Stories from the Ground Up

Team Leader of the Uganda Landcare Network (ULN) Dr Joy Tukhawira and Mr Mathias Wakulira talk to Senior EverGreening Fellow, Dr Alan Channer, about evergreening in Uganda.   Groups of children wend their way through coffee and banana fields, their banter mingling with cock crows as the sun rises. And...

Kaluki Paul Mutuku is a 26 year-old environmental activist born and raised in Kenya. Kaluki grew up in Machakos, a rural community in the Kenyan countryside, where he spent his childhood among nature. He recounts seizing every opportunity to go to the forest; whether to collect firewood for his mother,...

Written by Kaluki Paul Mutuku THE HUMMINGBIRD IN ME “We cannot afford to go back to “normal” systems that were before this pandemic, based and rooted in historical, environmental, social, and political injustices.” Hello, Hola, Habari, My name is Kaluki Paul Mutuku, a climate activist & environmental defender from Kenya...

Kenyan FMNR champion Irene Ojuok talks to EverGreening Senior Fellow Dr Alan Channer When Irene Ojuok was a child, she would sit on the shores of Lake Victoria, near her hometown of Kisumu in Kenya, and reflect. ‘I had a sense of connection with nature,’ she recalls, ‘but I didn’t...

Dr. Visier Sanyü often sleeps in his treehouse. It’s a feature of the 12-acre “Healing Garden” which he created in Medziphema, Northeast India. Sanyü, a retired professor of history and archaeology, likes to quote a Greek proverb to his visitors: ‘A society grows great when old men plant trees whose...

By Tony Rinaudo “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” “I don’t much care where –” “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland Unlike Lewis...

By Alan Channer There is a Kenyan saying that ‘he who goes to Mombasa may never return’, for the Indian Ocean port has many charms and opportunities. Today the city’s sprawling slums are witness to a more general challenge: rural-urban migration. Much of this is due to environmental degradation and...

By Alan Channer Kelechi Eleanya is passionate about trees and the environment.  As President of the ‘Forestry Students Association’ (aka the ‘Tree Club’) at the University of Ibadan in the 1990s, he was in the vanguard of promoting the value of trees in the environment among his peers. ‘Back then,’...

by Alan Channer World Vision Ghana has been fostering the uptake of evergreen agriculture in northern Ghana for over 10 years – greening thousands of hectares in Talensi District, with multiple benefits for its farming communities. As a result of these achievements, World Vision Ghana won an ‘Excellence in Land...

Over 35 years ago, the Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo began implementing what became known as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). It all started in Maradi, Niger. Following the Beating Famine conference in Mali, Tony returned to Maradi, to visit friends and evaluate the impact of FMNR. He sent this report:...

Behind the Scenes at the Land Restoration Awards By Alan Channer ‘‘Let’s have an awards ceremony at the Beating Famine conference in Bamako – and let’s have the ceremony at a gala dinner.’ Dr Dennis Garrity was in brainstorming mode. ‘‘Celebrating success in land restoration is one of the most...

Tony Awarded Order of Australia Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo has gained global recognition as ‘The Forest Maker’, through his Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) method. Since 1983, Tony has demonstrated on a grand scale how drylands can be regreened at minimal cost, providing a solution to address extreme deforestation and...