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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The paradigm shift to heal Africa (at no extra cost)

Photo 1: Allan loves grass under his feet

Photo 2: This was a dry river bed not too long ago


Photo 3: The mobile kraal

Photo 4: Allan's humble abode


Photo 5: Johan Botha asking a question
Photo 6: At the new water pools with the convoy.

The paradigm shift to heal Africa (at no extra cost)

For many years, we have been developing our understanding of what is good for the earth. Scientific research to the nth degree has been done by many, many clever people. We’ve worked out that overpopulation of animals is killing the land. Overgrazing removes all the grass. Barren soil gets rushed off to the see with every flash flood. Erosion follows. The world eventually will turn into one big desert.

So the logic that kicks in says there are too many animals. Domestic or wild. Culling needs to kick in. Give the land time to rest. What if we are wrong? What if we actually need more animals? Is it possible that an increase in livestock and wildlife can solve the problem?

The Outreach today visited the Holistic Management Centre near Victoria Falls and we were stunned. Allan Savory is busy proving that we all need to make this paradigm shift. His land is a wild piece of pristine Zimbabwean bush with the Big Five on it.

A few years ago it wasn’t like that. Instead of culling wildlife, he looked at it differently. First of all, he realized that land being ‘rested’ by taking the animals off it, ends up with grass drying in the winter. It doesn’t go back to the soil, it oxidises and turns a grey-black colour and hard. Without any meaningful nutrients. The land doesn’t rest, it slowly dies.

What needs to happen is that the grass needs to be churned over and chopped to form a blanket on the ground. A blanket that will hold water and let it seep slowly into the earth to feed the roots. There are machines capable of doing that, but it uses al lot of diesel, increasing your carbon footprint. Then fertiliser would have to be added artificially.

There is another way, though. Cattle. Yes, he uses cattle for conservation. What he does is to allow as many cattle he can find to graze his land. At the moment he has 400 head, but would love to go up to 1 000. The secret, however, is that the cattle is herded tightly by 12 herders and they don’t stay long in any given area.

The herd takes up just over a hectare at any given time and stay on a stretch of about four to five hectares for three to four days. Just long enough to trample the earth that allows the grassroots to spread. Long before the cattle have eaten up all the grass, but left a blanket of grass covering the area, plus urine and dung as fertiliser, the herders move them on to the next piece. At night they put them in a mobile kraal to protect them from predators. As soon as they move into the next area, the kraal is moved as well.

When the rains come, the water doesn’t run away. It is absorbed by the ground cover and feeds the roots. The excess water goes underground and feeds the nearest river. Allan has a natural spring on his farm. That used to be the only source of water for the game. Elephant paths used to lead towards it from all directions. We followed what used to be a dry river bed not too long ago over a kilometre and a half and there was still water in it. The elephant paths are overgrown these days, because the elephants have so many more drinking places to choose from.

Due to the fact that the cattle are so tightly herded, it is easy to control and visitors to the farm will never know they are there. That means that there is no reason why other parks and game reserves can’t use this method to heal their land. But more importantly, it can be used by all the many cattle farmers in all the rural areas of Africa. They already know how to herd; they just need to be taught the secret of timing. Of not leaving them too long in any given space.

It’s not rocket science. Just a shift in thinking. And this is just a basic explanation of Allan’s holistic approach. To find out more, visit www.savoryinstitute.com

Well, just before we drove back, I decided to do my bit for healing the land. Hey, Allan, check out that grass patch behind tree number three. The grass will be greener there.

This is Buddy barking off.


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