Holistic Management: Integrative Desision Making Framework

Integrative Decision Making Framework

Often times designers, thinkers, engineers, planers, and other people engaged in disciplines that value thorough, well thought out plans for any kind of enterprise or endeavor, succumb to a type of paralysis. Cycling through endless iterations of design on paper without being able to ground this good thinking into action often times creates situations where opportunities slip through our fingers.

Holistic Managements Decision making framework offers a system developed to deal with planing in real time for farmers and ranchers who have to be able to harvest crops this year, no matter what changes they may be considering making next year.

One of the most important and informative ways to analyze decision making is through the lens of finance. With a sharp eye for creating profit by minimizing expense, and a framework to insure ecological and social accountability Holistic Management's financial planing is a powerful tool to help us empower eco-social regeneration through entrepreneurial ventures.

Holistic Management Financial Planning

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Integrating this framework into the design cycles present in the world of permaculture design allows us to truly embody principles like catch and story energy and make hay while the sun shines by re-enforcing good decision making that is embedded firmly in an overall holistic vision for the long term design.

A great team of blogers is busy documenting how Holistic Management fits into an emerging framework for Carbon Farming and Regenerative Design.

Some great resources for understanding this process can be found at the carbon farming blog.

Total Ecological Health Index.

Total Ecological Health index is a way of quantifying the health of an ecosystem, or entire bioregion. Scientific methods like soil testing, air quality testing, water quality testing, species diversity index, human footprint and other methods can help us gain an understanding for the health of our home environments.

Maintaining and improving the Total Ecological Health Index of bioregions and the entire prlant is a key part of any strategy to stabalize climate.

In fact saving the ecosystems on earth that have high ecological health indecis due to their species diversity may be the most important strategy of all to help maintain earth's precarious balence of life.

E.O Wilson's article in science news talking about hotspots points to an important strategy I will call the arc strategy.

Hotspots:

Hot spots are areas of the planet, that due to unique climate and topography, harbor immense biodiversity. These hot spots are like seed banks for Earth's genetic diversity.

The Arc Strategy:

In this strategy you protect diversity hotspots that will then be able to radiate species diversity out these refugios have historically been the backbone of planetary species diversity and ecoogical resilience.
Developing a coherent and economically viable strategy for protecting these hot spot is essential for ecological resilience and the survival of our species and planetary ecology as we know it.

So, what are some strategies for protecting these arcs of life?

• government funded conservation grants run through science
• ecosocial entreprenuerial enterprise
• private reserves

Each of these strategies has its upsides and down sides.

Ecosocial enterprise offers us a glimpse at a sustainable solution that can compliment, and even weave other strategies together.
Providing a firm matrix of right livelihood, preservation and even regeneration of species this strategy is being pioneered by innovators in the Gaia U community and other world changing groups around the world.

Booyacacao is my personal attempt to create a sustainable, just ecosocial enterprise that can help protect hotspots and also foster opportunities for right livlihood for all people involved.

Greenhorn and Carbon Farming

Greenhorn Radio interviews Carbon Farming Course convener Ethan Roland


On today's episode of Greenhorn Radio, Severine von Tscharner Fleming interviewed Ethan Roland (a primary organizer of the Carbon Farming Course, and proprietor of Appleseed Permaculture) and John Good (co-owner and operator of Quiet Creek Farm at The Rodale Institute). Their topics were carbon, compost, and the future of farming, and you can hear the show online at Greenhorn Radio.

Read more on the Carbon Farming Blog


This is a great example of where agriculture is going, and how different groups are working together to create cooperative systems to improve ecological health, build real wealth, and shift society and culture into justice and peace.

The Carbon Negative Future!

Banking away the waves

Surfer, activist and Gaia University Associate in Green Business Kyle Thierman shows the connections between the world of international finance and pollution, climate change and poverty.


Rock on bro

Carbon Rich Farming Worldwatch

Worldwatch institute, a well known think tank focusing on hard science, meticulous research and solution oriented analysis is pointing towards decentralized, carbon farming oriented agricultural solutions. The systems called for in the 09 Land Use Report follow three main strategies:

1. Enriching soil carbon: Through soil conservation such as no till or appropriate tillage practices, strictly organic agriculture and using biochar as an ammendment.
2. Farming With Perennials: year around ground cover, perennial systems and polyculture systems to enhance yeild and carbon capture.
3. Climate Friendly Livestock Solutions: reduction of markets for livestock, innovation in feed, rotational grazing and re-use of waste play central roles in the worldwatch strategy for livestock in agriculture.

This last point is the only part of the puzzle that does not seem to quite fit.
Using over designed nutrition supliments (with startch) to help cattle stop flattulating seems to miss the point: cattle raised in systems that mimic their natural environment eat foods with high startch (thus their intensive bicamaral digestive system). So using a system like holsitic management integrated into an agro forestry system we can pull the livestock design back into the pattern created by the first two recommendations. This option is illustrated in the graphic above.

The report is remarkably insightful, and points towards the need being addressed by inovative and timely courses and research being implimented by teams of farmers, permaculturalists and other regenerative landuse practicioners in the form Carbon Farming and Economy Courses.

These courses, designed by an integrative working group of landuse professionals from across the globe will be holding three major courses consisting of modules that address all three major strategic points outlined by world watch, and beyond. By integrating systems like Keyline Design, Holistic Management, Soil Food Web, Food Forestry, Permaculture, and economic relocalization, Carbon Farming also delves into the details of maintaing a healhty soil food web, creating localized food systems to that support the kind of business model needed to create resilient multi-crop carbon negative farms, and address water management issues to hep increase the capacity to bulid biomas, build soil and store water on the landscape.


Worldwatch readers seem well aware that this kind of design, moving agriculture to a smaller scale and fundign support for regenerative landuse through credits for systems that capture carbon is reflected by the poll I saw on the worldwatch page July 1st:



Time seems ripe for this kind of new agricultural revolution to sweep the world and provide healhty food while dealing with the key issues of carbon pollution and soil loss by creating resilient local carbon farming systems.

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Transition Hohenwald Unleashing

Sitting in the Emporium Cafe listening to a local blues band the buzz of optimistic conversation is filling the Cafe.

WE are all gathered to celebrate the unleashing of the 25th Transition Town in USA. Hohenwald is unique, being one of the only transition towns that does not have a progressive legend cloaking the community, and is also unique being the only transition town in the South East USA. To top of the list of interesting facts, Hohenwald is, quite possibly, the only Transition Town town with City, County and State proclamations embracing the Transition Movement.

Interesting fact for a rural southern town with a deep christian heart and conservative roots.

Perhaps a telling sign that green is now becoming a part of North American Culture.

And not green as in greenwashed, green as in grassroots community organized, natural build permaculture, connecting with conventional, practical conservative pragmatism to create an interesting synergy between local government and community activists.

Hohenwald in Transition! Grass Roots Southern Green.