Our story

Supporting our independent nation

Formed in 2001 at the start of Timor-Leste’s independence, founder, Eugenio (Ego) Lemos began Permatil as a means to support his beloved country and its people to recover and rehabilitate its land and waterways.

Since then, Permatil has steadily grown, both in size, influence and in the scope of its work. With a dedicated team of Timorese staff and volunteers, together with communities across Timor-Leste, international volunteers and supporters, Permatil are leaders the way in regenerating environments using traditional knowledge and permaculture.

As the permaculture movement in Timor-Leste grew, it became clearer that permaculture training and demonstration sites went hand-in-hand with community-based initiatives. It helped guide education, livelihoods and better agricultural practice – helping people to improve their local environment, access to healthier food and cleaner water, and participation in the local economy.

Permatil’s initiatives were eagerly embraced by Timorese people as a unique method for bringing sustainability and resilience to their community and environment. With less need for outside intervention, farmers and individuals were empowered to decide what was appropriate for their families and their communities.

With 80% of Timorese families reliant on subsistence farming and 50% of Timorese children malnourished, Permatil addressed these challenges through techniques that using local resources, appropriate technology and low-cost solutions.

Permatil continues to influence policy and practice and trains hundreds of future trainers each year – ranging from NGO and government representatives to community leaders, cooperative representatives and local farmers. This includes community training and mentoring in nature-based solutions and agroecology practice, water and soil restoration and conservation, sustainable agroforestry and organic farming.

Long-term model

Planting Water, Growing Communities

Permatil is focused on implementing nature-based solutions that secure community water supplies, improve land management and grow food systems that provide resilient climate adaptation strategies moving forward.

Permaculture in schools

Permatil’s second focus is on initiatives to help children and youth lead the way for a sustainable future. As a result, Timor-Leste was the first country to incorporate a permaculture school gardens program in the national curriculum. Through the program, 254 schools so far have planted the seed for sustainable practices in younger generations, with more than 41,500 students and their families directly benefiting.

PermaYouth movement

By 2008, in recognition of the important role youth have in the future of Timor-Leste’s environmental stewardship, Permatil hosted the first PermaYouth camp in the country which has grown into a national PermaYouth movement. With annual district and national camps training over 6,500 youth to date, Permatil has established a solid foundation for young people to manage and lead the environmental future in Timor-Leste.

Knowledgebank

Over the years, Permatil has developed comprehensive education resources, helping share environmental knowledge and tools that are relevant and culturally appropriate. This includes the original Permaculture Guidebook, published in 2008 and permaculture education syllabus and lesson plans from 2014 to the present for the official national primary school curriculum. Permatil is also an ongoing contributor for numerous course curricula and content for international NGOs and the University of Dili, Timor-Leste.

A gift from Timor-Leste to the world

In 2018, Permatil and Permatil Global published an updated and expanded international edition of the guidebook. To date the Tropical Permaculture Guidebook – international edition, published in English and Tetum languages, has been accessed in over 163 countries and 30 Territories, with over 150,000 resources downloaded. Four additional translated editions in key tropical languages of French, Portuguese, Spanish and Indonesian/Bahasa are being planned. This will provide access to millions of people across the global to learn about permaculture in their own language.

Permatil Global is registered in Australia

In 2019, the seeds of Permatil Global were sown, to support Permatil’s on-the-ground initiatives and provide the infrastructure needed to scale-up and share Permatil’s model with communities across the globe through a knowledge bank of subject-specific resources and advocacy.

PermaYouth Association is registered in Timor-Leste

In 2023, the seeds of the PermaYouth Association were sown, with the alumni of the Timorese PermaYouth movement coming together to advance the PermaYouth movement both nationally and internationally.

In 2025, the PermaYouth Association, with support from Permatil and Permatil Global hosted the inaugural International PermaYouth Convergence in Timor-Leste. A celebration of permaculture, arts, culture and music that brought together 900 delegations of youth and their community leaders from six continents. Participants had six days to participate in permaculture practice, learn from one another, share stories, make friendships and became part of a global youth network of future caretakers of our planet.