Dive Deep into Water: Unveiling ACHM's Innovative Water Management Strategies
"Regenerating Our Future: Stories from Dimbangombe – Newsletter 3"
Dear Friends of ACHM,
Welcome back to our enlightening series, "Regenerating Our Future." In our second newsletter, we explored how Holistic Management techniques like Planned Grazing and strategic herding are revolutionizing grassland restoration at Dimbangombe. Today, we shift our focus to a resource that is the lifeblood of any ecosystem: water.
Water is Life: Enhancing the Water Cycle
In his groundbreaking book "Holistic Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment," Allan Savory, the visionary behind the discovery of the root causes of man-made desertification, revealed a critical insight. He recognized that desertification occurs when the rain that falls produces less and less vegetation over time.
In 1960, Allan Savory observed a severe drought in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa, which paradoxically resulted in severe flooding in Mozambique despite no high rainfall. This all occurred within the same Limpopo river drainage. Savory explained that effective rainfall is the water absorbed into the soil, leaving only through plant leaves or by feeding springs, rivers, and underground reservoirs. In contrast, non-effective rainfall runs off the surface, eroding soil and fueling floods. The key difference is whether the soil surface is covered by plants and plant litter or is bare.
Savory believed that non-effective rainfall was causing more frequent and severe droughts and floods, leading to desertification long before fossil fuels and climate change were blamed.
Today, the greatest challenge facing all nations is the loss of biodiversity and global desertification, which fuel climate change and exacerbate each other. This issue is so severe that even completely halting fossil fuel use would barely impact climate change.
Terrestrial environments worldwide operate through four inseparable processes. The effectiveness of the water cycle drives the other three: nutrient cycling between plants, animals, and soil; the growth of plant material capturing sunlight; and the energy supply required by all life in the biological communities sustaining us.
As Savory explained in his 2013 TED Talk, viewed by about 9 million people, desertification is a management problem, not a scientific one. It cannot be solved using fire or any current technology, as many failed civilizations under desert sands testify. Fortunately, but largely unknown to society, non-effective rainfall and desertification can be reversed, which can begin to address climate change—something we are successfully achieving at ACHM.
In 2003 Australia honoured Allan Savory and his Holistic Management work, with their Banksia International Award “for the person doing the most for the environment on a global scale”
In 2014 ACHM was recognised as a “leading-edge innovator in food security” on receiving the Humanitarian Water & Food Award (Denmark).
And, Africa Centre For Holistic Management, recently won a prize for Outstanding Practice in Agroecology from the World Future Council.
The International Buckminster Fuller Challenge (USA) (awarded in In 2010 to ACHM), each year a distinguished international jury awards a $100,000 prize to support the development and implementation of a strategy that has significant potential to solve some of humanity’s most pressing problems.
We hope you will support our work, (and enjoy special treatment through our tiered rewards system!) when you visit to see for yourself the amazing results following over twenty adverse rainfall years, including two of the driest known. This being one of them! During your visit, you will see how we are managing a host of wildlife, including all the animals found in the national parks around us. Our main tool, since fire and technology cannot make rainfall effective, is a herd of cattle. We can control their movement and impact more easily, akin to using a large tractor that neither pollutes nor uses diesel, thus enhancing wildlife.
What's amazing is that for over 10,000 years, every method humans used to manage cattle, sheep, and goats led to less effective rainfall and desertification. Then, in 1984, Allan Savory solved the problem by developing Holistic Management and its Holistic Planned Grazing process. He adapted this planning technique from 1,000 years of European military experience in complex, ever-changing situations—similar to those we face with erratic rainfall while managing wildlife, crops, the economy, and our life-supporting environment.
A healthier, more effective water cycle is what we are experiencing from managing holistically over 3,200 hectares of Dimbangombe, plus an additional 3,500 hectares managed in partnership with the Forestry Commission and local communities. Key to our success is using the only tool that can do the job—animal impact. This involves grazing without overgrazing, and the vital soil-covering impact of hooves, dung, and urine from our cattle herd, which we can control more easily than the kudu, elephants, buffalo, waterbuck, zebra, giraffe, reedbuck, impala, bushbuck, lions, leopards, cheetah, wild dogs, hyenas, and other animals.
To control the movement and behavior of our "tractor" herd of Habitat Management Cattle, we need land divisions without fences, which are damaging to wildlife. We kraal the cattle every night in these land divisions to avoid excessive losses to lions. This requires divisions based on visible features and topography. Each land division, enabling planning months ahead, is called a paddock, although they are unfenced.
