Is "Holisitc Resource Management" the answer for African Rangelands?

In Pastoral Network Newsletter No. 23, mention was made of a workshop on Holistic Resource Management (HRM) held 15-17 December 1986 in Uppsala, Sweden. The workshop was organized on behalf of SIDA by the consulting firm Terra Nova and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Participants were mainly from Swedish universities and development agencies, but also included a few individuals form Denmark, Norway, USA and Germany. The sole lecturer was Mr. Allan Savory, the founder and director of the Centre for Holistic Resource Management in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. As the applicability of his resource management approach to the Sahelian zone in Africa was announced as a central question of the three-day workshop, a report about it may be of interest to a wider audience within the Pastoral Network. HRM has three major features: 1. a thought model; 2. an assumption that four missing keys to understanding rangelands and environmental degradation have been found; and 3. a method of grazing management called the Savory Grazing Method (SGM). Our purpose in this brief paper (9 pg) is to examine these features critically, from the standpoint of their general applicability in Africa.