To the untrained eye, the landlocked country of Niger may seem a denuded place: a landscape where soil can be so infertile it is like trying to farm in crushed glass.

But Gippsland man Tony Rinaudo looked at things differently.

He got down on the ground and where others saw barren soil, he saw potential.

Mr Rinaudo's work as an agronomist — a soil and plant scientist — in the West African nation during the 1980s resulted in the development of farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR), a technique that resulted in trees springing up from lifeless soil.

It is a technique that has earned Mr Rinaudo, who is World Vision's principal climate advisor, the 2025 Luxembourg Peace Prize for Outstanding Environmental Peace.

His work has given the tool of knowledge to others around him, while f

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