Holistic Management - Predator Prey and Timing

Holistic Management, A New Framework for Decision Making, by Alan Savory

A Book Summary

In this summary of Holistic Management I quote freely from Alan Savory's book but summarize the main points. Kind of a Cliff Notes version. Don't be put off by the focus on grazing and agriculture. This is great stuff for managing your family or business.

The Predator Prey Connection

The third key insight is that in brittle environments, relatively high numbers of large, herding animals, concentrated and moving as they naturally do in the presence of pack-hunting predators, are vital to maintain the health of the lands we thought they destroyed. Acceptance of this insight will help to reverse damage humankind has inflicted on the more brittle environments. Overgrazing is not in fact a function of animal numbers.

Timing is Everything

The identification of the brittleness scale and the role of herding animals and their predators in maintaining the health of brittle environments has shown why these environments were prone to desertification. This is the fourth key insight.