Farmer-managed natural regeneration as a land-restoration strategy: under what conditions does it work?
- From
-
Published on
14.09.20
- Impact Area

The upcoming 2021–2030 United Nations decade of restoration aims to accelerate efforts towards achieving ambitious 2030 restoration targets, for example, under the Bonn Challenge. One of the more promising restoration methods is farmer-managed natural regeneration, which involves farmers nurturing natural woody regeneration in their fields while keeping the land under the primary function of agricultural production. It’s a form of agroforestry without the need to plant trees. The dependence on natural regenereration makes it more effective under harsh and dry conditions and makes it less costly than planting trees. However, this also raises the question: what regenerates naturally and what does this mean for restoration?
So far, evidence from ‘regreening’ with farmer-managed natural regeneration comes mainly from the West African Sahel. Restoration organizations, such as World Vision, are now promoting it beyond its original range. A clear understanding of what is able to regenerate and how regeneration is affected by conditions on farms is essential to be able to evaluate the long-term outcomes of restoration and to identify potential limits to increasing scale.
Scientists from World Agroforestry (ICRAF) and Wageningen University in the Netherlands have joined forces to systematically study regeneration using the approach on farms in Burkina Faso and Ghana and asked how regeneration is affected by human activities, land degradation and by nearby forests and trees. Their results have been published in Scientific Reports in September 2020.
Related news
-
SOILutions for Security: CGIAR at the 2025 Borlaug Dialogue
Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program22.10.25-
Biodiversity
-
Environmental health
-
Environmental health & biodiversity
-
Food security
-
Nutrition
From October 21–23, CGIAR will join global partners in Des Moines, Iowa for the 2025…
Read more -
-
Road to Belém: Scaling biosolutions for soil health and climate action gains momentum ahead of COP30
Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program15.10.25-
Adaptation
-
Biodiversity
-
Climate adaptation & mitigation
-
Environmental health & biodiversity
-
Mitigation
More than 40% of the world’s cultivated land is degraded, affecting more than three billion…
Read more -
-
Advancing public private and people partnership (PPPP) for small scale mechanization in Tunisia: a milestone towards enhanced farm and landscape management.
Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program07.10.25-
Environmental health
-
Environmental health & biodiversity
-
Food security
The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas ICARDA and its national partners…
Read more -