http://viewchange.org Videos from ViewChange.org (Filtered by topics: Environment) en-us Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:28:00 +0000 Copyright 2011 Link Media, Inc. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-unleashing-innovation What is social innovation? Solving some of the world's most pressing problems -- including global poverty and development -- requires innovative thinking, unusual partnerships, and entrepreneurialism. And it's already working. Find out how in Unleashing Innovation. Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:28:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-unleashing-innovation Social innovation, Technology, Social entrepreneurship, Environment, Water & Sanitation, Change Makers, Foreign Assistance, David Kilcullen, Tanzania, Dar es Salaam >> TITLE: Soccer is the world's most popular sport >> BILL CLINTON: An idea for clean energy that I think it's fair to say hardly anybody else on the planet had ever thought of. >> TITLE: One out of five people live without electricity >> BILL CLINTON: It's quite extraordinary really -- kick a ball, turn on a light. >> TITLE: Thirty minutes of play generates three hours of light >> BILL CLINTON: It's an off-grid solution that gives us a way to bring power and improve quality of life, working capacity, learning capacity. >> TITLE: Soccket: innovate, play, empower >> VOICEOVER: Soccket, and other social innovations, in this ViewChange special. >> VOICEOVER: ViewChange is about people making real progress in tackling the world's toughest issues. Can a story change the world? See for yourself in ViewChange: Unleashing Innovation. >> VOICEOVER: That was Soccket. It's gotten a lot of attention recently, and not just from Bill Clinton. Which isn't surprising: it has all the trappings of a game-changer. Soccket is clever; it's creative; it's relatively cheap; and most of all, it takes on one of the biggest challenges in the developing world -- access to electricity. Soccket is unique, but it's one of a growing number of projects with a similar goal: tackling the world's toughest problems from surprising and inventive new angles. Problems like hunger, disease, clean water, security -- problems that are crying out for a fresh approach. Lynn Taliento from McKinsey & Company's Social Sector Office, and Tom Freston, chairman of the ONE Campaign, are two leaders in this field, which goes by the term "social innovation." It's a field that sits at the nexus of industry, entrepreneurial thinking, and philanthropy. As they explain, understanding social innovation takes some nuance. >> TOM FRESTON [Chairman of the Board, ONE]: Social innovation's sort of a category that wasn't even around ten years ago and has been booming ever since -- and it's really about identifying new ideas, new organizations, new strategies to attack social problems. >> LYNN TALIENTO [Partner, McKinsey & Company]: For me, social innovation is about looking at a social challenge and coming up with different ways to address it. A lot of people think it means coming up with a new technology or a new solution, sort of a point solution. But we see it way broader than that. If you think about it you can come up with a new solution but then you can come up also with a new way to deliver that solution. It might be an old solution that you deliver in a new way. >> TOM FRESTON: It's clearly an area that is growing. We see the White House has a Social Innovation Fund. We see in various countries all kinds of government support. There are all kinds of exciting people doing things. >> LYNN TALIENTO: So, some of the groups that are social innovators are pretty well known to us. Think about (PRODUCT)RED, products you can buy in the stores like the Red Apple iPod. Or think about TOMS Shoes, which many of us wear. Kiva.org, where you can actually make a loan to a micro entrepreneur in another country and get paid back and then reinvest. Or think about Ushahidi, which is revolutionizing crisis communications. >> TOM FRESTON: Ten years ago, if you got out of a good school, there's a good chance you were probably headed to Wall Street. Thirty years ago, if you got out of a good school, there was a good chance you'd want to be an investigative journalist. I think a lot of the bloom is off the rose on the Wall Street, money-making culture, not all of it certainly, but a lot of people are attracted to this realm because it combines their innate desire to do something good along with a possibility to tie it into something innovative in terms of technology, or approach, or so forth. >> LYNN TALIENTO: There's a whole spectrum of social innovation, and it really can be found anywhere. That's really what's so exciting about it. It can be found in labs that are developing new vaccines. It can be found very commonly on the ground in a nonprofit, say a midwifery clinic working with moms to figure out how to deliver their babies more safely. But increasingly it's happening in corporations. Companies are engaging more and more in social issues and figuring out how to use their supply chains, their people, their skills to address a social issue in a location where they're operating. >> VOICEOVER: So where does this "spectrum of innovation" begin and end? From the smallest villages to the world's top tech labs, these innovators are changing the face of their industries. Here are four short films, entered in McKinsey's Social Innovation Video Contest, pushing the boundaries of the expected around the world. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> WOMAN: As I watch my child sleep, I feel a sense of inner peace. I will do everything to protect him, and I want to always be there to give him unconditional love. But the day my child was born, the only thing I wanted was to help him live. >> TITLE: Twenty million low-birth weight and premature babies are born every year around the world, 450 every hour >> VOICEOVER: One of the biggest problems these babies face is staying warm, but traditional incubators cost thousands of dollars. The Embrace infant warmer is a simple solution to this problem. Embrace consists of three parts: a sleeping bag, a heater, and a pouch of phase-change material. Once heated, the phase-change material is placed into a compartment in the sleeping bag. The product stays warm without electricity, and allows for close mother-to-child interaction. Embrace's mission is to give every infant a chance for a healthy life. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> VOICEOVER: You may already know the story. Uganda, plagued by a twenty-five year long war. Two million people displaced, left homeless, jobless, and desperate. But when we actually went to Uganda, our perspective changed. We met women with names and stories. Women who are ready to step forward and get a fresh start. The identity of 31 Bits was born, combining creativity with recycled paper to make incredible jewelry. We realized that we had a market, and they had a skill. Together, we made a business. We believe true economic sustainability is a result of holistic care, enabling a person financially, spiritually, mentally, and physically. After four years in our program, a woman has an education, a career, confidence, and a voice. She is empowered to rise above poverty. >> TITLE: Buy a necklace. Share their story. Give hope. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> MIKE LIN [Founder & CEO, Fenix International Inc.] With over 1.6 billion people without access to power, we need scalable solutions. The name Fenix comes from the mythical bird, and it's about rebirth and renewal. And we're focusing on renewable energy for frontier markets. The Fenix ReadySet system is a renewable power center that can charge from virtually anything. It can charge from solar, it can charge from a bicycle generator that we've developed, and it can even charge off the grid. We aim to reach massive scale, installing megawatts, gigawatts of power, in areas that never had access to energy. An entrepreneur can use the ReadySet system to power a small business, they can charge cell phones and they can power lights at night so they can keep their stores open longer and generate new, meaningful income. We're hoping to actually innovate a new business model where we're thinking about people, prosperity, and the planet. We're hoping to address not just the environmental issues but also improve the quality of life for billions of people around the world. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> TITLE: Meet Kamala. Kamala and her mother spend hours every day collecting water for their family. This leaves little time for school, for play, or for work. One billion people on the planet lack reliable access to safe water. This means they must travel at least half a mile to reach a safe water source. Transporting water is time consuming. Average time spent = 25 percent of a woman's day. Water is heavy. Five gallons = 42 pounds, or one piece of checked luggage. People need at least five gallons of water per day to stay healthy and hydrated. Kamala and her mother struggle to meet their family's daily water needs. Would you rather be the woman on the right, or a woman on the left? Wello is a social venture with a bold mission: to deliver clean water to a thirsty world. Now that they have a Wello WaterWheel, Kamala and her mother spend their time in more productive ways. This gives Kamala and her family a chance at a better future. In a single trip, one WaterWheel delivers enough water for an entire family. By re-imagining the water crisis as an opportunity, Wello has reinvented the wheel. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> VOICEOVER: Those are only four of many stories happening around the world. Meanwhile, governments and aid groups have been targeting challenges like water and electricity access, and children's health, for almost a century. Lots of progress has been made, but there's plenty of room for more. Problems this deeply entrenched require more than just another look. They need a whole new outlook. >> LYNN TALIENTO: If we're going to solve some of these increasingly complex social issues we definitely need fresh thinking. We need unusual suspects if you will. We need people who haven't spent their lives necessarily thinking about social issues but who have talents and capabilities in areas like gaming, or design thinking, or financial engineering to put their talents to work to solve these issues. The essence of social innovation is finding new solutions to old problems. >> VOICEOVER: Consider the case of Mozambique, the site of a severe landmine problem. Leftover from a 16-year civil war, the mines are a national menace. Untold thousands remain hidden. Bart Weetjens, a Belgian engineer, studied traditional demining methods and found them dangerous, expensive, and slow. And that's when he tried enlisting the help of an indigenous ally. This ViewChange film has the story. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> TITLE: Bomb Squad Rats >> VOICEOVER: Here in Mozambique, the Cricetomys gambianus, or, as it's better known, the African giant pouched rat, is no longer feared or reviled. >> ALBERT ZACHARIA: Mostly in our African culture, rats are considered as a useless animal. So, at first when I heard that rats are being used for demining, I didn't believe it. >> VOICEOVER: Here at this rat training camp in Chokwe, near the Limpopo River, these furry heroes are going through their final training. When the rats detect some explosive, they indicate by scratching the ground. The trainers then make a clicking noise to let them know they can return for a reward. >> ANDREW SULLY [Program Manager, Apopo]: What we are trying to do is here the rats are an African solution to an African problem. >> VOICEOVER: Andrew Sully works for Apopo, the Belgian NGO that runs the rat program. He says the inspiration came from scientific work dating back decades. >> ANDREW SULLY: Well, rats have actually been used for the detection of explosives for many, many years. I mean, there were experiments using laboratory rats back in the 1950s if not before that. >> VOICEOVER: Putting that research into practice hasn't been easy, and each rat takes two years to train. But they have some distinct advantages over their canine counterparts. Unlike sniffer dogs, they're loyal to food, rather than one particular trainer. And they can also be more effective on windy days, like today. Demining teams have spent more than a decade trying to clear Mozambique of land mines. Millions of them were laid during the ten-year fight for independence and the two decades of civil war that followed. Today, the rat team is on its way to the former garrison village of Hate-Hate. >> ANDREW SULLY: From the initial surveys that have been done I think there have been at least five or six mine accidents in this sort of horseshoe shape which was the mined area around the barracks. >> VOICEOVER: Alfredo Adamo gave up his job as a schoolteacher to work with the rats, and he's proud of his new career. >> ALFREDO ADAMO: Because I know every time we find a mine and we destroy it, I know if it continued there something bad should happen, either to a person or to an animal, actual cattle or whatever. >> VOICEOVER: The area the de-miners are working in today lies either side of a track leading down to a borehole, the area's main water source. >> VENDELINE SHIRIMA: So they put mines in this area in order to protect those local people inside here. >> VOICEOVER: By the end of today's shift, they've already found two live land mines. The final job of the day is to safely detonate the rat's haul. >> CERVEZA: It's TNT, almost all of it. There's 150 grams. This is the detonator. >> VOICEOVER: It's slow and painstaking work, but bit by bit, Mozambique is being cleared of land mines, and it's all thanks to the work of man's new best friend. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> VOICEOVER: So far, the organization has cleared more than 2,700 explosives in Mozambique's Gaza province. And it plans to make the area completely mine-free this year. Apopo is one of three demining groups in Mozambique today, and they've branched out to Thailand and Tanzania too. This new approach was met with skepticism at first, but the rats have proven themselves worthy allies. The United Nations, many governments, and foundations support the program. And the rats themselves? Like any specialist, they're subject to regular testing. >> VOICEOVER: So who are the social innovators of today? It turns out; they come from some pretty unlikely fields. Professionals in areas like engineering, design, and finance are realizing that they too can make headway on social causes. That's a powerful discovery. Enter design thinking -- usually something that pertains to things like art and architecture. But as Dave Kilcullen and his team at Caerus Associates know, it's a way of engaging social problems, too. Kilcullen has been an advisor to the Bush and Obama administrations, aid groups, and governments around the world, but he is best known for his work in postwar reconstruction. In his bestselling books, Kilcullen shows how social challenges require the same kind of engineering. And the most important part of design thinking for social problems? Understanding the local environment, and the local issues. >> DR. DAVID KILCULLEN [CEO, Caerus Associates]: I founded Caerus with a bunch of like-minded people, with the objective of identifying ways to solve complex problems, things like poverty, urban overstretch, energy shortage, and particularly conflict, understanding how those problems overlap and figuring out simple design-based solutions to resolving them. Design thinking is a way of thinking about problems, and it's a way of bringing in the environment where something's going to be used. And the people that are going to use it, and the system within which it's embedded, and wrapping all of that up into the production of a particular type of thing, an object or a product, or a service. I'll give you an example. Things that are happening in the rural areas around cities lead people to move into urban environments. And the urban environment can't handle the people that are now putting pressure on its infrastructure. And you end up with what we call peri-urban areas, so slums and shantytowns and a variety of different unplanned development happening around the outside of preexisting cities. So you can intervene to make things better by looking at the cluster of urban problems that result from that movement. And what we try to do is look at it as a whole system, and think where we can intervene in concert with local populations together. People talk about making things population-centric, but often we just pay lip service to that. We treat the population like she's a silent movie heroine tied to a railway track, and the bad guys are driving the train down the track. And she's like, "Help me!" You know, and we say, you know, "hang on, we'll rescue you." Our experience is it doesn't really work like that. You actually have to, no kidding, treat the population like they're the principal actor. They are the clients, and you have to work with them as an architect would work with a client to design a solution that really meets their needs. >> VOICEOVER: So what happens when smart design is applied to a tough problem? Look no further than the latrines of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The city is saddled with an overtaxed sewage system and thousands of overflowing pit latrines. But some engineers in Colorado have designed a solution that mitigates the need for central sewers, while also reducing disease. It's a clean answer to a messy question. This ViewChange film explains. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> TITLE: The Gulper, Rockhopper TV, Tanzania >> VOICEOVER: Only ten percent of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's biggest city, is connected to the central sewage system. Eighty percent of the city's population lives in settlements that have sprung up without planning permission. They rely on a huge number of smelly, dirty and unsafe latrines. But a solution is at hand. Meet "The Gulper." These motor tricycles, and the equipment they carry, are transforming the way pit latrines are emptied here. In the past, sewage often ended up contaminating water supplies, particularly during the rainy season. >> ERNEST MAMUYA [Environment Health Officer]: You wouldn't get surprised if you were finding fecal matter rolling with the storm water. It was common. In those areas, we had a problem of widespread cholera and other infections related to the disposal of waste. >> VOICEOVER: The Gulper is designed to reach customers who live down even the narrowest streets. >> JULIUS CHISSENGO: We have gloves, masks, helmets, and gum boots. Then, when we arrive, we assess the toilet for any risks. >> VOICEOVER: Many of the latrines are unsafe because of the old way of emptying them. >> JULIUS CHISSENGO: We used to completely demolish the toilet to drain it. The owners would get upset because it was completely broken. >> VOICEOVER: Julius used to earn his living this way, and saw how dangerous it could be. >> JULIUS CHISSENGO: There was one time when our colleague died because the toilet collapsed in on him and covered him completely. >> VOICEOVER: It's The Gulper's pump that has made life safer and cleaner for Julius. It's not motorized, so it's easy to maintain. It's cheap and, above all, it's effective -- he can clean up to six latrines a day. All the sewage is removed, and very little spills on the ground. >> JULIUS CHISSENGO: We have a container that can hold fifty liters. We usually drain into this, and when it is full, we put it on a motorbike. Then we take it to a place specially designated to pour it all away, and that is that. >> VOICEOVER: There's another way the Gulper has made life sweeter for Julius: he's paid better. Yet customers pay less for the Gulper's services. And it's this affordability that's key to improving health for everyone living in the unplanned settlements. The more sewage that gets dumped centrally, the less risk there is to local people. Cholera is not the only disease in decline. >> ERNEST MAMUYA: The Gulper is getting rid of intestinal diseases: strongoloids, hookworms, tapeworms. There's a reduction of typhoid, amoebic dysentery. If the coverage increases, we are sure of reducing these infections quite a lot. >> TITLE: ViewChange >> VOICEOVER: Mobile sewers, super rats, and electric soccer balls. It's an almost unbelievable spectrum of ingenuity. But all these projects are very real. They're the result of business savvy; of irreverence toward the expected; and of design meeting need. Projects like these are turning aid work on its head, and turning heads in the business world too. That's the promise of social innovation. It's redefining the power of creativity in social causes, and it's blurring of the lines between what's good business, and what's just good. >> VOICEOVER: Want to learn more about innovation, design, or anything else you saw here? Head over to ViewChange.org/TV, where you could watch, read, and get involved in projects that are making a real difference. Watch the films you just saw, and over 400 more from around the world, at ViewChange.org/TV. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/weathering-change-ramkeshari-and-renu Ramkeshari Shrethsa has been teaching women in Kathmandu about family planning for nearly two decades, since before climate change decimated the once-clockwork rainy season. Ramkeshari's daughter Renu is studying for a career in family planning education and believes it decreases the demand for shrinking natural resources. Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:30:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/weathering-change-ramkeshari-and-renu Nepal, Family planning, Health education, Health, Reproductive health, Maternal health, Kathmandu, Environment, Climate change, Himalayas >> TITLE: Kathmandu, Nepal >> RAMKESHARI SHRESTHA: I started working in family planning about eighteen years ago. When we would go to temple people would have eight, nine, or six kids. At first it was difficult to go door to door. It was difficult to talk to people about condoms. Now it's very easy. Without me asking, they come to my house for family planning. It is very healthy for women. When there are fewer kids, it means less food and clothes. It's also good for the environment because we don't demand too much from it. Times have changed. We used to be shy about these subjects. The children today don't have any problem talking about it. >> RENU SHRESTHA: What people need the most is education. With education people can decide what is wrong and what is right. Consequently, they will become more conscious of the future. >> RAMKESHARI SHRESTHA: My daughter likes the work I do, so she comes with me. It makes me really happy that she has an interest in my work. >> RENU SHRESTHA: I'm very inspired by my mom. That's why I got involved. My mother would work all day without food in her stomach, all for the sake of our community. Her sacrifice inspired me to do the same thing. >> RAMKESHARI SHRESTHA: I'm so proud of her. I feel like she is the reward for my service. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/weathering-change-sarada Infrequent rains have dried out the soil in parts of Nepal's terai, a region of rolling plains on the Indian border where Sarada Chaudhary lives, and an expanding population has meant more trees felled for firewood. Yet Sarada sees great potential in the women in her group to improve their own lives, and also to help preserve the forest. Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:30:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/weathering-change-sarada Nepal, Health, Family planning, Birth control, Deforestation, Maternal health, Rain, Reproductive health, Dang Deukhuri District, Climate change >> TITLE: Dang, Nepal >> SARADA CHAUDHARY: From my experience in the last fifteen years or so the temperature and the rainfall has changed a lot. Now it does rain, but it's not during the normal season. When we think it will rain, it doesn't. The rainfall is random. So it has really affected our farming. About twenty-five percent of us have enough food. The others go to India to do menial work. The situation for women is poor. All of the responsibility is on them. The majority of men here go to the Gulf or India for work. Women have to cook, so they have to collect the wood. If there is no wood, how will we cook? Before we could get wood close by, but now we have to walk one and a half hours to get wood. Because of population growth, the forest has been disappearing. In about fifty years, I think this place will turn to desert. When I went and talked to women about family planning and conservation of the forest they would ask if I could provide them with resources. There is a great need for family planning. Even women from India come here for contraceptives. The girls from here who married men in India would take a year's worth of contraceptives with them. Women should be empowered. They should have knowledge about every field, whether it is education, health, or climate change. The environment is connected to our lives. I can see how we are being affected and I'm worried about the future generation. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/weathering-change-ayneshet Ayneshet, a health extension worker in Ethiopia, is dedicated to educating women about the benefits of family planning. She helps women realize that reducing the number of births decreases the chances of complications and increases the likelihood of rising from poverty. Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:30:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/weathering-change-ayneshet Ethiopia, Family planning, Health, Maternal health, Wollo Province, Birth control, Environment, Climate change, Reproductive health, Community health worker >> TITLE: Wollo, Ethiopia >> AYNESHET GUBENA [Health Extension Worker, Ethiopia]: My name is Ayneshet Gubena and I'm a health extension worker. I have a program to go to the village twice a week. There are 15 neighborhoods in this locality and a lot of the women come to us. A woman at the age of twenty or twenty-five, when she becomes a mother of four or five children, clothing and schooling them is difficult. Therefore, if they use family planning, they can reduce poverty. That's what I think, and I'm sure it will in the future. There was a low willingness to use family planning in the past. I would go door to door and they would denounce family planning. They wanted to give birth and raise them by the virtue of luck. Once they are born, God will provide for children. They had that belief. But now we have educated them that this is harmful. This belief harms the mother and the family economy. Women suffer a lot. They have a great burden. They lose a lot of blood during childbirth. They get weak when they have children one after the other. There can be bleeding, leading to death. Because of this I want to work closely with them and to teach them about family planning. I'm really happy when I see women's lives improve. Whether it is family planning or anything. It's great to see them at a better place in their life. It's great to see them with a healthy baby. When there are no problems, and there is love in the family, it makes me very happy to see. I love it. It really makes me happy. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/with-my-own-two-wheels As a tool for development, a simple bicycle can mean transportation, employment, even access to education and healthcare. With My Own Two Wheels weaves together the experiences of five individuals into a single story about how the bicycle can change the world, one pedal stroke at a time. Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/with-my-own-two-wheels Bicycle, Economic development, India, Ghana, Koforidua, World Bicycle Relief, Zambia, Disability, Health, Environment >> TITLE: Look for solutions, not problems. - Dan Eldon >> TITLE: Hubub Films Presents >> TITLE: With My Own Two Wheels >> TITLE: 5:30 AM, Chapola, Zambia >> FRED HANYINDE: My name is Fred Hanyinde. I was born here in Chapola in 1975. I am 35 years old. I got married in 1997. My wife's name is Emelda Chulu. She was born in 1983. We have four children. >> FRED HANYINDE: I am a farmer. The soil here is fertile. I grow many types of crops. I grow potatoes, corn, sunflowers, cotton, groundnuts, and peas. I also have a garden where I grow vegetables like tomatoes and cabbage. The most important things in my life are going to church, then being a caregiver, then football! These are things I love. >> TITLE: Zambia is roughly the size of Texas. It has an estimated population of 12 million. 1.1 million are infected with HIV/AIDS. Many of these HIV/AIDS patients live far from the nearest clinic. Their only regular care comes from volunteer caregivers, like Fred. >> FRED HANYINDE: I decided to become a community health caregiver because of my brother, who suffered from HIV/AIDS. The issue was very close to my heart. The Bible says that, "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, so you do unto Me." As a caregiver, my job is to visit and take care of the sick. The main problem with our clients around here is how they are kept in their homes. They are stigmatized. Most of them say, "The people around here don't want me." Their families tell them, "We are not the ones who gave you that disease. That is of your own doing." Sometimes families give patients their own plates, because the family is afraid that they will be infected as well. Because of this, patients are normally happy when we caregivers come along. We shake hands and do all sorts of things together. They become very free with us, and they tell us problems that they wouldn't tell their own families. >> TITLE: 7:15 AM, Koforidua, Ghana >> MIRRIAM ODURO: My name is Mirriam Oduro. I am 27 years old. >> MIRRIAM'S FATHER: She wants to explore. She is something like -- she is adventurous. Sometimes, when she wants to do something, I will even try to discourage her. But, she will have the courage to pursue. >> TITLE: In Ghana, people with disabilities are often stigmatized. Many find it difficult to fit in, let alone find a job. >> MIRRIAM ODURO: I was a kid, and I had a dream that a dog bit me. Then my mom told me that I started shouting, "A dog has bitten my leg there." The next day, I couldn't even stand on my feet. I was paralyzed. >> MIRRIAM'S FATHER: I found it very difficult to get even school for her. Because at the normal -- or at the regular school -- they didn't want to mingle up with people with crutches. >> MIRRIAM ODURO: When I was a kid, I found life difficult. At that time, I didn't want to come out. I didn't want many people [around]. I didn't want people to see me walking. >> MIRRIAM'S FATHER: Some people, when they see them, they admire them, they have sympathy for them. But some people too, when they see them, they just shun them. >> TITLE: 8:00 AM, Sone Sangvi, India >> BHARATI PHAKAD DATE: My name is Bharati Phakad Date. I am 14 years old. I live in Sone Sangvi. My favorite actor is Mithun Chakraborthy because he always plays a humanitarian, someone who helps other people. There are a lot of people who live on the streets. I will help them. There are so many people in this world who do not even get one meal a day. I will help them. >> TITLE: In India, 81 percent of girls attend primary school. Only 49 percent of girls attend high school. 46.4 percent of women are illiterate. Many women in Bharati's mother's generation were married by the time they were Bharati's age. >> TITLE: Bharati's Mother, Bharati's Father >> BHARATI'S MOTHER: My life, my generation, was full of darkness. If you are uneducated, then it is as if you only have one eye. >> TITLE: In 1998, Armene Modi founded Ashta No Kai to empower women in Bharati's community. >> ARMENE MODI [Founder, Ashta No Kai]: For about a couple of years, we only focused on adult women and literacy for them. And I noticed that many of the girls who came to the class were very, very young girls, with a mangalsutra, which is a gold and black beaded necklace that they wear around their necks, which in India is a symbol of matrimony. And they had babies on their hips, and I started to ask, "What's going on, and why are such young girls married off already?" And there's a famous Indian saying, "Why water a plant that is going to grow in a neighbor's garden?" >> TITLE: 9:00 AM, San Andres Itzapa, Guatemala >> CARLOS MACHIN: My name is Carlos Enrique Marroquin Machin. I am a native of San Andres Itzapa. I am 41 years old. My farm is three kilometers from here. We call it El Chibul, because it is much higher up than the town. Now, in the month of September, we grow beans, ejoteros, that is, green [unripe] beans to sell to the market. I also just planted huicoy, carrots, lettuce, corn, piligua. Also radishes and beets. We grow it all. They say I have the hand of God, because I have five children. My eldest daughter is 18 years old, Carlos is 17, Antonio is 14, Jenny and Carolinia are 11, and Christian is almost six. >> TITLE: Guatemala is still recovering from a long and brutal civil war. >> CARLOS MACHIN: When the armed conflict started, I was a child. I had a very painful experience. I was tortured, because I was accused of hanging out with the paramilitaries. After that, after growing up, I did not have the chance to have a childhood as my children do now. It was lost. >> TITLE: The civil war wreaked havoc on the indigenous Maya community. In the rush to rebuild, the residents of San Andres have paid a steep price. The air quality in the region is now so bad that many farmers can no longer work in their fields after 9 AM. Some, like Carlos, are looking for a new way forward. >> TITLE: 10:00 AM, Chapola, Zambia >> FRED HANYINDE: I used to walk. Whether the patient was near or far, I used to walk. Rain or shine, I used to walk. I asked the caregiver program for a bicycle, but they never gave me one. They said, "You are only using it for useless programs." But we needed to help sick people in the community, so we used to walk. >> TITLE: Caregivers like Fred often walk 15 to 20 kilometers to visit a patient. They must visit these patients two to three times every week. In 2005, World Bicycle Relief partnered with Rapids, one of the largest caregiver programs in Zambia. Their goal: To increase the effectiveness of caregivers by giving them bicycles. >> JOHAN BRUYNEEL [Board Member, World Bicycle Relief]: What I find so particular about it is that it's so simple. It's measurable, something that we take for granted, and that in other areas of the world is something that changes lives. One bike, it is 134 dollars per bike. And I know that that bike is going to go somewhere and it's going to change the life of not only one person, but probably of a whole family. >> TITLE: Fred is one of 19,000 caregivers who now make their rounds by bicycle. >> FRED HANYINDE: The bicycle helps me reach patients in good time. For example, if I go by bicycle to visit a patient at 7:00 AM, I can reach the patient early and come back early. The bicycle makes visiting patients easier. Now I can visit a patient as late as 4:00 PM and still make it home by sunset. >> TITLE: 12:00 PM, Sone Sangvi, India >> ARMENE MODI: In many villages, there were only schools until seventh grade. There were no high schools. So we worked in ten villages at that point of time, and there were only three high schools. So then I asked the parents, the mothers, "Well, what happens to the boys, how do you send the boys to school?" And they said, "Well, we give them bicycles." And I said, "Well, what about the girls," and they said, "Oh no, it's a waste of money to give a bicycle to a girl, she's going to turn around and get married. So I thought, my god, if it's only a bicycle that's keeping girls from going to school, let's go ahead and give it to them. >> TITLE: Thanks to Ashta No Kai's Bicycle Bank program, Bharati and her friends are now able to get to high school by bicycle. >> BHARATI PHAKAD DATE: I am going to Nimgaon Bhogi High School. I am learning in the ninth standard [grade]. I like mathematics because I like solving mathematical puzzles. The bike has been really useful. Now, the time that I save commuting to school can be used to study. Also, now I can ride to school with my friends. It is a lot of fun. >> BHARATI'S MOTHER: She now feels very motivated and enthusiastic to attend school. I have to make sure that my daughters get a good education. It is our duty. >> BHARATI PHAKAD DATE: I want to become a district supervisor, because then I can make big decisions, and also have the power to implement them. I would be able to make decisions regarding the welfare of the poor and downtrodden. I would be able to help transform society. I want to eradicate poverty from this country. >> TITLE: 2:00 PM, Koforidua, Ghana >> MIRRIAM ODURO: This is my bench, yes. I have all the tools that I need at my bench. >> TITLE: Mirriam is now a mechanic at Ability Bikes, a bicycle shop cooperative established by Boston-based Bikes Not Bombs and staffed entirely by disabled Ghanaians. >> DAVID BRANIGAN [International Programs Director, Bikes Not Bombs]: The first day, there was one young woman named Mirriam Oduro. They came up to me and said, "David, I want to be a part of this project." And I said, "Okay, that's great, you want to learn how to fix bikes." And she said, "Yes. David, I'm serious. I want to learn how to fix bikes." >> MIRRIAM ODURO: That day, they [the other mechanics] were laughing at me because I bent my [wheel]. So, when David taught me and I started doing it, I finished mine, and David came and checked it. He said, "Oh wow, you have done well!" They are sitting there [saying], "Mirriam, can you help me with my rim?" I said, "You are sitting there laughing at me. You want me to help you? I won't do that!" Then David told me, "Mirriam, you can help them." So I helped them. >> MIRRIAM'S FATHER: She is always adventurous. She wants to go beyond what everyone expects of her. She doesn't seem to be handicapped. She doesn't seem to be worried about her problem at all. >> DAVID BRANIGAN: It's a pretty amazing thing to have this aggressive male come with his bike and say, "Hey, my bike needs to be repaired. My wheel is going like this," right? And then everyone looks at him and they say, "Okay, we'll fix it for you." And then they take the wheel off and give it to Mirriam. And the guy's expression is like, "What? This woman, this disabled woman is going to true my wheel?" And what ends up happening is that she trues his wheel for him. And sometimes there are men sitting there, just watching, as Mirriam is repairing their wheel, something that they can't do themselves, and there's this female, physically disabled, mechanic fixing their wheel for this person. >> DAVID BRANIGAN: I know that her life is changed by it. I know that she now sees herself in the world as an influential person. She sees herself as having skills that other people don't have, that are valuable to her community, and even to the world. She sees herself as now representing other physically disabled people who were in her position before, without work, and in a position now to advocate for them, and for recognition of the enormous amount of unemployed disabled people in Ghana. >> DAVID BRANIGAN: She is a woman working in a field that is generally dominated by men. So she's even expanding the boundaries of women, and other women who are able-bodied look up to her as an example of how women can be in the world. >> MIRRIAM ODURO: It makes me happy. It helps me to achieve something. And I feel proud. My name is Mirriam Oduro. I am a mechanic. >> TITLE: 4:00 PM, San Andres Itzapa, Guatemala >> TITLE: In 1997, Carlos helped start Maya Pedal, an organization dedicated to creating environmentally friendly tools to empower rural Mayans. Their invention: the bicimaquina. >> CARLOS MACHIN: First of all, the bicimaquina is all recycled. We start from the bicycle. The bicycle is the fundamental part. To this we attach the old machines that used to be powered by other sources, like gasoline. With the bicimaquina we try to join together elements that have been discarded [bicycles] with elements that used to pollute. >> CARLOS MACHIN: First, the bicimaquina does not pollute the environment. Second, it fills the gap between the artisanal and the industrial. It is a middle ground, because it is going to allow the user to complete tasks faster. Third, it helps the economy quite a bit, because it reduces expenditures on fuel and energy. It helps to minimize the costs of both running and maintaining the machine. It is simple. >> TITLE: The community of Cruz Nueva has two bicimaquinas: a bicimolino (corn grinder) and a bicipulpar (coffee depulper). >> WOMAN 1: Oh God! It used to be a lot of work. We only ground at night, and could only grind a little at a time using our old tools. This is what we used before. But now that we have the bicimaquina, we don't use that one anymore. Now it is different. Yes, it has helped us a lot. With it I can strip corn very quickly to make my tamales. I can now grind my corn very quickly. Now grinding corn is a communal activity. The bicimaquina helps all of us. >> CARLOS MACHIN: It also helps the family to learn to use the resources that are at their disposal, that surround them. It helps them learn how to do things in new ways that don't pollute. They learn how to do things in a better way. >> MAN 1: We export coffee to the United States and, in another year, maybe Japan. The bicimaquina has helped facilitate this. Those two bicimaquinas help us to use less diesel or gasoline or electricity. It is a little better, no? Really, there's a lot of pollution. Those two help us pollute less. >> CARLOS MACHIN: For someone who hasn't seen a bicimaquina, the concept is impressive because they are astounded by what it can do. If someone has a heart attack, we are going to try to revive him or her. That is what we are trying to do with these bicycles. >> TITLE: 5:30 PM >> TITLE: 8:00 AM, Santa Barbara, CA, United States >> TITLE: Sharkey Esquives >> SHARKEY ESQUIVES: You feel the fresh air. You can feel how fast you are going. You feel like you're going a hundred, you're going, like, only ten, fifteen! You can feel all that wind coming to your face; you're feeling all fresh and everything. It feels good, better than a car. >> SHARKEY ESQUIVES: It all depends, the day and the mood. If I feel like riding my bike somewhere far, with my headphones, I go to my racing bike. It has blue tires, blue frame with some chrome on it. With the beach cruiser, if I feel like riding with my friends, with my homies, anywhere, I take my beach cruiser or my mountain bike, whichever one comes in handy. >> TITLE: Sharkey is a volunteer bike mechanic at Bici Centro, a community-run bike shop that sells refurbished bicycles and teaches patrons how to repair their own bicycles. >> ED FRANCE [Director, Bici Centro]: You have recreational road riders, who can generally afford bikes up to two, three thousand dollars, more. You have recreational mountain bikers, same deal, and those folks will tend to replace bikes every few years, even. You have the die-hard enviro bike commuters, but that group is not just the classic image we have of a bicycle commuter, the white, well-educated cyclist who's decided to simplify their life and to live environmentally, and thus they're going to bike. In Santa Barbara, at least half of that five percent of people getting around by bike are working-class folks who rely on that bike, probably not necessarily out of choice, because people ride whatever they can, you know? And again, that's half of our active bike commuting population. And so, our feeling at Bici Centro, as the group of founders, was that that group wasn't being served. >> ED FRANCE: I feel a lot of sympathy for people in Shark's position, because out of high school, the possibilities are really bleak. What do you do? Continue hanging out with the gang? He probably has some hard job prospects. >> SHARKEY ESQUIVES: It has kept me from the streets, from kicking it with my homies, kicking it with everyone, not knowing. Getting busted, getting locked up every time. Bici Centro has helped me in stopping it. I could be here, I could come here, and it?s kind of like a job. Come here, throw all my stress in here, and go home and just chill, and just pass out. It?s like a regular day, doing a regular job like a regular person. I've always been proud of working in here. Been helping a lot of people from different spots, people from a different world, different states, different age. You get the smallest kid to the biggest, oldest, like, "O.G." -- old man -- whatever! You could get anyone in here who doesn?t know anything about bikes, we teach them. >> SHARKEY ESQUIVES: My life has changed plenty. A lot of people know me better from working at Bici Centro. They'll be like, "Aren?t you that person who helped me fix up my bike?" I?m like, "Yes, I'm the one who fixed it." They'll be telling me, "Thanks for fixing it, it's running good." My name is Sharkey, I'm from Santa Barbara. I'm from Bici Centro, I'm a volunteer, and I?m 21 years old. >> ED FRANCE: This is just the same story over and over: people with enormous potential that are overlooked throughout the world. But we need our solutions that are intermediate. We have all these overpowering solutions. We want to have electricity! Well, we'll just dig up that mountain and we'll just make electricity, and we'll just run railroad cars and trucks. All we do is overpower things or neglect things. >> CARLOS MACHIN: We as human beings need to take care of the world, not the world take care of us. Because we have been given wisdom, understanding, and all this. >> DAVID BRANIGAN: The majority of trips that people need to take in their lives -- if you're in Guatemala, or Ghana, or in Boston -- are bikeable. >> JOHAN BRUYNEEL: If we have a problem with transportation, we wake up in the morning, we look at the sky, and we say, if it's cloudy, do we go by car, or do we take the bike? The transportation story or transportation problem in Africa is totally different. They don't have the choice. They either have to walk-- kids have to walk two to three hours to school and from school, or caregivers have to walk all day long, in the best circumstances they can see maybe two or three patients. It's a completely different view on what a bike can do. We don't see the use of a bike other than, we have the choice. >> ARMENE MODI: Having a bicycle and being able to access education can have such a huge impact on aspiration levels, on educational levels, on quality of life. >> DAVID BRANIGAN: That bicycle is increasing their mobility. It's increasing their ability to go places. It's broadening their scope of their life, of what resources they can access. >> JOHAN BRUYNEEL: Bikes have been part of my life, naturally, for always, and I've never thought about not having a bike. What a bike can do, to me, just made too much sense, and I couldn't afford myself to say, "I'm not part of this." >> ED FRANCE: It is a comprehensive development tool. Development that happens for an entire country starts with one person. And if every single person in that country begins to become empowered, and begins to have access to resources, the entire country's going to develop. >> CARLOS MACHIN: We know that we don't have to speak for the machine. The machine speaks for itself. >> FRED HANYINDE: You can go and see a patient and still make it home. The bike makes the work of a caregiver lighter. >> SHARKEY ESQUIVES: You fix that one up; he's going to tell his friend. His friend is going tell another friend. >> MIRRIAM ODURO: It gives you mobility to do something. >> BHARATI PHAKAD DATE: I was very happy when I got the bicycle. I felt really good riding my bike. >> CARLOS MACHIN: The machine speaks for itself. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-africas-last-famine This World Food Day is marked by one of the worst famines in recent history. But, with the right planning and a few new ideas, it could be the last. Get the latest from the Horn of Africa and beyond in this special report from Oxfam America and ViewChange.org. Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:37:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-africas-last-famine Agriculture & Food, Climate change, Food security, Sustainable agriculture, Oxfam, Famine, Drought, Ethiopia, Farmer, Vietnam >> VOICEOVER: Next up: as drought and famine threaten the Horn of Africa, one farmer fights to guard her livelihood against a changing climate. See who's working in Africa and around the world to prove that hunger isn't inevitable in an all-new report from Oxfam America and ViewChange.org. >> VOICEOVER: ViewChange is about people making real progress in tackling the world's toughest issues. Can a story change the world? See for yourself in ViewChange: Africa's Last Famine. >> VOICEOVER: The Horn of Africa is in crisis. This season, the rains failed throughout much of the region, triggering in places the worst drought in 60 years. The result? Thirteen million people affected; 1.8 million Somalis alone displaced; families losing hundreds of thousands of animals they need to survive. Aid groups and governments around the world have scrambled to help. But with 750,000 people facing starvation, experts find themselves asking one question over and over: how can we make sure this famine is the last? The answer to that question might be captured in a single idea: resilience. For rural farmers, surviving this drought is the priority. Trying to build reserves for the next is overwhelming. But the public and private sectors have some new ideas to give rural families financial security to outlast the next emergency. Northern Ethiopia has been spared the worst of the crisis, but farmers here have seen their share of drought in the past. In one village, Adi Ha, farmers are experimenting with a new program -- one that lets them trade work for insurance against bad weather. Oxfam America has been following one farmer there for two years. Writer Coco McCabe brings us her story. >> TITLE: Medhin Reda, Oxfam America, Ethiopia >> COCO MCCABE [Writer, Oxfam America]: In my mind's eye I see Medhin Reda as I saw her one afternoon in Adi Ha a few months ago. She's heading to her field of teff. The shoots are new and fragile. But the tiny seeds they eventually produce will help feed her family. The rain has come, but the harvest is never certain. As a writer for Oxfam America, I'm often sent to cover humanitarian emergencies. But in 2009, I went to northern Ethiopia to report on a pilot program designed to help farmers cope with drought. And it was on that visit that I first met Medhin. I had gone to her village to learn about teff and the challenges of growing it in a changing climate. Teff is Ethiopia's staple grain, rich in nutrients. Farmers across the country cultivate it, and it serves as the basis of a bread called injera, much-loved in Ethiopia. It's flat, like a pancake, and made from fermented batter, which gives it a slightly sour taste. But in this rugged region of Tigray where Medhin lives, drought is always a worry. Coaxing crops from the ground is never easy and teff is labor-intensive. Though the rain was falling regularly in early August, no one knew if it would continue to the harvest. If the rain fails, so do the harvests and that means families don't eat. It's that constant uncertainty that farmers like Medhin live with, an uncertainty that can turn instantly grave because here, poverty leaves no room for mishaps. >> MEDHIN REDA [Farmer]: Teff requires a lot of effort. We have to plow it three to four times and when the soil is softer, we add seed and fertilizer. As you can see, it has fertilizer and we planted good seed and that is why it looks good. Later on, the crop is taken to a grinding mill and ground. Some of the flour is mixed with water and fermented for two or three days and finally baked and made into injera. And it becomes good food and the main dish for our life. Teff is the most pure food. >> COCO MCCABE: A single mother with just two of her five children still at home, Medhin lives in a small compound surrounded by a stone wall. She and one of her daughters hauled every stone for their house here. I listen to the pounding in her mortar and the wind stirring the stalks of corn and wonder how does uncertainty shape the life of a family, of a community? One answer is to migrate, like Medhin did during the time of a terrible famine that hit Tigray and other regions of Ethiopia in 1984. To survive, she fled to Sudan for a year with her young son and infant daughter. But another answer is in the stones of Medhin's compound. It's in her carefully weeded fields and in the trust she puts in her children. The answer is work: a determination to build, to plant, to harvest, to thrive, step by step. That work ethic runs deep in Adi Ha, and for some of its farmers hard work produces a cushion of cash. Those farmers have access to irrigation. Their harvests are guaranteed, whether it rains or not. But for Medhin, who doesn't have the benefit of irrigation, all of her work has gone into the day-to-day survival of her family. She's never had the luxury of a cushion. That's a reality that poor farmers around the world face every day. What do they do if drought kills their crops or floods wash out their fields? How do you help people soften those blows and build their resilience? That's what drove Oxfam and a group of partners to develop an initiative aimed at helping small farmers build their resilience. What they came up with not only improves farmers' access to credit, it provides them with insurance, something many of us in the developed world take for granted. >> DAVID SATTERTHWAITE [Head, Rural Resilience Initiative, Oxfam America]: Now, everything you see around you here is insured, but in many parts of the world there is no insurance. So that service, insurance, is a core building block of what we call rural resilience. In doing this work, people often express doubts that we'll be able to address the underlying causes of the crises that we see again and again, like that today in the Horn of Africa. In order to do so we need to address the core issue, which is poverty. One way to think of poverty is continual crisis. We all need to be able to plan for the future. And that's the point of this initiative: to give people the opportunity to have confidence going forward. >> COCO MCCABE: More than 13,000 farmers in Tigray bought weather insurance this year. Some, like Gebru Kahsay, also have access to irrigated land. Still, the insurance is a good investment, he told me. >> GEBRU KAHSAY [Farmer]: We bought insurance as coverage and protection during a shock period. God forbid there's a shock. We do not want drought; we want abundance throughout the seasons. But in case drought occurs, we are covered. And I believe that is why the people are buying insurance. >> COCO MCCABE: But what happens when people like Medhin are too poor to pay for a premium with cash? They can trade their labor for insurance. Mengesha Gebremichael, a program officer for the Relief Society of Tigray, told me that farmers themselves came up with that solution. >> MENGESHA GEBREMICHAEL [Microinsurance Project Officer, Relief Society of Tigray (REST)]: This idea came from the farmers. We usually use the indigenous knowledge of the farmers. So In every aspect of our project our farmers are really participatory. >> COCO MCCABE: I followed Medhin to a nursery one day where she selected a shawl full of tree seedlings to plant in a nearby watershed. The goal was to help to conserve the soil so farmers could plant there. The community work was part of her contribution toward her insurance. >> MEDHIN REDA: I bought insurance because I am poor and I have to work to sustain myself. If I am successful enough, I will support myself, but -- if not -- I have insurance to cover me and I will be compensated. I have convinced more than seven people of how insurance can benefit all of us. >> COCO MCCABE: But even before a payout, there is a tangible benefit and it has to do with a new feeling of confidence this initiative has inspired. Medhin's hard work was paying off. I could see her corn was growing tall. She owned a small herd of goats and both her youngest daughters were in school, something Medhin never had the advantage of herself. And because of the insurance, the fruits of her labor were not at risk. This time, when she gets ahead she can stay ahead. I was thinking about the miles of dirt track she treks each day to fetch water, to reach her fields, so many steps to ensure her family's security. I can't forget the answer Medhin gave when I asked how she was, two years after we first met. Hope was the answer she gave me. We have hope, Medhin said. >> VOICEOVER: So far this year, Medhin has been lucky -- Adi Ha has gotten enough rain and farmers are predicting a good teff harvest. But many other Ethiopians have been less fortunate, and most don't yet have the option of an insurance policy. So is weather insurance the silver bullet for avoiding these crises before they hit? According to Oxfam, it's part of a larger plan to give farmers a cushion when they need it most. As this animation explains, it's all a matter of managing risk. >> VOICEOVER: Nine hundred and twenty-five million people on our planet are hungry. That's more than the population of the US, Canada, and the European Union combined. And within the next four decades, up to 200 million more people could face hunger as a result of climate change. Climate change brings uncertainty: sometimes too much rain, or too little. It means unpredictable harvests. And for many farmers, a healthy harvest is their only source of food and income. Without reserves, one failed harvest could mean families go hungry, kids drop out of school, and people sink deeper into poverty, making it harder for families to plan for the future. Through a new partnership, Oxfam and the World Food Programme are tackling that problem together with Swiss Re. The program is called R4, the Rural Resilience Initiative. It gives rural families the opportunity to manage their own risks, harvest to harvest. It's based on the fact it costs less to manage risks than it does to provide relief in a crisis. The Rural Resilience Initiative: it encourages farmers to save, it improves their access to loans, and it provides them with a common tool many people in developed countries take for granted -- insurance. The insurance provides farmers with compensation for their crops when rain fails to fall. Originally called HARITA, the program started in Tigray, Ethiopia, with REST, one of the founding members. It offered weather insurance for 200 households that conventional wisdom said were too poor to afford it. The initiative allows the poorest farmers to pay for their insurance by working on community projects that improve local agriculture, reduce the impacts of disaster, and help them adapt to a changing climate. Through insurance for work they build irrigation systems, which help crops thrive during dry spells. They make compost to fertilize the fields. They reclaim the degraded environment by planting trees. And since work is one of a farmer's surest assets, by trading it for insurance, farmers with little else can build and protect their future. Farmers can grow their savings to cushion the hard times. They can secure the credit they need to buy the equipment and drought-resistant seeds that promise bigger and better crops. They can launch small businesses that will help feed their families and ensure their children stay in school. So when you invest in rural resilience, you•re helping farmers, their families, and their communities become stronger. What started with 200 households has reached 13,000 over three years and will expand to three more countries, growing village-by-village, border-to-border. Managing risks costs less than managing a crisis. Rural resilience. It just makes sense. >> FRANCES MOORE LAPPE [Writer and Activist, author of "Diet for a Small Planet"]: I say there's no food crisis because, in fact, there's enough food in the world for us all to eat well. There's actually more food per person produced today than when I began focusing on this 40 years ago. In fact, there's more than enough for us all, even on the leftovers - after waste, because people are too poor to store their food; or we throw it out, in the industrial countries, we don't eat it; so waste accounts for about a third of the possible food. But on top of that, only about half of the grain produced in our world goes directly to feed people. The rest of it goes first through livestock or now into producing fuel. So we have a tremendous amount of waste that is built into our food production system. So the real crisis is a crisis of the quality of human relationships -- how we share in power, so that all of us have a voice over the most essential things of life, including food. >> VOICEOVER: Don't go away: when we return, farmers in Vietnam prepare for drought or flood using some new techniques that will help them feed their families either way. >> VOICEOVER: The drought in the horn of Africa may be the center of attention today, but it's not the only region grappling with an unpredictable climate. Farmers in Vietnam are used to dealing with seasonal floods, but thanks in part to climate change, droughts are a fact of life now too. Vietnam is a prime candidate for the insurance programs being tested in Ethiopia, but in the meantime, uncertainty reigns here. This short from Oxfam shows how farmers are learning to weather droughts and floods alike. >> TITLE: Hardest Hit: Vietnam, Oxfam America, Vietnam >> HUYNH KHANH HOA [Water Management Expert, Bac Ai]: In the future, with more changes in the climate, there will be more droughts. >> NGUYEN THI THU THUY [Aid Worker, Vietnam]: Because of the climate change, droughts almost happen every year, with different levels of severity. The people suffer a lot. >> CHAMALEA BAC [Community Leader]: I'm highly concerned about global warming and the impacts of climate change. The weather changes make it hard to determine when it is time to plant crops. >> TITLE: Vietnam: Bac Ai >> VOICEOVER: Southeast Asia is known for its floods. But the unpredictable weather caused by climate change has also led to devastating droughts. In Vietnam, farmers who depend on rainfall to irrigate their crops struggle to earn a living and feed their families. The situation is especially difficult in the Bac Ai district in the Ninh Thuan province. This area has the hottest temperatures, least rainfall, and some of the worst poverty rates in all of Vietnam. >> NGUYEN THI THU THUY: Bac Ai is one of the 61 poorest districts in the country, which received special attention from the government. More than 60 percent of the people in this district are living on an income of less than 12 dollars per month. >> CHAMALEA BAC: I have lived here for more than 30 years; my family is a farming family. I am highly concerned about global warming and the impacts of climate change, because it has not only affected me, but also my community. Everybody is affected. >> VOICEOVER: The Rag Lai people, an ethnic minority who make up most of the Bac Ai population, are among the hardest hit. >> PI-NANG THI GIAO [Rice and Cashew Farmer]: My husband and I have a rice field, but we do not get much from it. We have five months of dry season and only two to three months of rainy season. Sometimes it rains too much, and sometimes it rains too little. >> VOICEOVER: While many Vietnamese people are accustomed to managing floods, the Rag Lai people find dealing with droughts to be the real challenge. >> PI-NANG THI MAI [Commune Chairwoman]: Climate change affects the people here, especially those who depend on agriculture for their incomes. When it's too sunny, there's no grass for the cows. Rice and corn die when there's too much sun. The water resources are drying out. >> CHAMALEA BAC: After the drought, our family lost two and a half acres of corn and two and a half acres of rice. We lost two cows. People didn't have fresh water, so we had to take water from the streams, which is a little more than a half-mile walk from here. The quality of the water was bad; it caused skin diseases and stomach disease. >> VOICEOVER: The Rag Lai people are working to adapt to harsher growing conditions. With the help of the government, they are bringing more clean water to their communities, and they are learning how to cultivate crops and raise animals that can survive dry spells. >> HUYNH KHANH HOA: When this reservoir is completed, we can be in more control: increasing the water for irrigation when it is needed, or reducing it when it is not. >> NGUYEN THI THU THUY: The local government provides the construction of the big reservoir, and from Oxfam's side, we support them with training to the local people to enable them to manage the water system effectively. >> VOICEOVER: The local farmers are growing hardier crops, like certain varieties of rice, cashews and corn. >> KATOR CHUONG [Rice and Cashew Farmer]: In the morning, my wife and I work on the rice field, and later we work in the cashew garden. Most of our food comes from the rice field. Oxfam's training showed us a technique for growing rice. I know more now. Before, I didn't know when it was the best time to plant the rice in the ground, and when to stop planting. >> VOICEOVER: And in Bac Ai, they're also raising different breeds of livestock that need less water and fodder. >> PI-NANG KHUYEN [Cow Farmer]: My name is Pi-nang Khuyen, I'm 22 years old and I'm a cow farmer. I don't have much education because my parents are poor. I'm happy to have the cow; once she gives birth, life will be easier. I chose to raise a cow because it is easier to take care of than other animals. The cow survives the dry season better here. I have to feed other livestock and give water three to four times a day. But for the cow, it's only two times a day. >> VOICEOVER: For communities that have worked the land for generations, these strategies have helped make responding to the changing climate conditions easier. Using their new skills, the reservoir, and irrigation canals, farmers can continue to provide for their families doing what they know best: farming. >> CHAMALEA BAC: We are learning how to adapt to climate changes. We are beginning to understand how to change our farming and crops. People are learning better ways to plant and raise livestock. All of this has contributed to increasing the incomes of the local people. >> VOICEOVER: As World Food Day arrives, the famine in Somalia takes on a new symbolism. With food surpluses in so many parts of the world, famine in Africa or anywhere else seems simply unacceptable. Insurance is one tool to fight hunger, but there are so many more: fair access to land and water, an aggressive focus on climate change, and a pledge from governments and companies to invest in local farmers. The rains in Africa may or may not fall next season, or the season after, or the season after that. But perhaps by then, farmers there will have the resilience to endure it all. >> FRANCES MOORE LAPPE: Let's be really clear that hunger is not a place, a place in Africa, or any place somewhere. Even in the richest country in the world, in the United States today, one in seven of us are dependent on food stamps. So let's think of hunger as a set of relationships that have just gotten completely out of whack. And we can right those relationships, we can help empower ourselves so that others can be empowered too, because the world produces more than enough for all of us to thrive. >> VOICEOVER: Want to learn more about drought, climate change, or anything else you saw here? Head over to ViewChange.org/TV, where you can watch, read, and get involved in projects that are making a real difference. Watch the films you just saw, and over 400 more from around the world, at ViewChange.org/TV. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/eco-friendly-bricks-from-fly-ash Unprocessed fly ash is a toxic and environmentally harmful by-product of thermal power. Yet an innovative Indian company has come up with a way to recycle fly ash by turning it into eco-friendly bricks, cheaply made and used in construction. Mon, 12 Sep 2011 08:59:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/eco-friendly-bricks-from-fly-ash India, Environment, Sustainable development, Fly ash bricks, Fly ash, Environmentally friendly, Chhattisgarh, Construction, Raipur, Video Volunteers >> SARWAT NAQVI [IndiaUnheard, Chhattisgarh]: Fly ash is a by-product of thermal power. Let us find out how this fly ash is used to produce bricks that are used in the construction industry. >> SARWAT NAQVI: What are the benefits of bricks made up of fly ash? >> VIVEK CHAURASIA [Brick Factory Owner]: Fly ash is quite harmful to the environment if it is used in thermal factories. But, if fly ash is used as a by-product from a power plant, it could be mixed with other raw materials and made into bricks. In this way, it is eco-friendly and is put to good use. >> SARWAT NAQVI: Can you tell us more about these fly ash bricks? >> VIVEK CHAURASIA: Fly ash bricks are made mainly using three things: fly ash, gypsum, and lime. Sand and gravel are used as well. Fifty to sixty percent of this mixture consists of fly ash. All raw materials are mixed and pressurized in a machine to make bricks. This is a three day nurtured brick. You could toss this any which way, yet it wouldn't break. The most important process is the curing. >> SARWAT NAQVI: How much curing is required? >> VIVEK CHAURASIA: Twice a day, for a period of seven days. After seven days, these bricks are ready to be sold. >> GOPAL [Building Contractor]: Ninety percent of people prefer this brick. Government engineers approve it. All the housing boards and other government construction in Raipur are using it. Its strength is suitable for heavy construction. And, it is clean too. >> SARWAT NAQVI: So what is the benefit of these bricks in comparison with traditional red bricks? >> ANJOR DAS [Building Contractor]: It is comparatively cheaper. They are bigger than red bricks. Fly ash bricks require less water to prepare. >> VIVEK CHAURASIA: A majority of government projects, panchayat work, and housing board constructions would mandatorily have to use fly ash bricks. >> SARWAT NAQVI: Chhattisgarh's environmental protection board has included fly ash bricks into third sector industry. There is a 35 percent subsidy on it. So in order to conserve the environment, this is a very good initiative. I hope these bricks are used more often in order to sustain a good environment. This is Sarwat Naqvi from Raipur, Chhattisgarh, reporting for IndiaUnheard. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kiberatv-kdi-cleans-up-kibera Kounkey Design Initiative is a unique organization that collaborates with communities in impoverished areas to create public spaces that improve quality of life. They've teamed up with the residents in one of Kibera's poorest areas to turn a dump into a community center and daycare facility. Wed, 31 Aug 2011 08:23:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kiberatv-kdi-cleans-up-kibera Kenya, Water & Sanitation, Environment, Mashimoni, Laini Saba, Africa, Kibera, Nairobi, KiberaTV, Hot Sun Foundation >> TITLE: KiberaTV >> WILFRED MASEA [Reporter]: KDI [Kounkey Design Initiative] is an organization in Kibera that is working with the community and educating the community on how to improve their environment and also how to generate income through small projects. KDI has been undertaking different kinds of projects in the community. Chelina Odbert, the organization's CEO, has now started up a new project on sanitation. The residents of Kibera Laini Saba gathered all around to do the clean up and to build a new site for this project. >> MARY NGONYO [Laina Saba Resident]: Today, us women of Kibera Mashimoni have gathered together to do the clean up. The reason for the clean up is that we want to start a new project on sanitation. As residents, we are working on this project to avoid sickness and disease. >> JEAN [Business Consultant, KDI]: I'm Jean, I'm here today working with KDI. Today we're cleaning up the site. This site was a major dumping ground for a lot of people in the area, and what we're doing is we're going to build a series of projects here. We've talked to the community, we've had several meetings, and we've asked them what they wanted. They said they wanted a toilet, they said they wanted a place that they could meet, they wanted a daycare for their children, they wanted a playground. So today is the first day that we're actually working on the ground to help clean up the site and set up the foundation to build these things for the community. >> WILFRED MASEA: Laini Saba, which is widely known as one of the non-secure villages in Kibera and is full of dumping sites, today experienced a new kind of idea. >> BERNARD ASANYA [Laina Saba Resident]: Disposal of garbage everywhere and a lack of toilets is the reason for today's project. Today we've kicked off this new project so that we can build toilets and create a good site for the residents. The residents have gathered together is large numbers to support this project. We have around 150 residents who have come out for this clean up project. >> JEAN: My hope is that there will be a physical place where the community can meet, that they community will become closer, and that they will be able to interact with each other better and also become economically stronger. >> WILFRED MASEA: As KDI is trying to educate the community; many are having good thoughts for tomorrow. Wilfred Masea, KiberaTV, Nairobi, Kenya. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kiberatv-zero-waste-group A group of women in Kibera, Nairobi, are cleaning up their neighborhood and improving the local environment by transforming improperly disposed plastic bags into works of art. Environmental sustainability meets economic development in this innovative project. Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:23:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kiberatv-zero-waste-group Kenya, Environment, Plastic Recycling, Waste management, Nairobi, Kibera, Education, Nakumatt, Polyethylene, KiberaTV >> TITLE: KiberaTV >> WILFRED MASEA [Reporter]: Polythene bags are cheap, light bags that are used by many Kenyans and the rest of the world as packing bags. The majority of Kenyans find it easy to use them. This being that they are cheap, and therefore easy to carry when hauling light commodities. Despite the fact that they are low-priced and light, they are also affordable to a higher percentage of the Kibera residents, who widely use them for packing most of their commodities. Today, the majority of the residents are seen throwing away the polythene bags anyway, and there is no proper action that has been taken. This has led to a continuous, improper disposal of waste. >> TITLE: Sensitization on polythene bags disposal. >> WILFRED MASEA: Due to the lightness of the polythene bags, they are easily blown away by wind from one place to another. This has created unremitting littering, which today has become a hazard to the environment. As a result, poor disposal of the polythene bags can also lead to the spread of different diseases such as cholera and many other diseases. This is mainly due to inadequate capital and easy disposal after use. In Kibera, Karanja, we met Zero Waste Group, a group that has emphasized the collection and usage of polythene bags; which they use to come up with different types of art. >> AMINA ABDALLAH [Member, Zero Waste Group]: I used to sew clothes, but now I'm in the business of sewing polythene handbags. We decided to collect polythene bags and use them for our work. This helps in cleaning the environment. By changing our mentality, we are able to use things like polythene bags to come up with different art. They can be used to produce a lot. >> KADARAH ABUBAKAR [Founder, Zero Waste Group]: We recycle anything. Since we started this, it has enhanced the cleanliness of the environment around us. >> WILFRED MASEA: Others call it trash. But for Zero Waste Group here in Kibera, Karanja, trash is cash. After they have collected the polythene bags that are disposed everywhere here in Kibera, they are able to come up with concrete and imaginative products like this one I am holding in my hands. This group is not only talented in sewing of the polythene bags, but they are also able to come up with different types of art. >> KADARAH ABUBAKAR: An art like this one, the one with three women, symbolizes a Nubian wedding. What they are carrying on their heads is the dowery that they are going to give. At first we used to make handmade papers and fiberboards. So we thought if we sell plain handmade papers, which are now the cards, who will buy them? That's why we thought of putting some of the decorations for them to look attractive. >> WILFRED MASEA: The group also believes that local projects like this should be emphasized to sensitize and educate communities on the dangers of improper waste disposal. >> AMINA ABDALLAH: We have been able to share our ideas with the youth, and also with some women who are interested in our work. When we see someone throwing away the polythene papers, we try advising them on its importance. They always ask, "What is the importance of keeping the polythene bags when they need to be trashed?" We make most of our products out of the same trash they throw away. We tell them that our final product comes from the washed polythene bags that we've collected. When someone brings the polythene bags, that's when we he or she realizes the importance of the polythene bags. >> WILFRED MASEA: They also believe that the scourge of the polythene waste disposal is lead by its easy disposal. >> KADARAH ABUBAKAR: Since we started, we have at least been able to make our surroundings clean. Disposing them proves to be a bit hard since they are easily blown away. The best example is when I'm on a bus heading to town, I'm able to see polythene bags disposed everywhere. It has become a habit for me. Whenever I see the polythene bags anywhere, even if it's on my way to town, I'll alight to go and collect the polythene bag. >> AMINA ABDALLAH: Polythene bags are now the biggest enemy to the environment, since they do not decompose. When anyone sees us picking up the polythene bags, they always ask what we are going to do with the trash. Sometimes they see some of our products and ask, "How did you find this?" This is when we explain to them that the material has been recycled from the polythene bags. We are also spreading our ideas to people. We carry our bags with us whenever we go anywhere. When I\0x2019m carrying it, people ask, "How did you make this bag?" I have to explain to them that it's made from Nakumatt and black polythene bags that they use when buying their basic commodities. Today we are taking a step to overcome the challenges, but before we had a lot of challenges. >> KADARAH ABUBAKAR: The project generates income, and this helps since we don't have to depend on our husbands. >> AMINA ABDALLAH: We wash and sew. Polythene has now become an important source to us. It's like bringing dead material into existence. >> WILFRED MASEA: But the question that remains is: has society played an adequate role in curbing and sensitizing people to the dangers of improper waste disposal? Wilfred Masea, Kibera TV, Nairobi. