| Holistic Management |
Holistic Management is a decision-making
framework that ensures our decisions are economically,
environmentally and socially sound i.e. the triple bottom line.
Holistic
Management enables you to develop a clear vision of the future you want.
|
 |
The significant
problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with
which they were created.
Albert Einstein
|
| Holistic
Management has its roots in environmental
management. But, as it is essentially a decision-making process
it is applicable to people in all walks of life - households, both rural
and urban based businesses, government and educational organisations.
By changing the way we make our decisions, we
can tackle many of the problems we face today. |
|
 |
The technology we
wield today has greatly expanded the ways in which we can alter our
environment and that, combined with the exponential increase in our
numbers has magnified our potential for causing damage. Now, more than
ever, we require the ability to make decisions that consider economic,
social and environmental realities, both short and long term.
Allan Savory
|
Holistic Management in Australia
Holistic Management International / Australia Limited is a
non-profit organisation created to assist farmers, graziers and land
managers to simultaneously regenerate their land, improve productivity
and increase their profitability. HMIA represents eleven Certified
Educators, of which Brian Wehlburg and Helen Lewis of Inside Outside
Management are two, currently qualified to teach the principles of
Holistic Management in Australia. Each of these people have undertaken
two years intensive training and comply with rigorous annual
re-certification requirements through Holistic Management International.
|
A history of Holistic
Management
Allan Savory,
ecologist, biologist, game warden, farmer, soldier, politician, renowned environmentalist and
winner of the Banksia International Award 2003,
is the founder of Holistic Management.
As a young graduate
employed in various Southern African national parks in the 1960's, Allan
realised that the land and wild life he was working with was doomed.
Later, when working in the USA he came to realise that this
deterioration of the African environment was not a result of the
often quoted reasons of overpopulation, poverty, overstocking, lack of
technology, poor extension services etc. Comparable deterioration was
occurring in Western Texas, USA, where the climate was similar to that
of Southern Africa. However, western Texas had a declining
population, the latest technology, sophisticated extension services etc.
The only common denominator between these two situations was the
decisions the human managers of these environments had made.
Mankind has been
very successful in the area of technology, but, when it comes to making
decisions that are environmentally and socially sound, our failures
outweigh our successes. Allan noted this. He studied wild animals in
different habitats and read the works of Jan Smuts, Andre Voisin and
others. Allan realised that hooved animals
play a critical role in the health of arid environments. He recognised that
nature functions in wholes and that we need to change the way we make
decisions. All this led to the
development of the Holistic Management decision making framework, as we
know it today, which is being used by thousands of
families, businesses and other organisations to improve the quality of
their lives and to regenerate the resource base that sustains them. This
includes conservation projects in the USA, Africa and Australia, where
large areas of land are being transformed into sustainable ecosystems.
|
|
“Holistic
Management has given us a feeling of control over our enterprise and
future. It has made us aware of how much effect we can have on the
environment be it good or bad.”
Stuart & Angela Shannon, Bonshaw, NSW |
Holistic Management links
|
|
