Download: You’ll see the option to download the 913 megabyte MP4 file at bottom right side of this page.

YouTube: The video can also be watched on YouTube, in four segments, here, here, here and here.

Greening the Desert II (including Part I) – Greening the Middle East
(Duration: 36 mins)
Tips for playing: If it’s slow to load, turn off High Definition (HD) on the player.
If you still have problems, click play (on low or high def) and then after it’s started,
click on pause. The video will then continue to buffer into your computer.
Play once fully loaded.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Kelly Kellogg at this juncture. Kelly donated initial funding that enabled the purchase of the land for the Jordan Valley Permaculture Project site (aka ‘Greening the Desert – the Sequel’). But, upon watching the Greening the Desert Part II video, Kelly was inspired to donate an additional $20,000. These gifts are very encouraging to us as we try to solve problems at source (teach a man to fish…). Others who may feel inspired to donate to help us move this work forward faster can do so here.

A little background on the video follows:

Children in a school playground, Al Jawfa, Jordan Valley

When there’s no soil, no water, no shade, and where the sun beats down on you to the tune of over 50°C (122°F), the word ‘poverty’ begins to take on a whole new meaning. It is distinct and surreal. It’s a land of dust, flies, intense heat and almost complete dependency on supply lines outside of ones control. This is the remains of what was once called the ‘fertile crescent’. It is the result of thousands of years of abuse. It is a glimpse at a world where the environment – whose services provide for all human need – has all but completely abandoned us. This is a glimpse at the world our consumer society is inexorably moving towards, as our exponential-growth culture gorges itself at ever-increasing rates.

The original Greening the Desert video clip has been watched hundreds of thousands of times and has been posted to countless blogs and web pages in the datasphere. Although only five minutes long, it has inspired people around the globe, daring the lucid ones amongst us, those who can see the writing on the wall, to begin to hope and believe in an abundant future – a future where our survival doesn’t have to be based on undermining and depleting the very resources of soil, water, phosphorus, etc. that we depend on. The work profiled in that clip demonstrates that humanity can be a positive element within the biosphere. Man doesn’t have to destroy. Man can repair.

In the clip at top I introduce you today to Greening the Desert II. I shot the footage for this video last month (October 2009) and edited it on location in the Dead Sea Valley in Jordan – the lowest place on earth, at 400 metres below sea level. Much of it was shot in or near the village of Al Jawfa where I stayed, which is effectively a Palestinian refugee camp that has morphed over the decades since 1948 into something resembling a functional small town. It was first shown to delegates of the ninth International Permaculture Conference (IPC9) in Malawi, Africa at the very beginning of November and is now being released for general consumption. The video will take you to the original Greening the Desert site, letting you see its present condition after six years of neglect when funding ran out in 2003. You’ll also be introduced to our new project site – the Jordan Valley Permaculture Project, aka ‘Greening the Desert, the Sequel’ – and see some of the spin-off effects within Jordan from the influence of the original site; promises of much more to come.

The work we’re undertaking in Jordan is in accordance with what we call the ‘Permaculture Master Plan‘, where the project’s future is assured through funding from running educational courses. Project sites thus become self-sufficient, and self-replicating.

Geoff Lawton instructs students in a school yard in Jordan, one that PRI has
just created and begun the implementation of a design for, so its
many children can see, experience and learn permaculture first hand

Through this work we envision thousands of educational demonstration sites worldwide – all inspiring and teaching communities around them how to begin to tackle at root the massive challenges we now face after decades of short-term profit-based thinking has all but ‘consumed’ our planet and dismantled the social constructs that the human race has always depended on for its survival. Through this work we see desertification stopped in its tracks, and reversed. We see this century’s dire water issues getting resolved. We see productive work for millions in bypassing the irrelevant efforts of our ‘leaders’, to instead build a new kind of culture – a culture based on cooperative effort and learning. It’s a culture where its members have regained a sense of their place in creation, where they become land-based stewards of remaining resources; creating a culture where we at last find ultimate satisfaction – promoting and building peace and low-carbon, relocalised, community-based prosperity.

We have many such ‘Master Plan’ projects in various stages of development worldwide, and a steady stream of enquiries from people around the globe wanting to get involved and help widen this cooperative network. Perhaps it’s time you took a look at Permaculture? After all, do you have something more worthwhile to do?

Jordan Valley

He recently participated in the TEDxMidAtlantic (similar to TED Talks) series of lectures to discuss the significance of adopting more holistic, comprehensive methods in producing food and tending to the land. Very inspiring and thought provoking.

What are you doing to allow a chicken to fully express its essence of ‘chickenness’? Or a cow its essence of ‘cowness’? Joel has a few things to say about that.

A Permaculture fish pond in development

Swimming pools get a bad rap in enviro-circles, and for good reason. They cost a great deal to construct – using a lot of CO2 intensive materials in the process – they waste huge amounts of water and energy for maintenance, use chemicals to keep them clear and ’safe’, and they take up a lot of space that could be utilised for more productive purposes (like growing veggies!). Many people also just find them a lot of work to look after, which is especially annoying when their usage is often only seasonal at best.

But, what if you’re already lumbered with a pool and are trying to make the best of the situation? Maybe it came with your property, or hindsight has kicked in after you’ve shelled out thousands to install something you almost never use…. What then?

Some simply drain their pool of water and leave it at that. Although that is an option, it isn’t a particularly attractive one, and the pool interior will still require periodic sweeping and cleaning if you want to avoid raised eyebrows from your mother-in-law and other guests.

Is there anything you can do? Is there a way to use the pool while maintaining aesthetics and perhaps even bringing some other benefits with it?

A couple of days ago I stopped in at the home of Vanessa Fernandes (a former PDC student of Geoff’s) and Justin Sharman on Australia’s Gold Coast – to check out a rumour I’d heard of their swimming pool conversion. It was a fascinating visit!

Permaculture gardens and the pool blend beautifully

You see, about eighteen months ago, after a little contemplation and research, Vanessa and Justin determined to make better use of the big watery pit in their back yard. They decided to turn it into a biologically active fish pond!

The work is still in progress, but is already, in my opinion, a seriously superior version of what they had before. If a pool-to-pond conversion is done well, aesthetics can improve dramatically, and you can also end up with a regular supply of fresh chemical-free fish for the kitchen.

Eating from the pool didn’t seem to be the primary goal for Vanessa and Justin, but rather to create a closed loop biological system that would add beauty and diversity to the rest of their Permaculture system.

How they did it

After draining the pool, they set to cleaning it of contaminants by scrubbing the inside with vinegar and rinsing it clean. This is important or the fish you introduce could die. Before introducing fish, however, plants need to be established, as well as the all-important oxygen-generating algae. Algae forms on its own when allowed, and the best plants to introduce are those you’ll find in natural freshwater environments in your area (lakes, ponds, rivers) as these are best suited for your climate. Justin and Vanessa even introduced a couple of plants that are regarded as ‘pests’ by many government authorities – like salvinia, a fast spreading floating fern. Rather than a pest, the plant serves a purpose here as chicken feed, and its characteristic of spreading fast just means the chickens have a good supply of it!

Another plant introduced is azola – which is very high in nitrogen due to its special relationship with a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium. This makes it an exceptionally good mulch (azolla is said to increase rice yields significantly – "as much as 158 percent per year"). Of course, they also introduced plants that are great for human consumption – like kangkong, water chestnut and watercress.

The upside down crate in the water acts as a chicken self-rescue platform, in case
one chicken pushes another in (out of spite), and the hapless victim needs a way back out

At the moment the pool supports about a dozen silver perch ("plate sized", Justin said. "About 4-8 kilos of fish weight"). These are native to the region. The fry you can see below are munching on bread we tossed in to tempt the bigger guys that like to hang out in deeper water. I was hoping they might come up an impromptu photo shoot. The adults did make a showing, but they must be seriously camera shy, as they’d only lunge at the bread and disappear before my trigger finger had a chance to move at all. As we had another pressing engagement, I didn’t spend more than a few minutes on this, so forgive me for not supplying a picture of the final ‘product’. I guess it’s yet another fish-that-got-away story….

Baby fish snack on bread that was thrown in to attract the larger fish further down

At the moment the pool is essentially a closed loop biological system. The plants feed off the nutrients supplied by fish and bird droppings, the fish feed off the plants and insect larvae (like dragonflies, etc.), and the algae regulates the CO2/oxygen levels. Zooplankton and mollusks (snails) feed on the algae, the crustaceans (shrimps) feed on the zooplankton, and the fish feed on the mollusks and the crustaceans.

Oh, speaking about snails, if anyone spotted the blue hoses at top and thought I really should have pulled them out before taking any pictures, let it be known that I was going to do just that, but got stopped in my tracks. These hoses also serve a purpose – snails cling to the outside, and also live inside the hose, and it’s from these hoses that the fish like to feed.

