PHOTOS:^ World^ Vision.CAN A FOREST CONQUER
A WASTELAND?
All Australian agronomist Tony
Rinaudo needs to transform a
dry desert landscape into a flourishing
forest is a small pocket knife. In the
same way a gardener prunes roses to
encourage proper growth, Rinaudo
cuts back the growth sprouting from
old stumps to encourage it to regrow
into tree form. In the fi rst 20 years
after its introduction to Niger, FMNR
spread across 12 million acres, which
is about 50% of the nation’s farmland.
By now FMNR has been introduced to
almost 20 countries in Africa and in
Southeast Asia as well as to Haiti.
Forests now stand where livestock
grazing, burning, and harvesting for
fuelwood had previously prevented
the trees from regrowing. Sometimes
seemingly bare fi elds may contain
hundreds of root systems per acre.
According to a World Vision report,
the reintroduction of trees to farming
systems creates “greater abundance
of benefi cial soil organisms” and also
improves moisture retention as well
as availability of nutrients. Rinaudo’s
program resulted in 18 trees per acre
instead of the previously recorded 1.
(compare the photos at right).BEFOREAFTERWHEN I CAME HERE
THE FIRST TIME, THERE
WAS HARDLY A TREE.”
TONY RINAUDO,
agronomist and expert in the reforestation of wastelands and desertsA photo and its story