Yacouba Sawadogo
The Green Wall of Africa – Burkina Faso, Africa
Yacouba Sawadago is famed for being “The Man who Stopped the Desert”, as for the relentless work he has done to coax a forest out of desert-like soil in the country. In Burkina Faso, he deployed the unique earthworks method known as Zaï, creating holes and stone lines in the surface of the desert which would trap water and organics from running off with erosion. In so doing, he brought great feats of ecosystem restoration and abundance to these lands and the people who live there. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) honoured him as one of its first ever Global Dryland Champions. In addition, he was conferred the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the “alternative Nobel Prize” in 2018.
Born around 1946 in the province of Yatenga in Northern Burkina Faso, and after attending Koranic school in Mali, Sawadogo returned to Yatenga to work as a salesman at a local market. In the 1970s and 80s, a terrible drought left the entire land devoid of water. While many left the villages, Sawadogo stayed back instead. However, it was extremely difficult for him to survive there as wind erosion, water shortages, overgrazing, and rampant population growth degraded the land, making it all the more unsuitable. Being next to the desert made matters worse as it became completely rain-starved.
It was then when he decided to grow trees in the area to facilitate hydration. He dug up what is known as ‘zai pits’ in which trees were planted to trap water. He also used stones to help and store water inside them. eventually creating a 40 ha forest on what four decades ago was barren and degraded land that no one wanted to farm. The forest now has more than 60 species of trees and bushes as well as a variety of wildlife, and is arguably one of the most diverse forests created and managed by a farmer in the Sahel.
According to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the rainfall helped collect water in the pits that increased the crop yields by up to 500%. By 2016, it is estimated that the zaï technique has helped to restore the productive capacity of tens of thousands of hectares in Burkina Faso’s Yatenga and Gourcy provinces alone.A journal in 2018 also stated that these pits have massively improved food security, groundwater levels, tree cover and biodiversity. Burkina Faso has become better this way than what they were like 30 years back.
Today, Sawadogo is facing serious problems from several quarters. Northern Burkina Faso has become increasingly volatile due to incursions by jihadist groups and inter-communal conflict, which have brought insurgent attacks and social unrest. An expansion project in the area has taken up a considerable portion of the forest he spent years growing: homes have been built on his land, with little compensation being offered. In addition, the entire family is on guard to protect the area from people wanting to steal wood.
However, the farmer’s message about the future of the environment and conservation remains profound.
“If you cut down ten trees a day and fail to plant even one a year, we’re headed for destruction… I don’t want to eat today and leave future generations with nothing to eat…
This forest that you see today was really a desert. There was not even a shade of a single tree here.
Website: 1) Bio
Video 1: Trailer for Film: The Man who Stopped the Desert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzah_5y65AU
Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wezxNnkcsW8