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-harsha Auto designer Harsha Ravi won the young designer of the year award for an electric car that was energy efficient yet aesthetically pleasing. His efforts contribute to the movement to reduce carbon emissions and reduce climate change. Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:24:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-harsha Electric car, Environment, Australia, Melbourne, Automobile, Automotive design, Climate change, Carbon dioxide, Sustainability, tve >> TITLE: Element>> TITLE: Harsha>> HARSHA RAVI [Auto designer]: Design is a bit like time travel. Designers live in the future. They have to think at least four or five years ahead to make sure that when they plan for their design that it has the most positive impact on society in the future. My profession is car design.>> TITLE: Melbourne, Australia>> HARSHA RAVI: Melbourne Motor Show is very important to car designers to put out their work to get feedback from the public and from the media. There are a number of key players trying to get a sense of where their standing is in society. It?s like a car designer?s birthday, you know. You get your presents. Some things you like, some things you don?t like. A lot of design is about telling the truth. And a lot of it is about lying.>> TITLE: +/- 12 percent of all carbon emissions come from cars>> HARSHA RAVI: Design is a way of looking at the world. And sometimes you see it as it is, and sometimes you see it the way you want to see it. Now we know where we?re going in the future if we continue the way we?ve been continuing thus far. When we see that, we have the power to change the world in a very, very positive way. I don?t see any reason why I would become a car designer and continue designing cars the way they?ve been designed for decades. This is "The Globetrotter" and this car won me Australian Young Designer of the Year. My aim was to get it being greener, but to still retaining the sexy qualities. All of the exterior cladding is made of a corn-based plastic. It doesn?t use petrol directly; it just plugs into the central power grid and recharges the batteries while you are away. That effectively means there?s no negative impact on the environment, if it?s done in the way I?ve prescribed through my sketches and drawings. I?d like to make a change in the world, because I?ve first hand seen how cars can really impact on someone?s life. I was actually hit by a car at 60 kilometers an hour. It was about three o?clock in the afternoon and I had to get to a friend?s house. It was a four-lane road and I bolted, and we collided. The next thing I remember I woke up at hospital with Mom and Dad by my side. The first words I uttered were, "What happened?" I think it really fueled my need to follow a spiritual path. I meditate for about an hour, an hour and a half every day. First, you need to be in control of yourself. You need to know who you are, and who you want to be. Who you want to be is where design comes in. I see inspiration everywhere. There?s a tremendous amount of inspiration in nature. And there are also things such as buildings. And of course, people. They're always moving and they?re always changing and design has to change with them. The Globetrotter was designed for 2017. Right now we?re at an unfortunate position because the infrastructures that we have in place, that have been put into place in the past, are quite rigid. We need to really demand a greener solution. Because that way, design can pin that down and say, "Okay, well this is what they want, so we have nowhere else to go." Design is like a knife. A knife can be used by a surgeon to help; a knife can be used by a killer to harm. I?m a surgeon. >> TITLE: Element. www.element-tv.net. For more information, please visit: http://www.tve.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-ifie-and-tina Gas flaring in Nigeria is rampant, even though its toxicity and effects on health and the environment make it a violation of human rights. Tina and Ifie are filming testimonies so that people around the world can see the local cost of oil. Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:24:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-ifie-and-tina Nigeria, Environment, Niger Delta, Gas flare, Oil well, Oil spill, Sub-Saharan Africa, Millennium Development Goals, Climate change, Governance & Transparency >> TITLE: Element>> TINA: The fuel you?re using comes from our area. It should be making Nigeria rich, but if you come to the Niger Delta, you don?t see any of that. Especially the environment. We don?t have anything. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #7: ensure environmental sustainability>> IFIE: This project, it?s like a voice to the people. >> IFIE: Tina is my small Auntie, and she?s always challenging me because she has that title, Auntie, she?s always preaching to me. >> TINA: She wants to oppress me. >> IFIE: You?re telling people that I oppress you. See, you?re quarreling again. >> TINA: See, this is the oppression I?m talking about. >> IFIE: Since apparently I?m oppressing you, I?m leaving!>> IFIE: She?s always taking all my time; she?s a kid. She?s wild, someone can call me an idiot and I can?t say anything. She?ll say, ?Call my sister an idiot again. I?ll fight you.?>> IFIE: Since we can?t fight, we don?t have guns, the only voice we have is this video editing. Now we can make our own documentary and send it to the Internet, and the whole world will see it. Everybody clap for me. We?re watching the documentary that we did on the oil spill and trying to see the response from the community. >> TITLE: Niger Delta: an oil spill pollutes the land. The oil company refuses to clean up, claiming the pipe was deliberately broken.>> MAN 1: All our food, all our fish have died. So we are hungry. >> WOMAN: And even the snails. The oil has killed everything. Small children are dying because of the effects of the oil. >> IFIE: When I saw the oil pipe I was angry. I was so angry that I didn?t know what to do. I felt like I was poisoned with anger. >> IFIE: He says he wants water, good water to drink. >> IFIE: Oil pollution is not only damaging to the environment, but it is also causing conflict and disrupting peace in our communities. >> MAN 2: We are begging them to come and clean up their oil. If they don?t come and clean it up, we will be forced to fight back. >> TITLE: Gas flaring: burning off usable gas while refining crude oil. Gas flaring, Nigeria: contributes more greenhouse gases than all of Sub-Saharan Africa combined -- the World Bank. Status: Illegal. >> TINA: They should do something about this gas flaring. I don?t see why they?re burning money while people are dying of hunger.>> TITLE: If sold, this gas could be worth $2.5 billion a year -- the World Bank. Three out of five Nigerians live on less than $1 a day. >> TINA: This is hell.>> IFIE: Maybe it?s easier to waste the gas and the oil, maybe it?s easier, and that?s why. If not, then I can?t understand. Me, I?m not a scientist, but something is happening. Everywhere is getting hotter, and I think it?s all this gas that they are burning. It?s not only us who are suffering. Everywhere around the world, people are suffering. We need a different kind of energy instead of using this petroleum that is destroying our environment. People should talk to these oil companies and to the government to stop polluting the environment. They should be active, they should come out a lot, and people should see the action. Even if people are far away, they can work together in a way. With this videotape that we are making, the youths will stand up and send it to the oil companies, send it anywhere possible for the whole world to hear. If at the end we will die, then we will start fighting today. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals: Eight goals for a better world by 2015. Every one counts. www.element-tv.net. Element. For more information, please visit: http://www.tve.org. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-sepehr Sepehr is an Iranian environmental blogger reporting on climate change and how it's affecting his country. His reporting has spurred protests and attracted media coverage that has protected natural areas from harmful development. Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:24:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-sepehr Middle East, Environment, Iran, Climate change, Isfahan, Environmental protection, Tehran, Environmental degradation, tve, Element: Action on Earth >> TITLE: Element>> TITLE: Sepehr>> SEPEHR SALIMI: Come in. I'm Sepehr Salimi. I've been writing a weblog for five years. >> MARYAM: Be careful.>> SEPEHR SALIMI: At first it was more about the animals, but as time passed I got more into the environment. >> TITLE: Isfahan, Iran>> SEPEHR SALIMI: Hi, have your brought your camera?>> MARYAM: Yes. >> SEPEHR SALIMI: All right then, let's do a visual report. >> SEPEHR SALIMI: Maryam is one of my best friends. She has this positive energy about her and she keeps us all motivated. >> SEPEHR SALIMI: We're actually in the river now, but there's no more river! It hasn't dried out for many years. It's because of the drought. It hardly rained at all this year. Well, I don't know. It's like a sign. This is related to climate change. >> MARYAM: You should put these pictures in your weblog with title ?I'm Standing in the Middle of the Zayandeh-rud.?>> SEPEHR SALIMI: That?s a good idea. >> SEPEHR SALIMI: I think it's a popular website. It was chosen as Iran's best environmental weblog two months ago.>> SEPEHR SALIMI: Give me two of the blue fish. >> SEPEHR SALIMI: I was born in Masjed-Soleymann, which is one of Iran's southern cities. I lived there until I was six and then we had to move to Isfahan, because of the war. >> SEPEHR SALIMI: I have two friends for you.>> SEPEHR SALIMI: We witnessed scenes that will stick in our minds forever. When you witness a war and all its violence, it subconsciously pushes you towards peace. >> SEPEHR SALIMI: The other fish didn't like the new fish. >> MARYAM: Don't they? They're naughty.>> SEPEHR SALIMI: They're being harassed by the other fish.>> MARYAM: It's probably because they're new. >> SEPEHR SALIMI: For me animals are signs of God, so that's why as an animal lover I turned into an environmentalist. If we had a healthy environment, the animals would be safe. >> SIGN: Gavkhoni Wet Land>> SEPEHR SALIMI: Something exceptional happened here. That black mountain is the only mountain by the Gavkhuni swamp. An investor wanted to demolish part of the mountain for its stones, but luckily the local people protested against him. We published the news and it got national coverage in no time, so the investors were under pressure and finally they gave up and cancelled the project. And now Siah-kooh's intact for us and for future generations. It proves that if people are informed they can do just about anything.>> SEPEHR SALIMI: When you see what you've written in your weblog printed in the papers, it's pretty cool. In Iran we didn't have an environmental news website, so we decided to make the first one. >> TITLE: www.greennews.ir>> SEPEHR SALIMI: The website has been running for just one week, but I want it to be so effective it grows by itself and I become just one in millions producing it. It's like a chain. You can't protect the environment in one country and not think about the situation in other countries. I mean, the more you know, the better decisions you'll make.>> TITLE: Element. www.element-tv.net. For more information, please visit http://www.tve.org. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/seed-warriors The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway is much more than just a place to store seeds. It has been designed to withstand almost any disaster, and it could play a vital role in ensuring continued food supplies and biodiversity for future generations. Tue, 19 Jul 2011 08:36:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/seed-warriors Environment, Biodiversity, Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Agriculture & Food, Climate change, Global Crop Diversity Trust, Jens Stoltenberg, Kenya, Prime Minister of Norway >> TITLE: By 2050 the temperatures worldwide are expected to rise by at least 2 degrees. This will cause major losses in food production -- as much as 30 percent in some places. By this time, global food demand will have doubled. How will we feed the world?>> TITLE: Seed Warriors>> TITLE: Longyearbyen, Norway. Close to the North Pole. >> TITLE: February 26th, 2008. Opening Ceremony, Svalbard Global Seed Vault. >> JENS STOLTENBERG [Prime Minister of Norway]: Scientists and politicians had a wish: to make use of this harsh climate and these harsh conditions to serve humanity by providing secure storage for the seeds of the world. >> JOSE MANUEL BAROSSO [President of the European Commission]: If there is a tragedy, a disaster in one of our countries, mainly in the developing countries, then they can come here. It is a back-up, a possibility to have these seeds to restore their crops. >> CARY FOWLER [Executive Director, Global Crop Diversity Trust]: We have a fairly unique mission. Well, not fairly: it's completely unique. And that is to conserve the diversity of our crops, agricultural crops, forever. It's to figure out a system, install a system, and fund a system for conserving that part of biodiversity in perpetuity.>> OLA WESTENSEN [Coordinator, Svalbard Global Seed Vault]: So it has become one of the world's absolutely biggest singular collections of crop diversity. We are not managing the seeds, we are only keeping them, like a bank box, if you want, for the gene banks that are actually out there in the countries working with agricultural researchers, and, eventually, with the farmers. >> SIGN: National Genebank of Kenya>> ZACHARY MUTHAMIA [Director, National Genebank of Kenya]: When we had the political clashes it's happened that there was youths who came almost close to the Genebank, and if they had actually entered and they made some damage then it would have been very catastrophic. When we were approached by the Global Crop Diversity Trust we were more than happy to take that opportunity to duplicate some of our important materials in Svalbard. It's an idea that has come at the right time. The duplication is very important because it takes care of our back-up, it takes care of issues that in case something happens to our regional set of germplasm, you can go back to your duplicate set. >> MARIANNE BANZIGER [Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT]: I'm responsible for the international public research on maize in this world; maize is the most, is the globally most important crop, the crop with the largest production worldwide. We have other issues coming up like scarcity of land, of water, and fertilizer. And if I look ahead, I have sleepless nights over what happens in 10 to 20 years when the scarcity of water, the scarcity of fertilizer, land, really hits us, on top of climatic change. These maize rows, each row is a different variety, yeah? They have about 20 plants. So this is a different variety from this one. And this maize hasn't received any water since it was about this tall. So imagine you have 10 percent of the plants, you have drought, and only 10 percent of the plants have ears. You have to eat for two months?>> BREEDER: Yes, one bag probably, or a half. >> MARIANNE BANZIGER: Yeah, that wouldn't feed your family for long. You have in that field, you have this variety, you have on two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve cobs, you have six times more yield. This would bring you through the year, simply because you grow a different variety. A lot of the varieties that are in the seed vault, we know very, very little about them. We don't know, are they resistant against certain diseases? Are they drought tolerant? Drought tolerance is a complex trait, we have them characterized for what type of drought tolerance do they carry? So essentially, what we have is a black box, the vault is a black box. We know we have a large diversity, but it's completely uncharacterized.>> TITLE: One year after the opening>> INTERVIEWER: Do you feel on this first anniversary this is a special day in a way for the whole world?>> DAVID BATTISTI [Climatologist, University of Washington]: Huge, huge, huge. One is because I think it's one of the few very tangible, very visible things that shows a sense of cooperation and the vision you need to do this, because you can't be thinking short-term. It can't be one politician's political cycle, like, what can I do now to keep, to be elected? This is something that has to be planned out now, that's got to be carried out over several human generations. And I think the last time, you think about that, where people had to think that far in advance what they were going to do, you're talking about building the pyramids or building St. Peter's. I mean, these are things that are planned on scales that are crossing human generations, and we don't do that any more. So this is, I think, the first visible sign that that's what's required. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-jeff Jeff, along with delegates from around the globe, descended on Bali for the 2007 Climate Summit. But Jeff's goals were unique: he made the trip in order to coordinate videoconferences for virtual delegates who decided to abstain from flying in order to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:42:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-jeff Climate change, Bali, 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference, OneClimate, Indonesia, Environment, Second Life, Oneworld, tve, Element: Action on Earth >> TITLE: Element>> JEFF ALLEN [Managing Editor, OneWorld]: Remember when the Internet was just about porn and poker? Cast back to the end of 2007. International delegates converged on an island in Indonesia, to talk about how to deal with climate change. But who was talking, and who got to listen? OneWorld.net made another island, on the virtual world of Second Life, where anybody with an Internet connection could listen in and join in to transmissions from the conference. We gave chat rooms a new meaning. This was virtual Bali.>> TITLE: Jeff>> JEFF ALLEN: And this is me. I just got off a ten-hour flight. Which is ironic because the conference was all about reducing the amount of greenhouse gases we?re pumping into the atmosphere, including by flying. Scientists are telling us that to avoid the worst effects of climate change, we?ve got less than ten years to radically cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. >> TITLE: Bali, Indonesia>> JEFF ALLEN: I was in Bali to set up a link between the conference and the Second Life site, so more people could engage without getting on a plane. Thing is, back in Washington, I?m usually the one writing the articles, not doing the wiring. This was a combination of technology, and people, that had never been done quite this way before.>> JEFF ALLEN: Hi everybody.>> DANIEL NELSON: Hi. This is rather chaotic. We had a sound problem, but we?re back. And we?re in the middle of an incredibly busy corridor where people are moving the camera in order to get past.>> JEFF ALLEN: The plan was to record interviews with climate commentators at the Bali conference, broadcast the interviews on Second Life?s OneClimate Island, take questions from the avatars representing real people in different countries, and have them answered by the real life interviewees. We?re apparently going live early, and our guests are showing late. Which is a problem. >> JEFF ALLEN: Standing by, standing by -- waiting for cue. >> DANIEL NELSON: Welcome to Second Life. We?re here in Bali for the United Nations Climate Change negotiations.>> JEFF ALLEN: Things were working, more or less, and people were tuning in from all over. One guy was even from Turkmenistan, hardly your average Washington policy wonk. But not very many people were tuning in. And a secret? It was my OneWorld colleagues and I making up the questions.>> JEFF ALLEN: Hi, is it possible to turn the fountains off in the Flamboyant Lounge again tonight? We needed a higher profile. We knew we could make good content, but could we get enough publicity to fill the seats? And enough people for someone else to ask questions? We needed an Al Gore. >> AL GORE [Former Vice President, United States]: We the human species face a planetary emergency.>> JEFF ALLEN: Biggest audience the conference got. Everyone listens to Al Gore. It is Al Gore mania. Mania! They love him here. They love Al Gore. I do too.>> JEFF ALLEN: Then our big chance turned up: the biggest guy in the United States Congress on global warming. Instead of coming to Bali to give his speech, he?s decided to stay in the US, not spend the carbon dioxide emissions by travelling across the world, and give his speech via Second Life on our island. >> JEFF ALLEN: The press would go wild. I started getting the word out. Best six dollars OneWorld ever spent. So right now we need to scramble and see if we can get a room. Are there any rooms, anywhere with an Internet connection? I had no idea that the high level session is happening at the exact same time tomorrow. Terrible planning. Terrible. On OneClimate Island, avatars were turning up. But back in the conference center, no one seemed interested. >> JEFF ALLEN: If you guys are free in about nine minutes, Markey?s going to be on. >> JOURNALIST: I don't know. I?m going to go see how busy Plenary Two is.>> JEFF ALLEN: All right, good luck. I'm trying to round up a crowd, but I don?t think it?s going to happen with the prime minister of Australia signing the Kyoto Protocol at the same moment. There was no time for more crowd wrangling. We just had to go for it. My mike is in; it?s not picking our audio. We got nothing! Got it. We?re good. >> SUE: So Chairman Markey, thank you for teleporting your way to virtual Bali. >> REPRESENTATIVE EDWARD MARKEY [D-MA]: Thank you Sue. I believe I am the first member of the United States Congress to be introduced by someone with a blue dragon on her shoulder. >> JEFF ALLEN: And this funny thing started happening. The conference people started watching, like they?d remembered there was a world out there, even if it was virtual. >> REPRESENTATIVE EDWARD MARKEY: But now we are serious again and this bill in my opinion will become the law before the end of this year. >> JEFF ALLEN: Now we had a profile, and a model for other people to use: an open platform for talk on climate change, for high profilers and people who?d never had access before. Everyone talks in vague general terms: ?We need to harness the power of new technologies.? But this is a concrete example of one thing we can do. We can?t hold this whole conference and all the negotiations on Second Life. Of course people are going to need to fly to a centralized location to meet each other. But maybe not everybody. >> REPRESENTATIVE EDWARD MARKEY: Thank you for joining me today on the virtual island of Bali created by OneClimate in Second Life. >> JEFF ALLEN: That was wonderful! That was fantastic! What do you think? I mean, I thought it was great! Virtual Bali was a real life success story. We?d made the technology and the vision work. I could pack up and celebrate, far away from cables and computers. I haven?t been out of the booth in days. I feel like I could have been in Scranton the last week. Okay, so talking at the conference or online is just the start. But this way, more people can connect with what we need to do to prevent the worst effects of climate change. The next big climate change conference is in Denmark, December 2009. This time, OneClimate Island will be in Virtual Copenhagen. Come join us. Save some carbon. Show we can do something about climate change, while we talk about doing something about climate change. >> TITLE: www.oneclimate.net>> TITLE: Element. www.element-tv.net. For more information, please visit http://www.tve.