Dimbangombe Ranch
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Enhancing the survival of threatened wildlife
Reclaiming Land even in drought
Reversing desertification and restoring biodiversity
This 6,500-acre property is a Holistic Management® learning site managed by the
Africa Centre for Holistic Management®, but it is also a working ranch. Dimbangombe is ideally situated a few miles west of the Hwange Communal Lands in what is known as the Matetsi area of Zimbabwe.
It is surrounded by 5 million acres of state-owned forest and dedicated wildlife areas—nearly all of them unfenced. It lies 22 miles south of the Victoria Falls and is easily accessible by road, rail and air.
Dimbangombe’s hilly woodlands, three rivers and large vleis (meadows) provide habitat for a wealth of wildlife: elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, cheetah, African wild dog, hyena, zebra, giraffe, sable, kudu, klipspringer, waterbuck, baboon, monkey—not to mention the plethora of birdlife and other small animal life in the area.
It also supports a growing herd of cattle, goats, horses and pigs, a free-range poultry operation, organic gardens, and a thatch harvesting enterprise. The ranch provides employment for 40 staff members, drawn mainly from the nearby Hwange Communal Lands
In 2000 the ranch launched an ecotourism enterprise, Dimbangombe Conservation Safaris, in an effort to enhance financial sustainability. Through this enterprise, the ranch offers several lodging options, home-cooked meals, and a variety of game-viewing activities for those seeking an out-of-the-ordinary experience.
Dimbangombe also houses training facilities, lodging and catering services used by the Africa Centre and Holistic Management® International for a variety of training programs, workshops and seminars.
As a Holistic Management® learning site, we are dedicated to ensuring that all our practices are ecologically sound, socially responsible, and economically viable. In addition we have a larger aim: to demonstrate the restoration of biological diversity and enhancement of wildlife habitat, using livestock as our main reclamation “tools.”
Enhancing the survival of
threatened wildlife populations
We have begun to restore habitat that once sustained a far greater abundance and diversity of wildlife species. Through holistic planning techniques that enable us to use livestock as a land reclamation tool, we are able to remove excess vegetation that has grown old and is choking out fresh, nutritious growth, and break up crusted soil surfaces so new plants can germinate. By carefully planning livestock moves, we eliminate overgrazing and can avoid having stock in areas that are critical to wildlife when they are breeding, fawning, or nesting.
Land in Africa reclaimed with Holistic Management®,
even during drought years:
Photo on the left was taken in September 2004 on land that most believed was beyond reclamation since it had remained bare for more than 30 years. Photo on the right was taken in June 2005 following a rainy season that was one of the driest of the last 30 years. Shortly after the first photo was taken we moved our lion-proof kraal (see below) onto the area, where our herd of cattle and goats spent each night for one week. Following this treatment and meager rains (8 inches in a 30-inch rainfall area) plants began to cover the bare ground
At left: photos taken on the same day.
This part of the Dimbangombe River (top photo), on Dimbangombe Ranch, is still flowing at the end of the rainy season. Holistic Management® means a better water table and habitat overall.
The river on the neighboring lands (bottom photo) flash flooded during the rains, but otherwise never flowed.
Drought and flood are, in reality, two sides of the same coin. We can improve land health to survive drought and prevent flooding but to do so, we must recapture water we’re losing to runoff and get it to soak into the soil and seep into underground aquifers
By herding the stock by day and keeping them in lion-proof enclosures at night, we have eliminated the need for fencing, which is so hazardous to wildlife, and shown that livestock and predators can co-exist.
Reversing desertification and
restoring biodiversity
People and wildlife depend on the health of the land to survive. The land deterioration in the Matetsi area, as in many other regions, was initiated by the human-caused disruption of a vital relationship that once existed between herding ungulates, the plants and soils that nourished them, and the pack-hunting animals that preyed on them.
This destruction has been exacerbated by human management, especially attempts to maintain grasslands through the frequent use of fire and, in the settled areas, through the manner in which livestock have grazed.
Numerous fires are deliberately set throughout most of Africa’s wild lands and national parks to remove excess (old) vegetation, and thus keep grasslands alive. In the past, massive herds of wild grazers cleared away the old growth, making way for the new.
Modern managers have tried to simulate the role wild herds once performed by using fire, but the repeated use of fire also produces many undesirable effects: exposed soil, which leads to dehydration and erosion (otherwise known as desertification); the loss of fire-sensitive plant species and the animals dependent upon them; and the release of harmful pollutants into the atmosphere.
Livestock can be used far more effectively to simulate the presence of the formerly massive wild herds, as we are demonstrating at Dimbangombe. Managed holistically, livestock can be used to clear away the old growth on grass plants while at the same time helping to cover exposed soil, and to enhance the diversity of plant and animal life by creating the habitat for them. They also feed people.
Contact:
Shannon Horst
Holistic Management® International
1010 Tijeras Ave. NW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Tel: (505) 842-5252
Fax: (505) 843-7900
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The Africa Centre for Holistic Management®
The Africa Centre for Holistic Management® - Staff
Dimbangombe College of Wildlife, Agriculture and Conservation Management
Community Based Conservation Program