Re-greening Africa – driving positive change on the continent”

Here at international Christian children’s charity World Vision, we know just how important it is to care for the world around us. It is precious and we all have a responsibility to keep it healthy. We’re told in Leviticus 25:24, “you must provide for the redemption of the land”, and World Vision is making that our mission, using interventions such as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) and the Re- greening Africa initiative.

World Vision is an implementing partner in Re-greening Africa, aiming to restore five million hectares of land in Africa by 2030. Re-greening Africa was named one of the UN World Restoration Flagships this year, celebrating projects that prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of ecosystems as a part of the UN’s Decade on Ecosystem.

Across Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, and Somalia World Vision is restoring trees, expanding existing re-greening practices, and training farmers and communities in sustainable land management techniques. Agroforestry is a key part of this – the integration of trees with crops and livestock, allowing for sustainable land management solutions that work for people, regardless of their economic situations.

One key World Vision initiative is Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), a low- cost land restoration technique to increase food and timber production and resilience to climate extremes. In practice, FMNR involves the systematic regrowth and management of trees and shrubs from felled tree stumps, sprouting root systems or seeds. The regrown trees and shrubs help restore soil structure and fertility, inhibit erosion and soil moisture evaporation, rehabilitate springs and the water table, and increase biodiversity.

World Vision’s Tony Rinaudo has often been nicknamed ‘The Forest Maker’, as he pioneered these regenerative practices and is still seeing its successes today across the continent. Over 25 years ago, working with local farmers in Niger, Tony began implementing what we now know as FMNR, an approach that has been so successful that it has been applied in at least 24 African countries.

“The technical definition of FMNR is the selection and the management of trees growing, often from tree stumps, but very often there’s still seeds in the ground, very hardy, resistant seeds that are just dormant, waiting to be released. So, it’s the selection and management of the trees that you want, to grow them out to meet the farmers’ needs,” Rinaudo explains. “FMNR is a landscape-level restoration technique. If you have a whole community altering the way they treat fire, grazing, ploughing, and cutting, in effect you have the ability to restore a whole landscape, so it’s a powerful tool.”

FMNR has economic, social and environmental benefits, and helps to achieve goals central to the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including improving healthy lives, food security, eliminating poverty, and developing communities in a sustainable way. At World Vision we know that when the environment is cared for, this has additional benefits. Healthy environments help produce food and resources, which then helps communities grow in a sustainable way and ultimately improves the lives of children and their families. Through partnering in the Re-greening Africa initiative, and through promoting methods such as FMNR in World Vision Area program and grant projects, households and whole communities across several African nations are increasing theirresilience, setting themselves up for long-term success using techniques that can be passed on. World Vision has this year been working on its brand new Raising Changemakers podcast hosted by activist Carrie Grant, talking with children and experts on issues affecting them.

On the episode talking about climate change, World Vision UK’s Head of (Programmatic) Impact and Technical Support Teleri Jardine explained why climate change measures like FMNR are so important: “With the amount of extreme climate events happening, we know that one billion children around the world are impacted by climate change. These are things like water scarcity, heatwaves, flooding, and droughts, and this impacts their daily lives – it can prevent them going to school. We know that 40 million children are having their education disrupted due to climate change.”

This is why it is vital to care for the environment, so we can subsequently care for the people living within it. The world’s most vulnerable children are at the heart of everything we do. For the COP28 event, World Vision called upon global leaders to take more ambitious action, especially in relation to children. As children are the most vulnerable to the effects of a changing environment, their lives and futures must be at the heart of planning and decision-making. Communities in the Sahel region of Mali are an excellent example of FMNR in action.

Adama is a farmer and a father-of-nine who has benefited from this project. World Vision teams trained farmers like him in farming techniques, agroforestry, and FMNR.Photo: World Vision, 2021 – Farmers like Adama in Mali are seeing the positive effects of FMNR techniques. “My farmland was very low in humus (a type of soil) and there were hardly any trees on it. As a result, I noticed that my production was decreasing every year. On a plot of one hectare cultivated, I could only have four bags of millet of 100kg each, which means 400kg of millet per hectare. I realised that I needed to change my traditional way of farming, by starting to regenerate a few trees on my farm,” Adama explains. “Applying the new techniques learned took a lot of work, yet I was willing to do it, because I believed that it will work and the result will allow me to increase my family’s income. Today, I reap the fruits of my farmland, which is very fertile because of the FMNR and composting techniques I applied. After farming a total of 10 hectares this year, I was able to harvest eight bags of millet, eight bags of maize and 10 bags of peanuts and beans,” he adds.

With such effective results, World Vision is excited to see more communities and landscapes benefitting from land restoration techniques and the Re-greening Africa initiative, and we will continue to work with our partners to drive positive change on the continent. Those who want to support this work can do so by donating to World Vision.