Tony Rinaudo, widely known as the ‘forest maker’, is an Australian agronomist who has lived and worked in Africa for several decades.
During the great famine of 1984, at the age of only 26, Rinaudo was placed in charge of delivering emergency food aid to tens of thousands of families.
He discovered and put into practice a solution to the extreme deforestation and desertification of the Sahel region where he lived.
Using a simple set of management practices, farmers there have been able to restore tree cover, which has helped to improve the livelihoods and food security of millions.
Rinaudo pioneered a technique that involves growing up trees from existing root systems, which are often still intact and which he refers to as the “underground forest”.
By identifying the right plants and pruning and protecting them, farmers can help them grow into trees.
Changing attitudes has been key to Rinaudo’s successful work. He realised that if people had reduced the forest to a barren landscape, it would require people to restore it.
Known as farmer-managed natural regeneration, this approach has now restored five million hectares with more than 200 million trees in Niger alone.
This technique has the potential to restore vast areas of degraded drylands in an area the size of India.
What Rinaudo has created is much more than an agricultural technique, he has inspired a farmer-led movement that is regreening land in the Sahel region and beyond.
Rinaudo was recently appointed a Member of the Order of Australia and is sharing his story from growing up in Myrtleford, to moving to Africa in his early 20s and pioneering a movement that is literally changing the world.
He will speak at the Kyneton Baptist Church at 10am on Sunday February 26. All welcome.
