FEATURE
Grazed and Conserved – can Holistic Grazing regenerate a biodiverse landscape ?
“ T
hey want to bring what into the Drakensberg !?“ I spluttered , almost choking on my cup of hand-ground , gluten-free coffee . “ Big herds of cattle ,” she replied , “ to regenerate the montane grasslands that are rapidly deteriorating because of frequent and the absence of large , stomping , grazing , herbivores .” “ Don ’ t they know that fire is keeping the Berg grasslands stable and that the trampling of dense cattle herds , will wipe out the rich diversity of indigenous forbs . Don ’ t they read Grassroots ?” ( e . g ., Morris 2018 & 2021a ), I groaned , despairingly . “ But don ’ t you know about Regenerative Grazing and how it can heal the land and restore biodiversity ?” she responded , “ go educate yourself before so quickly dissing a potentially valuable tool for conservation and rangeland management .”
Craig Morris
Current Address : Agricultural Research Council – Animal Production ( ARC-AP ) c / o School of Life Sciences , University of KwaZulu-Natal , South Africa E-mail Address : morris @ ukzn . ac . za
So off I went to investigate this apparently new wondrous new method of grazing called Regenerative Grazing Management ( ReGM ), and I learned quite a few things . First , ReGM is not new . It ’ s just a repackaging of the old method of Holistic planned grazing ( aka cell , adaptive multi paddock , mob , time-controlled -grazing , etc ), first proposed by Alan Savory in Rhodesia more than half a century ago as a means of mimicking the impacts achieved by bunched mobs of herbivores being chased by predators across the landscape . Second , ReGM is part of the wide suite of ‘ nature-friendly ’ Regenerative Agricultural approaches that have become wildly popular in the last five years or so ( Figure 1 ) because of claims that they are the only way to restore degraded soils , boost sustainable , profitable production , and reverse climate change . Third , I learned that while researchers are mostly circumspect about the potential of ReGM to promote and sustain biodiversity , advocates and practitioners of ReGM are not
Figure 1 . Rise in Google searches for “ Regenerative Agriculture ” since 2010 .
reticent , bold proclaiming , without citing evidence , that , for example :
“[ Researchers have demonstrated that ] the appropriate time-managed grazing systems will not kill a single plant and will increase the biodiversity of native plants , animals , insects , and microorganisms in the farm ecosystem .” https :// regenerationinternational . org / 2021 / 03 / 29 / regenerative-grazingincreased-production-biodiversity-resilience-profits-and-a-climate-changesolution /
09 Grassroots Vol 22 No 2 July 2022