Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR)
Regeneración natural gestionada por agricultores (FMNR)
- Date
- 1983 · confidence high
- Place
- Maradi, Maradi Region, Niger
- Credited to
- Tony Rinaudo and Nigerien farmers
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Instead of planting trees, shoots from live stumps and roots are pruned and protected in the fields. In Niger this practice, spread by Tony Rinaudo from 1983, restored about five million hectares with some 200 million trees.
Credit is shared between Rinaudo and the farmers themselves, who already protected trees; the area figures (Reij, Tappan) are estimates and their relation to rainfall is debated.
What it led to
- the regreening of the Sahel
- low-cost agroforestry
- global landscape restoration programmes