Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

OPERATION HOPE

Operation Hope demonstrates how to reverse desertification of the world’s savannas and grasslands, thereby contributing enormously to mitigating climate change, biomass burning, drought, flood, drying of rivers and underground waters, disappearing wildlife, massive poverty and social breakdown.

Allan Savory is a Zimbabwean wildlife biologist, farmer, soldier, environmentalist, and a true pioneer in a field that he virtually created himself—the field of holistic rangeland management. He co-founded the Center for Holistic Management in 1984 and currently operates under the Savory Institute. Savory's approach to reversing desertification is common sense but very counter-intuitive and accordingly has been challenged over the years in many scientific, academic and policy circles because it challenges prevailing wisdom. However, a growing body of practitioners around the world, who have been influenced by his lectures, workshops, and published works, are applying his innovative management principles with great success. The Africa Center for Holistic Management, a 6,500-acre rangeland learning center that he created in 1992, is governed by a small group of trustees including Savory and five African chiefs. The work of the Center is a testament to the breakthrough methods for reversing desertification and its insidious impact on livelihoods, biodiversity and climate change. He has transformed large swaths of parched and degraded areas of the ranch into lush pastures replete with ponds and flowing streams even during periods of drought.