As mentioned, algae is very important for the health of the pool – but you can have too much of a good thing. Algae blooms are to be avoided as they can suffocate life in the pool. A balanced algae population can be regulated in three ways: 1) reducing nutrient input (i.e. harvest some fish), 2) reducing light (i.e. add a translucent shade, or a living vine, over part of the pool), or 3) simply scoop some algae out if you get desperate and use it for mulch or compost.

The biggest thing stopping a decent increase in the fish population is oxygen. To regularly eat from the pool, Vanessa and Justin would need to incorporate a water filter/oxygenation system – which is something they’re looking at doing next. As you can see from the pictures, the water in this particular pond is rather ‘natural’. A biological filter would make the water clearer – so, if you wanted, it could still retain the pool’s original purpose (swimming!). Increased oxygenation also tends to keep algae from getting out of hand.

A bio-filter doesn’t need to be too complicated or expensive. Water could be pumped out of the pool and through a gravel trench, and then back into the pool (a solar pump could be utilised). As the water passes through the gravel it gets filtered/cleansed (by the algae that will develop there) and oxygenated. Reeds growing on the gravel aid in making the biological filter itself a closed system.

As well as the general aesthetic and the potential for increased food security and health, pools like these also contribute to the health of the garden in general as they attract a greater diversity of wildlife. Vanessa and Justin now have regular visits from predatory creatures, including white-faced herons and even the australasian bittern, a threatened species.

Essentially, a pool like this is a great example of the very essence of Permaculture – working with natural synergies, and finding ways to make them work for ourselves and the environment. Where modern agribusiness concentrates on chemistry, Permaculturists deal in biology. Instead of reductionist science, which would take just one element and pull it apart to its base chemical ingredients before we look up thinking we understand something, this kind of management takes a broader view.

This reminds me of an excellent passage that brings this thought home well:

Working with living creatures, both plant and animal, is what makes agriculture different from any other production enterprise. Even though a product is produced, in farming the process is anything but industrial. It is biological. We are dealing with a vital, living system rather than an inert manufacturing process. The skills required to manage a biological system are similar to those of the conductor of an orchestra. The musicians are all very good at what they do individually. The role of the conductor is not to play each instrument but rather to nurture the union of the disparate parts. The conductor coordinates each musician’s effort with those of all the others and combines them in a harmonious whole.

Agriculture cannot be an industrial process any more than music can be. It must be understood differently from stamping this metal into shape or mixing these chemicals and reagents to create that compound. The major workers – the soil microorganisms, the fungi, the mineral particles, the sun, the air, the water – are all parts of a system, and it is not just the employment of any one of them but the coordination of the whole that achieves success. – Eliot Coleman, The New Organic Grower, p.3, 4.

Justin and Vanessa’s back yard is not only a productive permaculture garden, but also an extremely beautiful wildlife habitat. I think my camera and I will have to stop by again sometime….

Resources:

Justin gave me a few resources that they found useful for their pool:

• http://www.biofilters.com/webfilt.htm – things that a bio filter does
• http://www.beadfilters.com/downloads/printablecalc.pdf – some things that you need to consider when you are sizing a bio filter
• http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1519-69842002000400019&script=sci_arttext – "water hyacinth is one of the many plant species we use as a low impact bio filter. When we harvest it, it makes a fine fungal based compost. We use azola as well."

by Linda Woodrow

How to harvest weeds for their best nutrients

Sometimes gardening seems to me like alchemy. Organic material that is of no value to us is converted into organic material of high value, and, like alchemy, the process seems almost magic.

Soil micro-organisms and plants do the converting, but they can’t do it without something to convert. The role of humans is to set up the system, supply the raw materials, and harvest the product.

The first law of gardening is the law of conservation of matter

There are very many sources of organic matter, but the kinds I look for are rich in a wide range of nutrient elements, concentrated, easily collected, and easily converted. One source that beautifully satisfies all these requirements is weeds.

Weeds are grossly under-appreciated lifeforms. They are, by definition, plants that are not valued and proliferate with no human work at all. Since they are not valued, they are free. Since they proliferate, they are very concentrated sources of bulk organic matter. Since they are plants, they contain all the major and minor plant nutrients, in a good ratio.

I harvest a big range of weeds, wherever I find easily collected sources, but my favourite weeds are azolla, cress, and stinging nettle.

All-time Favourite – Azolla

Azolla (Azolla pinnata or Azolla filiculoides) is my all-time favourite. It is a floating perennial waterweed, geographically very widespread, native to Australia and to a number of other countries. The small, fernlike leaves are about as big as a thumbnail and look like snowflakes. It likes still or slow-moving water like dams, weirs or ponds, and can cover them in dense mats. It often proliferates in the runoff from other people’s overuse of bought fertilisers. In spring it is green but as the weather heats up it turns a distinctive deep red colour.

Azolla has two features that make it my pick of the weeds. Firstly, it is symbiotic with a nitrogen-fixing alga called Anabaena. This alga, like the bacteria that cohabit with legumes, is capable of taking gaseous nitrogen out of the air and fixing it in the form of a solid. As azolla decomposes it releases copious amounts of nitrogen into the soil.

The beauty of azolla is that the nitrogen is not in soluble form, as it is in many high nitrogen fertilisers. Nitrogen is one of the major plant nutrients, but soluble nitrogen fertilisers are a bit of a worry. Plants cannot avoid taking in soluble nitrogen if it is dissolved in their drinking water, and they can easily overindulge. They will put on lots of lush new growth, but the new cells are thin-walled and prone to attack by fungal diseases and sap-sucking insects. However, served up as azolla, plenty of this major nutrient is available but is not being force-fed to your plants.

Earthworms and soil organisms, including thermophilic compost bacteria, relish this sort of high nitrogen food, since it is the basis of proteins. Azolla performs stunningly as a compost activator or as food for breeding worms. A couple of buckets full of azolla will replace animal manure in compost. I throw mine to the chooks, one bag of azolla and two bags of grass mulch. They scratch through it thoroughly searching for the little crustaceans trapped on the azolla. At the end of the day I have some very good eggs and a take-away compost pile.

The second feature of azolla is that it is so prolific and easily collected. In a good situation, it will double its leaf mass every week. Out of one small farm dam I have been collecting fifteen bags full, over half a tonne, per week for the last few months, and you can’t see where I’ve been.

I’m a bit of a wimp about cold weather. It takes a very inviting situation to get me in for a swim, but a dam full of azolla is very inviting. With someone on the other end of a six metre length of net, I can collect those fifteen bags in about half an hour. Even if I paid myself wages for collection time, it would be the cheapest fertiliser around. It is like picking up wet $20 notes!

Phosphorous Award Goes to …Watercress!

My second favourite weed is the mustard family (Brassica spp.)

Watercress is the weed-like, but mustard cress, shepherd’s purse and wild turnip are also prolific, easily collected, and more valuable than appreciated. Watercress is a good source of all the major plant nutrients and most of the minor ones, but its chief value is as a source of phosphorus. Of the ‘big three’ – the triumvirate of major plant nutrients, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus – phosphorus is the rarest and hardest to get. One of the things phosphorus is responsible for is the formation of flowers, fruit and seeds. Since most of the product of gardens is flowers, fruits and seeds, this is pretty important! Legumes have a high appetite for phosphorus, and since growing legumes is one of the main ways of fixing nitrogen, lack of phosphorus can set up a vicious circle of nutrient deficiency.

Phosphates in rocks are not all that uncommon, but in this form they are only very slowly made available to plants, and I mean the kind of ‘slowly’ that geologists talk about. However, once they are taken up into a plant and converted into an organic form they are much more easily available, and can be recycled over and over.

In summer and autumn, watercress can become so rampant in shallow watercourses that it is a pest. I can collect it nearly as fast as azolla, and without going swimming. Like azolla, it is usually full of little crustaceans that the chooks love, but unlike azolla, they eat them cress and all. I get eggs with strong shells, since cress is rich in calcium. I get very orange yolks, since it is rich in vitamin A. And I get chook manure that is very rich in phosphates, from which I get tomatoes to fry with my egg.

Getting a Nutrient Sting

My third favourite weed is stinging nettle (Urtica dioica).

Stinging nettle concentrates a big range of nutrient elements, some of them quite rare, in easily collected and converted forms. It too is a rich source of nitrogen and of the other major plant nutrient, potassium. However, its biggest value is as a good source of some of the minor nutrients.

It is good that a dilute solution of fermented stinging nettle makes a foliar and soil fertiliser that is just about a cure-all for any nutrient deficiency. Instead of getting out those cumbersome nutrient deficiency keys and trying to work out whether the older or the younger leaves are suffering most, or whether the yellowing is spreading from the margins in or the veins out, I spend the time picking a bin full of stinging nettle. I cover it with water, let it ferment for a couple of days, dilute the resulting brew one to ten, and spray and water the patients with it. If this doesn’t fix them I give up on them!

To prevent deficiency diseases showing up in the first place, I also collect stinging nettle for compost piles and, after letting it sit for a few days to lose its sting, as mulch.

Stinging nettle has two other virtues as a weed. It seeds so prolifically that you can just about guarantee that where there is stinging nettle, there is a lot of it. And the sting effectively keeps many animals and other people away, so you don’t have to share it! With a mower and catcher, and long pants, boots and gaiters, or just with long sleeves and gloves, it is very easy to collect.

I put in azolla, cress and stinging nettle, and they get turned into tomatoes and lettuces and beans and eggs.

Seems like alchemy to me.

Aigamo ducks in rice paddy

Mr. Takao Furuno’s modest business card reveals that he is a farmer in a world where “one duck creates boundless treasure”.

He farms rice very successfully in Japan and is a private aid volunteer, working in Vietnam when I met him. He had a message for all rice farmers, perhaps all wet paddy farmers, and gave me his book (all in Japanese) on the duck-rice paddy design he has perfected. Luckily I also have a condensed translation.

His ducks, by the way, are a cross between the mallard and a wild duck (Anas superciliosa) that we call the Black Duck, despite the fact that it is brown! This cross is a small duck, lean and active, that he has named Aigamo. It is fertile and breeds more of the same.

This Aigamo is released into the young rice paddy as soon as it is weaned at seven days and left there in a shelter until it is eight weeks old and the rice begins to flower. Like all ducks, it loves rice, so cannot be trusted with maturing rice seed. When the ducklings are first released, the rice has been transplanted for ten days, so that Mr Furuno has set the duck eggs at about the same time that the plants seed in his rice nursery bed. The ducks do not eat rice leaves.

Around his rice paddy, he has erected a low duck fence of netting, say ½ a metre (two feet) high, and above this he runs an electric fence to keep out foxes, dogs, and feral cats. Inside this fence is the duck shelter, opening onto the field. Mr Furuno stands his inner fences in the edge of the water. It is only on the boundary of the paddy fields that one needs the electric fence; any inner fences can be very simple mesh, at most a metre high. It is helpful to provide clean straw for the ducks to stand on, and inside their shelter.

The ducks are fed light rations of bran, and crushed rice daily, enabling the farmer to judge their need for food as they grow.

In Vietnam there is a duck called the “Cherry Valley” breed, very like the Aigamo used by Mr Furuno. No biocides or fertiliser are used by Mr Furuno apart from that produced by his ducks which are stocked at the rate of 15 – 30 per ten ares (an are is 100m2 or 1/1000 of a hectare). Rice is transplanted mid-June in Japan, (mid-December in Australia), thus duck eggs need to be in the incubator in the first week of May (November). Ducks hatch in 31 days and need to be a week old before release.

If ducks are used, rice grows taller, tillers very well (hence is more dense), the stems are more robust and the root mass is greater. Above all, work in weeding is eliminated as are chemical inputs. Mr Furuno puts this more abundant growth down to the puddling (muddy water effect) caused by the ducks. When the ducks are no longer needed, they are used as table birds, and add considerably to the family income or protein intake. As ducks are active at night, the labour of penning them away from the fields is counter-productive.

Incubators for eggs, ‘brooder lights’ and duck feeder troughs (or sheets of roof iron) are all standard equipment. Taro should benefit as much as rice for the same reasons. Ducks, to the rice farmer, seem to be about the equivalent of sheep dogs to a squatter (grazier). Neither needs wages or holidays.

• The duck (Aigamo) eliminates most weeds, removes all harmful insects, and all the water life it can catch.
• The duck fertilises the rice.
• The duck cultivates the rice producing a rich mulch around the rice plants.
• The paddy provides weeds, insects, pests, snails, frogs and shelter for the duck.
• The rice crop provides open range for the duck.
• The rice provides bran and cracked grains for the duck.

The result of this beneficial marriage of duck and rice is that fertiliser and pesticides, molluscicides and tractors are eliminated as costs, and more rice is obtained. (Ducks in Vietnam are also widely used to glean fallen rice after the harvest.)

We are applying Permaculture techniques to restore the landscape
in the hottest place on the planet

In December 2008 it was our great pleasure and honour to be invited to Iran to work for the Forest Rangeland Watershed Management Organisation, originally formed in 1928 (see Word doc on their work here). We were working with different departments of the organisation, like the Sand Dune Fixation Department that was formed in 1958 for the Bureau of Desert Affairs. All of this falls under the central government’s main organisation of Jihad Agriculture Ministry. We were invited to teach a 10-day Permaculture course focusing mainly on desert rehabilitation.

Permaculture course participants in Birjand in Eastern Iran

The work that has already taken place in Iran is enormous and monumental, and is probably the largest application of good desert repair work in the world. I think it is safe to say it is the largest-scaled effort in the history of the world, with two million hectares of desert project area under rehabilitation. This has been a very, very major effort and still goes on today to repair the long-term effects of desert extension and salinisation in this ancient landscape, a landscape that has enormous diversity and ancient systems with a very, deep-rooted history of human settlement.

Erosion control with gabions and tree planting

Iran has some of the most diverse landscapes anywhere, and is still geologically active from the movement of tectonic plates. Some of the most extreme desert wind erosion sites can be found here, and all credit should be given to the Iranian people and their government, who are making major efforts to rehabilitate landscapes using modern techniques and some rather unusual and innovative cutting-edge techniques for desert rehabilitation. In addition, they are implementing very traditional land use systems using the ancient knowledge of local people.

It was a very unique Permaculture design course and we shared a lot of information through dialogue, as the people that we were working with were all professionals working within the Iranian government from different departments. They took a very serious and professional attitude toward the course information and I believe they learned a lot about integrated design and connected design across landscapes, in particular with swale connections between desert features and the application of size relationship of features and soakage of water through catchment hydrology to stimulate appropriate desert and dry land ecologies to stabilise landscape. The areas that are under rehabilitation are the largest I’ve ever seen and experienced and the seriousness of real work on the ground and the numbers of people involved are the largest I’ve seen or heard of in any country. We should really start to learn from their experience, as they have been able to demonstrate success in some of the most difficult landscapes and situations on Earth.

Sand dune leak point stabilization earth works ready for planting

Wind erosion traps planed to trees

Part of our work with the Forest Rangeland Watershed Management Organisation was also to demonstrate for the Bureau of Carbon Sequestration, which is a project in itself. They are actually demonstrating carbon sequestration because there are ethics involved, and what would surprise most people in the world is that in Iran there are very strong ethical movements to reduce the use of fossil fuels and to make a commitment to carbon sequestration and reduction of global warming. Although their country is rich in fossil fuels, they are committed to demonstrating they have ethics in providing beneficial infrastructure and appropriate alternative technology, particularly in the development of villages for the nomadic people that are still in their landscape and are moving from nomadic lifestyles to settlement. These marginal people are settled in villages built by government organisations and the government is striving to establish biological stability through the design of natural systems around those settlements using appropriate technology like solar powered street lights, solar and wind generation of electricity and large solar hot water bath houses. This is not the type of thing that you’d imagine an oil- and natural gas-rich country to actually focus on. Iran at the time of our work only had 30% of its GDP coming from fossil fuels, the rest being from their own manufacturing and production of industrial products. They are a very, very independent industrial country. In fact, it’s quite surprising to realise how independent they are despite having had two years of official economic sanctions (and actually 30 years of sanctions from western countries, particularly the USA and Europe). This puts them in a similar position to Cuba, except of course Iran is a much larger country with a larger population and a great diversity of natural resources and landscape. They do have a coastline on the Indian Ocean, as well as sharing a border with Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Desert re-forestation work

Wind erosion trap plantings

Despite the cost of fossil fuels within the country being inexpensive, they actually have their larger focus on moving away from fossil fuel dependence toward a more sustainable resource model. Gasoline/petrol when we were there was 10 American cents per litre, super petrol 14 American cents, diesel 1.6 American cents, Kerosene was 1.6 American cents per litre and natural gas was 1.5 American cents per cubic meter. Just about all houses throughout all cities and major towns and villages have a supply of natural gas, so nobody is suffering from cold in the winter. Some areas are mountainous and very snowy and cold, with very extreme variations in the climate, and there is an enormous use of natural gas. I believe it is 600 million cubic metres a day of consumption for natural gas alone, which is a most unusual situation.

The main project site that we worked on was near Birjand and this is out near the Afghan/Pakistan boarder in eastern Iran. Further east of Birjand is the Husein Abad Plain and it was in this district that we focused our groundwork, although the projects of the Forest Rangeland Watershed Management and Sand Dune Fixation Bureau go right through all districts of Iran. At the project site on the Hersinabad Plain we visited during the course we actually went through surveying processes, surveying contours between catchment valleys and looking at combinations of connections between swales of water catchment. These swales would catch to gabions and backflood through silt trap gabion soakage. We found we could actually increase the soakage across broad contours of landscape and generally rehydrate a larger area of soakage, and accumulate that soakage so that we could easily start to re-tree the landscape with appropriate species. This would demonstrate that through the planting of appropriate species, not always native, as there are many non-native trees that are already used to begin repair work before native endemic species can be interplanted to facilitate landscape repair. There are very hardy Chinese species that are already being used by local people in the local organisations.

Overgrazing exacerbates desertification

These swale systems would help rehydrate larger areas and start a faster reforestation, which our students readily understood. There was also an understanding that we need to re-pattern the landscape to harmonise with these particular water soakage contours and therefore readminister the rangeland, because one of the major problems is the use of rangeland by traditional people. There are still a large number of traditional people moving into re-settlement villages and they have a traditional right to grazing land. However, with the increase of population and the increase of grazing stock it makes it very difficult to re-forest areas, so large blocks of areas at the present time are taken out of pasture and other large areas are kept in pasture and are accessible to the traditional people.

Swales planted to trees

We explained how we can rehydrate the landscape on contour with water harvesting swales between landscape catchment features like gabions, very small dams and lemonier rock catchment systems, so we can then actually improve pasture between these contour strips. These contour strips would then actually become viable grazing land for livestock, which would mean a much more intricate management system. That means a redesign of the traditional people’s grazing practices, but then there would be less area needed for the same number of stock. There is a limited number of stock set by the government and each area has set limits to the number of grazing animals allowed. Although the area presently used is large, this could easily be reduced by simply implementing rehydration on contour and re-foresting, reducing the evaporation of the local rain and increasing its soakage, first through reduction of evaporation through soakage as well as through shading of the trees, then the reduction of wind evaporation and also wind erosion by those contours and tree belts. Reduction of evaporation would thus occur in three ways:

1. through infiltration of soakage
2. through shade
3. through reduction of wind

Net and pan water harvesting

This is a standard procedure in desert design systems, using permaculture as an integrated whole landscape design and linking features together. This was a major change to design patterning for the students in their professional positions, and the use of a diversity of pioneer species, and an increasing diversity as landscape recovers, allows the biology and the ecology that we are establishing to actually become more and more diverse over time. There then comes an opportunity to go back into native forests, native endemic productive forests and enhanced native endemic productive forests. Thus, by bringing in productive species that come from climate analogues around the world, we can begin to globally identify similar climate landscapes and pattern systems in like manner.

Gabion silt field

Oil residue and seed sprayed desert sand dunes

We then looked at the traditional systems of landscape features put in over centuries, or even thousands of years, particularly drainpipe overflow. These surplus water drainpipe systems are traditional in Iran for gabions, so gabions can be flushed and overburdens of water can be drained quickly and soakage can be moderated in silt fields behind gabions. This is a unique technique that can increase production in small areas of silt fields behind gabions, thus creating enormous production of wheat and other crops in these soakage systems. This was explained to us and we shared this technology between each other. We also looked at the spraying of oil residues and oil waste products over sand dunes which is a system proposed by Bill Mollison in the first Gulf War in Kuwait, where oil wells that were destroyed and were causing a lot of pollution across the landscape. These oil residues and surplus oil waste products can be used to spray sand dunes after they have been seeded to rehabilitation species and pioneer sand dune stabilisation species.

Bulldozer towing oil/seed spraying equipment into position

This is a system that’s used extensively in the most damaged and most unstable sand dune areas of Iran and has proved to be a great success. Despite being a little more expensive than a lot of the other techniques it has worked extremely well. It was wonderful to see an idea that was proposed by Bill Mollison actually in action and working – an idea that a lot of people were very critical of at the time and said was an extremely radical idea. As the Iranian experts pointed out to us, the oil and oil residues are really only ancient fossilised forest products anyway. They are fundamentally broken-down forests, and to re-apply them back on a surface that is eroding to establish new forest is quite an ethical thing to do.

Geoff instructs course participants in compost-making

We also looked at how we could stimulate and increase soil fertility rapidly through soil biology. There was a lot of discussion about the quality of compost that can be produced, and how that can be measured by looking at the organisms suspended in water so that they can be analysed by their diversity and quantity with a microscope. We then discussed the work of Elaine Ingham and the Soil Food Web and explained how you can stimulate microorganisms with oxygenated compost teas. The stimulation of soil biology could be achieved over a large area with a small amount of compost oxygenated so that the soil microorganisms breed rapidly, and then inoculating the landscape through spraying. This was something that was of great interest, and at the project site of Hersinabad Plain we actually had one practical session where we made a fast aerobic compost and explained the basic principals of compost production. This is something that we would like to help the Iranians extend and promote so that they can speed up the recovery of their degraded landscapes and promote a faster biological recovery. The people became very excited about this potential.

Check dams

After the 10-day course we continued to share many learning experiences with our hosts, and some wonderful Powerpoint presentations were shown to us with visual representations of the valuable and extensive work that’s been done – earthworks, tree plantings and education systems among them. We went on from the Burjand sites and visited many ancient systems, very old earthworks and dams, and traveled through the perimeter of the Loop Desert – a landscape that holds the record for the highest recorded temperature on the planet – 70.4 degrees Celsius. It was winter when we were going through it, and there were small rain events we could witness through the landscape. We went onto other areas and visited sites where there were ancient water catchment systems, very large areas of almonds, walnuts and figs, with small catchments around every single tree. We went onto enormous areas planted in pistachio and many different crop systems.

We were also shown some very ancient cities, ancient markets and many different craft areas specializing in production of fabrics and carpets – of course the famous Persian carpets. Generally we were made to feel extremely welcome and everyone was very, very polite and very, very honourable. There was a great respect for us as foreigners everywhere from the people we were working with and everybody we met wherever we traveled. There was also a great united respect for the Islamic faith and spirituality. Everyone had very strong and very honest ethics. We were continuously shown different products that were processed by local people and traditional crops in the area around Birjand and East Iran. Of particular interest to us was the barberry. Often barberries (berberis vulgaris – a very small red berry that seems to be an endemic and wild species in Iran), were part of meals.

An ancient Almond and Fig system using individual tree water catchment systems

All in all this was a very successful trip. We were taken to some of the most ancient sites where some of the old cultures of Iran, and the world, were centred. The general end result of our work was that we were invited to continue to interact with the Iranian organisations there and the Forest Rangeland Watershed Management Organisation and the Sand Dune Fixation Bureau. We were also invited to become involved in at least two project sites and extend our work through other project sites, and we very much look forward to that as a continuing relationship. We believe the Iranian expertise in desert rehabilitation is something the world needs. Some of the best experts with some of the most extensive long term experience in desert rehabilitation are in Iran, and we would like to be able to share their expertise with many of our projects around the world. We will be engaging in their expertise and calling them in as consultants on many projects. We would like to publish some of their work, so the world can share in the quality of their ability to repair desert landscapes and arid landscapes in general. This we hope to do for them through our website and through interaction with universities with which we cooperate.

The graceful tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica) is believed to have originated in Africa and is now cultivated in many parts of the tropical world. Although in the legume family, it does not fix nitrogen; however, its many attractive qualities make it a splendid addition to the large permaculture garden. It is one of the most useful of tropical trees – for shelter, shade, food firebreaks, fuel wood, forage, fodder, bee food and mulch. Leaves, flowers and immature pods are eaten as vegetables, while these items plus the bark and roots have medicinal properties.

Also of high ornamental value, this semi-evergreen dome-shaped tree has graceful weeping branches that almost touch the ground. It can grow to 25m in height and 7.5 m trunk circumference on rich deep soils and live for hundreds of years. The leaves, which form the dense ferny foliage, are 7.5 – 15 cm long with leaflets in 10 – 12 pairs. The flowers which are yellow striped with red are held in a raceme.

Cultivation and Propagation

The tamarind needs a dry season to prosper and has great drought resistance – it is ideal for semi-arid regions (but may require some irrigation). It will recover from frosts if protected when young, greater cold tolerance developing with age. Tropical conditions are preferred. It prefers to grow on its own, being not very compatible with other trees. It tolerates most soils, as long as they are free draining.

Propagation is by means of seeds, which retain viability many months when kept dry. Seedling trees are slow to bear fruit; however, young trees can be shield-budded for more precocious bearing. A mature tree can bear about 160kg (350lb) of fruit annually.

Harvesting Fruit

The pods are harvested when mature, that is, when coloured cinnamon-brown. In many tropical countries they have been an important item of export, thanks to their long shelf life. The pulp is generally stripped from the shell and pressed into large cakes, seeds and all. These used to be packed for shipment on sacks made from palm leaves.

Timber Qualities

Tamarind timber is prized for its strength and termite resistance. It has a beautiful grain, yellow with red streaks, and is hard and durable. Furniture made from this tree indicated wealth in ancient Sri Lanka, where it was used to make rice pounders, mortars, side planks for boat wheels, axles and naves.

Fruit uses

Tamarind fruit pulp is found in the pea-like pods (up to 15cm long by 2.5cm across) surrounding one to twelve seeds. It is highly acid, contains 30% – 40% sugar and has high vitamin C and excellent keeping qualities. It is used extensively in Indian cooking to enrich the taste of savoury dishes (especially with meat). It is a popular ingredient in curries, chutneys, preserves and refreshing drinks. The acidic pulp is also used to clean silverware.

