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Holistic Appraoch Out of Africa
Holistic management was developed by Allan Savory while he was the
chief scientific research officer for the Rhodesian Game Department.
The Government of the day wanted to increase tourist numbers in the
game parks so they cleared natives away from riverbanks. This upset the
ecological balance within months. The “leave-it-to-nature” policy saw
overgrazing in one national park which led to massive erosion along 60
km of riverbank. Forty years on the problems are still evident.
It convinced Savory that the whole situation ought to be
considered in the decision-making process and he went on to develop the
holistic management framework.
The four key insights that it brings to resource management
came from observing the relationships between animal, plants, and soil.
It is the exposure of animals to plants that determines the
bio-diversity in a landscape and its overall productivity.
John King became interested when Savoury talked at an
international conference at Lincoln University in 1994.
King says communication is the most critical factor for
success. With farms (and businesses) 95% of all problems are not
technical or financial they are social. They are to do with
relationships and trust between husband and wife, father and son,
farmer and bank manager.
“Cohesion around the kitchen table is the guts of success.”
King tries to get farmers to observe what is going on within
their farming businesses. He has had farmers crawling across their
paddocks on hands and knees for hours to try and get them to understand
what is going on with their grazing and the impact it is having on
soils.
“Most farmers are in the dark about the health of their land.
By teaching skills of observation, a light switches on. They build
understanding by linking what they see on the soil surface to their
grazing management. They build their own recipe rather than me
providing one.”
Published by Country-Wide October 2004 southern edition. Reprinted here with the kind
permission of Country-Wide
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