Permacultura America Latina (PAL) is a 15-year old, Santa Fe, NM-based 501(c) 3 non-profit organization supporting grassroots sustainable development initiatives and low impact economic practices in poor and indigenous communities throughout Latin America. PAL manages and provides technical and financial support to our affiliated permaculture schools and demonstration centers abroad. Permaculture, rooted in the belief that a "culture" can only be "permanent" if it has sustainable forms of agriculture, presents pragmatic, sustainable development alternatives for long-term rehabilitation and enrichment of environments depleted by conventional forms of building, agriculture, and overgrazing. PAL’s systems-design approach recognizes the most appropriate technical, traditional, and indigenous methods of food production, protection of biodiversity and land rehabilitation, and our organization serves as the link between the eight sustainable research centers we have helped to establish in Latin America. These centers are active at national, regional and local levels.

PAL’s work has led to the creation of seed banks, demonstrative farms, educational centers, innovations in renewable and village technologies, natural building models and technical manuals,

new agricultural opportunities for women, and extensive education and empowerment of people of all ages. Our educational program reaches tens of thousands, and our students and projects have won numerous awards. Our village and social technologies are being replicated in hundreds of projects throughout the continent.

Seven autonomous institutes represent and manage this body of work, four of which are located in Brazil, and managed as a national program by the Brazilian Permaculture Network, of which PAL is a founding member and coordinator.