Almost every tree he planted in Niger died until he looked more closely at bushes. His discovery helped regenerate 5 million hectares

For years, Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo watched tree-planting efforts fail in Niger’s harsh landscape. Seedlings struggled to survive, while the country’s farms remained exposed to drought, wind and declining soil quality. Then, during a roadside stop in the 1980s, he noticed something that changed his approach completely: the “shrubs” around him were actually shoots growing from old tree stumps. That simple observation became the foundation of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), a low-cost approach that has helped restore millions of hectares across Niger and has since spread to other countries.

The discovery hiding beneath the soil

Rinaudo had moved to Niger with his wife in the 1980s and was working on efforts to combat desertification. According to ABC News, he had spent more than two years trying conventional tree-planting methods with little success. During one particularly difficult moment, he stopped on a sandy road and noticed what appeared to be an ordinary bush. “I realised, no, it’s not a bush, it’s not an agricultural weed; it’s a tree, and it’s been cut down,” Rinaudo told ABC. The plant was growing from a surviving underground root system. Instead of planting another seedling, the idea was to protect these existing stumps and allow their shoots to develop into trees.

What is Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration?

FMNR works by identifying living tree and shrub stumps already present in degraded farmland, protecting their new shoots and selectively pruning them. Rather than attempting to recreate a forest from scratch, farmers encourage the vegetation that is already capable of returning. Research published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change notes that FMNR has been associated with the restoration of roughly 5 million to 6 million hectares, particularly in Niger’s Maradi and Zinder regions. The study also notes that conventional tree-planting programmes in the region have often recorded low survival rates.


The approach also offers practical benefits. Regrown trees can provide livestock fodder, fuelwood and shade, while their leaves and organic material can contribute to improved soil conditions. Trees can also act as windbreaks, helping protect crops in the Sahel.

Millions of trees return

The scale of the transformation was far greater than Rinaudo initially expected. ABC reported in 2025 that FMNR now covers about 5 million hectares in Niger, with an estimated 200 million trees regenerated. The report said the technique has also been linked to an additional 500,000 tonnes of grain production each year.

A UK government development briefing published earlier estimated that about 4.5 million people were benefiting from FMNR across approximately five million hectares, through increased crop production, income and food security. The World Resources Institute has described FMNR as a low-cost system capable of restoring degraded agricultural and grazing land while improving resilience to severe weather.

A method that spread beyond Niger

Rinaudo’s discovery was not presented as an entirely new form of farming. The technique builds on traditional knowledge of managing naturally regenerating trees, but his work helped turn it into a structured restoration method that could be taught and adopted widely. Mongabay reported that FMNR emerged from the realisation that degraded landscapes still contained an “underground forest” of living roots and seeds capable of regeneration.

The approach has since been promoted in countries across Africa and beyond. World Vision says FMNR has been applied in at least 24 African countries, while the Right Livelihood organisation says the method is now being used in at least 25 countries.

From failed seedlings to a different way of restoring land

Rinaudo’s story offers a striking lesson about restoration: sometimes the solution is not to introduce something new, but to recognise what has survived. In Niger, what initially looked like stubborn shrubs turned out to be remnants of a hidden forest. By protecting those roots and letting farmers manage their regrowth, degraded farmland could gradually become more productive.

What began with one agronomist questioning why his seedlings were dying ultimately became a farmer-led restoration movement covering millions of hectares, showing how a closer look at the landscape can sometimes reveal that nature has already done much of the work.