Tony Rinaudo AM | |
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| Born | 19 January 1957 Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Citizenship | Australian |
| Occupation | Agriculturist |
| Spouse | Eliabeth Rinaudo |
| Children | 4 |
| Awards | Commandeur du Merit, Agricole (Niger) Right Livelihood Laureate 2018 Member of the Order of Australia 2019 |
Anthony Thomas Rinaudo AM (born 19 January 1957) is an Australian agriculturist and missionary.
Tony Rinaudo was born in the northern Victorian town of Wangaratta and raised in nearby Myrtleford. [1]
After completing high school he studied at University of New England, Armidale (Bachelor of Rural Science) and later at Bible College of New Zealand (Bible in Missions course). [1] [2]
Following University and Bible College, Rinaudo served initially at a Farm School/Preparatory Bible College in Maradi, Niger and later in the Maradi Integrated Development Project with the Sudan Interior Mission, now known as SIM from 1981 to 1999. [1] [3]
Since 1999 he has worked for World Vision Australia [3] in several roles, initially as a Program Officer and now as Principal Climate Action Advisor.
Rinaudo is the subject of a 2022 documentary by German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff called 'The Forest Maker'. [4] [5] [6] which was shown at the Film Without Borders film festival in Bad Saarow Germany 2022. [7]
Rinaudo served as an agriculturalist and missionary with 'Serving in Mission' in Niger Republic from 1981 to 1999. There, he oversaw long-term rural development and periodic, large-scale relief programs. In this Sahel region of Niger, where tree-planting efforts were failing, he "discovered root systems remained alive underground, even in the harshest, desert-like landscapes. To encourage the 'underground forest' to grow into trees, he just needed to prune and manage the tree shoots. He inspired farmers to carry on this work over the years. Rinaudo's pioneering technique is called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration, or FMNR." [8] The FMNR website describes the technique as a "low-cost land restoration technique used to combat poverty and hunger amongst poor subsistence farmers by increasing food and timber production and resilience to climate extremes". [8] [9] [10] He consequently earned the nickname "the Forest Maker". [11] At the UN's global climate talks in Katowice, Poland, in 2018, it was recognised that "6M hectares of land have been regenerated under FMNR, totalling 240M trees [and that] the reforestation of the landscape can be seen on satellite images from space". [12]
Through these he contributed to a transformation in how Nigerians farm, and the reforesting of over six million hectares of land, which still inspires re-greening movements globally. For his 18 years' service to humanity and the environment, the government of Niger awarded him its highest honour for an expatriate "The Order of Agriculture with Merit" (Merite Agricole du Niger). [13]
Since joining World Vision Australia in 1999, Rinaudo initiated and/or oversaw important land regeneration projects, worldwide. Serving now as Principal Climate Action Advisor, he promotes forestry and agro-forestry initiatives globally within the World Vision partnership, and beyond, [3] [14] [15] for example in East Timor [16] and Ethiopia. [17]
Rinaudo is listed as a contributor to natural resource management and conference speaker by organisations around the world:
Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities. This spread of arid areas is caused by a variety of factors, such as overexploitation of soil as a result of human activity and the effects of climate change. Geographic areas most affected are located in Africa, Asia and parts of South America. Drylands occupy approximately 40–41% of Earth's land area and are home to more than 2 billion people. Effects of desertification include sand and dust storms, food insecurity, and poverty.
A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines a forest as, "Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban use." Using this definition, Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 found that forests covered 4.06 billion hectares, or approximately 31 percent of the world's land area in 2020.
Reforestation is the practice of restoring previously existing forests and woodlands that have been destroyed or damaged. The prior forest destruction might have happened through deforestation, clearcutting or wildfires. Two important purposes of reforestation programs are for harvesting of wood or for climate change mitigation purposes. Reforestation can also help with ecosystem restoration. One method for reforestation is to establish tree plantations, also called plantation forests. They cover about 131 million ha worldwide, which is 3 percent of the global forest area and 45 percent of the total area of planted forests.
The Sahel region or Sahelian acacia savanna is a biogeographical region in Africa. It is the transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north. The Sahel has a hot semi-arid climate and stretches across the southernmost latitudes of North Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. Although geographically located in the tropics, the Sahel does not have a tropical climate.
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses. According to Britannica, there exists four savanna forms; savanna woodland where trees and shrubs form a light canopy, tree savanna with scattered trees and shrubs, shrub savanna with distributed shrubs, and grass savanna where trees and shrubs are mostly nonexistent.
Tree planting is the process of transplanting tree seedlings, generally for forestry, land reclamation, or landscaping purposes. It differs from the transplantation of larger trees in arboriculture and from the lower-cost but slower and less reliable distribution of tree seeds. Trees contribute to their environment over long periods of time by providing oxygen, improving air quality, climate amelioration, conserving water, preserving soil, and supporting wildlife. During the process of photosynthesis, trees take in carbon dioxide and produce the oxygen we breathe.