The fruit is acclaimed for its medicinal uses, either eaten straight, infused into tea, or added to decoctions or poultices. Its medicinal actions are refrigerant (useful for fevers), digestive (and helpful for deranged bile), carminative, laxative and antiscorbutic. The seeds are also used medicinally, ground up and made into a paste with cold water for applying to boils.

Leaf Uses

Leaves are eaten as a vegetable and are also used medicinally. Leaf juice is good for bilious fevers, urinary disorders and jaundice. A fresh leaf poultice is applied locally over swellings of ankles and joints, sprains, boils, sore eyes and scabies. Dried leaves powdered can be dusted over ulcers. The leaves yield a fixed dye which colours woollens red.

With its multiple products and functions the tamarind is excellent in larger permaculture gardens in warm areas.

Acacias are evergreen, nitrogen-fixing plants ranging in form from ground covers to tall trees. There are more than 1200 species worldwide.

There are many roles for acacias in permaculture design such as increasing soil fertility through nitrogen fixation, rehabilitation of degraded soils and in reforestation. They are useful for erosion control due to their rapid growth and effective seed dispersal, and many species sucker readily.

Most species are extremely hardy and drought tolerant and some are salt tolerant, making acacias particularly valuable in arid regions as timber, firewood, food and fodder for stock during drought.

Few acacias live in rainforests, as most cannot tolerate humid conditions, wet or clay soils, hence most are found in more arid climates.

Several acacia species produce high quality timber for cabinet-making and craftwork. Others provide a useful hardwood for fencing, building and firewood.

Until recently, many species of acacia were considered poisonous to domestic animals, however recent research has shown that suitable varieties can be grown as fodder crops for use as a supplement in drought conditions.

Seeds from acacias were once a staple food for Aboriginal people in Australia, as they were readily available, could be dried and stored for long periods of time and were easy to carry. Aborigines also used acacias medicinally and for fibre. The seeds have been analysed by nutritionists and have proved to contain higher levels of protein than wheat or other similar crops. Two species, A. tennuissima and A. coriacea, have the most palatable seeds.

Acacias are also an important source of pollen for attracting bees and birds, which are essential in orchards for pollination and pest control. Two useful species which flower almost all year round, are A. deanei (Deane’s Wattle) and A. retinoides (Wirilda).

Size is an important criteria for species to be planted in orchards. If too large they will compete for light and nutrients and can cause extensive damage to fruit trees when removed. Larger acacias may be more beneficial planted as a windbreak around orchards and replaced within orchards by a nitrogen-fixing ground cover.

Care in selection is important, for example, species must be borer resistant in, or near, orchards. A. decurrens is a host plant for the fruit tree borer which damages stone fruit. Acacias also have the potential to become a noxious weed, especially the suckering varieties. Wherever possible, planting of local species is preferable.

Click here to see a chart listing some acacia species chosen for their multiple uses in permaculture design.

Nitrogen Fixing Trees for Permaculture

Flowers of the leguminous tree, Kowhai, the national flower of New Zealand

Nitrogen fixation is a pattern of nutrient cycling which has successfully been used in perennial agriculture for millennia. This article focuses on legumes, which are nitrogen fixers of particular importance in agriculture. Specifically, three legumes (nitrogen fixing trees, hereafter called NFTs) are especially valuable in subtropical and tropical permaculture. They can be integrated in a permaculture system to restore nutrient cycling and fertility self-reliance.

On unvegetated sites, "pioneer" plants (plants which grow and thrive in harsh, low-fertility conditions) begin the cycling of nutrients by mining and accumulating available nutrients. As more nutrients enter the biological system and vegetative cover is established, conditions for other non-pioneering species become favourable. Pioneers like NFTs tend to benefit other forms of life by boosting fertility and moderating harsh conditions.

Nitrogen fixing trees are often deep rooted, which allows them to gain access to nutrients in subsoil layers. Their constant leaf drop nourishes soil life, which in turn can support more plant life. The extensive root system stabilises soil, while constantly growing and atrophying, adding organic matter to the soil while creating channels for aeration. There are many species of NFTs that can also provide numerous useful products and functions, including food, wind protection, shade, animal fodder, fuel wood, living fence, and timber, in addition to providing nitrogen to the system.

Nitrogen: From the Air to the Plants

Nitrogen is often referred to as a primary limiting nutrient in plant growth. Simply put, when nitrogen is not available plants stop growing. Although lack of nitrogen is often viewed as a problem, nature has an immense reserve of nitrogen everywhere plants grow – in the air. Air consists of approximately 80% nitrogen gas (N2), representing about 6400kg of N2 above every hectare of land. However, N2 is a stable gas, normally unavailable to plants. Nitrogen fixation, a process by which certain plants "fix" or gather atmospheric N2 and make it biologically available is an underlying pattern in nature (see separate box on how this process works).

How to Use NFTs in a System

In the tropics, most of the available nutrients (over 75%) are not in the soil but in the organic matter. In subtropical and tropical forests, nutrients are constantly cycling through the ecosystem. Aside from enhancing overall fertility by accumulating nitrogen and other nutrients, NFTs establish readily, grow rapidly, and regrow easily from pruning. They are perfectly suited to jump-start organic matter production on a site, creating an abundant source of nutrient-rich mulch for other plants. Many fast-growing NFTs can be cut back regularly over several years for mulch production.

The NFTs may be integrated into a system in many different ways including clump plantings, alley cropping, contour hedgerows, shelter belts, or single distribution plantings. As part of a productive system, they can serve many functions: microclimate for shade-loving crops like coffee or citrus (cut back seasonally to encourage fruiting); trellis for vine crops like vanilla, pepper, and yam; mulch banks for home gardens; and living fence and fodder sources from around animals fields.

A Caution

As the goal in permaculture is to foster a productive and stable ecosystem, rather than for example to add nitrogen to the system, NFTs should be used with due care and oversight. Too many nitrogen fixing plants can over nitrify the soil and pollute ground and surface waters. NFTs are not a panacea. Most will not thrive in shade or fertile conditions. Because of their ability to thrive under poor conditions, they can easily become weedy. Therefore, if possible, use only NFTs which are already established in your area, or that have a history of not becoming weeds. NFTs can also become competitive for available soil nutrients, especially in arid areas – careful and informed management practices are advised.

Also, be aware that there are many other significant avenues for nitrogen fixation in nature, such as free-living nitrogen fixing bacteria, which should also be incorporated into a design.

Planting Nitrogen Fixing Trees

Species Selection

A survey of your area will be helpful in determining the habit and vigor of local NFTs. Some are small and produce edible shoots and pods, ideal for home garden use; others are large and fast growing for fuel wood or poles. Decide on what yields you want from your NFTs, and choose a diversity of species.

Seed Pregermination Treatment (Scarification)

In many NFTs, the hard seed coat must be scarified in order to allow absorption of water, hence germination. There are several methods: hot water is the most common. Water temperature should be approximately 70-90C° (160°F). The volume ratio should be 5-10 parts water to one part seeds. Seeds are placed in hot water for 1-3 minutes, then rinsed. Seeds may be soaked overnight at room temperature.

Seeds Inoculation

After scarification, a sticking agent such as vegetable oil or plain water is applied sparingly to seeds, and inoculum dusted into the mix. Seeds should be sown immediately. Do no expose inoculated seeds to extremes in temperature or direct sunlight.

Planting

Plant material in the form of bare root seedlings, stump cuttings and branch cuttings should be kept moist and protected until planting. Punch a small hole in the ground with the same diameter as the plant material. Seedlings should be placed in the hole with the root/shoot collar of the tree at soil level. Stump cuttings should be scarified in several places with a sharp knife to promote rooting and put in the ground about one third of their length.

Establishment

Initially NFTs require moisture and adequate nutrients, as well as protection from weed competition. The best way to achieve these conditions is to amend the soil and sheet mulch at the time of planting.

Craig Elevitch is based in Hawaii and has been working for island resource self-sufficiency since 1989. He directs Agroforestry Net, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to empowering people in agroforestry and ecological resource management. The organization’s internationally recognized publications have guided thousands of readers in becoming more proficient in ecological food production, agroforestry, and permaculture. Craig edits The Overstory, a monthly agroforestry journal with over 8,000 subscribers in 185 countries. His books include Agroforestry Guides for Pacific Islands (2000), The Overstory Book: Cultivating Connections with Trees (2004), and Traditional Trees of Pacific Islands: Their Culture, Environment, and Use (2006), all of which promote diverse agricultural systems that produce abundant food and other resources. Further information and free downloads at Agroforestry.net.