Intelligent Paddock Design
Our paddocks (1 through 10) are delineated by features like vleis, ridges, rivers, and hills, which serve as boundaries that the herders easily memorize. These paddocks are essential for our grazing planning process, allowing us to ensure the cattle are in the right place, for the right reason, with the right behavior, all planned at least six months in advance. This way, the cattle not only make rainfall more effective but also produce more food and cover for wildlife, avoiding conflicts with critical wildlife needs, especially during breeding.
Water Point Management
Effective water point management is crucial for both cattle and wildlife. We strategically locate water sources to ensure the herd can manage the entire land base without walking too far. Here is an overview of our current water point setup:
1. Dual Paddock Water Point: This water point is placed to service Paddocks 7 and 8, along with the lower sections of Paddock 10.
2. Central Access Water Point: Situated in Paddock 6, this point also serves Paddocks 4 and sections of Paddock 10. Its central position caters to multiple paddocks from a single source.
3. Albida’s Water Point: Located at the Albidas, this point serves Paddocks 4, 5, and 6. Although we use this one minimally for the cattle because at times it is so important for many species who love and value feeding on the high protein pods
4. Elephant Camp Water Point: Serves Paddocks 3, 4, and sections of Paddock 9. Below one of our camps this point often provides good elephant viewing as herds of cows and calves come from the nearby forest to slake their thirst in the evenings
5. Boundary Water Point: Positioned on the boundary between Paddocks 2 and 3, this point extends its reach to parts of Paddock 9. It is strategically important for reducing the pressure on the travel required for water access in these bordering paddocks.
Elephant Pools feature a green-marked water point often left solely to wildlife because it is so heavily used by them.,
Future Developments
We have identified a need for additional watering points for the wildlife and that could be used by the cattle, such as the point marked in pink on the map which would improve our management in that area. Especially Paddock 1 and the upper sections of Paddock 10. This addition is crucial as it will allow us to expand our grazing management to these areas, providing a vital resource for both cattle and wildlife, and enhancing the overall biodiversity and ecological health of the conservancy as a whole
We are currently calling for infrastructure support from our network of donors and supporters to realise this project, and if you are at all interested in becoming an infrastructural donor you can read our ‘Call to Action’ here!
Anyone interested in supporting Holistic Management and our Wildlife will benefit from our recently announced ‘Supporter Rewards Programme’. The benefits offered to our Infrastructure Investors are …
Infrastructure Project Supporters
Supporters who fully fund infrastructure projects are essential to the sustainability and success of our efforts. As a token of our appreciation, these supporters are invited to stay at ACHM free of charge, with only food and excursion costs to be covered. This privilege offers an immersive experience into the impact of your support, surrounded by the natural beauty and educational opportunities ACHM has to offer. You may visit when you like, availability allowing, and you can enroll free of Tuition Charge on any and all of our scheduled courses!
Importance of Proximity
The proximity of water points is critical, especially in managing the energy requirements of cattle. Close water sources ensure that cattle do not need to walk long distances for water, which is particularly important during the drier seasons when nutrition levels are lower. Long walks can significantly impact the health and energy levels of cattle, making the strategic placement of these water points crucial for maintaining herd vitality.
Elephant Pools Case Study:
An observation of "cold season flow" an event that happens when plant growth stops for the season and excess soil water flows through the soil profile.
Here it was filling up elephant foot prints left in the mud.
It would be very easy for us to say Holistic planned grazing (HPG) created this and that would not be entirely true. It's a natural event in this region when plant growth stops, in this case because of our first cold snap. This allows water to start moving through the soil profile down slope.
That being said, the water still needs to be in the ground to start flowing no matter what the catalyst is for that flow ... HPG puts the water in the soil. It starts flowing when the plants stop using it, again in this cased by a drop in temperature to make it flow, 😉
It's not often seen or observed because of how badly the soils are in the region. Another indicator of an improving water cycle on Dimbangombe.
We continue to monitor the flow of the Dimbangombe catchment
Appears to be connected to falling temperatures and the final stages of growth
#achm #dimbangombe #holisticmanagement #holism #wholeism #watercycle #elnino #savory #savoryhub #zimbabwe #victoriafalls
Looking Ahead
Stay tuned for our next newsletter, where we will delve into the challenges and successes of managing human-wildlife interactions, an integral part of ensuring safety and sustainability in our ecosystems.
Support Our Mission
Your contributions help us continue to innovate and apply holistic solutions to environmental challenges. By supporting ACHM, you're investing in water sustainability that benefits both people and wildlife in our region.
Thank you for being part of our journey to regenerate and protect our natural resources.
Warm regards,
Lao Watson-Smith
Africa Centre for Holistic Management (ACHM)