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-tia Tia Taurere is a young Maori activist from New Zealand involved in campaigns to promote forest preservation, oceanic life, and the revival of traditional Maori culture. She might seem overextended, but she believes all of these causes are intertwined. Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:42:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-tia Papua New Guinea, Environment, Illegal logging, Millennium Development Goals, Deforestation, Sustainable forest management, Greenpeace, Lake Murray (Papua New Guinea), New Zealand, Sustainability >> TITLE: Element>> TIA TAURERE: It's a symbol of Mana Wahine, which is prestige and strength. And that's what it means to me, my journey to finding who I am, to give me confidence to move through this world, and I suppose to educate people, to draw the line, to make that stand. >> TITLE: Tia>> TITLE: Auckland, New Zealand>> TIA TAURERE: We're just doing boat training today around Auckland harbor. One of the most important things is moving together, because sometimes you can feel so alone, and there's no hope when you're swimming against the tide by yourself. I love it when we go fast and smash through the waves, and get that spray all over us. It's an adrenaline rush as well as a good reason to be out here. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goal #7: Ensure environmental sustainability>> TITLE: Paradise Forests, Papua New Guinea>> TIA TAURERE: Paradise Forests are untouched, they are still discovering animals and insects and plant life that has never been discovered before. The world's forests are being depleted at a rate of 30 football fields every minute, and Paradise Forests have been destroyed the fastest of any other forest on the planet. Companies are going into these forests, these native forests, and just wipe out everything in their path for that one tree that they want. They totally destroyed the whole ecosystem. Illegal logging is making the industrial loggers richer. Companies are selling it all over the world and nothing goes back to the people. Papua New Guinea was a Global Forest Rescue Campaign, so volunteers from all around the world came to help educate the people on how to sustainably log their forest. Instead of clear felling, it was selecting logs and leaving some for re-growth and milling them themselves so the money all came back to the people. I suppose then it just rolls into conscious consuming, so you know that you're not supporting illegal logging. It's a great place, great people, beautiful people, so we really need to support them by buying their wood.>> TITLE: Auckland, New Zealand>> TIA TAURERE: I'm just chatting with one of the volunteers from Malaysia that I met on Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea. Training was really good; I got to drive the Zodiacs all day. We all MSN daily, and reminisce about our time there. We're all pretty useless, eh? Our survival skills. City kids in the jungle. I think that to create change we need to make an effort and just start that ball rolling and then people sort of jump on your bandwagon and then that movement starts. If you look at it like an army, you're the front line of defense, and then there are all the undercover brothers and sisters. There was an action that I did down in Nelson that was part of the Oceans Campaign. It was a Chinese deep-sea trawler that only comes into the New Zealand ports once a year, so we all rushed down to Nelson to try and stop it from leaving. >> WOMAN: We want to send a message to the government that we want a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling -->> TIA TAURERE: Whether you're an activist for the Papua New Guinea forest, or save the animals, or protect our oceans, or the revival of my culture, I feel like all of these campaigns are all linked anyway. If you would really like to live an exciting life, volunteer for NGOs and make that difference. I love my life, I really do. >> TITLE: Millennium Development Goals: eight goals for a better world by 2015. Every one counts. www.element-tv.net. Element. For more information, please visit: http://www.tve.org. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-igor In the midst of the chaos of Rio de Janeiro, a group of people is fighting back against the environmental degradation caused by big agrobusiness. Igor has devoted his life to urban farming, and is proving that there is a sustainable way to feed a growing planet. Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-igor Brazil, Environment, Agriculture & Food, Urban agriculture, Rio de Janeiro, tve, Farmer, Family farm, LinkTV Picks, Element: Action on Earth >> WOMAN 1: Put one hand like this and make the other rigid. >> IGOR: Rigid?>> WOMAN 1: And grab with this, like this.>> IGOR: Like this? Like this? She?s a very good teacher!>> WOMAN 1: More or less. >> IGOR: I am kidding. >> TITLE: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil>> IGOR: Here is chaos. It is a crazy city to live in. A lot of cars, a lot of people, a lot of bad things happen. We have big social inequality. One of the only things I like in the city is the capoeira. >> TITLE: Igor>> IGOR: And urban farming. Urban farmers are people that live in the cities and grow food in their homes, in church, wherever they can. This land used to be a factory. Maybe people think that it?s a garbage dump, but it?s not. Almost all the terrains in the city are destroyed, so we have to restore their life. >> IGOR: I?m better at food gardens. >> IGOR: When I first heard about this from the university, I thought, "Food gardens! Great idea! Why not? Let?s do it!" In the cities, people sell their work. And with this money they buy poisonous food planted with the destruction of nature. We don?t have to live like this. >> IGOR: Who is going to help me water the plant?>> BOY 1: Me! Me! Me!>> IGOR: So get the watering can. Today was a really good day. Now we only need a little more plants from other urban farmers to put here. Our relationship with these farmers is not an economical relationship. It is a mutual aid relationship. >> IGOR: We have to cut all this grass. It?s going to be a little hard, because of the sun. This grass is too thick. I think we are not going to finish today. When we need seeds to plant in other places, we can come here and pick up some for free. It?s very nice to have them as a friend. It?s sweet. They?re tired. This is the rural university. I?m trying to graduate. Always busy. >> IGOR: Food is the basis of everything. What is happening in Brazil -- all the food that comes from the big owners of land goes outside of the country. The big farmers cut down the trees in the rainforest and then they plant soy to feed the European cows. And I think it?s very bad. Our planet needs this rainforest. I was born in the city. And I didn?t know the powerful things I know now. We have to go after this knowledge. >> IGOR: Mr. Ze Ferreira was a normal farmer. But then he started to look differently at nature. He?s trying to show the people there is another possibility of agriculture. In agroecology we have a lot of different plants renewing the land and the soil and the nature, and we have family farmers helping each other. Everything we do, we learned with the family farmers. I love Mr. Ze Ferreira -- he is my real teacher. Before I used to watch television, play video games, and go to the mall. Now I do food gardens. It would be very nice to stay in the countryside. But there is still a lot of work to do in the cities. >> MAN 1: You are infantile. You are childish. >> IGOR: The capoeira players and the family farmers are survivors. They are fighting for their survival. I think I am going to stay in Rio, because this city needs a lot of food gardens. We still have a lot of work to do.>> TITLE: Element>> TITLE: www.element-tv.net>> TITLE: For more information, please visit: http://www.tve.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-bremley Bremley comes from Manglia, India, where his clan tends to the local forest. He is seeking investors for a social enterprise to plant thousands of trees in an effort to combat climate change and benefit his local community at the same time. Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-bremley India, Environment, Carbon sequestration, Climate change and poverty, Meghalaya, Plant nursery, tve, Sri Lanka, LinkTV Picks, Element: Action on Earth >> TITLE: Element>> BREMLEY: My clan is the caretakers of the Lyngdoh Sacred Forests in Meghalaya, India; so really, taking care of the trees is in my blood. But all this seems so far away from London. >> TITLE: London, U.K.>> BREMLEY: I need to be here to get my social enterprise going. We?re going to plant millions of trees, starting from seven countries, to fight climate change. I?ve got to get investors to get my plans underway. I know it?s worth it, but sometimes I feel so disconnected from where it?s all happening. I really need to get back on the road, get back in touch with why I?m doing this. >> TITLE: Sri Lanka>> BREMLEY: It?s all starting here in Sri Lanka. We?ve got one tree nursery going. I haven?t seen it yet, but I can imagine it. >> TITLE: Bremley>> BREMLEY: Rubber trees grow fast here. >> BREMLEY: I?m like Spiderman, spinning my web. >> BREMLEY: First we plant them, then when they?re five years old we?ll be able to tap them and make things like surgical gloves and condoms out of the rubber. >> BREMLEY: Oh boy, that smells really bad!>> BREMLEY: The trees will absorb carbon from the atmosphere, and the rubber will give jobs to the people here, so you?re fighting climate change and poverty. At least that?s how it works in theory. >> BREMLEY: We?re off to our little nursery. This is the first time that I am going there so it is very exciting. This is the base. This is the launch pad. Wow, it?s a nice place. This is what I?ve been dreaming about. Actually seeing it happening. These seedlings are like my babies. >> BREMLEY: How old are these? Two weeks? >> CHANDRA: One week.>> BREMLEY: One week old. >> BREMLEY: It?s only a few seedlings now, but eventually there?ll be millions of trees. And not just in Sri Lanka. We want to do organic plantations in at least six countries, including India. My heart is set on making it happen in India. I want to go home. >> TITLE: India>> BREMLEY: My clan?s sacred forest is one of the only forests still standing here. All the trees around it have been cut down. And you know, this used to be the rainiest place on Earth. But now, with no trees around, it?s like a desert. That?s why it?s important for me to plant here. Getting the plantations going in India is going to be much harder. I have to convince the local chiefs to let us plant trees on their land. If they don?t agree, the whole project could fail. And I really don?t want that. >> BREMLEY: Finally home, sweet home. Hi Mommy! I?ve got to prepare myself. Just got little time. I?m really nervous, because I think it?s going to be really hard to make the chiefs work together. I really hope I can make this take off. >> BREMLEY: First of all, I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for coming to this first meeting. >> BREMLEY: The chiefs are interested, but it will take a lot of trust for us to work together. They?re a bit worried because things have gone wrong in the past. I need to convince them that this will work, and even change people?s lives. Including mine. I met Chandra at the Sri Lankan nursery. >> BREMLEY: This is your land. Thank you for hosting our little babies on our land. He showed me how everything worked there. Well, tried to.>> BREMLEY: I just threw the bucket and the rope in the well!>> BREMLEY: He?s my age, but he?s an orphan. >> BREMLEY: Oh my god, I?m so sorry I dropped your bucket. >> BREMLEY: He has to look after his four siblings, but he was unemployed before. He told me that being a rubber expert was his dream. And now his dream is coming true. And now he?s making my dream come true by taking care of the nursery. If the chiefs agree, then maybe there could be more people like Chandra. >> BREMLEY: It was amazing. Just with a group of five or six people, we have close to about three thousand hectares already. >> BREMLEY: It looks like we?re going to be planting trees at home again. Life in London doesn?t seem so disconnected now. I know there are people out there who believe in this like I do. It?s early days, but we?re starting to make things better. >> BREMLEY: It?s always easy to destroy things, and it?s very hard to create and regenerate things. And that?s what we?re in, this business. It?s regenerating, recreating. And save the planet. >> TITLE: Element>> TITLE: www.element-tv.net>> TITLE: For more information, please visit: http://www.tve.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-courtney Courtney is a boxer and a climate change fighter. Her company works to create environmental solutions all around the world. She's going to need all the toughness she can get from boxing to fight the biggest fight the planet has ever had. Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/element-courtney China, Climate change, Nanjing, Greenhouse gas, Environment, Methane, Landfill, tve, LinkTV Picks, Element: Action on Earth >> TITLE: Element>> TITLE: Oxford, London>> COURTNEY: I like to push myself to the edge. You need to be able to respond to change instantaneously. And you need to be able to think quickly. I train with the Oxford University Boxing Club. >> COACH: And again. >> COURTNEY: And then I also fight climate change. >> COACH: And again. >> COURTNEY: Guess I'm up for a challenge. >> COACH: And again. That's it. >> TITLE: Courtney>> COURTNEY: My job has pretty much only existed for a few years. Our company is growing a lot so we are hiring a lot of new staff. So I went to China to give them two weeks of intensive training to get them started. I'm very excited; I've never been to China before. It's my first time. I love to travel. There are so many amazing places in this world and I want to see as many of them as possible. >> TITLE: The Great Wall, China>> COURTNEY: My company has 45 different nationalities in it. We somehow have the Welsh flag as our tour guide. Weekdays I was a professor, and weekends their friend who they were climbing the Great Wall with. Chinese sweets. Teacher's pet, what? Really glamorous? If you call going to sites looking at pig feces and walking around on landfills glamorous. No. >> TITLE: Nanjing, China>> COURTNEY: About 700 tons of rubbish comes to the Nanjing landfill site every day. And, as all that decomposes, it creates a lot of methane. The amount of impact that methane has on contributing to climate change is 21 times stronger than carbon dioxide. So instead of releasing to the atmosphere and making climate change worse, we use it to make clean energy. >> COACH: Away you go.>> COURTNEY: I have quite a lot of energy so I do a lot of sports. I used to be a really serious gymnast and then I got injured, so I started boxing a couple of years ago. It's definitely an adrenaline rush. Your body goes into fight or flight. >> COACH: And time. >> COURTNEY: What we do is we put pipes that go down about 10 meters. And then we cover the landfill. And all the methane goes up through the pipes to a generator, and then the generator combusts the methane to produce electricity. We find these projects that need this extra funding, and then I also work on the monitoring to prove that they are reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Everyone creates greenhouse gas emissions in their life, in what they use. And so, if you want to balance that off, or "offset" it, you can help fund these projects. Offsetting is not going to save the world. But it's one of the many aspects of reducing our impact on climate change. >> COACH: And time.>> COURTNEY: I grew up in a dangerous inner city. But when I was about seven my parents bought property that was just open fields and forest and mountains, so that was a place to escape to. And I realized I wanted to preserve that, for generations to come. It was exciting to go see the Nanjing landfill site, but I think I was a bit shocked by -- there were people there that were collecting plastic from the trash. And it was pretty sad seeing that. But, at the same time, it's pretty amazing knowing that from the decomposing trash, without the plastic, it creates more biogas to give electricity to the local area. It's a pretty great project. I mean it cleans up the landfill; it gives jobs and creates clean energy for the area. Climate change is a huge problem. And it's something that takes a lot of work. And learning how to box well takes a lot of time and you have to dedicate a lot of energy to it. Your opponent's not going to go away, and climate change is not going to go away. You need to fight back, but you need to do it in a very calculated manner. So it's a matter about keeping your cool. You get hit, and you get hit hard, but it's getting back up and continuing the fight. I wouldn't mind having another fight, and maybe getting another win in.>> TITLE: Element>> TITLE: www.element-tv.net>> TITLE: For more information, please visit: http://www.tve.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-running-out-of-control-2 In the mid 1980s, scientists unlocked the genetic keys to manipulating our world. Suddenly everything seemed possible! There would be no more hunger or malnutrition; diseases would be vanquished and poverty wiped out. But twenty years on the situation looks very different, especially in India. Watch the trailer on this page or the full documentary live on NDTV Profit or <a href="http://profit.ndtv.com/" target="_blank">profit.ndtv.com</a> 9/10 July Sat 10pm/Sun 5pm IST. Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-running-out-of-control-2 India, Biodiversity, Genetically modified organism, Agriculture & Food, Seedbank, Environment, Navdanya, NDTV Profit, Link TV Presents the World http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-back-in-business Sierra Leone was torn apart by years of civil war. Now that the country is beginning to rebound, two men see a vast potential for sustainable and ecological tourism. But will they be able to ensure that the impending development boom will benefit the people of Sierra Leone and not just foreign investors? Wed, 01 Jun 2011 08:15:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/life-on-the-edge-back-in-business Sierra Leone, Environment, Sierra Leone Civil War, Ecotourism, Outamba-Kilimi National Park, West Africa, Sustainable development, Diana Monkey, Black-and-white colobus, Life on the Edge >> TITLE: Back in Business?>> VOICEOVER: Bimbola Carrol is Sierra Leonean but lives in England. He left his home during the war. He?s now determined to change the perceptions of his homeland. He set up a website focusing on travel, tourism and investment opportunities to do just that. Last year alone it had 40 million hits. Bimbola is traveling back to Sierra Leone with Derek Moore, founder of the international travel company Explore. Their agenda? To investigate Sierra Leone?s potential for tourism, and the barriers stopping the industry getting back on its feet.>> BIMBOLA CARROL [Creator, Visit Sierra Leone website]: The website was set up to show people another side of Sierra Leone, a more positive side which is not often seen in the media. It also highlights the tourism potential in Sierra Leone. But the initial mission is actually to change people?s perceptions to stimulate investment to Sierra Leone as a whole. It?s not just about diamonds. It depends what you?re looking for.>> DEREK MOORE [Explore Worldwide Ltd]: I?m going to Sierra Leone because I don?t really know what I?m going to find there. I?ve read that it?s got wonderful beaches, it?s got wildlife reserves, it?s got mountains, and there's trekking there. But I don?t know anything about it, and I feel that it?s a bit of an open book for a tour operator. With some strategic planning, and looking at what can be developed, I think it could be the start of a great adventure.>> VOICEOVER: Derek and Bimbola?s first stop: the beaches on the Freetown peninsula. >> DEREK MOORE: Wow! This is phenomenal! This is so far away from the popular image of Sierra Leone, and that?s the good news. For me, the potential bad news is who owns the waterfront land, because depending on who owns that land we could end up here with a beautifully managed tourist area, or in ten years time they could end up with a series of beachfront hotels that would completely ruin it. There is a fantastic chance here to get it right. I mean, the good thing about Sierra Leone emerging into the tourist world a little bit later than many other parts of Africa could be that they can learn from what the others did wrong, and I?d like to feel that if the government controls things properly this beautiful beach could be just as good as this, but earning a living and an economic income for the country in years to come.>> DR. KADI SESAY [Minister of Trade and Industry]: I think there is a need for us to create an environment that will attract investment in areas that will provide a lot of jobs for young people. And this is going to create the required stability for this country to move forward. There is a need for us to give the assurance to the private sector, to address the concerns of the private sector, and this is why as a government we're willing to provide the necessary support to any investors that may want to come to this country.>> VOICEOVER: Derek and Bimbola meet Cecil Williams from the Sierra Leone National Tourist Board.>> BIMBOLA CARROL: This is Derek Moore.>> DEREK MOORE: I?m Derek, good to meet you, Cecil.>> CECIL WILLIAMS [General Manager, Sierra Leone National Tourist Board]: I?ve been looking forward to seeing you.>> DEREK MOORE: Is this being driven, are you actively looking for entrepreneurs and investors and going out and trying to find them, or are they just falling into your lap?>> CECIL WILLIAMS: These are people who are actually falling into our lap. >> DEREK MOORE: At the moment.>> CECIL WILLIAMS: We have not been able to go out and source the type of investors who will fulfill some of our aspirations. They are people who have come here, who have seen the potential that we have available. So it is going to be very difficult to control an investor coming here, doing some work, and stopping them from taking most of their capital out.>> DEREK MOORE: Okay, another point though, if the eco lodges are going to be in places such as Kilimi, which I assume is -->> VOICEOVER: Cecil Williams is only too aware that Sierra Leone?s legislation on tourism needs urgent updating.>> CECIL WILLIAMS: Our last policy was done some fifteen years ago and quite a lot of things have happened, there have been a lot of changes. We?d like to see how we could get assistance to review the legislation, because there is a legislation that governs the tourism industry, referred to as the Tourism Development Act of 1990. And you will appreciate that from that time to now quite a lot of changes have taken place. >> DEREK MOORE: Right, let?s sort out where we set off from this morning and where we are going.>> BIMBOLA CARROL: We set out from the south, not far from the Liberian border. >> DEREK MOORE: So it?s a real border to border trip -- the Liberian border in the south straight through the middle of Sierra Leone. >> VOICEOVER: After the years of civil war, Sierra Leone's infrastructure is in tatters. Many rivers have no bridges. The roads are appalling. It takes several hours to travel south to their second destination, Tiwai Island. After travelling for nine hours, Derek and Bimbola get close to Tiwai. They finally arrive at the boat that will take them to the island where they will camp for the night.>> DEREK MOORE: Do we see the boat? Yes, we do see a boat. Is that a crocodile? It?s a log or a crocodile; I'm not sure which. >> VOICEOVER: Tiwai is a designated nature reserve, famous for its rare birds and monkeys, and jungle walks. >> BIMBOLA CARROL: I haven?t been here before. I do carry the information on the site. But it?s quite an experience, walking through the jungle; it?s unlike anything I?ve done before. I understand that there is quite a lot of wildlife out here to be seen. We understand in the dry season we can spot some pygmy hippos as well. But now is not the ideal time.>> KENNETH [Guide]: Well, not really. They may be difficult to see now. >> BIMBOLA CARROL: So we are hoping to spot some Diana monkeys and -->> KENNETH: Colobus monkeys. Red Colobus.>> VOICEOVER: The Tacugama Chimpanzee sanctuary is just 40 minutes outside the capital Freetown. It?s currently the most popular tourist destination in the country. Bala Amarasekaran set it up ten years ago. It?s home to about a hundred chimps. Bala is trying hard to tackle poaching.>> BALA AMARASEKARAN [Founder, Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary]: There are people who are actually going for chimps. There are poachers going looking for chimps. Sometimes it can be only for bush meat, but there may be some people trying to get a tiny chimp so they can come into one of the major towns and sell it as a pet.