The Kiboriani Range, devastated by deforestation and constant burning

After attending a Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration Workshop in Moshi, Tanzania in March and the Beating Famine Conference in Nairobi in April, his newfound understanding of FMNR rekindled his determination and he returned to Mpwapwa with renewed zeal to restore degraded farms and hills.

He learnt that forests could be regenerated using the power of the large root systems which often remain alive and have the capacity to draw water and nutrients from deep under the soil surface, after a tree is cut down.

The root system represents 30 – 50% of the biomass of a large tree and may reach many metres into the soil to draw up water and nutrients for regrowth

Bishop Chiwanga (right) pointing out a tree stump with regrowth to trainees on his own farm

Bishop Chiwanga wrote to us

The tree stumps never cease to excite me, and I was delighted to find the same with others after the tree stump thing dawns in their minds … Stumps were not quite visible where we began. When we got to a typical tree stump with a few shoots I could not resist my excitement. Apparently the group noticed my radiant face and asked for the reason.  I explained the secret of FMNR- to release the underground forest to come to the surface, and that living stumps were the outlets for the underground forest to mushroom.  A lady remarked, “Ahaa! Is that what we should be looking for, and I was doing a horrible thing to burn tree stumps in my farm so that later I could dig them out for firewood.” We were standing in her farm. From then on we were like game hunters, chasing living stumps.

The essence of FMNR is that by pruning the regenerating shoots from a live stump, the water and nutrients from the large root system can energise the remaining shoots to grow rapidly.

The action started immediately. He organised training on his own farm, demonstrating how the living stumps could be found and how to prune the many shoots down to three to five so that they could grow strongly. After demonstration, each participant had the opportunity to prune regrowth.

A participant identifies which shoots she will leave

.

The remaining shoots will now grow quickly as the competition is reduced

Bishop Chiwanga is the chairman of the Lead Foundation which now plans to train a group 10 FMNR champions in each of 44 villages to demonstrate and follow up FMNR and multiply their efforts by identifying, forming and training other groups.

World Vision Tanzania’s FMNR Champion, Idda Ikombe, has been working with the LEAD Foundation to train champions, identify gaps and add technical expertise.

We hope to share more of the developments in Tanzania in the near future.

Until next time

Liz

Liz is travelling in Africa with her husband Tony Rinaudo, a natural resource management advisor with World Vision Australia, encouraging communities, non-government organisations, governments, research organisations and others to scale up reforestation over large areas.

Abreha Atsbeha before restoration 

A flash flood damages farm land as rainwater runs unchecked from denuded hills.

The community of Abreha Atsbeha, in Northern Ethiopia, had experienced recurrent crop failure and had received relief assistance for many years. In the 90s, they faced a terrible choice. The government asked them to relocate rather than depend on aid year after year. How could they leave the land they loved, the land of their forefathers?

There was another alternative, and that was to restore their land to its former productivity. Aba Hawi challenged his community to work to restore their hills and farmland. They worked on three interconnected interventions: soil erosion control, water harvesting and closing the hills to livestock and to wood harvesting.

Tony Rinaudo (World Vision) and Aba Hawi, Abreha Atsbeha community leader

The effort that this community has expended on erosion control measures is absolutely astounding. They initially built hundreds of kilometres of soil and stone bunds to slow the flow of water down hills.

Community members build stone bunds along the contours. 

Above the stone bunds, they dug many trench bunds, usually 1-1.5m deep, to capture water.

Trench bunds “bank” water in the soil in the rainy season, raising the water table so that irrigation is possible in the dry season. 

Contour bunds enable terrace-farming on slopes while preventing erosion.

Each family dug a 4m X 4m pond to conserve water. In small gullies, the community constructed stone and trench bunds to slow the flow of water and chains of ponds to trap water. In the river, they constructed nine check dams. The first three catch silt and the last six hold water that allows 80% of the community to irrigate crops in the dry season from 650 hand dug wells. Everyone understands that they are banking water in the dry season – in the soil, the ponds, the check dams and the water table.

This check dam prevents erosion and enables farmers to irrigate in the dry season.

It took about 10 years to convince the whole community of the value of closing their hills to livestock and to wood harvesting but they are now united in their resolve to conserve their natural resources in order to have healthy and productive farmland.

