A few years ago I stopped using Google for my online searches and am now using Ecosia. It seemed to be a move in the right direction, given both how the Californian firm has turned its back on its “Don’t be evil” credo and how Ecosia just helps to plant hundreds of millions of trees.
Their Youtube channel is very interesting and allowed me to learn about Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration, or FMNR, a reforestation technique especially suited to the drylands tropics that have been previously damaged. The technique is focused on helping tree stumps grow back by pruning the smaller and weaker parts to allow the healthiest and biggest part to grow. A full grown tree – and forest – can grow back in just a few years.
This is so important as, to Wkipedia,“Drylands cover 41.3% of the Earth’s land surface, including 15% of Latin America, 66% of Africa, 40% of Asia, and 24% of Europe. (…) Drylands are home to more than 2 billion people.”
Restoring millions of trees across Africa and on other continents would be a significant win for both planet – restoring forests would have a cascade of benefits from forest recovery to rewilding, helping local populations feed themselves. This in turn would bring back wild animals (yeah biodiversity !) and be a true regenerative solution.
This short video by Ecosia and the NGO Planet Wild explains how this technique works :
(If like me you are wondering how much is an hectare, just note that it takes 100 hectares for one square kilometer, or approx. 247 acres if you are still not using the metric system)
Wikipedia once again offers a glimpse at how FMNR can be so successful :
By 2004 it was ascertained that FMNR was being practised on over five million hectares or 50 percent of Niger’s farmland – an average reforestation rate of 250,000 hectares per year over a 20-year period. This transformation prompted a Senior Fellow of the World Resources Institute, Chris Reij, to comment that “this is probably the largest positive environmental transformation in the Sahel and perhaps all of Africa”
For more details on this technique, including resources, manuals, success stories and more, please head to : https://fmnrhub.com.au/. They have case studies for Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mali and Zambia.
To conclude, the worst may seem certain when we read news these days but Mother Nature aided by Human ingenuity and persistance can do wonders. A previous example of this was published earlier this year : Mangroves forests are growing back globally.
Whether it is on land or on shores, regenerating Nature would be a massive win for People and Planet alike. And you can start helping by switching to Ecosia too ! 20 Millions people already have done so, why not you ?
Image credits : David Clode sur Unsplash
