About

The beginning

Cathrine holds an MS in Geography with specialisation in Natural Resource Management in developing countries.

Cathrine took an interest in permaculture for the first time in South Africa in 2000 while working with Zulu farmers, and has studied and applied permaculture principles in her later work in Nepal and Vietnam. She worked with an international NGO to set up natural resource management systems and education in Nepal.

In Vietnam, Cathrine worked to set up a network for poverty reduction in the Mekong Delta. She later worked at the Danish Embassy in Hanoi as a counselor for agriculture and rural development. She has also worked as a consultant evaluating and documenting rural development projects including permaculture projects and Farmer Field Schools.

Permaculture education

In 2010 Cathrine participated in the Permaculture Design Course (PDC) at Rainbow Valley Farm in New Zealand with Darren Doherty as her main teacher.

Cathrine attended the Permaculture Educators’ Course (PEC) at Friland in autumn 2010 and has since co-taught the PEC seven times with Andy Goldring. She has also taught on Permaculture Teacher Trainings with Alfred Decker in Sweden and Norway.

She started teaching permaculture introduction courses and on PDCs in 2011. She has taught on around 20 PDCs in Denmark, Iceland and Estonia.

Cathrine accredited to diploma holder in the English system in November 2014 and is a trained diploma tutor. She is also a certified educator with Permaculture Association Britain. 

Permaculture Organisations

Cathrine joined the board of trustees for the Danish Permaculture Association in 2012 and set up the Danish LAND project (Learning and Network Demonstration project) in 2013 as a LAND coordinator until she handed over the task in 2019. Cathrine was the national coordinator for the EU funded European Permaculture Teachers’ Partnership (EPT) through two years and she was editing the European wide Newsletter until 2024. She has created Erasmus+ mobilities and Nordplus projects since 2012. 

She has recently focussed on setting up the Nordic Permaculture Academy together with Andreas Jonsson. The Nordic Permaculture Academy is aimed at promoting skilled Permaculture Designers through mentoring and accreditation of Diplomas in Applied Permaculture Design.

Photo: Erkki Pöytäniemi