The community has amazing commitment and understanding but they have not turned their situation around without outside assistance. The Ethiopian Government has enabling policies such as the one that requires every able-bodied, adult rural Ethiopian to give 40 days/year to development of community assets such as the soil and stone bunds, the chains of ponds and the check dams. Abreha Atsbeha families contribute at least another 40 days/year voluntarily.

Families whose income is less than Birr18,000 (about US$1000) above subsistence level participate in the Productive Safety Net Programme under which they receive food or cash for work performed on community assets. District meetings determine the priorities periodically. The aim is for those receiving the assistance to graduate from poverty. The managing committees of the Abreha Atsbeha community have utilised these programs to organise themselves, under the dynamic leadership of Aba Hawi, to restore their land.

Assistance has come from the World Food Programme, the Relief Society of Tigray, the University of Mekelle, the Tigray Agricultural Research Institute, AusAID, World Vision and other organisations.

To complement the above changes, households planted woodlots of eucalyptus and grevillea (Silky Oak) to provide firewood and building materials; adopted the use of fuel-saving cookstoves to reduce the consumption of firewood; and participated in the government scheme to improve dairy cattle by artificial insemination so that only one dairy cow is needed, instead of ten, to provide the same amount of milk.

Introduction of modern beehives enables households to earn additional income from the unique white, organic honey produced from the local shrubs. A market chain has been established so that the honey can be sold to Europe at premium prices.

In this valley, 100 female-headed households have been assisted with modern beehives. On a nearby site, landless, unemployed university graduates have also been assisted with beehives.

Government, community, UN Agencies, NGOS, universities and research stations have all contributed to the successes seen in Abreha Atsbeha. However  the mobilisation of the community under dynamic and committed leadership has been a key contributor to the extent and sustainability of the change.

Until next time

Liz

Follow me on Twitter: @LizRinaudo1

The Orthodox Church has traditionally practiced the protection of forests around churches. In highly degraded areas of northern Ethiopia, these remnant forests retain high levels of biodiversity and have become the source of seed for restoring indigenous forests. The remnant forests are currently threatened by grazing pressures, illegal wood harvesting, encroachment by farmers and burning but the church is working to protect them, increase the protected areas for forest restoration and develop biodiversity corridors.

Ethiopian Orthodox Church Forest

The World Agroforestry Centre is promoting Evergreen Agriculture  which incorporates agroforestry into Conservation Agriculture. The inclusion of Faidherbia albida (an acacia-like, Nitrogen-fixing tree) into farming systems has been especially valuable, doubling and tripling crop yields in Zambia. It increases soil fertility and organic matter, soil water infiltration and retention, while diversifying incomes (providing bee and livestock forage), stabilising land and decreasing erosion. The Ethiopian government has a goal to assist farmers to plant 100 million Faidherbia trees on their farms.

Faidherbia albida (previously called Acacia albida – Gao in Niger)

Tony and some World Vision Ethiopia colleagues talked about Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) in Niger and Humbo, Ethiopia. This is a revolutionary new concept to many with the potential to regenerate forests and trees on farms on a broad scale with much lower costs and higher success rates than by tree planting.

The Ethio Wetlands and Natural Resource Association emphasises an integrated approach to population, health and environment. They have benefitted over 6,000 households with soil and water conservation structures, building the capacity of watershed management committees which have developed local bylaws, providing 104 safe water points and 102 peer educators to work with community members on family planning.

Many organisations have been planting trees with varied success rates. The trend is to move away from top down approaches, which tend to lock communities out of protected areas, and to move towards participatory approaches where communities are organised into cooperatives which care for forests, create appropriate bylaws and work in partnership with local governments.

The challenges are many and range from the thinking that agroforestry approaches are too slow in realising economic returns (which is not true in the case of FMNR); poor application of government policy; threats from major investors, livestock, population increase; shortage of seeds and seedlings of desired tree species and other resources to inadequate market chains for rural communities.

