Permaculture Design Courses — Online or in Costa Rica
Learn to design food forests, regenerative farms, and resilient homesteads through our tropical permaculture training online or in our internationally recognized Permaculture Design Course in Costa Rica.
Self-paced · Tropical systems · Learn anywhere
15-day immersive training · Design for any climate
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Finca Tierra is a tropical permaculture education center in Costa Rica offering Permaculture Design Courses (PDC), online tropical permaculture training, and immersive retreats.
Trusted by 1,000+ students from 40+ countries over the past 15 years.
Our Permaculture Courses
Online Tropical Permaculture Course
Learn how to design a complete tropical food system.
Developed from more than a decade of research and practice, this course shows how we grow and process a full diet on 2,000 m² (half an acre), scalable to any property in the tropics.
Includes videos filmed on our farm, practical templates, crop charts, and diet design tools you can apply anywhere.
On-site Permaculture Design Course
Our 15-day Permaculture Design Course (PDC) in Costa Rica is an internationally recognized certification in ecological design.
Learn to design food forests, manage water and soil, and create regenerative homesteads adaptable to any climate.
Includes bamboo cabins, farm-to-table meals, and a visit to Indigenous lands.
Plant · Harvest · Cook Retreat
A week of nature, food, and slow tropical living.
Stay in private bamboo cabins in Costa Rica’s Caribbean rainforest. Spend mornings in the garden, cook with the day’s harvest, and enjoy free afternoons between the beach and the jungle.
Only 8 cabins per week.
Permaculture Education at Finca Tierra
Finca Tierra is an off-grid permaculture education center and working farm in Costa Rica’s Caribbean rainforest near Puerto Viejo.
For more than 15 years, students from around the world have come here to learn ecological design through real systems that feed our family and students year-round.
Our campus is a living demonstration of regenerative design where, food forests, renewable energy, rainwater harvesting, soil regeneration, and tropical agriculture work together as a complete system.
Students don’t just study permaculture theory here. They observe, plant, harvest, and design inside functioning ecosystems.
Why Students Study at Finca Tierra
• Hands-on learning in real ecological systems
• International Permaculture Design Certificate
• Farm-to-table meals from our gardens and local growers
• Instructors with 15+ years of tropical design experience
• Small international groups with students from 40+ countries
What You Learn in the Permaculture Design Course
Our Permaculture Design Course (PDC) teaches the core design methods used to create regenerative systems in any climate.
Students learn topics such as:
• Food forest design
• Soil regeneration and compost systems
• Water harvesting and landscape hydrology
• Agroforestry and perennial crops
• Renewable energy and ecological infrastructure
Life at Finca Tierra
Wake up to jungle birds and food harvested steps away. Walk through food forests, work in the gardens, and share farm-to-table meals under the rainforest canopy.
Learn regenerative systems in the place where they feed people every day.
Between classes, explore the beaches and rainforest of Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.
Our Story
From Cattle Pasture to Living System
In 2008, we bought an exhausted cattle pasture.
We began regenerating the soil, planting trees, and building with bamboo.
Over time, a homestead became Finca Tierra Permaculture Education Center.
Today, our nine-acre farm demonstrates:
Food security
Renewable energy
Natural building
Closed-loop systems that support human life while regenerating the land
Meet the Instructors
Ian Macaulay
Permaculture designer, consultant, and visual artist specializing in ecological design, GIS, and tropical agroforestry.
15+ years teaching internationally.
Ana Gaspar A.
Costa Rican human rights lawyer and sustainability advocate.
Founder of the BioRegional Plan for Talamanca County.
Passionate about food sovereignty, eco-legality, and bioregionalism.
The Permaculture Center
Our campus is a living demonstration site where natural buildings, food forests, gardens, renewable energy, and rainwater systems work together as a complete ecological system.
Students practice every concept of the Permaculture Design Course through real examples on the land.
Join our internationally recognized Permaculture Design Course (PDC), taught from our campus in Costa Rica.
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
Ingredients are sourced from our gardens, food forest, and local growers.
Meals are tropical and plant-based, prepared fresh in our bamboo kitchen.
Dining here connects students directly to the systems they help cultivate.
Puerto Viejo de Talamanca
Study where the rainforest meets the Caribbean Sea.
Our campus is minutes from pristine beaches and surrounded by Afro-Caribbean and Indigenous communities with deep ecological knowledge.
Permaculture Course Reviews — What Students Say
" A life changing experience! After being immersed in the food forest/jungle, eating the most delicious plant-based foods, and learning about Permaculture; I feel totally secure to start a profitable sustainable lifestyle. Ian and Ana have a plethora of knowledge and experience in sustainability, agroforestry and natural medicine. They are great teachers and passionate activists, plus their place is beyond beautiful. They make it so easy to understand the how to's of eco-design. BEST place to learn about permaculture!"
— Hannah Weis, California, USA
@elizabethcouse_ shares her testimonial after completing our on-site Tropical Permaculture Design Course (PDC) in Costa Rica, and most recently, our online tropical permaculture training. Elizabeth says, ‘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!’
Learn the skills to build a regenerative life.
Follow our journey.
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