>> VOICEOVER: The average income in Sierra Leone is 150 dollars a year. One chimp can earn a poacher up to 300 dollars.>> BALA AMARASEKARAN: Education is the key. It?s very easy to give up, so I think we have to stay focused. We spend a lot of time educating, not just tourists but Sierra Leoneans themselves. We get over 50 to 60 kids visiting here every month.>> VOICEOVER: This sanctuary demonstrates that well-managed sites can educate and generate interest and income. The government estimates that a booming tourist industry could earn the country up to 150 million dollars per year. Derek and Bimbola?s final destination is Sierra Leone?s only national park, Outamba-Kilimi, in the north of the country. Before the war, the park was well maintained. Today there?s little left -- a couple of canoes and three accommodation huts.>> DEREK MOORE: So if you could just show me the facilities here -- what?s inside this?>> DAYO METZGER [Senior Ranger, Outamba-Kilimi National Park]: This is the modest facility I can offer. I am going to show you now. I don?t know whether it will suit your convenience.>> DEREK MOORE: Okay, so, double bed, mosquito netting on the window.>> DAYO METZGER: The mosquito netting on the window is made with local materials.>> DEREK MOORE: Oh, that's good. So it?s simple, but it?s clean, it?s -- bed comfortable?>> BIMBOLA CARROL: The bed seems fine.>> VOICEOVER: The Park?s Senior Ranger knows there has to be improvements for the facilities he offers. >> DAYO METZGER: The war tends to vandalize all our equipment. Radio sets and all other equipment that was vital for our operation here was all taken away. So tourism promotion in this part of the country is below the standard. >> BIMBOLA CARROL: I can see whey people would be attracted to the place, because it is quite a nice and peaceful place. But if we were looking to target a market, it would need some work done. >> DEREK MOORE: To visit this place is to see a place that?s about to boom, it?s about to burst forth and do what it wants to do. The one thing I?ve no doubt about is that tourism will return in a big way. And I think Explore will be here.>> BIMBOLA CARROL: I will be back, I can tell you that for a fact, that I will be back and hopefully contributing to the development of Sierra Leone, one way or another. >> TITLE: For more information, please visit http://www.bullfrogfilms.com http://www.viewchange.org/videos/renewable-home With walls made of bottles and a roof of bamboo, Luiz and Edna's house cost a fraction of a normal building. And now an ecologically sustainable village is on the drawing board. Could this be an alternative to Brazil's dilapidated favelas? Wed, 25 May 2011 10:44:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/renewable-home Brazil, Sustainability, Environment, Recycling, Building material, Journeyman Pictures, Plastic Recycling, Sustainable living, LinkTV Picks >> TITLE: Renewable Home>> VOICEOVER: This morning, Edna Toledo is busy making a cake out of banana skins. >> EDNA TOLEDO: It's luxury made from rubbish. >> VOICEOVER: If Edna's recipe seems unusual, it's nothing compared to the amazing house she lives in. >> EDNA TOLEDO: I like my house. It's airy. Even when it's very hot we don?t feel it here. >> VOICEOVER: Edna and her husband, Luiz, have built their home entirely from rubbish. >> LUIZ TOLEDO: It is not just about cheap materials. It?s art! It?s beautiful. And when you are in a place where you feel good, it's good for your whole body. All the walls are made of newspapers and magazines. They're decorated with broken bottles. The floor is marble waste. We cut it to size and laid it. The roof is made from bamboo found at the side of the road. The house is very good. Besides the view, because we are up high the temperature is also constant. The ventilation is also good. >> VOICEOVER: Luiz is justifiably proud of this house. He only built it recently after the couple got bored with their first recycled house. That one is at the bottom of the hill and it, too, was made entirely from rubbish, except for a few vital points. >> LUIZ TOLEDO: You seal it like this. It is cement for laying bricks, but inside it's rubbish, rubble from building sites. Then you lay them like this to make the walls. Look. This is what I was talking about. You can play with the colors, align them and make patterns. It's just the bottom of the bottle. It has quality, and beauty too. >> VOICEOVER: The beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but there's no doubting Luiz's originality. >> LUIZ TOLEDO: The door is different. I like to be different. The ceiling was made out of carbon paper, which has no market value. We made a roof everyone likes. That section of roof is made of milk cartons. I mixed in leaves, randomly, and that's the result. You can add any color you like and you end up with a beautiful result. >> WILLIAM MONACHESI [Architect]: From an ecological point of view it's fantastic. These materials would end up in rubbish dumps or just as litter, dumped anywhere. So it's economically viable. And structurally, the material is very strong. >> VOICEOVER: William Monachesi is a local architect who has been watching Luiz Toledo's work closely. >> GIOVANA VITOLA [Reporter]: Out of 10, what would you give him for beauty and design? >> WILLIAM MONACHESI: I wouldn?t give him 10. That would be going too far. But I think 9 or 9.5 would be fair, because he and his wife created it from nothing, a labor of love. >> VOICEOVER: It's not just Luiz's building materials that are environmentally friendly. In front of his house, he has his own sewage treatment plant -- a system of ponds filled with aquatic plants that filter the waste. >> LUIZ TOLEDO: This is our water treatment system. This is treated sewage and grey water. No smell, nothing. Excellent.>> WOMAN: Luiz? >> LUIZ TOLEDO: Yes? >> WOMAN: Mom is asking if you want to buy copper from her.>> LUIZ TOLEDO: Yes, let me have a look. I've got time. >> VOICEOVER: The Toledos' passion for recycling is well known throughout the neighborhood. Everything Luiz buys from his neighbors or saves from his own rubbish ends up here, in this storage area. >> LUIZ TOLEDO: Here we sort out the materials. These are glass. No market value. Brazil doesn't recycle glass. These ones here, I use a lot in construction. Small ones like these I mix in to make concrete. These newspapers here -- I can almost build a house from this quantity. Once it's wet and mashed it increases in volume. I can almost make a house just from this. >> VOICEOVER: Luiz's scavenging only provides a small amount of his building material. Most of it is collected by the catadores, the people who walk Brazil's streets collecting rubbish and delivering it to recycling co-ops, like this one. This catadores' co-op was actually founded by Luiz himself ten years ago. It provides an income for many of the poorest people in the area.>> MAN: He takes a lot of glass. >> LUIZ TOLEDO: Thirty-one reals worth of glass. I could make another three houses like mine from this pile. >> VOICEOVER: On the drive back to the Toledos' home, I get a good look at the local housing. Much of it is very primitive and drab, without much natural light or ventilation. >> LUIZ TOLEDO: The way houses are built nowadays is so unhealthy. Closed, no ventilation. So then you put in fans and air-conditioners, which affect your breathing. It's a vicious cycle going nowhere. >> VOICEOVER: Luiz has decided to tackle this problem with his recycled housing. He is planning a condominium development, and on the homemade elevator back to his house, Luiz points out where he intends to start building. >> LUIZ TOLEDO: The houses will be built across this hill. There will only be ten houses well spaced out. They'll be arranged so as not to be on top of each other. >> VOICEOVER: The ecologically sustainable village is still on the drawing board, but it already looks like being a success. However, Luiz says they're not interested in making a profit from it. >> LUIZ TOLEDO: As it is our own system our idea is not to worry about who will pay more. We only have 20 homes and 65 expressions of interest. So the selection won't be based on money. It will be based on who really wants a different lifestyle. Not a mainstream one. >> VOICEOVER: That night, a local government architect who is overseeing Luiz's development drops by. Laura Jane Barbosa is excited by the potential of Luiz's ideas. >> LAURA JANE BARBOSA [Local Government Architect]: So it's definitely ecologically and economically sound. I think it's fantastic. It's unbelievably creative. This house is life. It represents a love of life. >> LUIZ TOLEDO: You have no excuse for not living well. In this house there is almost nothing bought new. Humanity needs to give up certain things and go back to simpler ways because the way we are going, we won?t survive. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/hope-in-a-changing-climate For more than ten years, John Liu and the EEMP have been identifying the best methods for the large-scale restoration of damaged or destroyed ecosystems. One such place, the Loess Plateau, was transformed from a barren, brown landscape into a functioning, green ecosystem where rainfall infiltrates, water is retained and crops are readied for export. Wed, 18 May 2011 08:41:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/hope-in-a-changing-climate Environment, Agriculture & Food, Climate change, Reforestation, Water & Sanitation, Ecosystem, Erosion, China, Ethiopia, Rwanda >> JOHN LIU: This is China's Loess Plateau. Until recently, this was one of the poorest regions in the country, a land renowned for floods, mudslides and famine. But with the fanfare comes the hope of change for the better. My name is John D Liu. I've been documenting the changes on the plateau for fifteen years. I first came here in 1995 to film an ambitious project where local people were constructing a new landscape on a vast scale, transforming a barren land into a green and fertile one. The project certainly changed my life, convincing me to become a soil scientist. The lessons I've learned in the last few years have made me realize that many of the human tragedies that we regularly witness around the world -- the floods, mudslides, droughts, and famines -- are not inevitable. Here on the Loess Plateau, I've witnessed that people can lift themselves out of poverty. They can radically improve their environment and, by doing so, reduce the threat of climate change.>> TITLE: Hope in a Changing Climate>> JOHN LIU: When I first came to the Loess Plateau, I was astounded by the degree of poverty and degradation, and I wondered how could the Chinese people, the largest ethnic group on the planet, and my fathers and my own ancestors, come from a place that was this barren. >> JOHN LIU: China's Loess Plateau is a region that stretches for 640,000 square kilometers across north-central China. Unspoiled valleys in neighboring Sichuan show us how it might once have looked. It's the sort of natural abundance that is necessary to support an emerging civilization. How could a landscape with such potential have been reduced to this? When Chinese scientists and civil engineers began to survey the area, they realized that several thousand years of agricultural exploitation had denuded the hills and valleys of vegetation. The relentless grazing of domestic animals on the slopes meant that there was no chance for young trees and shrubs to grow. The rainfall no longer seeped into the earth but simply washed down the hillsides, taking the soil with it. Over millennia, this progressively destroyed the region's fertility. When this happens over an area as extensive as the plateau, millions of tons of silt are swept down into the Yellow River, which gets its name from the color of the fine Loess soil. The mounting quantities of silt clog up the river, impeding its flow, contributing to the floods that give the river another name: China's Sorrow. In some areas, creating floating mud mattresses that attract passing tourists. A local problem becomes a national problem. In the dry season, the light unprotected soil is swept up in the winds, causing the dust storms that are blown over China's cities and beyond its borders. On the plateau, the researchers realized that progressive degradation of the environment trapped the local population into a life of subsistence farming. It's a process that has occurred throughout the world in places where poor agricultural communities find themselves overusing their land in order to survive, depleting its fertility and thus further impoverishing them. >> JOHN LIU: One thing that became apparent early on is the connection between damaged environments and human poverty. In many parts of the world there's been a vicious cycle. Continuous use of the land has led to subsistence agriculture, and generation-by-generation this has further degraded the soils. The vital question we have to ask is, can this be destructive process be reversed? >> JOHN LIU: Fifteen years ago, Chinese and international experts were confident it could be. They decided that to prevent further erosion it was necessary to cease farming on certain key areas to allow the trees and shrubs to grow back. But this could not happen without the consent of the farmers themselves. They took some persuading.>> TA FUYUAN [Chief Engineer, Water Protection Bureau]: Of course a lot of people didn't understand the project, they weren't thinking in the long term.>> MAN 1 [Farmer]: They want us to plant trees everywhere, even in the good land. What about the next generation? They can't eat trees.>> JOHN LIU: What eventually convinced the local people was the assurance that they would have tenure of their land, that they would directly benefit from the effort they invested in the new project. >> TA FUYUAN: The goal was to give a hat to the hilltops, give a belt to the hills as well as shoes at the base. The hat meant that the top of these hills had to be replanted with trees. The belt meant that terraces had to be built, which would be used for crop planting and also for trees. The shoes were dams, which we had to build so that the hills could grow back to life and our economy as well as our lives could improve. >> JOHN LIU: Hills and gullies were designated as ecological zones to be protected. Farmers were given financial compensation for not farming on them and keeping their livestock penned up. When I first filmed Mr. Ta Fuyuan and his colleagues back in 1995, I had no idea that this initiative could achieve such dramatic results. The effort that people put into converting their slopes into terraces has resulted in a marked increase in agricultural productivity. The higher yields are directly related to the return of natural vegetation in the surrounding ecological land. Now when it rains, the water no longer runs straight off the slopes. Trapped by the vegetation, it sinks into the ground, where it is retained in the soil, taking weeks and months to gently seep down and irrigate the fields and terraces below. Restoration has occurred over an area of thirty five thousand square kilometers. The impact of such an enormous addition of vegetation goes far beyond the plateau itself. There's been a significant reduction in the soil rushing down into the Yellow River. >> JOHN LIU: As I've been travelling around the Loess Plateau, I've seen extensive changes. The vegetation cover on the hillsides, on the tops of the hills, and down in the valley; everything has changed. It has changed the lives of the people, and in fact, the people themselves have done this. They were the ones who changed their behaviors, terraced the fields, improved the soils, and learned to protect the marginal areas. The changes are not simply on the hillsides. On the plains, you can see greenhouses that are filled with vegetables. This extends the growing season; it's very high value produce. >> JOHN LIU: The abundance and variety of new produce can be seen in the local market. Follow-up studies have shown that incomes have risen three-fold, and scientists point to a more global benefit. Plants, through photosynthesis, remove carbon from the air, countering the effect of human greenhouse gas emissions on the climate. >> PROFESSOR CAI MANTANG [Beijing University]: In terms of climate change, we can say that the project made a double contribution. Firstly the project was successful in recovering vegetation on a large scale. So many trees and so much vegetation grew up, and this definitely helped take carbon out of the atmosphere. Secondly, because the health of the Loess Plateau's ecosystem has been so much improved, the region will be better able to resist the negative impacts of climate change. >> JOHN LIU: As a result of its success, the lessons learned from the Loess Plateau rehabilitation are now being applied all over China. But could such projects work elsewhere in less centrally controlled societies with fewer resources and different soils? Ethiopia, perhaps more than any other country, has come to symbolize the vulnerability of humankind to environmental catastrophe. This is a country whose problems have been increased by war and civil conflict. And now, human-induced climate change is predicted to make matters worse. As on the Loess Plateau, centuries of subsistence farming practices have stripped the land of natural vegetation. The dry gullies bear the scars of flash floods.>> JOHN LIU: These gullies are evidence of the enormous power of runoff during the rainy season. Without vegetation cover on the hillsides, when the rains come the water doesn't soak into the ground but flows away in a flood. Then it's not available for agriculture during the rest of the year. This leads to drought and, famously for Ethiopia, famine. But just as I've witnessed in China, there is hope that the situation here can be reversed. In just six years, Professor Legesse Nagash and local villagers have transformed a severely eroded terrain by planting indigenous trees and plants. Almost miraculously, a clear flowing stream has emerged where once there was a muddy trickle.>> JOHN LIU: How is it that it's possible for you to get the stream to flow throughout the year?>> PROFESSOR LEGESSE NAGASH [Founder, Center for Indigenous Trees, Addis Ababa University]: It is because of the vegetation cover that has been regenerating on this mountain. This water is maintaining the landscape because as soon as rain falls, on the canopy on this vegetation, that rain then infiltrated gradually into the ground, ending up with this steady flow of this river. Water is life. Without water nobody can do anything. I'm amazed: as short as five years, six years, you get clean water like this, provided you work hard for restoring this degraded landscape. >> JOHN LIU: About a thousand kilometers further north, in the village of Abraha Atsebaha, another near miraculous phenomenon is occurring. Farmers are finding water at the bottom of their wells, despite the poor rains this year. The famine of 1984 struck the people of this valley very hard. Many migrated, many died. Now the people are returning. The village chairman Gabre Giday remembers well how life used to be.>> GABRE GIDAY [Village Chairman, Abraha Atsebaha]: Ten years ago I'd say, even five years ago, I'll tell you what the situation was: it was absolutely terrible. The sun, the drought, the wind, it was dry like the desert. There was a refugee program for our village. So we had a choice -- leave the valley or do something.>> JOHN LIU: With government support, they applied the same principles as the Chinese: setting land aside land for natural vegetation to return. In the ravines they built small dams, which are now fed by underground springs. And like Professor Legesse's stream, rain that fell weeks ago now slowly seeps through the subsoil, replenishing the supply of water. >> GABRE GIDAY: The eroded land has become fertile; it's changed for the better. In the drought, our fruit trees dried up. Now they're coming back, and we're growing even more varieties. These are the real benefits we've seen. We have food security and our children can go to school. Our lives have improved. We no longer need to beg the government for aid, thanks to the changes that we have made. Even wild animals that disappeared are returning, even the leopards.>> JOHN LIU: These villagers are now better able to withstand the impact of climate change. With International assistance, their achievement could be repeated across the country. The benefits, as Professor Legesse points out, would spread far beyond Ethiopia's borders.>> PROFESSOR LEGESSE NAGASH: The most important issue for Africa, and I consider this Africa's twenty-first burning issue, is restoration. No matter what we do -- we might be good at rocket science, nuclear science -- but the environment, restoring this huge, vast degraded landscape, is critical for Africa, particularly for Ethiopia. Half of Ethiopia is mountain, and this mountain system is degraded. This degradation of this huge landscape, huge mountain chain of Ethiopia, is critical not only for Ethiopia but also for the entire region. Consider Egypt or the Sudan, where 86 percent of the Nile flows to these countries. How can you support life in Egypt without restoring Ethiopia's mountains? So this is regional, national, and international.>> JOHN LIU: Environmental degradation is not only a problem for the dry regions of Ethiopia. It can be just as devastating for countries like Rwanda, where rainfall is plentiful. This tiny country is grappling with the problem of a growing population, trying to eke out a living on a finite amount of land. As in China and Ethiopia, over-farming on the hillsides caused serious erosion and a decline in fertility, forcing poor farmers to move into protected areas such as the Rugezi wetlands, a wildlife site of international importance.>> JOHN LIU: When farmers drained this marsh to try to grow more food, they not only damaged an important wetland ecosystem, they also had a significant impact three hours drive away in Kigali, the capital city. The water that pours from the marshlands is a vital source of hydropower for Rwanda's capital. As the wetlands began to dry out, power stations below couldn't generate enough electricity. The Rwandan government rented diesel powered generators to make up the shortfall. Dr. Rose Mukankomeje took me to see them.>> DR. ROSE MUKANKOMEJE [Director General, Rwanda Environment Management Authority]: So what is happening here is that we are renting the generators from this company, and we are obliged to rent them especially when we degraded the wetlands and we lost twenty megawatts of electricity. To run those machines we're paying 65,000 US dollars a day.>> JOHN LIU: Sixty-five thousand dollars a day. That's multi-millions of dollars per year.>> DR. ROSE MUKANKOMEJE: Yes, it is millions of dollars, and as you might know, Rwanda is not a rich country. Some of that money has been borrowed from the bank; some is from taxpayers.>> JOHN LIU: How does this affect the climate?>> DR. ROSE MUKANKOMEJE: Of course those machines, they're run on diesel. When you burn the diesel up you are producing greenhouse gases.>> JOHN LIU: Environmentally damaging and more expensive. Locals had to pay three times as much for their electricity. So government policymakers focused on how to restore the Rugezi wetlands. If people were the problem, they could also be the solution.>> H.E. PAUL KAGAME [President of Rwanda]: We had to take a careful look at what had actually been happening that damaged this system, and therefore had to reverse that again with the human action. And this is why it is important to look at how human actions can destroy or can reverse what has been destroyed or even protect our environment.>> JOHN LIU: The government decided to help the farmers leave the wetlands and to restore the degraded slopes above them, improving the croplands and encouraging trees and shrubs to grow back, capturing the rain.>> DR. ROSE MUKANKOMEJE: We have been supporting them by doing terraces, specifically there on the hills, where they can increase and improve the productivity. The most important thing is to have people with you on your side.>> JOHN LIU: The wetlands are now recovering. Great volumes of water once again cascade down to power the hydro stations. Carbon-free electricity is replacing the diesel generators and electricity prices have stabilized. Restoring and preserving natural ecosystems like the Rugezi wetlands benefits everyone. And so much more could be achieved. >> H.E. PAUL KAGAME: If we had more involvement by different institutions coming in to help with available resources, Rwanda could do more, much more, and benefit much more, but so would other countries, if such partnerships and support were provided.