Recommendations for scaling up successful regreening initiatives:

• Form a network of individuals to lead, coordinate and direct agroforestry initiatives
• Initiate a think tank of interested individuals and organisations to collate information on current initiatives and plan for future
• Work with the Ministry of Agriculture on the direction of appropriate government leadership
• Build capacity of communities and community committees/cooperatives
• Move from sectoral to integrated approaches
• Move to participatory and community managed approaches
• Consult regularly with all stakeholders throughout intervention processes
• Secure land tenure or user rights for communities
• Build on traditional systems
• Give church forests legal status
• Expand the policy for every farming household to give 40 man days/year to include that pastoralists (herders) should give 40 man days/year/household to restoration of the grazing environment
• Encourage herders to carry axes to remove invasive species.
• Increase the implementation of FMNR to accelerate the rate of reforestation
• Communicate and build synergies between the different groups working with different approaches.

I could write a lot more about this conference but need to post this blog before we head north where there may not be good internet access.

Until next time

Liz

Humbo in southern Ethiopia is an area which has been racked by famine which resulted in communities receiving food aid year after year.

Humbo hills in 2000 before restoration of the forest.

In 2004, World Vision had identified the hills around Humbo as suitable for a large reforestation project and after extensive consultation and negotiation with the community, the Ethiopian government and the World Bank, 2,728 hectares were selected for a community managed natural regeneration project which would attract carbon sequestration income to the community, as well as restoring the productive capacity of the land, reducing the erosive force of rainwater running off the hills and reviving the local streams and springs.

Humbo hills in 2007 after three years of Community Managed Natural Regeneration

After travelling 6 hours on good but congested highway from Addis Ababa to Soddo and then an hour on bone-rattling roads to the project site, we met with communities and climbed one of the hills. The reforestation was so successful that several of us were temporarily lost on the hill (which had been completely bare), unable to see or hear the main group.

We were privileged to observe a group from one community working on the hill – pruning the trees in a sustainable way so that the trees would grow well and continue to be productive while families were able to harvest firewood for domestic use and grass for their livestock and for sale.

Pruning the trees for increased productivity

Taking home the harvest

How did this transformation occur? I would like to introduce you to Hailu Tefera, a brave and dedicated man and the manager of the project team which worked with the seven communities to convince them that it was in their interest to restore the hills.

Hailu Tefera, the project manager

The team met with strong opposition as there were those who thought their livelihoods would be threatened and one lobby which tried to convince others that their land would be given to international investors. The team were repeatedly chased out of meetings, cursed and threatened. However they continued to work with politicians, elders and other significant opinion leaders and eventually won support. Bravery was not the only characteristic of this team. They also persevered with driving several hours over bone-rattling and flooded roads twice a week throughout the project implementation.

The success of this project was anchored in the simplicity of the concept and the development of the capacity of the communities to manage the forest, their cooperatives and the governance of their own affairs. FMNR is a simple concept – identify the living stumps, select the ones you want to regrow, prune the shoots so that 3-5 remain and continue to care for/protect those shoots. This includes developing a livestock management plan. However, FMNR cannot succeed unless the community learns to work together.

Today, the government has granted user rights to the communities and seven cooperatives manage the 2,728 ha of restored forest. They each have a plan and bylaws for managing their part of the forest, including the management of livestock, the assignment of forest guards and the development of fire-fighting awareness, skills and procedures. The cooperatives also identify those who have been disadvantaged by the protection of the hills and provide them with assistance to take up sewing or trading.  People require permission to enter the forest and this is granted for legitimate working bees and harvesting of grass and previously pruned branches. The branches are left on the ground after pruning until the leaves have dried and fallen off, to provide a mulch to protect the slopes from heavy rainfall and to increase the organic matter in the soil. Bare patches where no live stumps were found have been planted with Grevillia robusta (Silky Oak), Eucalyptus and Acacia saligna. The birds and other wildlife have started to return.

Those who initially threatened the project team and chased them away from community meetings have since apologised and are now thankful for the benefits they are receiving. One family, who initially opposed the restoration of the forest, told us that they have now been able to build a bigger house, buy a pair of oxen and send all of their children to school.

The communities have earned $84,000 for the carbon sequestered so far in the forest and the seven cooperatives are using it for development projects to benefit the communities. One cooperative has bought a grain mill which any member of the community can use for a small fee to grind their grain into flour. They are building a large grain store and will use some of the funds to buy grain from the community at harvest time, store it securely and then sell it back to the community at a small profit, later in the year when market prices are very high. They are also planning to buy a vehicle to transport produce to bigger markets where they can obtain higher prices.

