Tony Rinaudo

March 15, 2022 Global Earth Repair

Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration – Niger, Africa

Tony Rinuado is an Australian agronomist, who is widely known as the “forest maker.” Having lived and worked in African countries for several decades, he has discovered and put in practice a solution to the extreme deforestation and desertification of the Sahel region. With a simple set of management practices, farmers can regenerate and protect existing local vegetation, which has helped to improve the livelihoods of millions.

Rinaudo has pioneered a technique that involves growing up trees from existing root systems, which are often still intact and which Rinaudo refers to as an “underground forest.” By choosing the right plants and pruning and protecting them in a certain way, farmers can help them grow into trees. Changing attitudes has been key to Rinaudo’s successful work. He realised that if people had reduced the forest to a barren landscape, it would require people to restore it.

Tony Rinaudo’s world changed when he was struck one day with the realization that certain short shrubs in desiccated areas were actually small and dormant full-sized tree species. By patiently pruning, watering and caring for these trees, he was able to restore massive areas to full health through a process of tree manicuring he would call “natural coppicing”. The school of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) that has sprung from this work has had an immense global impact that will continue to be felt as it reaches more and more people. First, farmers survey their land and choose among the existing local species the right ones to regenerate. Second, farmers select a few stems that they want to grow, while cutting the rest to be used as fodder,mulch or similar. Then, the selected stems are pruned to halfway of the trunk. Finally, the farmer marks the re-growing trees and protects them. The process is repeated every two to six months.

Rinaudo’s farmer-managed natural regeneration method has restored 50,000 square km of land with over 200 million trees in Niger alone. It has the potential to restore currently degraded drylands with an area the size of India. What Rinaudo has created is much more than an agricultural technique, he has inspired a farmer-led movement that is regreening land in the Sahel region and beyond.

Reforestation was no longer a question of having the right technology or enough budget, staff or time. It was not even about fighting the Sahara Desert, or goats or drought. The battle was now about challenging deeply held beliefs, attitudes and practices and convincing people that it would be in their best interest to allow at least some of these ‘bushes’ to become trees again.