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Down to Earth (5/7)

This is also part of this series: Earth Report - Season 2 (7)

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Subjects: Activism, African Studies, Agriculture, Climate Change, Ecology, Food Supply, Forests, Plants, Sustainability, Sustainable Development

Grade Level: JrH-Adult
Producer: TVE
Closed Captioned: No

Running Time: 24 mins
Country of Origin: Great Britain
Study Guide: No

Copyright Date: 2009
Available in French: No

It’s hot in the Sahel, unbearably hot. When the sun’s at its highest, the temperature rises to an unbearable 48 degrees. In West Africa, in Mali and Burkina Faso the people sing to the trees. For centuries, these farming families have seen trees as a source of life. But trees in this region are now few and far between. Mathieu Ouedraogo argues that planting trees is the way to transform the harsh, degraded land of the Sahel.

This green space is what we dream about - this green idyll! This is our daily struggle - to transform the rest of the Sahel like this lowland. - Mathieu Ouedraogo

This ‘green idyll’ is in Ranawa, Burkino Faso, where Mathieu first began his work thirty years ago. It’s proof that it is possible to re-green the Sahel. And that’s important in the fight against climate change.

Forests, farmland and soil are vital for soaking up, or ‘sequestering’ excess carbon in the atmosphere. Mathieu is on a journey that will take him through the Sahel from Burkina Faso to Mali - across some of the harshest landscapes known to man. Here life expectancy is only 45 years.

Mathieu has become the region’s leading expert at re-greening. With him is Sophie Soron - a young field worker who will travel with him to Dori where they’ll set up a new programme to re-green the surrounding desert.

Links: www.tve.org/earthreport/archive/doc.cfm

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