treating every function as equally critical and creating unmaintainable complexity.
• Failing to define when a backup is used.
• Assuming redundancy removes the need to reduce demand or prevent failure.

No principle replaces consent, law, competent technical advice, ecological assessment or accountable maintenance. Where principles pull in different directions, make the tension visible rather than selecting only the phrase that supports an existing preference.

Where this material comes from

This ecological design principle comes from Bill Mollison and Reny Mia Slay’s Introduction to Permaculture (1991), where the source wording is “Each important function is supported by many elements”. It belongs to an early practical teaching set focused on placement, function, energy, living resources, scale, succession, diversity and edge. This page uses the authorised catalogue title “Each Important Function Is Supported by Many Elements”; although teaching summaries use minor wording variants, these do not make the principle part of David Holmgren’s later twelve-principle formulation. Mark D’Cruz used or recorded this principle in his Diploma register; he is not its originator, and the master register records it as LIB-042. Its lineage and wording have been checked against the named publication tradition and Permaculture Association teaching records. The representative Diploma connection is limited to PDF page 20, with proposals kept distinct from measured outcomes.

Related entries

• How to Use Principles Without Turning Them into RulesPair a principle with evidence, counter-questions and a review point.
• Comparing Permaculture Principle TraditionsKeep the Mollison and Slay, Mollison attitudinal and Holmgren traditions distinct.
• Principles, Patterns and Systems ThinkingUse principles together without treating a slogan as proof.
• Bill Mollison: Permaculture as a Design SystemFollow Mollison’s wider contribution and Mark’s critical appreciation.
• Functional, Structural and Elemental AnalysisSeparate required functions from the elements chosen to perform them.
• Input-Output AnalysisTrace needs, outputs, exchanges and hidden work.
• Use and Value DiversityCompare the different wording and emphasis in Holmgren’s formulation.
• From Survey to Design at Vila PinheiroSee proposals, constraints and evidence connected at whole-site scale.