Learn Permaculture — Online or Hands-On in Costa Rica
Learn to design food forests, regenerative farms, and resilient homesteads through permaculture training — online or at our hands-on farm in Costa Rica.
Self-paced · Tropical systems · Learn anywhere
15-day immersive training · Design for any climate
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Finca Tierra is an off-grid permaculture education center and working farm on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.
For more than 15 years, over 1,000 students from 40+ countries have come here to learn ecological design through real systems for food, water, energy, soil, buildings, and everyday life.
Permaculture Courses
Online Tropical Permaculture Course
Learn how to design and build a complete tropical food system.
Developed from more than 15 years of research, implementation, and daily use at Finca Tierra, this self-paced course shows you how to decide what to grow, where to grow it, how much to plant, and how the different parts of your property can work together.
The course includes:
25+ hours of lessons
60+ tropical crop profiles
Complete 2,000 m² (½-acre) food-system blueprint
Food forest and garden templates
Crop-area and nutrition calculators
Diet Design tools
Wellness Kitchen recipes and preservation
Private student community
Lifetime access and future updates
Start with a vegetable garden or food forest and expand into a complete tropical homestead as your land and goals develop.
On-site Permaculture Design Course
Spend 15 days living inside the systems you are learning to design.
Our residential Permaculture Design Course in Costa Rica follows the internationally established 72-hour PDC curriculum and combines ecological design theory with direct observation, hands-on fieldwork, and a complete design exercise.
Learn to design:
Food forests and productive landscapes
Water and soil systems
Regenerative homesteads
Gardens and staple-crop systems
Renewable energy and ecological infrastructure
Community and bioregional systems
The course is limited to 12 students and includes accommodation in bamboo cabinas, all meals, course materials, a field visit, and the Permaculture Design Certificate.
Plant · Harvest · Cook Retreat
A week of nature, food, and slow tropical living.
Stay in a private bamboo cabina in Costa Rica’s Caribbean rainforest.
Spend mornings in the gardens, harvest tropical food, cook with what is growing on the farm, and enjoy free afternoons between the beach and the jungle.
This is a relaxed experience for people who want to experience Finca Tierra without completing the full Permaculture Design Course.
Only 8 cabinas per week.
Why Learn at Finca Tierra?
Finca Tierra is not simply a place where permaculture is taught.
It is a working off-grid tropical living system that has been developed, tested, maintained, and continually refined since 2008.
Food forests, gardens, staple crops, rainwater harvesting, renewable energy, natural buildings, soil regeneration, waste systems, animals, and the kitchen all operate together.
Students don't just study these systems in theory. They observe how they function in everyday life.
A Living Classroom
Learn inside mature systems rather than demonstration plots created only for teaching.
Real Implementation Experience
Our teaching comes from more than 15 years of building, testing, measuring, redesigning, and maintaining the systems we teach.
Food Systems That Feed People
Our approach goes beyond growing plants. Diet Design connects land use with calories, protein, fats, vegetables, fruits, staple crops, preservation, and household food needs.
Small-Group Learning
Our residential PDC is limited to 12 participants, allowing for direct guidance, hands-on practice, and detailed design feedback.
Life at Finca Tierra
Wake up to jungle birds and food growing steps from your cabina.
Walk through food forests, work in the gardens, observe the systems that provide water and energy, and share meals beneath the rainforest canopy.
The water you use, the food you eat, the buildings you sleep in, and the land around you are all part of the learning experience.
Between classes and activities, explore the beaches, rainforest, and communities of Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean coast.
Step inside our tropical classroom.
See what hands-on permaculture looks like, planting food forests, building with bamboo, and learning inside real ecological systems.
Cuisine & Farm-to-Table Meals
We cook from the land.
Many ingredients come directly from our gardens and food systems, alongside produce from local growers.
Meals are primarily plant based and feature tropical roots, fruits, vegetables, perennial crops, homemade flours, coconut milk, ferments, honey, chocolate, and other foods produced or prepared at Finca Tierra.
Dining here connects the food system on the land with the way people actually eat.
Puerto Viejo de Talamanca
Study where the rainforest meets the Caribbean Sea.
Finca Tierra is located near Puerto Viejo on Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean coast, surrounded by tropical forest, beaches, and Afro-Caribbean and Indigenous communities.
The beach and local accommodations are only a few kilometers from the farm.
Our Story
From Cattle Pasture to Living System
In 2008, we began with degraded, compacted cattle pasture.
There was little shade, low fertility, and no integrated system.
Over the years, we regenerated the soil, planted food forests and staple crops, built with bamboo, developed water and renewable-energy systems, and continually adapted the property around the needs of everyday life.
What began as a homestead became Finca Tierra Permaculture Education Center.
Today, our nine-acre farm demonstrates how food production, natural buildings, renewable energy, water, waste, nutrition, and ecological regeneration can function together as one system.
The lessons we teach come directly from that process, including what worked, what failed, and what we changed along the way.
What Students Say
“I came to the course already understanding the fundamental principles and ethics of permaculture, the ‘why’ and the ‘what’, but I did not know how to apply them to an actual property.
After the course, I felt confident that I had the fundamental understanding needed to begin designing a site anywhere in the world. Ian and Ana know permaculture not only in theory, but through real application.
The course gives you a foundation: how to get started, what techniques actually work, and how to continue finding the information you need.”
— Joshua Smith, PDC graduate
★★★★★
From On-Site Student to Tropical Homesteader
@elizabethcouse_ shares her experience after completing our on-site Permaculture Design Course and later using the Online Tropical Permaculture Course.
“Ana and Ian are the best mentors and teachers I could have asked for, and my experience with them in many ways inspired the life I live now. I have seen how much work they have put into the creation of the online course, and it truly is the best resource for anyone living in the tropics. Can’t recommend more highly!’”
— Elizabeth Couse
Learn the skills to build a regenerative life.
Choose the learning experience that fits where you are now.
On-Site Permaculture Design Course →
Follow our journey.
Permaculture Articles and Guides
