Permanent agriculture, or permaculture, is the practice of maintaining a consistent farm plot for cultivation year after year. In southern Belize it is the opposite of slash-and-burn or milpa style farming where a new plot is created each year and previous years’ plots are left fallow to regrow forests.

While the practice of cutting new farmland each year has been the norm for centuries in Central America, the practice cannot sustain itself in the 21st century. This is due to rising populations and the impact of protected areas. As the population grows, there simply is not enough land for each family in southern Belize to have a new multi-acre plot each year. Left unchanged, this practice will leave widespread patches of sporadic clearings that fragment otherwise intact ecosystems. And protected areas legislation has reduced the amount of land available for farming, as pristine landscapes are set aside for preservation.