In 2013, ecologist Allan Savory did a TED talk on rotational grazing as a means to reversing the globe’s grassland desertification. Since then, The Savory Institute has been putting what is considered to be a pioneering practice of holistic farming into effect to reverse this process.
The technique espoused by Savory and his Institute is by no means overly complicated and it may hold the key to ensuring grasslands, like many here in Kenya, can recover. In so doing, they may create a more hospitable habitat for fostering life. This is essential if we are to maintain a healthy level of biodiversity.
It could also be the key in reversing the effects of global temperature increase. Natural and sparsely grazed grasslands are considered carbon sinks. A carbon sink occurs when an ecosystem’s growing plants absorb more gas than is produced by decomposing plant matter.
Healthy, natural grasslands are incredibly important ecosystems for carbon capture. However, according to Savory, nearly two thirds of the globe’s grasslands were, in 2013, becoming desert.
What is happening to natural grassland?
Savory grew up in Zimbabwe amongst many of Africa’s varied wildlife species. Zimbabwe’s grasslands, he remembers, were drying up very quickly and everyone knew the cause. He was taught that grazing livestock – goats, sheep and cattle – were the principle antagonists in the plight of natural grasslands.
When Savory went to University, this theory was corroborated.
However, when, years later, Savory moved to the United States, he found that many of the national parks there were undergoing a similar process of desertification. This despite that cattle and other grazing animals had been removed from America’s parks for over 70 years.
In order to investigate this phenomena more, Savory looked at as many research spots as he could. He considered land that, suffering from desertification, had been removed of their grazing animals. On these lands, he found that, instead of a revival, desertification continued and often worsened. Climate change researchers attributed this degradation to “unknown processes”.
Holistic grazier management and the principles behind rotational grazing:
It was an accepted piece of knowledge that grazing animals were the principle cause of desertification. However, Savory’s studies found otherwise. Intensive grazing caused desertification. So, too, did grazing animals’ removal.
In his TED talk, Savory suggests why. It is likely, in fact, that “grasslands were created, over millions of years, by very large herds of grazing animals.”
“Large herds dung and urinate all over their own food, so they have to keep moving.”
In so doing, these animals give the grasslands the time and tools necessary for a recovery. Savory says, however, that the globe no longer boasts enough wild grazing animals for this naturally-occurring behaviour to have a noticeable effect on grasslands across the globe.
It is certainly true that, of the world’s grazing animals, livestock outweigh wild graziers. However, here in East Africa, we are fortunate enough to get to witness naturally-occurring rotational grazing.
The great wildebeest migration, the circular motion of continuous movement annually undertaken by the world’s most populous wild grazing animal, keeps the Serengeti/Maasai Mara ecosystem healthy and consistently, if not constantly, green.
As fortunate as we are here in Kenya, Savory is correct in saying that the majority of the world’s grasslands that are presently desertifying are primarily grazed by livestock. He suggests, however, that the key to ensuring these lands do not become desert is in changing our present method of maintaining and managing this livestock.
Livestock, he suggests, should not be forced to graze on one hemmed in enclosure. They should, as the name suggests, be rotated from one piece of land to the next. Each plot of land should be allowed to recover before it is subjected to graziers again.
It is not overly complicated as a theory in its essence. However, the problem of putting this theory into practice is made greater by worrying trends witnessed here in Kenya.
Grassland recovery, fences, the impact on elephant conservation and Savory’s unique and problematically-sourced insight:
Natural rotational grazing has, as is the case amongst many pastoralist societies, been practiced in Kenya for many generations. The Maasai are perhaps some of the more notable pastoralists of modern Kenya. Though, in the past, it was far more prevalent a practice, moving livestock from one place to another is still practiced here.
However, as more and more, indiscriminately placed, fences are erected in this country there is the worry that the land within these fences will suffer from the intensive grazing that destroys grassland. The conception of land use is changing radically here. From unowned and communally-used, increasingly land is being portioned out and fenced for individual ownership.
What’s more, these fences, often used to stake legal claims on property and serve to protect very little, are also getting in the way of migratory animals. There are fears, if one is to subscribe to Savory’s theories on desertification, that Kenya’s increasingly numerous fences may cause serious damage to its grasslands. Thus, contributing to increased greenhouse gas emission.
There is a captivating moment in Savory’s TED talk when he admits to what he considers to be his career’s most costly mistake. As a young ecologist, he advised on the proper management of Zimbabwe’s parks. They were desertifying at an alarming rate.
He advised that first the cattle be removed. After they were, he, and other ecologists, noticed little difference to the recovery of Zimbabwe’s grasslands. So, Savory advised that an elephant cull was necessary. On his recommendation, the Zimbabwean government ratified a cull of 40,000 elephant individuals.
This, again, did very little to stop desertification. Despite the obvious damage that elephant do to tree-life and that they are voracious grazers, there was no notable difference to grassland degradation after their cull. It was a costly lesson. His “saddest and greatest blunder”.
In a contrite acceptance of culpability – rare these days –, Savory has undertaken to right the wrongs of this decision. The cull, as awful as it remains, serves as one piece of evidence that suggests that elephant culling does not reverse desertification. What does is effective grassland management.
(This hard-learnt lesson of Savory is especially poignant today as the government of Botswana, home to the globe’s largest elephant population, began its own ‘controlled cull’ in May of 2019. Read more about this here.)
These are the reasons why intelligent fencing methods are necessary in Kenya. Here, desertification is a danger. So too is biodiversity decline. Kenya boasts some of the most successful stories on wildlife conservation. However, as a result, instances of HWC (Human Wildlife Conflict) are rising.
Fences are often seen as necessary to protect peoples’ subsistence farming, arable and pastoral. They are also considered necessary, as has been mentioned, in the legal staking of a claim to certain land plots. However, as Savory’s research suggests, this poses dangers to a climate that already, yearly, suffers from drought-enforced famine.
As a result of a desire to protect peoples and property, Kenya must not allow the country’s grasslands to deteriorate. The end result of that scenario could be far worse than the occasional damage of certain crops. Reasons such as these are why intelligent, effective fencing solutions such as the Tsavo Trust’s 10% fencing initiative are so crucial.
Last year, we wrote a series of articles on the dangers inherent in indiscriminate fencing. If you want to read more about fencing and conservation, you can find the first of those articles here.
For the full TED talk, follow this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI&t=486s&ab_channel=TED
Considerations
When we consider the carbon capture capabilities of grassland it is important to note that only natural or sparsely populated grasslands are carbon sinks. Managed grasslands, such as those used for the intense farming of capital on the American Great Plains, often produce more carbon than they take out. That is made worse by the greenhouse gases produced by the cattle themselves.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that despite notable successes, Savory’s holistic farming process, on which you can read more about here, is not without its discreditors.
Its virtues as a means of reversing desertification are by no means beyond debate. This argument between two Guardian writers makes this debate humorously obvious: