Fennet

A reusable, temporary fence

FenNet is a reusable and portable fence to enable successful landscape restoration through reforestation in pastoral regions of Western Africa.

What we did

Concept; exploratory sketches
Detailed product design; engineering & prototyping

The project

Hommes et Terre is currently restoring more than 15,000 hectares of degraded land. Today, Hommes et Terre operates in Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and Ivory Coast. Hommes & Terre tries to make dry lands fertile again through their specific plowing technique. As a result, the water is retained longer and the planted vegetation has longer access to water and can therefore root and harden better. An additional problem is that of nomadic tribes who travel with herds of goats. When these goats enter a planted area, they also eat the bark of the young trees, preventing them from reaching maturity and suffering from dwarfism. As a result, these plantings lose their C02 regenerating character, one of the funding methodologies to make these degraded soils fertile again. Hence the idea grew to install the temporary fence Fennet.

In the first few years, FenNet protects the newly planted and sown sites from goats and sheep. This allows the young trees to grow to full strength, so that the ecosystem can recover on its own. In a second phase, FenNet allows rotational grazing by dividing the site into closed zones. In this way, the animals contribute to the recovery process and the local communities can deal with their environment in a more sustainable way. In this way, FenNet is an important instrument in the permanent fight against desertification. The fence was produced entirely locally and cheaply.

During the development, several concepts were worked out, prototyped and tested in a pilot plant in Belgium to assess the stability and installation. From these experiences, we then had some systems tested on site in Africa to test the stability of the solution against the behavior of hungry goats and cattle.

In the end, we reduced the Fennet to its essence and arrived at a minimal construction based on raw materials that are also all readily available in Western Africa; rebar and concrete.

Interested in working with us?

Looking for a partner to boost your brand? Curious about our approach?

BACK TO ALL CASES