Tony Rinaudo: The Forest-MakerJohannes Dieterich The Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo revolutionized reforestation in Africa with Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). His method is based on deploying tree stumps and roots that still grow even in degraded landscapes: thanks to the protection and care of the shoots, the original tree population can be regenerated without major financial costs. The method is now successfully applied in at least 24 African countries. Where the desert was still expanding 20 years ago, farmers reforest large areas with FMNR: in Niger alone seven million hectares of land were already restored in this way. Up to 700 million people will possibly be obliged to leave their homelands during the next three decades because of increasing desertification in the landscapes where they live. In the opinion of scientists, there is only one hope: to convince the local farmers of 'sustainable land management'. Tony Rinaudo believes that with FMNR he has found the appropriate method for such management - and just in time to stop, or even to be able to reverse the destruction of livelihoods. |
Contents
Prologue Johannes Dieterich | 9 |
Discovering the Underground Forest Tony Rinaudo | 50 |
FMNR is Now a Widely ScaledUp Agricultural Practice | 92 |
Trust Would Be a Good Starting Point Interview with | 126 |
Postscript Tony Rinaudo | 139 |
Common terms and phrases
acacia Africa African drylands African Union agricultural albida areas Australia benefits Burkina Faso carbon carbon sequestration communities continent cooperative countries create crop yields degraded desertification drought effects environment Ethiopia Faidherbia Farmer Managed Natural farmlands farms fertilizer trees fields firewood FMNR method FMNR project fodder forestry funded Ghana Gino Strada global grain growing Hargeisa harvest Hausa hectares households Humbo impact increase indigenous trees investments Kenya land landscapes livelihoods livestock living Malawi Mali Managed Natural Regeneration Maradi Maradi region ment million hectares movement NGOs Niger Nigeria Nigerien people’s Place and Binam practice problem Programme pruning rainfall re-greening reduce reforestation regenerating trees restoration Sahel Sahelian scale seedlings Senegal shocks significant smallholder farmers Sodo soil fertility spread of FMNR sprouting stumps sustainable tion tonnes Tony Rinaudo tree densities tree planting tree species underground forest village Vitellaria paradoxa wood World Vision Zinder zones