Community members carry rocks for the floor of their grain store

Flour mill purchased by a cooperative with money from carbon sequestration

One of the exciting results of this project is that the Ethiopian government and the World Bank now recognise the Humbo project as a model for successful restoration of forests. The Ethiopian government has set a goal of restoring 15 million hectares of forest and meetings are to be held this week to discuss how this can be achieved.

Until next time

Liz

A dream will come true!

After the first day of the conference, I am almost euphoric and not only me. Many  participants fluctuate between excitement and the question “Can this dream become a reality?” The dream of re-greening Africa.

The presentation by Tony Rinaudo (World Vision revegetation expert) on the revegetation method FMNR (Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration) managed by small scale farmers has impressed me deeply. Tony began by describing how it all began.

When he first went to Niger Republic in the 1980s, he was deeply shocked at the appearance of the landscape. Constant drought and creeping desertification with soil temperatures up to 60⁰ C and multiple plant diseases and pests conspired to diminish harvests sometimes completely. He had gone to Niger to help improve agricultural productivity and was perplexed and discouraged. Nothing he did worked. He encouraged and worked with farmers to plant thousands of trees but it was hopeless, the scale of the problem was enormous and at least 80% of the trees died.

One day he was driving a trailer load of seedlings to the bush and stopped to release some air from the tyres (for better traction in the sand). As he surveyed the barren country, he noticed little bushes. He had seen them before and assumed they were small shrubs. This day, he took a closer look and realised that they were actually trees which had been cut down. Each year, shoots came up and each year, people or animals cut them back to ground level. It was a moment of inspiration – he realised that there was a full root system under each stump, just waiting to push food and nutrients up into the shoots. The concept of FMNR was born. FMNR is the systematic regeneration of trees from stumps, roots and seeds. It involves selecting the stumps you want to allow to regenerate, selecting one to five healthy stems and pruning the rest. The stump can then pour its energy into a few stems and they quickly grow into trees.

It all starts with ownership!

Tony realised the incredible opportunities that opened up before him, but nothing was possible without the support of the farmers in Niger. Working with the government to secure user rights to the trees for farmers, the long journey began. Many found it difficult to believe that this simple and inexpensive method of restoration of barren land would be possible. He managed to convince some farmers to try it. Over time, more took up the practice and soon realised that their crop yields increased, sometimes doubling, they had more (sustainably harvested) firewood, more shade, lower windspeeds, increased insect predators and other tree products. Birds returned and spread seeds from other plants and trees. The microclimate changed, increasing humidity and reducing temperatures. Today, about half the arable land in Niger Republic has been restored by this method.

Scientists like Chris Reij of the University of Amsterdam carried out research and found that farmers who implemented FMNR did not require food aid in recent famines as their crop yields were higher, they had more fodder for their animals and they could sell tree products, providing money with which they could buy grain.

After joining World Vision in 1999, Tony continued to spread this method and it is now practiced in 8 African countries and some Asian countries. By restoring agricultural land, barren hills and wasteland, many communities have realised the importance of trees for successful and sustainable farming and improved food security. Africa has a wide variety of trees and many of these fix nitrogen and can therefore ‘fertilise’ the ground underneath them.

FMNR project teams have had to work with governments where farmers have limited rights to land and/or trees. If farmers have user rights to trees then there is incentive to care for them.

The conference has shown that the dream of re-greening Africa can become a reality but all stakeholders need to collaborate: politicians in developed countries and African countries, people in small farmer communities, non-government organisations, academics and the media. Every individual can help. Be a supporter of a great idea.

Greetings from Nairobi!

More than 200 participants have registered for the ‘Beating Famine’ conference including 5 Ministers of Agriculture/Environment from East African countries, 26 media personnel from at least 6 countries and representatives from many research institutions/universities and NGOs. The main conference starts tomorrow and will be streamed from http://www.beatingfamine.com/  from 9 am 10 April, Kenyan time (4 pm 10 April Australian EST). The presentations will be posted at http://www.beatingfamine.com/conference as they become available.

Until next time

Liz

When tropical downpours fall on these denuded hills, the water runs off instead of soaking through to the water table, causing floods and erosion in the towns, villages and farms below.

