FIGARO DEMAIN – For 40 years, the Australian agronomist has been successfully developing forests in Africa without planting any trees, but by revisiting an ancestral technique.
It’s the battle of a lifetime. At 67, Tony Rinaudo has one obsession: to transform degraded land into forests. Three billion hectares, or 75% of the world’s land, is affected, mainly as a result of human activity. Because when forests are cut, water becomes scarcer, animals suffer and soils erode. A vicious circle, particularly in Africawhere selling timber is often a matter of survival for poor families.
When the agronomist arrived in Niger in 1984, in his twenties, with his wife and their baby, he discovered one of the poorest countries on the planet, on the edge of the Sahara, then in the throes of famine: winds of over 70 km/hour, ground temperatures of over 60 degrees Celsius… “like an ovenand a terrible drought,” he recounts while in Paris.
Read also
The Congo forest, the last haven preserved from the onslaught of tourism
Initially, he tried to plant trees in the traditional way, but this proved a failure, given the dry climate and lack of interest…
This article is reserved for subscribers. 78% left to discover.
Would you like to read the rest?
Unlock all articles immediately. No obligation.
Already a subscriber?
Log on