Forestation is a vital ecological process where forests are established and grown through afforestation and reforestation efforts. Afforestation involves planting trees on previously non-forested lands, while reforestation focuses on replanting trees in areas that were once deforested. This process plays an important role in restoring degraded forests, enhancing ecosystems, promoting carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation.
Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees (forestation) in an area where there was no recent tree cover. In comparison, reforestation means re-establishing forest that have either been cut down or lost due to natural causes, such as fire, storm, etc. There are three types of afforestation: Natural regeneration, agroforestry and tree plantations. Afforestation has many benefits. In the context of climate change, afforestation can be helpful for climate change mitigation through the route of carbon sequestration. Afforestation can also improve the local climate through increased rainfall and by being a barrier against high winds. The additional trees can also prevent or reduce topsoil erosion, floods and landslides. Finally, additional trees can be a habitat for wildlife, and provide employment and wood products.
Acacia parramattensis, commonly known as Parramatta wattle, is a tree of the family Fabaceae native to the Blue Mountains and surrounding regions of New South Wales. It is a tall shrub or tree to about 15 m (49 ft) in height with phyllodes instead of true leaves. These are finely divided bipinnate. The yellow flowers appear over summer. It generally grows in woodland or dry sclerophyll forest on alluvial or shale-based soils, generally with some clay content.
Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) is a low-cost, sustainable land restoration technique used to combat poverty and hunger amongst poor subsistence farmers in developing countries by increasing food and timber production, and resilience to climate extremes. It involves the systematic regeneration and management of trees and shrubs from tree stumps, roots and seeds. FMNR was developed by the Australian agricultural economist Tony Rinaudo in the 1980s in West Africa. The background and development are described in Rinaudo's book The Forest Underground.
Aguie is a town and capital of the Aguie Department in southern Niger, 69 kilometres east of the nation's second largest city, Maradi.
Deforestation in Nigeria refers to the extensive and rapid clearing of forests within the borders of Nigeria. This environmental issue has significant impacts on both local and global scales.
Community forestry is an evolving branch of forestry whereby the local community plays a significant role in forest management and land use decision making by themselves in the facilitating support of government as well as change agents. It involves the participation and collaboration of various stakeholders including community, government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The level of involvement of each of these groups is dependent on the specific community forest project, the management system in use and the region. It gained prominence in the mid-1970s and examples of community forestry can now be seen in many countries including Nepal, Indonesia, Korea, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and North America.
Trees for the Future is a Maryland-based nonprofit organization founded on August 14, 1989, that trains farmers around the world in agroforestry and sustainable land use.
The Plant A Tree Today Foundation (PATT) is a non-governmental environmental organization with primary operations in the United Kingdom and Thailand. Established in 2005, PATT attempts to raise environmental awareness and foster better practices in less developed nations around the world, planting trees as a means to combat deforestation and climate change. Planting tree help to reforest cleared land. Planting of trees also plays a role in climate change adaptation.
Deforestation is a primary contributor to climate change, and climate change affects the health of forests. Land use change, especially in the form of deforestation, is the second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions from human activities, after the burning of fossil fuels. Greenhouse gases are emitted from deforestation during the burning of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon. Global models and national greenhouse gas inventories give similar results for deforestation emissions. As of 2019, deforestation is responsible for about 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon emissions from tropical deforestation are accelerating.
Ferdinand Alphonse Fortunat Larose was a French Canadian agronomist, best known for having created in Ontario one of the largest regeneration forests in the 1920s, named after him.
The Blue Gum Forest is a forest located in Blue Mountains National Park within the Grose Valley of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales west of Sydney, southeastern Australia. It is one of the best-known bushwalking sites in Australia. The forest is located within the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Greater Blue Mountains Area. The forest survived through the efforts of early Australian conservationists.
The biogeographic regionalization of Earth's terrestrial biodiversity, known as Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World (TEOW), is made up of 867 ecoregions that are divided into 14 biomes. In addition to offering a comprehensive map of terrestrial biodiversity, TEOW also provides a global species database for ecological analyses and priority setting, a logical biogeographic framework for large-scale conservation strategies, a map for enhancing biogeographic literacy, and a foundation for the Global 200.
Reforestation in Nigeria employs both natural and artificial methods. Reforestation involves the deliberate planting of trees and restoring forested areas that have been depleted or destroyed. It involves a planned restocking of the forest to ensure sustainable supply of timber and other forest products. Reforestation, in essence, involves replenishing forests to guarantee a consistent and sustainable supply of timber and various other forest resources. This objective can be accomplished through either natural regeneration techniques or artificial regeneration methods. Both of these approaches have been utilized in the reforestation efforts within Nigeria's forests. At the initiation of the reforestation program in Nigeria, the natural regeneration approach was chosen for two primary reasons. Firstly, it aimed to preserve the rainforest in its original state by allowing it to regenerate naturally from the existing seed bank in the soil. Secondly, and of significant importance, this method was selected due to budgetary constraints, as there were insufficient funds available to establish plantations through direct means.
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