What is Holistic Management?
Holistic Management is an approach to managing resources originally developed by Allan Savory for grazing management, now applied to any system where human decisions affect complex social, ecological, and economic outcomes. The framework empowers decision-making that is socially, environmentally, and economically sound in the short, medium and long term. Unlike reductionist approaches that isolate variables, Holistic Management treats farms, ranches, watersheds, businesses, and even personal lives as interconnected wholes in which every choice ripples through multiple dimensions.
At its operational core, Holistic Management uses a decision-making process to help ensure that actions taken to restore land and livelihoods are ecologically, socially and economically sound based on the context described by the people involved. Practitioners define a “holistic context” that clarifies who is making decisions, what resources are available, and what quality of life and ecosystem function they seek to create. All management actions are then tested against this context through a series of structured questions addressing root cause, resource use, and alignment with long-term vision.
Origins & Lineage
The idea of holistic planned grazing was developed in the 1960s by Allan Savory, a wildlife biologist in his native Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Allan’s work began in 1955, and he spent his early career as a farmer, game ranger and research biologist, witnessing grassland degradation he initially attributed to overgrazing by livestock. After years of field observation, including advocating for elephant culls that failed to stop desertification, Savory eventually came to realize that on the most fundamental level, environmental problems are caused by human management decisions.
He studied wild animals in different habitats and read the works of Jan Smuts, Andre Voisin and others. The term “holism” itself was coined in 1926 by South African philosopher Jan Christian Smuts in his book Holism and Evolution. Savory advocates that management at all levels should be “holistic,” a term coined by J.C. Smuts in his book Holism and Evolution.
Savory’s framework evolved from “Holistic Resource Management” in the 1980s to simply “Holistic Management” by the time of his 1988 book Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making (revised 1999, third edition 2016 with co-author Jody Butterfield). After serving in the Zimbabwean government in the early 1970s, Allan was exiled for his opposition to the racist policies of the white-led Rhodesian Front Government and emigrated to the United States, where he continued developing the methodology.
Since 1984, farmers, ranchers, tribal members, and pastoralists have used Holistic Management. Holistic Management is a registered trademark of Holistic Management International (no longer associated with Allan Savory). Savory founded the Savory Institute in 2009, which now operates through a global Hub network.
How It’s Practiced
Holistic Management in action begins with articulating a holistic context: a statement defining the decision-makers, the resources under management, and a three-part vision covering quality of life, forms of production, and the future resource base required. This context becomes the compass for all subsequent decisions.
The framework provides several integrated planning procedures:
- Holistic Decision-Making: Six key steps guide management: Define in its entirety what you are managing. By defining the whole, people are better able to manage.
- Holistic Planned Grazing: In two-thirds of the world that is grasslands, much of the land regeneration involves the use of livestock, which are managed to mimic the behaviors of ancient wild herds in a manner that heals degraded soils. Savory observed that in natural systems, large herds of wild herbivores, moved frequently by predators, helped maintain healthy grasslands through their dung and urine, which fertilize the soil, and their hooves, which help break up hard ground.
- Holistic Financial Planning: In holistic financial planning, profit is planned at the beginning of the year, reversing conventional approaches where net profit is merely what remains.
- Holistic Land Planning and Ecological Monitoring: Tracking leading indicators at the soil surface to create feedback loops.
The process always assumes your plan is less than perfect and uses a feedback loop that includes monitoring for the earliest signs of failure, adjusting and re-planning as needed.
Holistic Management Today
Holistic Management has been successfully implemented on nearly 29 million hectares (75 million acres) across more than 20,000 trained farmers, ranchers, and pastoralists. Over 88,000 people in over 150 countries have received training. Seekers encounter the framework through multiple channels:
- Formal training programs: HMI offers a 5-week online course in Holistic Planned Grazing, along with workshops teaching how to manage for the triple bottom line. The Savory Institute offers modular online courses covering ecosystem processes, decision-making tools, and monitoring.
- Certification pathways: HMI’s training program is designed for professional educators and consultants. This training program has been funded by the USDA five times.
- Demonstration sites: Learners can see holistic grazing in action on working operations, learning directly from practitioners managing thousands of acres.
- Books: The primary texts are Holistic Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment (third edition, 2016) and The Holistic Management Handbook (third edition, 2019).
This regenerative agriculture tool is recognized by the USDA to help farmers and ranchers develop successful businesses as well as improve land health.
Common Misconceptions
It’s not just a grazing system. More than just a grazing system, Holistic Management is a framework for making decisions amidst the ever-changing conditions of the living world. While planned grazing has become the most visible application, the decision-making process can serve to manage a farm, a national park, or a city’s water supply, or one’s personal life, a household, a corporation, or organisation of any kind.
The science remains contested. It has faced criticism from many researchers who argue it is unable to provide the benefits claimed. Many controlled scientific studies have failed to validate the superiority of rotational grazing systems over other well-managed approaches. Critics argue that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Perhaps most controversial was Savory’s 2013 TED Talk claim that holistic planned grazing on half the world’s grasslands could bring atmospheric carbon dioxide to pre-industrial levels. The Food Climate Research Network examined this claim and found it “unrealistic”.
Primarily associated with an approach to managing livestock, it has spurred long running and still unresolved debates in rangeland ecology and management. A meta-analysis provides a novel explanation for the controversy—that it is grounded in epistemic differences between disciplines associated with agricultural science that rule out any chance of resolution. Less studied are the social, cultural, and psychological aspects of HM, which may hold the key to successful ecological outcomes.
It demands significant mindset shifts. People who have begun to use Holistic Management say the biggest challenge is that you may have to change production practices you’ve used for years and the learning curve is challenging for some people. They also say that the results were more than they could have imagined.
How to Begin
The most accessible entry point is Allan Savory and Jody Butterfield’s Holistic Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment (third edition, Island Press, 2016), which lays out the conceptual foundations. For hands-on practitioners, pair this with The Holistic Management Handbook (third edition, 2019), which provides step-by-step planning procedures.
For structured learning, explore:
- Savory Institute’s Foundations of Holistic Management Course Bundle ($399), consisting of five modular courses covering introduction, ecosystem processes, management tools, decision-making, and monitoring.
- HMI’s introductory workshops, offered both online and in-person, focusing on whole farm/ranch planning.
- Regional Hub networks through Savory Institute or Holistic Management International, which connect you with certified educators and working demonstration sites in your bioregion.
If you manage land, livestock, a business, or even a household budget, the framework is applicable. Begin by defining your holistic context—who you are, what resources you steward, and what future you’re working to create. The testing questions and feedback loops follow naturally from that clarity.