The "forest maker" brings hope to millions with farmer managed natural regeneration
Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo, known as the “forest maker”, has spent almost 40 years empowering farmers with the knowledge and skills they need to sustainably manage their environment to combat extreme deforestation and desertification, known as farmer managed natural regeneration (FMNR).
This technique involves growing up trees from existing root systems, which are often still intact as an “underground forest” and has helped to improve the livelihoods of and bring hope to millions.
But more than just providing knowledge and skills, Tony has addressed behavior change, policies, and social and economic frameworks so that people farmers are free to reforest their land, secure in the knowledge that they will benefit from it.
FMNR started in the Maradi region of Niger in the 1980s, where Tony\'s tree planting efforts were largely failing. He then realized that what he thought were bushes, were actually trees trying to regrow after being slashed, and that it was regeneration that was needed, not new planting.
By pruning and protecting them in a certain way, they soon grow into trees. Tony also realized that if it was people who had reduced the forest to a barren landscape, it would require people to restore it. He says \"Emphasizing the “Farmer Managed” part of FMNR is very important.
We don’t go in with a blue print and say \'this is how you have to do it,\' but we work with farmers and encourage them to use FMNR to achieve their objectives, which incidentally can be quite different fr
