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 72-hour Permaculture Design Course in Costa Rica.
Self-paced · Tropical systems · Learn anywhere
72-hour certification · 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.
Our Permaculture Courses
Online Tropical Permaculture Course
Learn to design a complete food system on your land.
Developed from more than a decade of tropical research, this online course shows how we grow and process a complete diet on 2,000 m² (half acre). Scalable to any property.
You get videos filmed on our land, templates and charts, and diet design tools you can apply anywhere in the tropics.
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 all climates.
Includes bamboo cabins, farm-to-table meals, and a visit to Indigenous lands.
Graduates receive an international PDC certificate.
Plant · Harvest · Cook Retreat
A week of nature, food, and slow tropical living.
A 7-day retreat in Costa Rica’s Caribbean rainforest. Private bamboo cabins, morning garden sessions, cooking with the day’s harvest, and fire-cooked meals with 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 study Permaculture Design Courses (PDC) and learn ecological design through real systems that feed our family and students year-round.
Our campus is a living demonstration of regenerative design — with food forests, renewable energy, rainwater harvesting, soil regeneration, and tropical agriculture working together as a complete system.
Students don’t just study permaculture theory here.
They observe, plant, harvest, and design inside functioning ecological systems.
Why Students Study at Finca Tierra
• Hands-on learning in real ecological systems
• International Permaculture Design Certificate (72 hours)
• 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 internationally recognized 72-hour Permaculture Design Course (PDC) teaches the core design methods used to build regenerative systems in any climate.
Students learn topics such as:
• Food forest design
• Soil regeneration and compost systems
• Water harvesting and landscape hydrology
• Tropical agroforestry and perennial crops
• Renewable energy and ecological infrastructure
Life at Finca Tierra
Wake up to jungle birds and food harvested steps away.
Learn regenerative systems in the place where they feed people daily.
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 healing the land
Meet the Instructors
Ian Macaulay
Permaculture designer, consultant, and visual artist.
Specialized 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.
Natural buildings. Organic gardens. Food forests. Renewable energy. Rainwater systems.
Students practice every concept of the Permaculture Design Course with real examples, in real time.
Join our internationally recognized Permaculture Design Course (PDC) — taught worldwide 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 through real systems.
Cuisine & Farm-to-Table Meals
Ingredients are sourced from our gardens, food forest, and local growers.
Meals are plant based and tropical, 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 wisdom.
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.
Permaculture Articles and Guides
