Our Story
The Africa Centre for Holistic Management (ACHM) is a local and regional organisation that was founded in 1992 by Allan Savory, a former wildlife biologist, farmer and politician. The Centre was formed to work and learn together with people in the Hwange Community in Zimbabwe, regionally and internationally to manage our resources holistically so that we can improve our lives now and for our future generations.
When we lose bio-diversity (i.e. grass, plants, animals, litter, micro-organism) the result is extreme poverty, hunger, malnutrition, crime, genocide, conflict – the list goes on. ACHM uses the Holistic Management Framework to make sustainable decisions. Holistic Management is a decision making framework that enables people to make decisions that are economically, socially and environmentally sound. Using this core framework, the Africa Centre for Holistic Management enhances food and water security and human livelihoods through training that utelises livestock to restore degraded land, watersheds and croplands to health. ACHM believes that livestock can be used to mimic the role that herds once played in maintaining ecosystems healthy. Our Dimbangombe Ranch serves as a learning site, demonstrating how to restore water catchments and river flow through holistic planned grazing; how to increase forage, wildlife, and livestock production through holistic planned grazing; showing how the use of concentrated animal impact to increase crop yields, and restore degraded pieces of land. Our aim is to show how Holistic Management can bring back to the whole world lost biodiversity. We strongly believe in the empowerment of the community so that it is in charge of its destiny. As such, ACHM does not believe in giving donations or hand-outs but knowledge which we believe is invaluable. It is this knowledge that empowers the community to shape its destiny and own all development initiatives.