>> JOHN LIU: What the Rwandans recognized is that the marshlands are far more valuable as a natural system, providing water for energy, than as farmland. This principle is the same for the remaining hillsides and ravines. >> JOHN LIU: What we're seeing here is very interesting, because it's a line between human activity and natural systems. In the human activity, we've been able to value the productivity from agriculture and give it a monetary value. But in the natural systems, we haven't been able to value the trees, the biodiversity, and the water that's absorbed into the biomass and into the soils. And there's another vital service that trees and plants provide: photosynthesis. Vegetation reduces the greenhouse effect by taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. >> PROFESSOR LEGESSE NAGASH: Climate change is better withstood with trees. Humans, no matter how intelligent we are, no matter how capable we are with all our technologies, we are helpless in the face of climate change. We have not yet properly understood the miracles performed by trees. >> JOHN LIU: A measure of what restoring nature can do has been shown here on China's Loess Plateau, where farmers have continued to prosper despite the worst drought in decades. Since the beginning of the project, the soil that nurtures their crops has been accumulating organic material from plants and animals. This holds the moisture and contains carbon. >> JOHN LIU: What's interesting about this is all these root materials, all this other stuff, this is organic material and this organic material is mixing together with the Loess, the geologic soils here, and it's making a living soil. This is where the moisture resides. Yesterday it rained and there's still moisture in this soil. This is where the nutrients are recycled so that each generation of life emerges here, and this is where the carbon is. What's interesting about this is that they made this field, this is new, and so they're helping to sequester carbon. >> JOHN LIU: Living soils like this retain, on average, three times more carbon than the foliage above the ground. If we were to restore the vast areas of the planet where we humans have degraded the soils, just think what an impact we would have in taking carbon out of the atmosphere. As much as a quarter of the world's land mass has been degraded and much could be rehabilitated in the way we have seen on the Loess Plateau. And we've only just begun to recognize the real value of natural capital. Surely, investing in the recovery of damaged environments is a cost-effective way of solving many of the problems we face today. >> ACHIM STEINER [Executive Director, United Nations Environment Program]: Why do we not invest an equal amount, if not more, into a shovel-ready technology, so to speak, which is nature's way of sequestering and storing carbon. It is actually by investing in our ecological infrastructure and ecosystems and expanding the ability of nature to sequester and store carbon that we have the greatest opportunity to do something. And the wonderful thing is, it's not only carbon sequestration, we're also faced with loss of ecosystems that will affect our food security, our water security, we're losing species on an unprecedented rate. So maintaining, restoring, protecting, expanding natural ecosystems has multiple benefits. Immediate in terms of climate change, but also fundamental to the future of many of the services that we simply take for granted from nature. >> JOHN LIU: My hope is that the developed countries, those most responsible for climate change, will recognize the enormous potential of restoration.>> JOHN LIU: What we've seen in China, in Africa, and around the world, is that it's possible to rehabilitate large scale damaged ecosystems. If we can transfer the capital, the technology, and empower the local people to restore their own environment, it'll have enormous benefits. Restoration can sequester carbon, reduce biodiversity loss, mitigate against flooding, drought and famine. It can ensure food security for people who are now chronically hungry. Why don't we do this on a global scale? http://www.viewchange.org/videos/pastures-for-the-future-kyrgyzstan Formerly nomadic livestock herders in Kyrgyzstan have been rocked by massive changes to their livelihoods in recent times, first adjusting to the centralized Soviet system and now facing a transition to the global market economy. A team of international experts, assisted by the United Nations University, is helping these herders make the transition while maintaining the natural environment. Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/pastures-for-the-future-kyrgyzstan Central Asia, Environment, Kyrgyz, Livestock, Agriculture & Food, Kyrgyzstan, Land degradation, Agriculture, United Nations University >> TITLE: United Nations University>> TITLE: The Pamir-Alai mountains in Kyrgyzstan and the adjacent Pamir ranges in Tajikistan are global biodiversity hotspots increasingly affected by land degradation.>> VOICEOVER: A spring morning in Josholu. Kyzgaldak is baking bread while her husband Jengishbek is herding their animals out for the day to graze in the pastures surrounding the village. Like many other herder villages in the Alai mountain range, Josholu has changed a lot since Kyrgyzstan independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.>> NEVELINA PACHOVA [Researcher, United Nations University]: During the Soviet time pastures were managed. There was a quite sophisticated system of pasture rotation with improvement of the pastures. This system collapsed with the collapse of the centrally planned economy.>> VOICEOVER: Nevelina Pachova is researcher at the United Nations University and an expert on environment and development issues in mountain regions. She has been working for several years with these Central Asian communities. She is part of a team of Kyrgyz, Tajik and international experts and officials on a mission to help these communities preserve their environment during their difficult transition into the global market economy. They have taken Jengishbek and Kyzgaldak?s house in Josholu as a base for their work. >> TITLE: Project team: Sustainable Land Management in the High Pamir and Pamir-Alai Mountains.>> VOICEOVER: They gather valuable information by talking to villagers and local leaders about their animals and pastures, the things that matter most to them. Today the team is exploring the pastures around the village. With the help of Professor Orunbek Kolanov, Dean of the Biology Faculty of Osh University, the team is getting organized on the appropriate methods to carry out their research and is already finding out what is the current state of the land. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, livestock has been increasing in Kyrgyzstan. >> ORUNBEK KOLANOV [Dean, Biology Faculty, Osh University]: Comparing the data of the last 10 years, we see a significant increase in the quantity of livestock.>> VOICEOVER: Together with this increase, the current system of land-use control over where livestock graze is only loosely regulated.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: The people mainly take their animals to graze in the pastures close to the village. That is why the degradation can be seen mostly there, on nearby pastures.>> VOICEOVER: In the village, the herders are getting ready to move to the summer pastures by making new felt covers for the temporary dwellings they will be using there. It?s the end of spring, and the Kyrgyz herders are on the move. The Kyrgyz have been nomads since antiquity, well before the time of the Soviet Union, and used to move all the time between numerous pastures without harming the environment. Since independence however, they only move their animals from their village to the fresh grass of a single summer pasture. For most Kyrgyz herders, it?s not a long trip, and for the herders of Josholu, the summer pasture is only 10 kilometers away from the village. >> TITLE: Zymdan summer pastures>> VOICEOVER: Professor Orunbek Kolanov is visiting the herder's camps in the summer pastures.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: How are you?>> BAKTYGUL MAKAEVA [Livestock herder]: I am fine. >> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: Do you remember how the grass used to grow so high? >> BAKTYGUL MAKAEVA: You cannot compare the grass we had in our childhood with the grass we have nowadays.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: A landslide happened there. Probably, it was entirely green 15, 20 or 30 years ago.>> BAKTYGUL MAKAEVA: It was fine just 10 years ago. It's been just five years since that landslide.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: So it is more recent. >> BAKTYGUL MAKAEVA: It's been two years since that other landslide.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: I can tell it is very recent.>> VOICEOVER: Overgrazing mainly causes land degradation. It exposes bare land to the harsh weather conditions of this region, reduces the capacity of the land to feed the animals people depend on for their livelihoods, and endangers fragile mountain ecosystems. >> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: How can we protect this now? This will become a rocky cliff if we have more landslides. >> BAKTYGUL MAKAEVA: It depends on God's will. >> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: Of course, it depends on God's will.>> VOICEOVER: Jengishbek and Kyzgaldak?s family camp is not too far away. And today they are having a special celebration.>> KYZGALDAK BAZARKULOVA: My son turns one today, so it is his birthday. We are happily enjoying it. It is much more enjoyable at the summer pastures.Here everything looks special.>> JENGISHBEK ESENKULOV [Livestock herder]: I am slaughtering a sheep for my child and as an offering to God. Twenty years ago, very few families went out to the summer pastures because there were fewer animals. Before, during the time of the Soviet farms, people were obliged to turn in meat, pay taxes and other things. The more animals you had he more meat you had to turn in whether you liked it or not. So the livestock did not increase. Now people don't turn in meat to a collective farm. You just pay tax for use of the pastures and nothing else.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: So, here you cannot do anything other than livestock breeding? >> BAKTYGUL MAKAEVA: No, you cannot. Here in the mountains, our livelihood is livestock breeding. The animals are extremely important for the Kyrgyz. We use their dung to provide heat. Milk products are consumed without any waste. From cow?s milk, we prepare butter, yogurt, dry cheese and cream cheese. We ferment the mare's milk. We Kyrgyz also ride the horses, slaughter sheep to eat and sell them for money. For the Kyrgyz, livestock is very good indeed.>> JENGISHBEK ESENKULOV: Now there is abundance of everything. If you want to buy clothes, educate your children, or build a house, you need money. So you sell animals. Everything is based on the animals. There is no other income! There is nowhere we can work, there are no jobs. Earlier, when the collective farm still operated, you could live off the collective farm salary.>> VOICEOVER: As night falls in the summer pastures the animals return home.Day after day, and year after year, the efforts of the Kyrgyz herders repeat in cycles. As they strive for a better future, it is essential to find ways to take care of the land their lives depend on.>> ORUNBEK KOLANOV: I hope that our actions will have a significant effect and make a positive contribution to the development of the economy of this region while at the same time preserving the natural environment. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/hardest-hit-vietnam Climate change in Vietnam means more frequent droughts and unpredictable weather. Farmers from Bac Ai, who have worked the land their whole lives, must adjust on the fly to shifting weather conditions. Oxfam America and the local government are helping farmers adjust by building a new reservoir and providing training sessions on new farming techniques. Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:12:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/hardest-hit-vietnam Vietnam, Climate change, Ninh Thuận Province, Agriculture, Bác Ái District, Water & Sanitation, Oxfam, Environment, Agriculture & Food >> TITLE: Hardest hit: Survival strategies form the frontlines of climate change>> TITLE: Narrated by Majora Carter>> HUYNH KHANH HOA [Water Management Expert, Bac Ai]: In the future, with more changes in the climate, there will be more droughts. >> NGUYEN THI THU THUY [Aid Worker, Vietnam]: Because of the climate change, droughts almost happen every year, with different levels of severity. The people suffer a lot. >> CHAMALÉA BAC [Community Leader]: I?m highly concerned about global warming and the impacts of climate change. The weather changes make it hard to determine when it is time to plant crops. >> TITLE: Vietnam: Hanoi: Bac Ai>> VOICEOVER: Southeast Asia is known for its floods. But the unpredictable weather caused by climate change has also led to devastating droughts. In Vietnam, farmers who depend on rainfall to irrigate their crops struggle to earn a living and feed their families. The situation is especially difficult in the Bac Ai district in the Ninh Thuan province. This area has the hottest temperatures, least rainfall, and some of the worst poverty rates in all of Vietnam.>> NGUYEN THI THU THUY: Bac Ai is one of the 61 poorest districts in the country, which received special attention from the government. More than 60 percent of the people in this district are living on an income of less than 12 dollars per month. >> CHAMALÉA BAC: I have lived here for more than 30 years; my family is a farming family. I am highly concerned about global warming and the impacts of climate change, because it has not only affected me, but also my community. Everybody is affected. >> VOICEOVER: The Rag Lai people, an ethnic minority who make up most of the Bac Ai population, are among the hardest hit. >> PI-NANG THI GIAO [Rice and Cashew Farmer]: My husband and I have a rice field, but we do not get much from it. We have five months of dry season and only two to three months of rainy season. Sometimes it rains too much, sometimes it rains too little. >> VOICEOVER: While many Vietnamese people are accustomed to managing floods, the Rag Lai people find dealing with droughts to be the real challenge. >> PI-NANG THI MAI [Commune Chairwoman]: Climate change affects the people here, especially those that depend on agriculture for their incomes. When it?s too sunny, there?s no grass for the cows. Rice and corn die when there?s too much sun. The water resources are drying out. >> CHAMALÉA BAC: After the drought, our family lost two and a half acres of corn and two and a half acres of rice. We lost two cows. People didn?t have fresh water, so we had to take water from the streams, which is a little more than a half-mile walk from here. The quality of the water was bad; it caused skin diseases and stomach disease. >> VOICEOVER: The Rag Lai people are working to adapt to harsher growing conditions. With the help of the government, they are bringing more clean water to their communities, and they are learning how to cultivate crops and raise animals that can survive dry spells. >> HUYNH KHANH HOA: When this reservoir is completed, we can be in more control: increasing the water for irrigation when it is needed, or reducing it when it is not. >> NGUYEN THI THU THUY: The local government provides the construction of the big reservoir, and from Oxfam?s side, we support them with training to the local people to enable them to manage the water system effectively. >> VOICEOVER: The local farmers are growing hardier crops, like certain varieties of rice, cashews and corn. >> KATOR CHUONG [Rice and Cashew Farmer]: In the morning, my wife and I work on the rice field, and later we work in the cashew garden. Most of our food comes from the rice field. Oxfam?s training showed us a technique for growing rice. I know more now. Before, I didn?t know when it was the best time to plant the rice in the ground, and when to stop planting. >> VOICEOVER: And in Bac Ai, they?re also raising different breeds of livestock that need less water and fodder. >> PI-NANG KHUYEN [Cow Farmer]: My name is Pi-nang Khuyen, I?m 22 years old and I?m a cow farmer. I don?t have much education because my parents are poor. I?m happy to have the cow; once she gives birth, life will be easier. I chose to raise a cow because it is easier to take care of than other animals. The cow survives the dry season better here. I have to feed other livestock and give water three to four times a day. But for the cow, it?s only two times a day. >> VOICEOVER: For communities that have worked the land for generations, these strategies have helped make responding to the changing climate conditions easier. Using their new skills, the reservoir and irrigation canals, farmers can continue to provide for their families doing what they know best: farming. >> CHAMALÉA BAC: We are learning how to adapt to climate changes. We are beginning to understand how to change our farming and crops. People are learning better ways to plant and raise livestock. All of this has contributed to increasing the incomes of the local people. >> TITLE: oxfamamerica.org/climate http://www.viewchange.org/videos/hardest-hit-el-salvador Oxfam America and Pro Vida are teaming up to bring clean drinking water to rural El Salvador by building healthy wells in communities affected by contaminated surface water. Salvadorans on the frontlines of climate change are taking their futures into their own hands by helping maintain these wells for generations to come. Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:12:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/hardest-hit-el-salvador El Salvador, Environment, Water & Sanitation, Climate change, Drinking water, Oxfam, Zacatecoluca, La Paz, Central America >> TITLE: Hardest hit: Survival strategies from the frontlines of climate change >> ELVIRA [9 Years Old]: Hi, I?m Elvira. The water from the old hand-dug well had little creatures in it. We couldn?t drink that water because we would get stomachaches. With this clean water, we do not get stomachaches anymore. >> TITLE: El Salvador. San Salvador: capital of El Salvador >> VOICEOVER: El Salvador is both the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. Many Salvadorans have struggled to overcome historic inequities. The long civil war and natural disasters have made things more challenging. Almost half of El Salvador?s population now lives in poverty. And more than 90 percent of the country?s surface water is contaminated. Increasingly erratic rainfall and floods, caused by climate change, threaten El Salvador?s water supply even further, especially in the Zacatecoluca area, about 35 miles outside the capital. >> FLORENTINO DIAZ CRUZ [Community Leader]: During the wet season, it rains day and night. Day and night. The rivers swell, and then the water gets contaminated. >> KARINA COPEN [Oxfam America}: So what generally happens here is that when it floods, the water gets extremely contaminated. The streams overflow; this is an area with a lot of cattle, and all that waste goes into the hand-dug wells that are found in most of the homes here. >> MARIA LUISA PORTILLO [Resident]: I get our drinking water from a hand-dug well. We use this water to clean the dishes, cook, and drink. When it rains, a lot of the water comes out muddy, but because we do not have other options, this is the water that we drink. >> VOICEOVER: Oxfam and local partner Pro Vida built five healthy wells. Lined and outfitted with filters, these wells provide a clean source of drinking water. >> KARINA COPEN: The proposal of these healthy wells is to build a sealed well that not only gives them higher-quality water all year around, but in the case of flooding, which is happening more and more as we?re seeing changes in the climate, this is going to provide a safe water source during emergencies and throughout the year. >> FLORENTINO DIAZ CRUZ: We all have the right to water. But not to the bad water we used to drink. Quality water, water that helps us stay healthy. >> VOICEOVER: In the town of El Recuerdo, in Zacatecoluca, the healthy well is located in the schoolyard, the heart of the community. The well provides many families with clean water. >> BLANCA CALERO DE CATIVO [Teacher]: This healthy well has changed the lives of all the kids here. Before the healthy well, the kids used to get sick and they were often absent from school. >> CINDY MELISA [8 Years Old]: My name is Cindy Melisa. I drew my mom bringing water to the house. The water that comes out of the tank is drinkable and healthy. >> DR. CRISTINA SALAZAR [Pro Vida]: The community has responded in a very positive way. Therefore, they are involved in its maintenance and are trying to keep the healthy well in good condition. >> TITLE: Village of Agua Zarca, Zacatecoluca>> ANA FRANCISCA REYES [Local Water Committee Member]: We have learned how to clean the wells inside, how to put chlorine in the water. Pro Vida and Oxfam America have taught us how to do it. >> VOICEOVER: As the climate changes, increased flooding puts thousands in this region at risk. >> DR. CRISTINA SALAZAR: We are talking about approximately 50 communities and only five healthy wells. Our short-term dream is to bring quality water to as many communities as possible. This is the way I would like to see these communities get a better quality of life. This is what we would like to see. >> TITLE: oxfamamerica.org/climate http://www.viewchange.org/videos/jordan-converts-waste-to-energy Garbage is piling up everywhere in Amman, Jordan, and when it ferments, methane gas is released into the atmosphere. The United Nations Development Program, UNDP, the Danish Government, and local officials are working with the Global Environmental Facility to harness the gas and convert it to electricity for use within Jordan. Fri, 08 Apr 2011 10:08:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/jordan-converts-waste-to-energy Jordan, Environment, Middle East, United Nations Development Programme, Greenhouse gas, Methane, Amman, Technology >> VOICEOVER: Garbage, garbage, and more garbage. Hundreds of tons per day pour into this landfill near Amman, Jordan, in the Middle East. Like most other developing nations around the globe, Jordan disposes of waste the old-fashioned way: burying it or burning it, with devastating consequences for the environment. Destructive methane gas, which is caused by fermenting garbage released into the air, damages the ozone layer. But now, Jordan is turning something destructive into something positive. Out of so much garbage comes light. The Jordanian and Danish Governments, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program, UNDP, and the Global Environmental Facility, introduced an innovative project that turns waste into energy. So just how does this program work? Employees remove objects like cans and plastic from organic waste like food, mix the solid waste with liquid waste, and send it into a sealed reactor to ferment. Instead of the methane gas being released into the environment, it's harnessed and turned into electricity. It's a vital function for this oil-poor nation that spends more than six hundred million dollars a year to import oil for energy. Methane gas is also harnessed from closed landfills nearby, providing even more electricity and further reducing harmful emissions. Christine McNab is the UNDP Resident Coordinator.>> CHRISTINE MCNAB: It's a win-win situation: you reduce emissions, and you produce power.>> VOICEOVER: So just how successful is the program? The actual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is a staggering 40,000 tons a year. The reduction is a cornerstone of the historic international climate change treaty, the Kyoto Protocol. As for the amount of energy produced? While it is still a fraction of the hundreds of megawatts needed to fuel Jordan every day, National Energy Research Center Director, Malek Kabariti believes it's just the beginning.>> MALEK KABARITI: This is a success story. With the availability of finance, this will hopefully be duplicated in different parts of Jordan.>> VOICEOVER: It's a model program, a crucial first step in a sustainable future for this kingdom, and a very real step in contributing to a cleaner world environment. Kamil Taha prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/stay-migration-and-poverty-in-rural-mexico Faced with a lack of opportunity in their homeland, Mexican farmers Marvin Garcia Salas and Santiago Cruz have both been forced to migrate north to provide for their families. Now, thanks to several organizations that are responding to the root cause of illegal immigration by working towards sustainable development practices in rural Mexico, they are able to stay home. Mon, 04 Apr 2011 08:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/stay-migration-and-poverty-in-rural-mexico Mexico, Illegal immigration, Agriculture & Food, San Miguel Huautla, Comitán, Chiapas, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Environment, LinkTV Picks >> TITLE: Chiapas, Mexico>> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS [Comitan, Chiapas, Mexico]: I was happy yesterday. You know why? I was waiting in the street outside the hospital, and a group of students said, "Come! Have a little bit of coffee and some bread." If society had the same attitude, the world would be better.>> TITLE: Oaxaca, Mexico>> SANTIAGO CRUZ [San Miguel Huautla, Oaxaca, Mexico]: Unfortunately, the government has abandoned the Mexican countryside. The results are never good. I decided to migrate [to North America] because I have a large family and there isn't any money in this community, there are no sources of income, nothing. >> TITLE: Sixty percent of unauthorized immigration to the US comes from Mexico. They come to escape poverty. In 2009, 96 percent of US foreign assistance to Mexico went toward military and drug enforcement. Investing in rural areas of Mexico instead can help reduce the pressure to migrate.>> TITLE: Stay: Migration and poverty in rural Mexico>> TITLE: Permanecer: Migración y pobreza en el México rural >> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS: The reason I went to the US was because I wanted to progress. Not that I didn?t have work here, but peoples? stories made it sound so much easier to earn money in the United States. That was the reason my family agreed it would be better to try my luck there. And I went there for the first time in 1998. My wife Victoria stayed here with the kids. I made it across the border, but it was a really bad experience. For example, when I was at the border, when I was crossing, I was robbed by bandits, cholos. It was a bitter experience. I had different jobs. I picked tomatoes. I picked chilies. And in six months, I was able to save 8,000 pesos [USD$675]. Eight thousand pesos, here in Mexico, I couldn?t make that in six months.