Our regreening techniques

Treecovery
Bunds
Grass seed banks
Other regreening techniques

Treecovery

Treecovery, or Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), is an agroforestry approach to regrow trees and support new, naturally emerging sprouts to grow big.

It involves a process of selecting, pruning and protecting stumps of cut-down trees. With the right care, these stumps get the chance to grow into real trees again.

Women practicing Kisiki Hai

Bunds

In many African countries there is enough rainfall. It however doesn’t fall often and when it does, it rains hard.

By capturing rainwater with the help of bunds, rainwater has more time to enter the soil and restore the water balance. The seeds in the soil get the chance to sprout, and eventually allow the area to grow green, lush and cool.

Arusha Tanzania bunds

Grass seed banks

Within our grass seed banks, Maasai women grow, harvest, and sell grass (hay) and seeds.

They make an income by selling them on local markets or to organizations. The grass seed banks form an oasis of green in the barren surroundings, and the hay the women harvest is food for their livestock in dry seas

Women in grass seed bank

Other regreening techniques

Besides digging bunds, bringing back trees with Treecovery and growing grasses in the grass seed banks, we use multiple other regreening techniques to regreen degraded areas.

Olopololi plots and woodland exclosures are used to prevent overgrazing of grass- and woodland, whilst Fanya Juu & Fanya Chini and stone lines are used to capture rainwater that is running downhills.

Digging Fanya Juu Fanya Chini
Rainmakers III tree

Watch our regreening documentaries

Curious to see what re-greening looks like in reality? In our Rainmakers documentaries we give you an insight into our projects and the regreening techniques we use to regreen the degraded landscapes.

Choosing the
right landscape
restoration
technique

Regreening is not a one-size-fits-all solution. As there are many different sustainable land management interventions, we use various landscape restoration techniques:

The most suitable interventions are combined for our project areas. These interventions are selected in close collaboration with our local partners based on physical conditions (land use, climate, soil conditions, slope) and social conditions (socio-economic structures and land use).

Measuring Fanya Juu & Fanya Chini