Der.2021.german.waldmacher -

Underneath the "dead" soil lay a massive, ancient network of roots—an waiting for a chance to grow.

This story is based on the 2021 documentary Der Waldmacher ( The Forest Maker ), directed by Volker Schlöndorff. It chronicles the life's work of Tony Rinaudo , an Australian agronomist who revolutionized reforestation in Africa. The Underground Forest DER.2021.German.WALDMACHER

In 1981, a young agronomist named Tony Rinaudo arrived in the Niger Republic with a simple, noble goal: stop the desert. The Sahel region was a landscape of dust and despair, stripped bare by decades of intensive farming and relentless drought. Tony did what every expert told him to do—he planted trees. He built nurseries and distributed thousands of seedlings. Underneath the "dead" soil lay a massive, ancient

Tony realized he didn’t need to plant new trees; he needed to wake up the old ones. He developed a simple method called : selecting the strongest stems on a stump, pruning the rest, and protecting them from livestock. Der Waldmacher (2021) - IMDb The Underground Forest In 1981, a young agronomist

One afternoon in 1983, while driving through the barren fields, Tony stopped to change a tire. He looked at the small, scrubby "bushes" poking through the sand—the same ones he had dismissed as useless weeds for years. He took a closer look and realized they weren't weeds at all. They were tree stumps.

But the desert fought back. Barely 10% of his saplings survived the searing heat and sandstorms. Those that did were often eaten by wandering goats or cut down for firewood by desperate families. After years of watching his work wither, Tony was ready to admit defeat.