Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) helps empower communities who are suffering from the effects of degraded land and climate change. These communities suffer from soil erosion, failed crops, starving livestock, droughts, flooding and a loss of biodiversity. Many of these communities feel powerless and are faced with having to leave their land because it can no longer support them, and they can no longer thrive there. World Vision is committed to supporting these communities. Through FMNR they can restore their tree cover, which leads to improved soil fertility, more crops, better animal fodder, increased firewood availability, more income and a better quality of life

The FMNR technique is very simple and involves regenerating trees from tree stumps that are still alive, or actively managing new trees starting to grow from wild seedlings. By teaching community members how to prune and protect these potential trees, they can begin to see a rapid increase in tree-density. As you can see in the diagram, an increase in tree density is more than just an environmental initiative – it has transformative economic and social benefits.

 When the environment thrives, the community thrives.

Kahwa is a farmer from Uganda. Like other farmers in her village, Kahwa depends on growing crops for her livelihood. But she was struggling to grow enough to support her family. Her average yield was two bags (300kg) of beans. Fortunately, World Vision provided her community with training in FMNR and the importance of integrating trees with crops. The next season, Kahwa prepared her land for planting beans, but this time, she was able to put her knowledge of FMNR into practice. Rather than cut down all the trees as she had done in the past, she decided to leave about 25 trees of different species to provide shade for her crops. Using FMNR, she knew how to make these trees grow strong.

Throughout their growth, Kahwa’s beans were very strong and healthy. At harvest time, Kahwa harvested 750kg of beans – more than double her previous harvest. She attributed her great yield to practising FMNR, which allowed for adequate shade and manure from the natural tree mulch in the soil.

Kahwa says that for her, the most significant change from practising FMNR has been her increased ability to provide for her family. “From the five sacks of beans I harvested, I took one sack to my children’s primary school – it is a requirement for parents to contribute towards their children’s lunch at school.” She has already sold one sack and intends to sell two more when the price for beans rises. She also intends to save one sack for family consumption and use one for seeds to plant next season

World Vision worked with the Humbo community in Ethiopia from 2005-2018 – supporting them to use FMNR to reforest their land. Almost 3000 hectares have now been reforested. The community was also able to sell carbon credit from the carbon they captured through these regenerated trees. These results are now visible from satellites in space, appearing as a green oasis in a degraded landscape.

Within the community, 83 percent of respondents in the project area reported decreased on-farm soil erosion over the past five years, while 74 percent reported increased on-farm soil fertility over the same period. In contrast, only 37 percent of respondents in non-project areas reported an increase in on-farm soil fertility over the past five years. Community members also identified increased rainfall, better air quality and reduced air temperature as just some of the many additional benefits of FMNR.