Our story

Supporting our independent nation

Formed in 2001 at the start of Timor-Leste’s independence, founder, Ego Lemos’ began Permatil as a means to support his beloved country and its people to recover and rehabilitate it’s land and waterways after the destruction caused by 25–years of Indonesian occupantion.

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, supported by communities across Timor-Leste as well as by international volunteers and supporters, Permatil are leaders in regenerating environments in a sustainable, culturally appropriate way, using traditional knowledge and permaculture.

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

Permatil’s initiatives were eagerly embraced by Timorese people as a unique model for bringing sustainability and resilience to their community. With no need for outside intervention, farmers and individuals were empowered to decide what was appropriate for their families and their communities and take the action they needed to regenerate the environment.

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

Permatil continues to influence policy and practice of NGOs, education institutions and Timorese Government departments. It 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 ecosystem and agroecology practice, water and soil restoration and conservation, sustainable land management and organic farming. To do this, Permatil is working directly with communities across Timor-Leste on water shed management, natural water spring repair, agro-forestry, aquaculture,6plant nurseries and much more.

Long-term model

In recognition of the role of young people in ensuring the long-term sustainability of Timor-Leste and the planet, Permatil has focused particularly on initiatives to help 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 impacted.

By 2008, in recognition of the important role youth played in the future of Timor-Leste 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 6500 youth to date, Permatil has established a solid foundation for young people to manage and lead a sustainable future in Timor-Leste.

Over the years, Permatil has developed comprehensive education resources, helping share environmental sustainability knowledge and tools in a relevant and culturally appropriate way. This includes the original Permaculture Guidebook, published in 2008 and permaculture education syllabus and lesson plans in 2014 and again in 2024 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 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 162 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 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.