It is always exciting to meet with community economic development groups and hear how their capacity has been enhanced to work as a group, manage community savings and loans projects, manage bees etc.

Tony helped one economic development group in the Central Rift Valley to understand how the denudation of the hills had caused their streams and springs to dry up, the flooding and erosion in the rainy season, the loss of tree fodder for their animals, the reduction of predators that used to control their insect and rodent pests and the loss of tree products that they used to rely on.

After he shared the FMNR experience from Niger, the group became quite excited. They saw immediately that they as a group, representing over 100 farming families, would be able to regenerate the forest on the hills above their farms. When we asked if they had user rights to the hills they said that they did and that with the training that World Vision had given them, they would now able to negotiate with local government, on behalf of local farming families, on any issues that might arise. We left the area feeling encouraged that one group and the local World Vision staff had been given hope that they could act to restore their environment, improve water supply, reduce flooding in their area and increase both productivity and profitability.

Beekeeping is one activity promoted in economic development groups. The owner of these hives immediately saw how he could increase his honey production and have more fodder for his cattle by practising Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration of trees.

Meet two remarkable women

Rosemary and Mary

Rosemary

Rosemary has rescued 6 girls from early marriage and various kinds of abuse and deprivation by their families, standing up against cultural norms and community pressure.

Since she was a small girl she challenged her family’s expectations. Maasai girls did not usually attend school but she cried until her father let her attend. As they moved from one place to another, she pleaded with her father until he organised the transfer to the next school. Although she married before she finished secondary school, she resumed study six years later to complete her certificate in Early Childhood Education and is planning to start her Diploma. She is a trainer of trainers in understanding Kenyan Law as it relates to community economic activity and women’s rights and is passionate about the continuing education and empowerment of women.

We met Rosemary at the Twala cultural Manyatta (compound) where she is a member of one of five women’s groups which work together to empower Maasai women and refind their culture.  She has obtained sponsorship by World Vision for the girls she has rescued so that they can continue their education. The group is managing 80 beehives, is testing energy efficient stoves and a biogas stove, has developed a “Walking with the Baboons” eco-tourism enterprise and is part of the group ranch which is managing the grazing lands for improved grazing and wildlife.

We briefly “walked with the baboons”. The troop of roughly 30 continued to romp and feed on  prickly pear fruit while we walked amongst them (I was removing cactus spines from my skirt for days).

We talked with the local World Vision staff about the problem of prickly pear in the area. It is taking over large areas of grazing land and the spines cause mouth problems in sheep, goats and cattle. We noticed several examples of infestation of the cactus by the cochineal bug and suggested that the WV staff follow up with local Department of Agriculture and research institutions on whether cochineal or another form of biological control is possible and whether cochineal could be harvested by the local community as an alternative source of income.

Mary

Mary also grew up in a village and is now the World Vision Coordinator for Livelihoods and Resilience in East Kenya. Young and small in physical stature, she impressed us with her courage, her competence and her immediate rapport with village women. Responsible for programs in Food Security, Food Aid, Disaster Resilience, Disaster Risk Reduction, Economic Development and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, she identified her three greatest achievements so far as being:

1. Building the capacity of World Vision East Kenya staff in the above six sectors so that they are more effective in their roles,
2. Ensuring adequate monitoring of programs so that the desired impact of projects is achieved and
3. Shifting the emphasis of food aid programs from handouts to food-for-work so that communities work to build community assets in return for their food aid.

Until next time

Liz

We went to a 3 day Ecoagriculture conference which brought together government department heads, members of the above groups and an Ambassador from the UN to find synergies between the different approaches and draft a call to action to be presented at the Rio +20 Earth Summit in June.

The diversity of approaches brought together was amazing:

So many approaches!

Can we present a united call to the world at Rio +20 in June?

What can be done to meet  the food, nutrition and energy needs of rapidly growing populations, reduce deeply entrenched poverty and instability, take the right steps to adapt to and mitigate climate change and restore degraded ecosystems so that they can provide the clean water and fertile soils needed to conserve biodiversity and enable sustainable development worldwide?

In this forum, we looked for synergies between different approaches, shared and debated and drafted a call to action.

