Communities in northern Ghana are successfully restoring degraded forests using a technique called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). Rather than planting new trees, locals prune existing tree stumps and young trees, allowing the strongest branches to thrive and encouraging natural regrowth.

Accra

Communities in northern Ghana, particularly in Yameriga, are successfully restoring degraded forests using a technique called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). Rather than planting new trees, locals—mainly women—prune existing tree stumps and young trees, allowing the strongest branches to thrive and encouraging natural regrowth. This approach has led to the revival of previously barren land, improved microclimates, and increased availability of fruits and nuts, enhancing local livelihoods.

The FMNR project, launched by World Vision Ghana in 2010, has helped revive over 45 square kilometres of land across 90 communities. While some farmers express concerns about the impact on traditional farming practices, the initiative has brought tangible benefits to many, including more reliable access to firewood and food. The project is supported by local enforcement to protect regrown trees, and has become a model for community-led environmental restoration.

Reviving forests in northern Ghana with natural regeneration

Not all the tree stumps you see are actually dead. Some start to grow again. With the right care, a new tree can sprout up. In just a few years, a wasteland can be reborn as a healthy woodland. How? These women in the community of Yemeriga in northern Ghana deliberately cut back smaller branches so that the strongest ones get more light, air and nutrients. The result is sturdy trees where practically nothing used to grow. It was troubling. We wondered what crimes we committed to deserve that fate. We were farming big fields, but the harvest was always meagre. Many people migrated. Even I was thinking about it too. Deforestation is having an impact across Ghana and over a third of the country's land is at a threat of desertification as a result of climate change and other human-induced damage such as uncontrolled logging for firewood and bushfires lit by hunters to flush out prey. With support from the United Nations, Ghana aims to plant millions of trees by 2030 to combat climate change and restore degraded landscapes. But some are sceptical about the initiative. You raise a seedling in a nursery condition and you bring it out and plant it out in the wild where it's harsh, temperatures are high, there's a drought. Then to cope with that, livestock is browsing them. It's like taking the baby and leaving the baby in the city centre and saying that you should live your life. I brought you to the world, have a go at it. It's not easy to survive these harsh conditions. In Yemeriga, they are taking a different approach. This is the land just a few years ago. Now a sign marks the progress on the reforestation front. Initially, the women pruned living tree stumps. Now they mostly prune young trees and have sprung up from the seeds dispersed by natural means such as animal droppings. The idea is to ensure the trees grow and bear fruit faster. Restoring woodland areas also has a positive impact on the microclimate helping to increase humidity, cool down the soil and make rainfall more regular. The approach is called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration or FMNR. This project was launched in 2010 by NGO World Vision Ghana. With the concept of the FMNR, the communities were able to generate this place, this field to become a forest. What did they do? All they did was to mobilize themselves, come out and prune the shrubs here and then protect them from bushfires. And within some few years, the place changed into a forest. So that is the FMNR concept. All what you are seeing here, no tree was planted. But the system has critics too. Among those opposing the expansion of FMNR is local maize farmer Moses Ayamga. He has a very different concept of farming. They are interfering with our work. They said we shouldn't cut down trees on our farms. How do you farm without chemicals, without clearing lands, without tractors? If you don't cut down the trees, how can you grow food? But for the women in Yameriga, the project is literally bearing fruits and nuts, enough for them to make a decent living. Before FMNR came to our community, the fruit I'm holding didn't exist here. There were no sheer nuts. There was suffering and hunger. Our lives were miserable. Our children faced a lot of challenges. Even getting firewood was a problem. But now everything has grown back and is making us happy. As well as enjoying the fruits of the women's labour, it's the men's job to protect the trees. Anyone caught harming them is made to pay a fine, sometimes in kind rather than cash. The women of Yameriga are an inspiring example. Women's collectives like theirs, in 90 communities in northern Ghana, have already revived over 45 square kilometres of degraded land, one cut at a time.

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