]]> http://www.permacultureusa.org/2008/09/29/nitrogen-fixing-trees-the-multipurpose-pioneers/feed/ 0 http://www.permacultureusa.org/2008/09/24/the-development-of-farmer-managed-natural-regeneration/ http://www.permacultureusa.org/2008/09/24/the-development-of-farmer-managed-natural-regeneration/#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:48:17 +0000 Tony Rinaudo http://www.permacultureusa.org/?p=184 Editor’s Note: Arguably one of the most successful land regeneration projects in the world, Farmer Managed Natural Regeneraton (FMNR), beginning in Niger during the 1980s, has revegetated three million hectares of arid land in that country alone – bringing back biodiversity in flora and fauna, increasing soil humus (and thus carbon) content, improving water retention and microclimates, and dramatically improving the health and viability of local communities. It is now practiced on over 30,000 km² of land in the Niger Republic as well as Chad, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Mali. It has been written about in many noteworthy publications (the NY Times, for example), and below we hear about its original development from the man who first discovered the ‘underground forest’. In short, trees have returned to Niger, and they’re bringing prosperity with them.

by Tony Rinaudo,
Natural Resource Management Advisor, Integration Team,
World Vision Australia. Originally published on Leisa

Children helping to source firewood Photo: Author

Conventional methods of reforestation in Africa have often failed. Even community-based projects with individual or community nurseries struggle to keep up the momentum once project funding ends. The obstacles working against reforestation are enormous. But a new method of reforestation called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) could change this situation. It has already done so in the Republic of Niger, one of the world’s poorest nations, where more than 3 million hectares have been re-vegetated using this method. Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration involves selecting and pruning stems regenerating from stumps of previously felled, but still living trees. Sustainability is a key feature of the programme which requires very little investment by either government or NGOs to keep it going. The story in Niger can offer valuable insights and lessons for other nations.

The situation in Niger

The almost total destruction of trees and shrubs in the agricultural zone of Niger between the 1950s and 1980s had devastating consequences. Deforestation worsened the adverse effects of recurring drought, strong winds, high temperatures, infertile soils and pests and diseases on crops and livestock. Combined with rapid population growth and poverty, these problems contributed to chronic hunger and periodic acute famine. Back in 1981, the whole country was in a state of severe environmental degradation, an already harsh land turning to desert, and a people under stress.

More and more time was spent gathering poorer and poorer quality firewood and building materials. Women had to walk for miles for fuel such as small sticks and millet stalks. Cooking fuel was so scarce that cattle and even goat manure was used. This further reduced the amount of fodder available for livestock and manure being returned to the land. Under cover of dark, people would even dig up the roots of the few remaining protected trees. Without protection from trees, crops were hit by 60 – 70 km/hour winds, and were stressed by higher temperatures and lower humidity. Sand blasting and burial during wind storms damaged crops. Farmers often had to replant crops up to eight times in a single season. Insect attack on crops was extreme. Natural pest predators such as insect eating birds, reptiles, amphibians and beneficial insects had disappeared along with the trees.

Conventional approaches

The severe famine of the mid 1970s led to a global response. Stopping desertification became a top priority. Conventional methods of raising exotic tree species in nurseries were used: planting out, watering, protecting and weeding. However, despite investing millions of dollars and thousands of hours labour, there was little overall impact. Conventional approaches to reforestation faced insurmountable problems, being costly and labour intensive. Even in the nursery, frogs, locusts, termites and birds destroyed seedlings. Once planted out, drought, sand blasting, pests, competition from weeds and destruction by people and animals negated efforts. Low levels of community ownership and the lack of individual or village level replicability meant that no spontaneous, indigenous re-vegetation movement arose out of these intense efforts. Meanwhile, established indigenous trees continued to disappear at an alarming rate. National forestry laws took tree ownership and responsibility for care of trees out of the hands of the people. Even though ineffective and uneconomic, reforestation through conventional tree planting seemed to be the only way to address desertification at the time.

Discovering Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration

In 1983, the typical rural landscapes in the Maradi Department in the south of Niger, were still windswept and with few trees. It was apparent that even if the Maradi Integrated Development Project, which I managed, had a large budget, plenty of staff and time, the methods being employed would not make a significant impact on this problem. Then one day I understood that what appeared to be desert shrubs were actually trees which were re-sprouting from tree stumps, felled during land clearing. In that moment of inspiration I realised that there was a vast, underground forest present all along and that it was unnecessary to plant trees at all. All that was needed was to convince farmers to change the way they prepared their fields. The method of reforestation that developed is called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). Each year, live tree stumps sprout multiple shoots. In practising FMNR the farmer selects the stumps she wants to leave and decides how many shoots are wanted per stump. Excess shoots are then cut and side branches trimmed to half way up the stems. A good farmer will return regularly for touch up prunings and thereby stimulate faster growth rates.

The method is not new, it is simply a form of coppicing and pollarding, which has a history of over 1000 years in Europe. It was new, however, to many farmers in Niger who traditionally viewed trees on farmland as “weeds” which needed to be eliminated because they compete with food crops. There is no set system or hard and fast rules. Farmers are given guidelines but are free to choose the number of shoots per stump and the number of stumps per hectare that they leave, the time span between subsequent pruning and harvest of stems, and the method of pruning.

Acceptance of this method was slow at first. A few people tried it but were ridiculed. Wood was a scarce and valuable commodity so their trees were stolen. A breakthrough came in 1984, when radio coverage of an international conference on deforestation in Maradi helped to increase awareness of the link between deforestation and the climate. This was followed by a Niger-wide severe drought and famine which reinforced this link in peoples’ minds. Through a “Food for Work” programme in Maradi Department, people in 95 villages were encouraged to give the method a try. For the first time ever, people in a whole district were leaving trees on their farms. Many were surprised that their crops grew better amongst the trees. All benefited from having extra wood for home use and for sale. Sadly, once the programme ended, over two thirds of the 500 000 trees protected in 1984 – 1985 were chopped down! However, district-wide exposure to the benefits of FMNR over a 12-month period was sufficient to introduce the concept and put to rest some fears about growing trees with crops. Gradually more and more farmers started protecting trees, and word spread from farmer to farmer until it became a standard practice. Over a twenty-year period, this new approach spread largely by word of mouth, until today three million hectares across Niger’s agricultural zone have been re-vegetated. This is a significant achievement by the people of Niger. The fact that this happened in one of the world’s poorest countries, with little investment in the forestry sector by either the government or NGOs, makes it doubly significant for countries facing similar problems.

Reasons for the rapid spread

Aside from simplicity, early returns and low cost, other factors contributed to the rapid spread of FMNR. Introducing the method on a district-wide basis with a “Food for Work” programme eliminated much of the peer pressure that early innovators would normally have to endure. As villagers experimented, project staff who lived in the villages were supportive, teaching, encouraging and standing alongside farmers when disputes or theft of trees occurred. This support was crucial, particularly in the early days when there was much opposition to FMNR. As trees began to colonise the land again, excited government forestry agents nominated lead farmers and even project staff for regional and national awards. Often these nominees won prizes, lifting the profile of FMNR. As news began to spread, national and international NGOs, church and mission groups received training and began promoting the method across Niger.

During the development of farmer-managed natural regeneration, farmers did not own the trees on their own land. There was no incentive to protect trees and much of the destruction of that era was linked to this policy. After discussions with the head of the Maradi Forestry Department, project staff were able to give assurances that if farmers cared for the trees on their land they would be allowed to benefit without fear of being fined. These laws were only changed in 2004 after much negotiation by entities such as USAID. Farmers began to access markets without undue hassle. And as trees on farms switched from being nuisance weeds to becoming a cash crop in their own right, this was good motivation for farmers to cultivate them. Over time, locally agreed upon codes and rules with support from village and district chiefs were established. Without this consensus and support for the protection of private property, it is unlikely that FMNR could have spread as fast as it did.

The benefits of FMNR quickly became apparent and farmers themselves became the chief proponents as they talked amongst themselves. FMNR can directly alleviate poverty, rural migration, chronic hunger and even famine in a wide range of rural settings. FMNR contributes to stress reduction and nutrition of livestock, and contributes directly and indirectly to both the availability and quality of fodder. Crops benefit directly through modification of microclimate (greater organic matter build up, reduced wind speed, lower temperatures, higher humidity, and greater water infiltration into the soil), and indirectly through manuring by livestock which spend greater time in treed fields during the dry season. The environment in general benefits as bio-diversity increases and natural processes begin to function again. With appropriate promotion, FMNR can reduce tensions between competing interests for landbased resources. For example, as natural regeneration increases fodder availability (tree pods and leaves), farmers are in a better position to leave crop residues on their fields and are less likely to take offence when nomadic herders want to graze their livestock in the dry season.

Harvesting millet amongst the naturally regenerated trees in Niger Photo: Author

Since 2000, World Vision has been promoting this method in a number of other African countries. Malatin André, a Chadian farmer practising it for just two years reported: “Thanks to the new technique our life has changed. Food production has doubled and many people who were laughing at us, have also adopted the techniques for soil regeneration. As a result, there is always good production, the soil is protected from erosion and heat, and women can still get firewood. We have been using the same plot for more than 30 years and without such natural fertilizing possibility, we would soon stop getting food from it”. Khadidja Gangan, a 35 year old Chadian mother of six said: “This year is very exceptional for me because I have been able to get enough sorghum. I cultivated one hectare and harvested 15 bags of sorghum. Generally, I could get three to five bags when working this land in the past. This would have been impossible if I was not taught the new technique of land management”.

