What is Holistic Management^®?

HMI is an Albuquerque-based, international nonprofit organization that provides training, courses and consulting services to stewards of large landscapes, including ranchers, farmers, pastoral communities, government agencies, NGOs, environmental advocacy groups and other non-profits.

HMI’s proven holistic practices yield a “triple bottom line”
of sustainable economic, environmental and social benefits by:

• Improving soil health and biodiversity of rangelands and pastures.
• Increasing grazing and wildlife capacity.
• Increasing annual profits and enhancing livelihoods.
• Optimally using rainfall and conserving water.
• Growing healthier crops and achieving higher yields.
• Reversing desertification in brittle environments.
• Breaking the cycle of food and water insecurity.
• Enhancing family relationships.
• Resisting and positively affecting global climate change.

HMI also trains Certified Educators to educate others about Holistic Management®, which replaces fragmentary decision-making and short-term solutions with a system that encompasses a whole, long-term process of restoring damaged land and managing healthy land.

30 million acres of land worldwide currently benefit from Holistic Management® practices.

 

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History of Holistic Management^®

The idea of Holistic Management® began more than 40 years ago to offer land stewards a comprehensive framework for identifying specific goals; making grazing, land management and financial decisions that positively impact land health and productivity; and performing effective monitoring in ways that specifically further those goals.

Allan Savory, then a young wildlife biologist in his native Zimbabwe, wished to solve the riddle of desertification. After successive careers as a farmer, game rancher, management consultant, a member of Parliament and leader of the opposition party in the midst of a civil war, Savory concluded that the spread of deserts, the loss of wildlife, and the human impoverishment that always resulted were related to the way people made decisions, whether or not those people lived or worked on the land.

HMI was founded in 1984.