In summary, the conference called on the international community (governments, business communities, financial institutions, land managers, non-government actors and the scientific community) to work together to manage landscapes sustainably, develop investment mechanisms that will support truly sustainable land use practices and to strengthen the scientific basis for managing landscapes for multiple outcomes.

This summary does not do justice to the work done at this workshop so please visit http://www.landscapes.ecoagriculture.org/  if you are interested in further detail.

Most mind-blowing fact:

It blew us away to hear that the world loses more soil to erosion each year than it produces food and that the largest ‘export’ of the USA is eroded soil.

Just one of many sites in Kenya where topsoil is washing away.

Until next time

Liz

(Liz is travelling with her husband Tony Rinaudo, the Natural Resource Management Advisor at World Vision Australia, on a three-month trip to East Africa to promote sustainable agroforestry. Liz and Tony previously spent 18 years in Niger Republic as part of a long-term agricultural development program. Since returning to Australia in 1999, Liz has supported Tony and their four children in their transition back to Australia, worked for World Vision Australia for six years as part of the Asia, Pacific and Latin America Team and worked as an Executive Assistant at VicRoads. She has a passion for sustainable agriculture/agroforestry and for helping individuals to achieve their potential.)

(Acknowledgement to Nicolene Louw of www.nicolenelouw.co.za for the cartoon illustrations from the conference)

Sipi Falls in eastern  Uganda: The upper part of the photo shows how much of the soil is left bare. When the rains come, very little of the water will soak in and be captured by the local ecosystem. Instead, it will run off, carrying away the topsoil and causing floods downstream.

One of many hills in northern Uganda. As recently as 5 years ago, it supported trees, shrubs and grass. These have now been removed, most of the soil has washed downstream to clog waterways and silt up dams and the surface of the hill is largely rock, unable to absorb water or support life.

Regular burning of hills and pastures to stimulate new growth of grass and flush out small animals for hunting is reducing biodiversity, hindering the survival of trees and destroying soil microflora/fauna and soil structure. This affects the long –term food security of the region as each year the capacity of the land to produce is reduced.

We arrived in Kotido, north east Uganda, hot and dusty after a 7 hour drive. After lunch, the World Vision staff presented the challenges facing them and Tony shared a presentation on Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). The arid conditions, history of dependence on food aid, environmental degradation and need for pasture, fodder trees, firewood and other forest products are exactly the conditions which can be addressed by FMNR but this region presents some extra challenges.

There is a history of conflict in the area. Close to the borders of Sudan and Kenya, there has been extensive cross-border raiding and, even within the region, subgroups rustle each other’s animals on a regular basis. Efforts to disarm local groups have been only partially successful.

World Vision called a stakeholder meeting including government officials, UN agencies, NGOS etc to understand what is already being done, what is working/not working and what is possible for the future. After Chris Shore presented on World Vision’s ‘Secure the Future’ program for the Horn of Africa, Tony presented on ‘Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration’ and groups worked on how to face the challenges, there was a sense of hope that agencies, governments and communities could work together to find and implement answers. That afternoon, we visited a Karamajong Community, listened to their challenges, hopes and aspirations. Assefa Tofu from Ethiopia and Tony explained FMNR and demonstrated the pruning of regrowth from tree stumps. There was considerable interest and a sense of hope that with facilitation from World Vision and in collaboration with local authorities, their hills and rangelands might return to productivity.

The 12 hour drive back to Kampala was a real test of our physical stamina.

Two flat tyres contributed to the length of the journey.

We drove parallel to the Sudan border and heard first hand stories from our driver of the abductions and destruction of towns by the Lord’s Resistance Army.

We crossed the Nile via a bridge which the Ugandan army keeps closely guarded to prevent the LRA from crossing.

Whole towns have been relocated the the south of the river to keep their inhabitants safe.

Until next time,

Liz

Niger Satellite images- the first taken in 1975, the second in 2003.

Tony has been able to continue working on FMNR in his role at World Vision (since 1999) and has seen it spread to eight African and three Asian countries, including:

Ghana

Ethiopia – photos taken before and after FMNR

Senegal – photos taken before and after FMNR

Now we have the opportunity to spend three months together in East Africa organising and participating in workshops, conferences and field trips as part of the stimulus for a regional reforestation/sustainable agriculture movement. Please join us in this journey through this blog.

Sincerely,

Liz Rinaudo