Conditions for success and future challenges

There are, however, still many gaps in our knowledge of natural regeneration. Farmers adapt it to their own personal needs and have different reasons for practising it. Further investigation is needed into various technical aspects, such as the most beneficial spacing, species mix, age to harvest, or type of harvesting, for specific purposes. In addition, legal and cultural considerations and historical relations between stakeholders need to be taken into account. For example, the major difficulties faced in Niger included:

• The tradition of free access to trees on anybody’s property and a code of silence protecting those who cut down trees. It was considered anti-social to expose anybody who had felled trees. This tradition was hard to break and those who left trees were often discouraged when their trees were taken by others. This situation was successfully addresses through advocacy, creation of local by-laws and support from village and district chiefs in administering justice. Gradually, people accepted that there was no difference between stealing from someone’s farm and stealing from within someone’s house.
• Fear that trees in fields would reduce yields of food crops. Field results put these fears to rest over time.
• Inappropriate government laws – if the farmer does not have the right to harvest the trees she has protected, there will be little incentive for her to do so. Farmers feared that they would be fined for harvesting their own trees. By collaborating with the forestry service, we were able to stop this from happening.

Other factors also affected the spread of the technique, for example, where language may reflect deeply held attitudes. In Hausa the word for tree (itce) is the same as the word for firewood, and therefore trees were seen to have little value of their own, apart from for firewood. Cultural factors may also work against adoption. Traditionally, Fulani cattle herders saw their lifestyle as the best in the world. Initially they found it humiliating to consider harvesting and selling wood, the way sedentary farmers did.

In addition, the practice of FMNR depends on having living tree stumps in the fields to start with. However, in many cases, farmers can successfully broadcast seeds of desirable species which, once established, become the basis of a FMNR system. The number of trees to be left in a field will depend on the number of stumps present and the farmer’s preferences. Some left over 200 trees per hectare, others not even the recommended 40. The “correct” number of trees to be left will be a balance between farmers’ needs for wood and other products, optimal environmental protection and minimal negative effect on crop yields. In areas of low rainfall, growth rates will be slower, and harvest or cutting regime should be reduced accordingly. Also, in low rainfall areas, establishment of direct sown seeds will take longer and be more difficult than in higher rainfall areas.

In areas where existing species are predominately thorny, or they compete heavily with crop plants, farmers may have second thoughts about FMNR. Where existing tree species are palatable to livestock, the increased effort required to herd animals or protect trees is beyond the reach of many farmers. In many cases however, the species are not palatable and there is no need to exclude animals from the field during the dry season.

Conclusion

What most entities working in reforestation have failed to recognise is that vast areas of cleared agricultural land in Africa retain an “underground forest” of living stumps and roots. By simply changing agricultural practices, this underground forest can re-sprout, at little cost, very rapidly and with great beneficial impact. In other words, in many instances the costly, time consuming and inefficient methods of raising seedlings, planting them out and protecting them is not even necessary for successful reforestation. Presumably, the same principle would apply anywhere in the world where tree and shrub species have the ability to re-sprout after being harvested.

Farmer managed natural regeneration is a cheap and rapid method of re-vegetation, which can be applied over large areas of land and can be adapted to a range of land use systems. It is simple and can be adapted to each individual farmer’s unique requirements, providing multiple benefits to people, livestock, crops and the environment, including physical, economic and social benefits to humans. Through managing natural regeneration, farmers can control their own resources without depending on externally funded projects or needing to buy expensive inputs (seed, fertilizers, nursery supplies) from suppliers. Its beauty lies in its simplicity and accessibility to even the poorest farmers, and once it has been accepted, it takes on a life of its own, spreading from farmer to farmer, by word of mouth.

Tony Rinaudo. Natural Resource Management Specialist, World Vision Australia. G.P.O. Box 399C, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. E-mail: tonyrinaudo@worldvision.com.au

Editor’s Note: Arguably one of the most successful land regeneration projects in the world, Farmer Managed Natural Regeneraton (FMNR), beginning in Niger during the 1980s, has revegetated three million hectares of arid land in that country alone – bringing back biodiversity in flora and fauna, increasing soil humus (and thus carbon) content, improving water retention and microclimates, and dramatically improving the health and viability of local communities. It is now practiced on over 30,000 km² of land in the Niger Republic as well as Chad, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Mali. It has been written about in many noteworthy publications (the NY Times, for example), and below we hear about its original development from the man who first discovered the ‘underground forest’. In short, trees have returned to Niger, and they’re bringing prosperity with them.

by Tony Rinaudo,
Natural Resource Management Advisor, Integration Team,
World Vision Australia. Originally published on Leisa

Children helping to source firewood Photo: Author

Conventional methods of reforestation in Africa have often failed. Even community-based projects with individual or community nurseries struggle to keep up the momentum once project funding ends. The obstacles working against reforestation are enormous. But a new method of reforestation called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) could change this situation. It has already done so in the Republic of Niger, one of the world’s poorest nations, where more than 3 million hectares have been re-vegetated using this method. Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration involves selecting and pruning stems regenerating from stumps of previously felled, but still living trees. Sustainability is a key feature of the programme which requires very little investment by either government or NGOs to keep it going. The story in Niger can offer valuable insights and lessons for other nations.

The situation in Niger

The almost total destruction of trees and shrubs in the agricultural zone of Niger between the 1950s and 1980s had devastating consequences. Deforestation worsened the adverse effects of recurring drought, strong winds, high temperatures, infertile soils and pests and diseases on crops and livestock. Combined with rapid population growth and poverty, these problems contributed to chronic hunger and periodic acute famine. Back in 1981, the whole country was in a state of severe environmental degradation, an already harsh land turning to desert, and a people under stress.

More and more time was spent gathering poorer and poorer quality firewood and building materials. Women had to walk for miles for fuel such as small sticks and millet stalks. Cooking fuel was so scarce that cattle and even goat manure was used. This further reduced the amount of fodder available for livestock and manure being returned to the land. Under cover of dark, people would even dig up the roots of the few remaining protected trees. Without protection from trees, crops were hit by 60 – 70 km/hour winds, and were stressed by higher temperatures and lower humidity. Sand blasting and burial during wind storms damaged crops. Farmers often had to replant crops up to eight times in a single season. Insect attack on crops was extreme. Natural pest predators such as insect eating birds, reptiles, amphibians and beneficial insects had disappeared along with the trees.

Conventional approaches

The severe famine of the mid 1970s led to a global response. Stopping desertification became a top priority. Conventional methods of raising exotic tree species in nurseries were used: planting out, watering, protecting and weeding. However, despite investing millions of dollars and thousands of hours labour, there was little overall impact. Conventional approaches to reforestation faced insurmountable problems, being costly and labour intensive. Even in the nursery, frogs, locusts, termites and birds destroyed seedlings. Once planted out, drought, sand blasting, pests, competition from weeds and destruction by people and animals negated efforts. Low levels of community ownership and the lack of individual or village level replicability meant that no spontaneous, indigenous re-vegetation movement arose out of these intense efforts. Meanwhile, established indigenous trees continued to disappear at an alarming rate. National forestry laws took tree ownership and responsibility for care of trees out of the hands of the people. Even though ineffective and uneconomic, reforestation through conventional tree planting seemed to be the only way to address desertification at the time.

Discovering Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration

In 1983, the typical rural landscapes in the Maradi Department in the south of Niger, were still windswept and with few trees. It was apparent that even if the Maradi Integrated Development Project, which I managed, had a large budget, plenty of staff and time, the methods being employed would not make a significant impact on this problem. Then one day I understood that what appeared to be desert shrubs were actually trees which were re-sprouting from tree stumps, felled during land clearing. In that moment of inspiration I realised that there was a vast, underground forest present all along and that it was unnecessary to plant trees at all. All that was needed was to convince farmers to change the way they prepared their fields. The method of reforestation that developed is called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). Each year, live tree stumps sprout multiple shoots. In practising FMNR the farmer selects the stumps she wants to leave and decides how many shoots are wanted per stump. Excess shoots are then cut and side branches trimmed to half way up the stems. A good farmer will return regularly for touch up prunings and thereby stimulate faster growth rates.

The method is not new, it is simply a form of coppicing and pollarding, which has a history of over 1000 years in Europe. It was new, however, to many farmers in Niger who traditionally viewed trees on farmland as “weeds” which needed to be eliminated because they compete with food crops. There is no set system or hard and fast rules. Farmers are given guidelines but are free to choose the number of shoots per stump and the number of stumps per hectare that they leave, the time span between subsequent pruning and harvest of stems, and the method of pruning.

