Geoff Fishpool reflects on The Forest Underground by Tony Rinaudo

I first became aware of FMNR through the JRI Webinar recording in which Tony Rinaudo gently describes his involvement. If you have not seen the recording, I thoroughly recommend it. I also warmly recommend his book.

Before turning to the book itself, let us set FMNR, and Tony Rinaudo’s role, in some context. FMNR is a form of agroforestry — that is agriculture that uses trees. Fred Pearce, in his book A Trillion Trees, devotes a chapter to Agroforests, subtitled Farmers as Part of the Solution. In this he describes the process of regrowing trees in the Sahel, and speaks of it starting in the village of Dan Saga. He describes that

…in 1985, two young men returning from jobs in mines over the border in Nigeria began a transformation that is still playing out in Niger and neighbouring countries. The men were coming home to plant crops before the short rainy season began. They were late, however, and by the time they arrived home the rains were already under way. Their neighbours had followed government advice to clear their fields of weeds, tree roots and small bushes so that the soil would be easier to plough. In their rush to get next year’s crops in the ground, the two latecomers abandoned the clearing and planted in among the roots, hoping for the best.

To their surprise, their harvest was better than their neighbours’. Intrigued, they did the same the next year, with the same result. Clearly, trees were good for crops, and their neighbours took note. From then on, the farmers of Dan Saga left roots in the ground and allowed stems to grow from stumps. The trees might have got in the way of ploughing, but they improved the soils, capturing moisture and fixing nitrogen. Before long, the trees were also yielding firewood and leafy animal fodder, while providing shade and blocking desert winds…

The man who brought this drylands revolution to the attention of the world was Reij, then a geographer at the Free University of Amsterdam…

There is, it should be said, a different version of the rediscovery of the benefits of trees here. It involves an Australian missionary and agronomist called Tony Rinaudo, who told me he came up with the idea when he was working in Maradi in the 1980s…

His current employers, World Vision Australia, promote Rinaudo as ‘the forest maker’. But he told me, ‘It was a farmer-led phenomenon. I played a facilitator role only.’ He had never worked in Dan Saga, he said. Maybe they heard about the initiative, or maybe they came up with the idea independently.

Whatever the precise history, lots of development experts have now adopted the practice. It has a fancy title: Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR)… ‘In some respects FMNR isn’t new as all,’ says Rinaudo. ‘It is simply an adaptation of ancient practices that have been going on around the world for centuries. I have seen it in East Timor and Burundi. In Malawi, there are over a million hectares of FMNR, and no evidence of outside influence…’ ‘The important thing,’ says Rinaudo, ‘is that it is accessible and usable by the most resource-poor farmers, independent of any power or external aid. ’For me this piece by Pearce captures the sense in which the practice behind the title is the important thing. It also captures the humility that comes across to me from Rinaudo.

So, to the book itself, incidentally voted Australian Christian Book of the Year in 2022. This is an encouraging and flowing read — a story of a man and woman (Liz) coming together with a shared passion ‘to serve in agriculture in Africa’. The early part of the book describes their formative years and experiences, their meeting, marrying and path to Africa. There is then a section on their early struggles in trying to bring back the ability of land to support agriculture, through planting saplings, whilst raising a family and supporting the local community. The sapling planting was not successful. The details of how the land came to be in a poor state, and why the planting was unsuccessful, are interesting and informative. Then, about half way through the book, Rinaudo describes his moment of discovery in realising the potential of regrowing trees from the roots left from formerly felled trees, as opposed to attempting to grow trees afresh through the planting of saplings. The considerable work in taking forward this idea, and it becoming what is now known as FMNR, are described in an enjoyable and enlightening way. From then on the book describes important and interesting aspects of how FMNR has developed and become recognised internationally.

There is a clearly memorable point for Rinaudo, described in a footnote: In 2020 UN experts included FMNR among 512 good practices which are now featured on
their dedicated website… This is what they wrote about FMNR ‘We are pleased to inform you that your initiative has been selected to be included in a digital publication which will feature selected outstanding Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Good Practices. It is expected that these practices will continue to inspire governments and stakeholders in their effort to accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda at all levels.’

This captures the spirit of the book — humility in mentioning that this is one of 512 good practices, mixed with ownership of the quote that it is recognised as outstanding. I sense the joy of this recognition, and what that might mean for the further uptake of something that can make such a difference.

Returning to the wider recognition of FMNR, note that Working Group III (Mitigation) of the IPCC in the (most recent) Sixth round of reporting, have a specific piece in Box 7.10 Regreening the Sahel, Northern Africa. In comparison with Tony Rinaudo’s book, the wording of this IPCC report¹ is somewhat detached, but almost reassuring in that respect:

Regreening takes place when dormant seed or tree stumps sprout and are cultivated through the technique, called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). Without planting new trees, FMNR is presumed to be cheaper than other approaches to restoration, though comparative economic analysis has yet to be conducted… Relatively lower investment costs are believed to have contributed to the replication across the landscape. These factors worked together to contribute to a groundswell of action that affected rights, access, and use of local resources…

Regreening in the Sahel and the consequent transformation of the landscape has resulted from the actions of hundreds of thousands of individuals responding to social and biophysical signals… This is an example for climate change mitigation, where eliminating regulations – versus increasing them – has led to carbon dioxide removal.

There is little discussion here about the wider life-enhancing effects on the farmers and their families, the significant improvement in resilience against crop failures during droughts through changes in water retention and availability, improvements in the yield of staple crops, and also diversity in the ecosystem with habitat for natural predators of pests, and the introduction of other sources of food (e.g. fruit from the trees). FMNR also brings significantly better access to firewood. All of this leads to a sense of empowerment for those using the technique, and these and other aspects are drawn out in The Forest Underground.

In between their Fifth and Sixth rounds of reporting, the IPCC produced a special report in 2018, Global Warming of 1.5℃. In here there is another specific mention of FMNR, and the relevant section is copied below for those who wish to see the detail, without accessing the report itself.

Finally, another interesting read: How Trees can Save the World, by Peter Wohlleben, also talks about aspects of agroforestry, relevant to FMNR. In particular, it describes the process of hydraulic lift, where trees act as a kind of water pump for other plants.

The deep roots of trees give them access to a water resource that is not available to plants with much shallower roots. The trees pump water day and night, but use much less at night, the remainder helping to irrigate the ground around the tree. During the day, the trees themselves benefit from this water being closer to the surface, but so too do other plants, including crops. The effect of this is seen in the following excerpt from FMNR Manual Version 2, World Vision Australia, 2025:

We see here the crops growing strongly in the shade of the tree. Hence agroforestry, and FMNR in particular, are important techniques for use in both the adaptation to climate change and, through carbon capture, also in the mitigation of it.

Perhaps with this additional taster in this area, you might be encouraged to find 52 minutes and watch the recording of the webinar. Better still, do find and enjoy a copy of The Forest Underground, perhaps through giving business to a local bookshop. Then maybe think about supporting this work, at least by talking about this delightful success story, that is based on individuals, in some cases diligently following their sense of calling, and working with nature to
significantly improve many lives — even our own.

Author: Geoff Fishpool — someone trying to work out what makes sense in our engagement with the environment, not least based on our knowledge of how we are changing it. See Briefing Paper 50 for more background.

Excerpt from the IPCC Special Report Global Warming of 1.5℃.

1. Academic references are left out here — please refer to the original (Box 7.10 is on p 820) for these and other details (see Chapter 7
   of the WGIII AR6 report — this link allows a download of just a couple of MB rather than the full report with its more than 68MB).