Holistic Management Course
This 10-day course is a Savory Institute-accredited course and fulfills the training requirements to become a Savory Institute-accredited practitioner.
What is Holistic Management?
Holistic Management is a management framework that allows decisions to be made considering economic, ecological and social variables, taking considering the short and long term.
By offering tools that allow continuous analysis and monitoring, Holistic Management empowers the people involved in management and provides positive economic, social and environmental results.
Holistic Management facilitates achieving the following results:
Higher financial gains
Higher stocking rates and crop yields
Increased production of perennial grasses
Greater amount of wildlife
Return of springs and streams
Better life quality
Holistic management allows evaluating the current situation and managing it from a comprehensive perspective. Holistic Management is a process of planning, monitoring, control and re-planning that allows building a vision and devising actions to achieve it. This planning must be accompanied by a constant observation that allows us to identify if the defined objectives and goals are being achieved and at the same time modify the management as necessary.
Who will teach this course?
Pablo Borrelli, Hub Leader and educator of Ovis 21, Hub of the Savory Institute in Argentina
Pablo is an Agricultural Engineer graduated from the University of Mar del Plata and has more than 40 years of experience as a researcher and consultant in pasture management. He is co-founder of the company Ovis 21, educator in Holistic Management and leader of the Argentine Hub of the Savory Institute.
Borelli is recognized as one of the leading experts in Holistic Management globally, working with the Savory Institute since 2003. He is the co-author of the renowned Ecological Results Verification program or EOV for its acronym in English. Today the EOV is the Savory Institute's global standard for measuring land regeneration and monitoring the mechanism that connects work in the field with the commercialization of products through the Land to Market program.
Who can participate in
this course?
Anyone who wants to implement or advise on Holistic Management.
When?
From Monday, March 21 to Wednesday, March 30, 2022.
Where?
Margot Ranch, Costa Rica
What will be learned?
During this course, the complete framework of Holistic Management will be studied and practiced, a vision that allows managing farms with comprehensive perspectives and tools that bring Benefits for pastures, animals and finances.
The course will also cover short-term Ecological Results Verification (EOV) monitoring. Which allows measuring and monitoring the effects of implementing holistic management on farms.
The experience will include a mix of masterclasses, individual work times, and hands-on outdoor experience.
At the end of the course, the participants will be able to carry out the interview with the Savory Institute to be accredited as Accredited Professionals; as well as in-service training with Living Soils for accreditation as EOV verifiers. This will allow them to carry out consultancies with the endorsement of Savory and collaborate with Vivos Floors in the exercise of consultancies.
SPACE LIMITED to 25 participants.
More information to the email fpia@uci.ac.cr
"I am passionate about Holistic Management, because it allows the interests of producers, nature and consumers to be aligned. Environmental improvements are achieved and the profitability of the farm is improved. We see this process with great hope, understanding how few opportunities are like this and how urgent it is for our planet that they be used"
- Enrique Castegnaro, Echoes of the Future, Costa Rica
course agenda
More on the topics to be covered:
The Basics of Holistic Management
Holistic thinking, ecosystem processes and the tools to manage them are the basis for being able to understand and work on the different procedures that Holistic Management is made up of.
Why is the holistic context needed?
Knowing the context in which you work and what you want to achieve allows you to define the actions that will allow you to achieve the desired future.
The holistic context links what is valued in life with the environment and systems that are in place to maintain it.
Financial planning
The financial plan is the process by which the notion of holism into practice. It allows establishing priorities in the actions, investments and efforts to be made in order to achieve the desired future.
"The key to generating wealth is not in the things that are sold, but in how the money earned is reinvested."
Holistic planned grazing
The grazing plan seeks:
Create a landscape according to the holistic context
Increase grass production
Improve animal performance or increase the number of animals
Reduce labor and increase efficiency
Improve the biological decomposition of dry or dead plants, which allows the acceleration of the mineral cycle of nutrients that is reintegrated into the soil and promotes better growth in the coming seasons
The grazing plan consists of defining the movement of the herds in the paddocks based on the recovery of the pasture. The grazing plan seeks to maximize production and minimize overgrazing.
Lead the animals to the right place, at the right time with the right behavior.
Overgrazing: Overgrazing occurs when animals eat foliage that is still growing .
Holistic ecological monitoring
Monitoring of ecosystem processes needs its own monitoring because much of what we do as land managers can have unforeseen effects. When planning to alter the ecosystem in any way, assume that we may be wrong because the earth is more complex than human beings can understand.
Monitoring is essential in any management plan that is carried out, since it allows us to determine that what is wanted to be achieved is being achieved.
Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV) is the "science within" the Savory Institute's Land to Market program. Land to Market (L2M) is a sourcing solution that connects buyers, brands, and retailers with farms and ranches that are regenerating their land.
The EOV is the evidence-based protocol used to verify that farms and ranches are eligible to participate in the L2M program.
holistic land planning
The land plan aims to define and implement the necessary infrastructure to achieve the holistic context that is to be achieved.
Keeping large herds of animals on the move requires new thinking about how fences, water points, roads and handling facilities are laid out, especially when dealing with large tracts of land.
It is important to note that you should start managing and planning with the infrastructure you currently have.
“Soil is the key to life. Livestock allows us to improve the health of the soil."
- Cristino Villareal, Director of the Mapimí Biosphere Reserve