A new mobile application is bringing farmers in Africa the science of monitoring land restoration. The Regreening Africa App is part of an EU- funded project, which helps farmers, government agents and project officers to collect data on key indicators of land restoration. The data ranges from number and types of trees planted, plant survival rate over time, location of tree nurseries and the tree species they stock, polygons and management practices in farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) sites, training offered to farmer groups,  number of women and youth who have benefited from the project.

The App is currently available across eight countries in Africa with a scope for expansion to other countries in the region, including countries within the Great Green Wall initiative that covers a wider geographical scope. The App fills a critical gap by providing evidence on where restoration is happening, especially through tree planting and FMNR, the methods used and who are the beneficiaries. It can help to locate where exotic tree species are replacing indigenous species and allows actors to take the necessary action based on evidence. This level of detail is difficult to attain through other methods such as remote sensing.

  “The beauty about this App is its simplicity. I have used it to record trees on many farms and have been fascinated to see what the data looks like once it is processed,” Mohamed Dicko, project officer, Oxfam Mali. Read more here…