FMNR in practice 1. FMNR depends on the existence of living tree stumps in the fields to be re-vegetated. New stems which can be selected and pruned for improved growth sprout from these stumps. Standard practice has been for farmers to slash this valuable re-growth each year in preparation for planting crops. 2. With a little attention, this growth can be turned into a valuable resource, without jeopardizing, but in fact, enhancing crop yields. Here, all stalks except one have been cut from the stump. Side branches have been pruned half way up the stem. This single stem will be left to grow into a valuable pole. The problem with this system is that when the stem is harvested, the land will have no tree cover and there will be no wood to harvest for some time. 3. Much more can be gained by selecting and pruning the best five or so stems and removing the remaining unwanted ones. In this way, when a farmer wants wood she can cut the stem(s) she wants and leave the rest to continue growing. These remaining stems will increase in size and value each year, and will continue to protect the environment and provide other useful materials and services such as fodder, humus, habitat for useful pest predators, and protection from the wind and shade. Each time one stem is harvested, a younger stem is selected to replace it. Species used in this practice in Niger include: Strychnos spinosa, Balanites aegyptiaca, Boscia senegalensis, Ziziphus spp., Annona senegalensis, Poupartia birrea and Faidherbia albida. However, the important determinants of which species to use will be: whatever species are locally available with the ability to re-sprout after cutting, and the value local people place on those species.

Acceptance of this method was slow at first. A few people tried it but were ridiculed. Wood was a scarce and valuable commodity so their trees were stolen. A breakthrough came in 1984, when radio coverage of an international conference on deforestation in Maradi helped to increase awareness of the link between deforestation and the climate. This was followed by a Niger-wide severe drought and famine which reinforced this link in peoples’ minds. Through a “Food for Work” programme in Maradi Department, people in 95 villages were encouraged to give the method a try. For the first time ever, people in a whole district were leaving trees on their farms. Many were surprised that their crops grew better amongst the trees. All benefited from having extra wood for home use and for sale. Sadly, once the programme ended, over two thirds of the 500 000 trees protected in 1984 – 1985 were chopped down! However, district-wide exposure to the benefits of FMNR over a 12-month period was sufficient to introduce the concept and put to rest some fears about growing trees with crops. Gradually more and more farmers started protecting trees, and word spread from farmer to farmer until it became a standard practice. Over a twenty-year period, this new approach spread largely by word of mouth, until today three million hectares across Niger’s agricultural zone have been re-vegetated. This is a significant achievement by the people of Niger. The fact that this happened in one of the world’s poorest countries, with little investment in the forestry sector by either the government or NGOs, makes it doubly significant for countries facing similar problems.

Reasons for the rapid spread

Aside from simplicity, early returns and low cost, other factors contributed to the rapid spread of FMNR. Introducing the method on a district-wide basis with a “Food for Work” programme eliminated much of the peer pressure that early innovators would normally have to endure. As villagers experimented, project staff who lived in the villages were supportive, teaching, encouraging and standing alongside farmers when disputes or theft of trees occurred. This support was crucial, particularly in the early days when there was much opposition to FMNR. As trees began to colonise the land again, excited government forestry agents nominated lead farmers and even project staff for regional and national awards. Often these nominees won prizes, lifting the profile of FMNR. As news began to spread, national and international NGOs, church and mission groups received training and began promoting the method across Niger.

During the development of farmer-managed natural regeneration, farmers did not own the trees on their own land. There was no incentive to protect trees and much of the destruction of that era was linked to this policy. After discussions with the head of the Maradi Forestry Department, project staff were able to give assurances that if farmers cared for the trees on their land they would be allowed to benefit without fear of being fined. These laws were only changed in 2004 after much negotiation by entities such as USAID. Farmers began to access markets without undue hassle. And as trees on farms switched from being nuisance weeds to becoming a cash crop in their own right, this was good motivation for farmers to cultivate them. Over time, locally agreed upon codes and rules with support from village and district chiefs were established. Without this consensus and support for the protection of private property, it is unlikely that FMNR could have spread as fast as it did.

The benefits of FMNR quickly became apparent and farmers themselves became the chief proponents as they talked amongst themselves. FMNR can directly alleviate poverty, rural migration, chronic hunger and even famine in a wide range of rural settings. FMNR contributes to stress reduction and nutrition of livestock, and contributes directly and indirectly to both the availability and quality of fodder. Crops benefit directly through modification of microclimate (greater organic matter build up, reduced wind speed, lower temperatures, higher humidity, and greater water infiltration into the soil), and indirectly through manuring by livestock which spend greater time in treed fields during the dry season. The environment in general benefits as bio-diversity increases and natural processes begin to function again. With appropriate promotion, FMNR can reduce tensions between competing interests for landbased resources. For example, as natural regeneration increases fodder availability (tree pods and leaves), farmers are in a better position to leave crop residues on their fields and are less likely to take offence when nomadic herders want to graze their livestock in the dry season.

Harvesting millet amongst the naturally regenerated trees in Niger Photo: Author

Since 2000, World Vision has been promoting this method in a number of other African countries. Malatin André, a Chadian farmer practising it for just two years reported: “Thanks to the new technique our life has changed. Food production has doubled and many people who were laughing at us, have also adopted the techniques for soil regeneration. As a result, there is always good production, the soil is protected from erosion and heat, and women can still get firewood. We have been using the same plot for more than 30 years and without such natural fertilizing possibility, we would soon stop getting food from it”. Khadidja Gangan, a 35 year old Chadian mother of six said: “This year is very exceptional for me because I have been able to get enough sorghum. I cultivated one hectare and harvested 15 bags of sorghum. Generally, I could get three to five bags when working this land in the past. This would have been impossible if I was not taught the new technique of land management”.

Conditions for success and future challenges

There are, however, still many gaps in our knowledge of natural regeneration. Farmers adapt it to their own personal needs and have different reasons for practising it. Further investigation is needed into various technical aspects, such as the most beneficial spacing, species mix, age to harvest, or type of harvesting, for specific purposes. In addition, legal and cultural considerations and historical relations between stakeholders need to be taken into account. For example, the major difficulties faced in Niger included:

• The tradition of free access to trees on anybody’s property and a code of silence protecting those who cut down trees. It was considered anti-social to expose anybody who had felled trees. This tradition was hard to break and those who left trees were often discouraged when their trees were taken by others. This situation was successfully addresses through advocacy, creation of local by-laws and support from village and district chiefs in administering justice. Gradually, people accepted that there was no difference between stealing from someone’s farm and stealing from within someone’s house.
• Fear that trees in fields would reduce yields of food crops. Field results put these fears to rest over time.
• Inappropriate government laws – if the farmer does not have the right to harvest the trees she has protected, there will be little incentive for her to do so. Farmers feared that they would be fined for harvesting their own trees. By collaborating with the forestry service, we were able to stop this from happening.

Other factors also affected the spread of the technique, for example, where language may reflect deeply held attitudes. In Hausa the word for tree (itce) is the same as the word for firewood, and therefore trees were seen to have little value of their own, apart from for firewood. Cultural factors may also work against adoption. Traditionally, Fulani cattle herders saw their lifestyle as the best in the world. Initially they found it humiliating to consider harvesting and selling wood, the way sedentary farmers did.

In addition, the practice of FMNR depends on having living tree stumps in the fields to start with. However, in many cases, farmers can successfully broadcast seeds of desirable species which, once established, become the basis of a FMNR system. The number of trees to be left in a field will depend on the number of stumps present and the farmer’s preferences. Some left over 200 trees per hectare, others not even the recommended 40. The “correct” number of trees to be left will be a balance between farmers’ needs for wood and other products, optimal environmental protection and minimal negative effect on crop yields. In areas of low rainfall, growth rates will be slower, and harvest or cutting regime should be reduced accordingly. Also, in low rainfall areas, establishment of direct sown seeds will take longer and be more difficult than in higher rainfall areas.

In areas where existing species are predominately thorny, or they compete heavily with crop plants, farmers may have second thoughts about FMNR. Where existing tree species are palatable to livestock, the increased effort required to herd animals or protect trees is beyond the reach of many farmers. In many cases however, the species are not palatable and there is no need to exclude animals from the field during the dry season.

Conclusion

What most entities working in reforestation have failed to recognise is that vast areas of cleared agricultural land in Africa retain an “underground forest” of living stumps and roots. By simply changing agricultural practices, this underground forest can re-sprout, at little cost, very rapidly and with great beneficial impact. In other words, in many instances the costly, time consuming and inefficient methods of raising seedlings, planting them out and protecting them is not even necessary for successful reforestation. Presumably, the same principle would apply anywhere in the world where tree and shrub species have the ability to re-sprout after being harvested.

Farmer managed natural regeneration is a cheap and rapid method of re-vegetation, which can be applied over large areas of land and can be adapted to a range of land use systems. It is simple and can be adapted to each individual farmer’s unique requirements, providing multiple benefits to people, livestock, crops and the environment, including physical, economic and social benefits to humans. Through managing natural regeneration, farmers can control their own resources without depending on externally funded projects or needing to buy expensive inputs (seed, fertilizers, nursery supplies) from suppliers. Its beauty lies in its simplicity and accessibility to even the poorest farmers, and once it has been accepted, it takes on a life of its own, spreading from farmer to farmer, by word of mouth.

Tony Rinaudo. Natural Resource Management Specialist, World Vision Australia. G.P.O. Box 399C, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. E-mail: tonyrinaudo@worldvision.com.au

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