The Africa Centre for Holistic Managementknown as ACHM is a not-forprofit organization located in Zimbabwe.
With their sister organization, the Savory Institute in Albuquerque, NM, the Africa Centre is successfully reversing desertification for the first time in history. Through Holistic Decision Making they are turning deserts into thriving grasslands, restoring biodiversity, bringing streams, rivers and water sources back to life, sequestering carbon, increasing livelihoods and combating global climate change.
ACHM is headquartered near Victoria Falls on a 6,500-acre (26 km2) property donated to Holistic Management International and the Africa Centre jointly and known as Dimbangombe Ranch.
The Africa Centre oversees two major efforts. The ranch is operated as a Holistic Management learning site, and it is also home to the Dimbangombe College of Wildlife, Agriculture and Conservation Management, which provides Holistic Management training to the local community.
It was co-founded in 1989 by Allan Savory and his wife, Jody Butterfield. Savory had begun working on the ancient problem of land degradation (desertification) in 1955 in Northern Rhodesia where he served in the Colonial Service as Provincial Game Officer, Northern and Luapula Provinces. He subsequently continued this work in Southern Rhodesia first as a research officer in the Game Department, then subsequently as an independent scientists and international consultant.
When in exile Savory worked from the Cayman Islands into the Americas introducing his new discoveries about both the cause of desertification and how to reverse it using increased numbers of livestock. This work he subsequently wrote up in the book "Holistic Management: A New Decision Making Framework" written with his wife Jody Butterfield and published by Island Press.
In 1984 Allan Savory and Jody Butterfield founded the Center for Holistic Management which later became Holistic Management International (HMI). A not-forprofit organization that teaches people about Holistic Management, holistic decision making processes and how to integrate holistic land management into their farms and ranches to help increase grass production and reverse desertification. Savory separated from HMI in 2009.
In 2009, Allan Savory and Jody Butterfield began a for profit organization called the Savory Institute. Through this organization they have established the Brown Revolution, with a focus on increasing the acreage of land under Holistic Management.
The Africa Centre for Holistic Management received a $4.8 million grant from the USAID OFDA in March, 2010 to take their efforts to scale in other African regions. In addition, they were the 2010 winners of The Buckminster Fuller Challenge.
Savory, Allan; Jody Butterfield (1998-12-01) [1988]. Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making (2nd ed. ed.). Washington, D.C.: Island Press. ISBN 1-55963-487-1. Http://www.africansojourn.com