Use and Value Diversity

Definition and orientation

Use and Value Diversity recognises that varied species, structures, skills, perspectives and pathways can reduce vulnerability and create possibilities. Diversity has costs and dynamics: an assortment is not automatically functional, equitable or maintainable. The design task is to understand which differences matter and how they interact.

What it guides: the principle helps frame design judgement through questions such as:

• Which shared vulnerability would appropriate diversity reduce?
• Are functions, responses and knowledge diverse, or only appearances?
• Can the people and systems responsible support the resulting relationships and complexity?

Origins, lineage and attribution

This wording belongs to David Holmgren’s twelve-principle formulation. Holmgren published the set in 2002 and describes the principles as memorable thinking tools that open different perspectives into whole-systems design. He also states that methods vary with place and situation and that principles do not substitute for practical experience or technical knowledge.

The Academy’s explanation is an attributed teaching interpretation, not a reproduction of Holmgren’s icon or a claim that Mark originated the principle. Other permaculture lineages may organise similar ideas differently.

Ethical and principle context

Integration turns diversity into relationships; Self-Regulation reveals whether complexity is working; Yield tests useful contributions; Edges can increase encounters between different systems. DAFOR may help record abundance, but an inventory alone does not establish resilience.

Use Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share to test purpose, consequences and distribution. Apply this principle with at least one counter-question, relevant evidence and a named review point. It should influence judgement without becoming a slogan that certifies a preferred decision.

When and how to use it

1. Name the decision, scale, affected people and living systems.
2. Turn the principle into one or more open questions suited to the context.
3. Add a counter-question that could expose harm, urgency, maintenance or a conflicting principle.
4. Use a relevant framework or tool to gather evidence; do not mistake the method for the answer.
5. Choose a proportionate action and state what remains uncertain.
6. Record what evidence or feedback would trigger review, adaptation or stopping.

Application in Mark’s Diploma and at Vila Pinheiro

Design 09 proposes increasing plant, pollinator and beneficial-insect diversity, introducing nitrogen-fixing trees and establishing pollinator-friendly hedgerows, with annual biodiversity surveys. The goals are explicit and measurable in the design record. They remain proposals rather than verified planting, survey or outcome data.

Evidence boundary: this representative connection was checked in Mark D’Cruz, Design 09: Regenerative Animal Ecosystem, controlled Diploma PDF, PDF page 9. The master register also records broader use across Designs 1–10; those additional declarations are not converted here into unverified public case claims.

Limits, critiques and common misuse

• Counting species, participants or options without examining function, abundance or power.
• Adding complexity beyond available knowledge, labour or maintenance.
• Invoking diversity to avoid difficult decisions about incompatible elements.
• Treating social diversity as a resource while excluding people from authority and benefit.

A principle cannot replace consent, law, site-specific evidence, competent technical advice or accountable maintenance. When 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 page follows Principle 10 in David Holmgren’s twelve-principle formulation, published in Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability (2002). Its principal sources are Holmgren’s Essence of Permaculture and the author-led Permaculture Principles publication. Holmgren presents the twelve as connected systems-thinking and design-thinking tools whose expression varies with place and situation. Related phrases and overlapping ideas appear in other permaculture traditions, but this page neither transfers their authorship to Holmgren nor flattens their differences. Mark D’Cruz used and interpreted this principle in his Diploma work; he is not its originator, and the master register records it as LIB-037. The authoritative formulation has been checked against Holmgren’s published explanation. The representative Diploma connection is verified at PDF page 9, with proposed actions and outcomes kept explicitly distinct.

Related entries

• How to Use Principles Without Turning Them into RulesPair the principle with evidence, a counter-question and a review point.
• Comparing Permaculture Principle TraditionsKeep Holmgren’s formulation distinct from other principle traditions.
• Principles, Patterns and Systems ThinkingUse several principles together inside whole-systems judgement.
• David Holmgren: Permaculture PrinciplesFollow the author, publication history and wider body of work.
• Site Observation, Sector and Zone AnalysisTurn field observations into mapped, reviewable evidence.
• GRAZERExamine a documented closed-loop animal-system framework and its limits.
• Continuous Learning and ExperimentationSee careful trials, records and revision in Mark’s bonsai practice.