>> TITLE: After returning to Mexico due to health issues, Marvin and his wife bought land in Chiapas with the help of a U.S. nonprofit called AGROS. Today, Marvin and his wife grow the crops that support their family. >> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS: We found land that we can work on. Victoria and I were excited about this from the very beginning. It was a project to help people help themselves. It hasn?t been easy. We need more resources.>> TITLE: Marvin?s wife, Victoria, is a community activist who sometimes works out of town for many days. Which means Marvin is often the family?s primary caretaker. >> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS: She has had responsibilities that have been difficult for me. Now that my children are older, it?s easier. But when they were smaller I had to take care of them. I had to cook and change their diapers. There were moments when they were little that I had to carry them because they were crying or feeling bad. Sometimes people were saying, ?Why are you doing domestic work, women?s work?? And I said: ?I feel good. Both of us are parents to these children. We both have to take care of them.? I want to do a lot of things. But unfortunately, there are some barriers that don?t let us develop.>> SUSAN BIRD [Program Officer, Ford Foundation, Mexico]: What we see more and more is this - the rite of passage, this idea that young people, specifically, can no longer make it in their communities and it's no longer interesting to them. My name is Susan Bird. I'm a program officer with the Ford Foundation in Mexico. And so they kind of wait for the day that they can leave. That's the saddest thing I think, is the cultural loss. You know, you see communities, entire communities made up of children and grandparents and there's a whole generation that is missing. >> SANTIAGO CRUZ: I hope most of my children don?t migrate. Most of them would live here in my town. In our grandparents' time, our land was more productive. They harvested more. Now the land is deteriorating, depleted. We need more ideas, more techniques, and more innovation to be more productive. It?s difficult, you know? This is a very poor, rural area of Mexico. That?s why I decided to migrate. I looked for the possibility of migrating legally. And I made it to Canada. >> VICTORIA MARTINEZ LOPEZ [Santiago's Wife]: So, he had the opportunity to go. And he left, but I was left behind alone with my children. Among all of us, we divided his chores. That was very hard.>> SANTIAGO CRUZ: The first season was very difficult. I was very lonely. It was very difficult to get used to another country, another culture, you know, the customs. It was difficult.>> VICTORIA MARTINEZ LOPEZ: We were not accustomed to being without him. It felt like he was gone a very long time.>> TITLE: When Santiago returned from Canada in 2008, he and Victoria got involved with CEDICAM http://www.viewchange.org/videos/changing-lives-through-renewable-energy Safe drinking water and household electricity were well out of reach for the rural communities of Candelaria and Malacatoya, Nicaragua, until the arrival of AsoFenix, a nonprofit organization that provides renewable energy projects to improve the lives of rural Nicaraguans. Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:54:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/changing-lives-through-renewable-energy Nicaragua, Renewable energy, Central America, Technology, Environment, Electricity, ViewChange Online Film Contest, Water & Sanitation, Solar power, Hydropower >> TITLE: Nicaragua>> TITLE: Changing Lives Through Renewable Energy: Green Empowerment and AsoFenix, Candelaria and Malcatoya, Nicaragua. Green Living Project>> ROB HOLMES [Host, Green Living Project]: Electricity and immediate access to potable water are things a lot of us take for granted, but not rural Nicaraguans. A local NGO, AsoFenix, in partnership with Green Empowerment, are providing these basic needs through cool, renewable energy projects, like wind, solar, micro-hydro, and biogas. It's exciting stuff that's having an immediate impact on the environment and the lives of rural Nicaraguans. >> JAMIE MUNOZ [Director, AsoFenix]: AsoFenix began in the year 2000. I left the National Engineering University because I saw the need to use the projects of renewable energy to improve the lives or rural people. >> SARAH HAYS [Volunteer, AsoFenix]: AsoFenix has been making an impact in the communities by installing water projects where before people had to carry buckets of water on their head several kilometers in order to have water in their house, as well as providing electricity in communities where there's no road and there would have never been electricity. >> SETH HAYS [Volunteer, AsoFenix]: Up the stream, we built a dam, and we're diverting the water, and, as you know, there's always water. It's a renewable resource, so the water's channeled through pipes, spins a turbine, which generates electricity and goes into the community, and then the water re-enters the stream farther down. >> ROB HOLMES: So, with the two to three kilowatts that this generates, how many households does it power? >> SETH HAYS: Here in the community we're connected to about 29 houses, so it's about 100 watts per house is what they use for electricity.>> CRUZ TORRES BURGO [Project Technician, AsoFenix]: The energy has really helped our coffee production. In order to de-pulp the coffee, we used to have to do it by hand. And we would start working at three in the afternoon, and work until ten at night. And now within a half an hour, using an electric motor, we can remove the fruit that would have taken us seven hours before. >> NIDIA GONZALEZ [Resident, Candelaria]: So before, life was hard. But now we're a lot happier. We have water in our houses. We don't have to go long distances to carry water back to our houses. Less people are getting sick, so life is just a lot happier now.>> JAMIE MUNOZ: So before we start projects, I build relationships with the communities, and through these relationships, I feel a strong tie to the communities. At times I feel even if I were to find a better job, or something where I would make more money, I couldn't give up my promise to these families to help them improve their lives. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/nursing-the-mangroves This film explores mangrove forest depletion in the Indus River Delta on the Pakistani coast. This fast-deteriorating and unique forest provides a habitat for marine life, protection from cyclones, and a way of life for a large community of fishermen. See what environmental activists are doing to conserve the mangroves and save these vast life-giving forests. Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:54:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/nursing-the-mangroves Pakistan, Environment, Agriculture & Food, Mangrove, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Karachi, Indus River, ViewChange Online Film Contest >> TITLE: Nursing the Mangroves, by Nameera Ahmed>> TAHIR QURESHI [International Union for Conservation of Nature]: Now you?re going to the western part, the extreme part of the Indus Delta, the western part. And the Indus Delta used to be the hunting grounds of the Mirs.>> MAN: Unfortunately they are deteriorating really fast. Once they were close to 600,000 hectares. Now, they only cover around 80,000-90,000 hectares.>> TAHIR QURESHI: First of all, they cut living mangroves to build the terminal. They have to open a channel through which their pipes can pass the dredge material from that, they dumped onto the mangroves. If they overlook the environment then how can we expect a poor man who lives here, he will definitely cut the trees to burn firewood and needs fodder for his goats.>> MOHAMMAD ALI SHAH [Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum]: Karachi, which does not have any forests nor trees, and there is a lot of pollution here, so the mangroves perform a very important function which we the dwellers of Karachi are not even aware of, they are our oxygen factories. The carbon dioxide of Karachi is absorbed by these mangrove forests, giving us oxygen in return. The other function the mangroves perform is protecting us from cyclones and tsunamis, forming a protective wall.>> WOMAN: Timar (mangrove trees) not only protect us from storms, but Timar also provides us with nurseries for our fish and shrimp, including other marine animals. Because fish and shrimps lay their eggs among the roots of the mangroves.>> RUQQAIYA USMAN [Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum]: I come from a family of fishermen. When they used to go in the olden days to catch fish they used to come back with a lot more fish. Now, there are no more fish and shrimps in the sea. If they go for three days to the sea, their families remain hungry. They wait for them expectantly, hoping they will get some fish and money.>> TAHIRA ALI [Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum]: The treasure of fish in the sea has been depleted. The main reason is pollution. The sewage of Karachi is released into the sea. Besides this, garbage is dumped by KMC trucks into the sea. The sewage of Karachi should be treated before releasing into the sea.>> TAHIR QURESHI: Do you think that the Arabian Sea is a garbage dumping ground?! Is it not a living water body where there is a life?! >> MAN: We have, all along the Pakistan coast, grown these mangroves. We have planted mangroves on 30,000 hectares.>> MOHAMMAD ALI SHAH: Whether they are fishermen, farmers, or laborers, until there is a social movement of these sectors, and until an activism develops, until then their voices will not reach the parliaments of the government.>> Certain situations have developed which have not only destroyed our nurseries, but our fishermen as well. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/bio-briquette-an-alternative-source-of-energy In the past, villagers in rural Nepal were forced to burn firewood as their main energy source, leading to deforestation and health issues for women who constantly breathed in the smoke. Beehive bio briquettes are an alternative energy source that cost almost nothing to make, are smoke free, and are created from biomass that doesn't necessitate felling trees. See how this Nepalese community is being transformed through making, using, and selling bio briquettes. Wed, 23 Feb 2011 09:02:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/bio-briquette-an-alternative-source-of-energy Nepal, Alternative energy, Kathmandu, Biomass briquettes, ViewChange Online Film Contest, Gender, Health, Environment, Rural area, Public health >> TITLE: Punkbuddhaz Studios, Bigvon Dixikov, Yalambar Khargoli>> TITLE: A Tale of Tamang Women. Bio briquette. An alternative source of energy. >>TITLE: Beehive bio briquette is a low cost alternative source of energy, which has great advantage in developing and rural areas. >> TITLE: Tripeni. Outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal>> VOICEOVER: In the outskirts of Kathmandu Valley, there is a small village called Tripeni. Before bio briquettes, villagers had to use firewood as their ultimate source of energy. Firewood produces lots of smoke and is also very dangerous to health. The method of making a bio briquette is very easy. After you produce this charcoal from wild herbs called banmara from the forest, then you grind the charcoal into small fine pieces. Then after the charcoal is grinded, it is mixed with mud. The ratio is two to one. If you add two buckets of charcoal, then you need to add one bucket of mud. >> WOMAN: Bio briquette has made a lot of difference in our life, because it is a very good source of income.>> INTERVIEWER: Do these children go to school now? >> WOMAN: Yes they go to school.>> INTERVIEWER: At what grade are they studying then?>> WOMAN: Six.>> INTERVIEWER: Really?>> WOMAN: My son is at class two and daughter is at class six.>> INTERVIEWER: Did the village have school before?>> WOMAN: Before? Yes there was school even before.>> INTERVIEWER: Did you send your children to school even before you started this bio-briquette thing?>> WOMAN: No, we did send our children to school even back then?But now there really is a big difference for the family than before. >> INTERVIEWER: So without difference both son and daughter get a chance to study? >> WOMAN: Yes, we have admitted both of them to school. >> VOICEOVER: The mixture is mixed thoroughly then added to a molding machine, where pressure is applied to compress the charcoal and the mud mixture. >> INTERVIEWER: So with the income you can easily run the house?>> WOMAN: Yes, it is sufficient to run the family.>> INTERVIEWER: Do you even save by selling bio briquettes?>> WOMAN: Yes, we do have a bit of savings as well.>> INTERVIEWER: What would you like to advise people in other villages who are interested in such kind of smoke-free alternative source of energy?>> WOMAN: So this is the way of making bio briquette, which would yield income to your family as well.>> VOICE: Then after, the mold is taken out from the cast, which has a beehive like shape. Hence it is called a beehive briquette. Then the mold is taken outside and baked in sun. After it is baked, it becomes a very good fresh warm briquette, which is ready to store. Then after you could either sell it at market, or use it for your personal purpose as a clean alternative source of energy.>> MAN: The briquette is just enough to sustain your life. >> INTERVIEWER: Does bio briquette play a role in deforestation?>> MAN: No, the making of bio briquette wouldn't hamper the forest. Because the charcoal needed for the bio briquette is extracted from burning wild grasses. The wild grass is called "Kala Jharr" in Nepali. >> INTERVIEWER: Hence it does not destroy the forest. >> MAN: We don't need to chop the trees to make the briquette. >> INTERVIEWER: How much smoke does this briquette emit then? >> MAN: There is smoke while making the charcoal for the briquette. But when the briquette is ready it is nearly like an electric heater, it won't yield any smoke. It won't produce any smoke. But one thing a single briquette only lasts for 60-90 minutes. >> VOICE: The Tamang lady also suffers from a heart disease. Maybe after the use of Bio Briquette, she would have less impact upon her fragile health. >> TITLE: Eco Stove; Bio Briquette>> TITLE: The Tamang woman who was exposed to cooking smoke for a long time made her a victim of a dangerous cardiovascular disease. Bio briquette is really a gift to her from heaven. Hence, there is hope that this type of smoke-free alternative source of fuel would really bring better health and hope towards the lives of grass hood level people. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/plastic-to-oil-fantastic Around seven percent of the world's oil is used to produce and manufacture plastic -- that's more than the entire African continent uses. But a new machine converts plastics back into oil, encouraging responsible disposal of garbage, and reducing CO2 emissions in the process. Fri, 18 Feb 2011 09:32:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/plastic-to-oil-fantastic Japan, Global warming, Carbon dioxide, Plastic Recycling, Plastic, Environment, Technology, Gasoline, United Nations University >> TITLE: OurWorld 2.0>> AKINORI ITO [CEO, Blest Corporation]: As a child, I enjoyed playing in nature. I didn't care about the environment. But since I came here and had my own children, the places where I used to play as a child have disappeared. So I wanted to do something about that. From 2000, there was talk of global warming. Also, in Japan, there is very little space for garbage. Elsewhere in the world there are few places to dispose of garbage and the effects of trash can be very bad. So by using Japanese technology, we thought we could convert plastic back into oil. It's made from oil, so it's probably not very difficult to convert it back. That's how we started.>> AKINORI ITO: This is the oil conversion machine. I have just removed the lid. We put the plastic in here. These are the plastic ingredients that will make the oil. One good point of the small machine is you don't have to break down the trash. You can put it in just as it is. It's then easy to understand that it turns into oil. I will now turn it on. The temperature will begin to rise. The plastics begin to melt and become a liquid. After the liquid boils, the gas passes through here and enters here. This is tap water. The water cools the gas and turns the gas into oil. The oil is okay to burn as is. You can further process it to make gasoline, diesel, and kerosene. If you separate the oil, then you can use it for a car, or a motorbike, or a generator, a boiler, and a stove. You can use it in the same way as regular oil. From 1kg of plastic, you can make 1 liter of oil. If you burn 1kg of plastic it turns into 3kg of CO2. Using electricity and heat, we can return it to oil and reduce about 80 percent of CO2 emissions.>> AKINORI ITO: Even in developed countries, garbage is scattered by uncaring people. In developing countries, even if they care they don't know how. So I take this machine there and teach them. This is the only machine that can be transported by plane. We take it to Africa, the Philippines, or the Marshall Islands. And with the children there, we collect garbage and make oil. People begin to see that this is not garbage. This plastic waste, the bottle cap, the lunch container is oil. When a child understands this, the garbage gets cleaned up. People don't know that garbage is oil, that's why they are throwing it away. If they know it can become oil, then they collect it. It's an oil field! A plastic oil field. >> AKINORI ITO: In Japan, we use oil that travels great distances from Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. It is a purified at a refinery, and delivered by tank trucks, and we go to buy it at a gas station. The CO2 footprint is very high. If we turned our plastic garbage back into oil, then our total CO2 emissions could be much lower. If the whole world were to start doing this, the amount of CO2 would decrease dramatically. It's a waste, isn't it? This is a treasure.>> TITLE: OurWorld 2.0>> TITLE: ourworld.unu.edu http://www.viewchange.org/videos/forbidden-forest-of-the-dayak-people The head of the Setulang Forest Management Agency introduces us to the forbidden forest of the Oma'lung tribe of Borneo. He discusses the ancient laws that protect it, and the vital role his tribe is playing in the fight against climate change. Thu, 17 Feb 2011 07:58:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/forbidden-forest-of-the-dayak-people Borneo, Forest, Indonesia, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, Dayak people, Sustainable forest management, Indigenous peoples, Ecotourism, Old-growth forest, Forest management >> TITLE: Borneo>> TITLE: Setulang community>> TITLE: OurWorld 2.0>> KOLE ADJANG [Head, Setulang Forest Management Agency]: If the people of Setulang Village want to have fun, they have a party and dance. Young and old people have fun together. Our tribe name is Oma'lung and we are part of the Dayak Keyah tribe. Setulang is a small village with about 900 people. >> KOLE ADJANG: My name is Kole Adjang. I live in Setulang. I work as the Head of the Setulang Forest Management Agency. Today, we are going to Tana Olen by boat up the Setulang River. Setulang village's rice paddy fields are on the way. Every village family is allocated 10 land plots. Each year, the family uses only one of them. The second year, we clear the second land plot, cutting and using fire which nurtures the soil. After a cycle of 10 years, we come back to the first plot. It is strictly forbidden to burn a new area in the forest for a paddy field.>> KOLE ADJANG: Villager people understand the agreement of their great-grandparents. There is a designated area for rice paddy fields, an area specific for gathering housing and construction wood, and an area that's Tana Olen (forbidden forest) where it is forbidden to damage or log trees. Our neighboring villages have no trees and the land is not healthy. Many timber companies have logged their land. But in our Tana Olen, the old growth trees are still there. Maybe a tourist would like to come and see the reality. >> KOLE ADJANG: We got all these fish with one throw of the net! Of course, we have to make some facilities to make it easier for people who want to visit. Villagers will understand the eco-tourists coming will help them earn money. So, then naturally they will keep protecting the forest. We don't know exactly what will happen in the future. Will the next generation keep our agreement, or will they damage, open new land, or log? Perhaps serve their self-interest? We hope that, by example, our great-grandchildren will also take care of our land and Tana Olen. >> KOLE ADJANG: All of the trees in Tana Olen keep the water clean, and this makes us happy when we swim. Sometimes, we check that the trees in our Tana Olen have not been illegally logged. This is rattan. It's good for making bags. This leaf is useful for many things: a shelter, hats, a multipurpose cover. Setulang people love hunting. We use hunting platforms like this one up in the tree. We shoot the boar and then take it down the river to the village. This is one reason why we will always keep this forest. Scientists inform us forests filter carbon from out of the air. They told us a carbon trader would give us a fee for every tree that we do not cut. That's what the people told us. Is it true? I am still wondering.>> KOLE ADJANG: One tree has a large drum of water. If you cut the trees, the Setulang River will decrease and eventually stagnate. We have big trees like this, and even larger ones, that we protect. Anyone who cuts down the trees in Tana Olen will be punished. This is written policy and the traditional law of Setulang Village. In my opinion, global warming will be getting hotter and hotter and hotter. If there are no forests on Earth, maybe it will get hotter. So our local plan is going the right way, because conserving the forest is what the earth needs.>> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/water-pressures Average rainfall in the Thar Desert region of Rajasthan, India, can be as little as two inches a year. Having access to water in the area determines the difference between getting an education and living a life that revolves around spending the majority of the day walking to get water. A local NGO has teamed up with villagers to build wells and provide the local population with clean, safe drinking water. This has given many young people the freedom to learn and grow. Wed, 09 Feb 2011 09:33:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/water-pressures India, Rajasthan, Water & Sanitation, Women's rights, Water security, Millennium Development Goals, Drinking water, Environment, Millennium Villages Project, Freshwater >> TITLE: Water Pressures >> TITLE: Deja Bi: 98 years. Water is her story. Saltwater. Since 12 years old, Deja Bi has walked nearly 6 hrs a day to fetch water. Neither Deja Bi, her children, nor grandchildren attended school. Water and work have always been priorities. Water they DO have access to is salty and causes illness. >> TITLE: Manju: 18 years. Manju also fetches water. Sweet - fresh water. Manju's well is 50 feet from her home. It is covered and clean. Water is just the beginning of her story. >> KANUPRIYA HARISH [Executive Director, Jal Bhagirathi Foundation]: Manju is one of our community producers. From about fifteen, twenty girls she was interviewed, she was selected. >> TITLE: The Jal Bhagirathi Foundation provided the wells for Manju's village and school >> TITLE: They also provide media training for Manju and other students interested in telling community stories >> KANUPRIYA HARISH: She was a very, very shy girl. I mean the Manju that you see now is someone who's developed over six months. >> TITLE: Only 20 minutes separate these two women >> TITLE: But 80 years and a world of opportunity stand between them >> TITLE: Saltwater >> DEJA BI: My stomach hurts from the saltwater. I get diarrhea. I can't drink it. I don't have time here. This is the time of dying. So, I shift to the graveyard - to the grave. >> TITLE: Sweetwater >> KANUPRIYA HARISH: She's a different girl. She was a different girl when she had come her, but now she's very different, very confident. >> MANJU: I especially enjoy roaming the villages, talking to villagers. Whatever main issue the villagers speak of, that is what we make our film about. Mostly they speak about water problems. But things ARE improving greatly. >> TITLE: The difference is water. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-dayak-meratus Indonesia's Dayak Meratus communities have created co-operatives and developed business institutions that protect their resources. However, the encroachment of private businesses on the local forest threaten their way of life and have forced them to respond in the best way they can: collectively. Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:20:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-dayak-meratus Indonesia, Forest management, Dayak people, Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Indigenous rights, Environmental protection, Environment, Microfinance, Microcredit >> TITLE: The Dayak Meratus, Kalimantan, Indonesia >> ANDY SYAHRUJI [Chairman of Permada Youth Group]: According to our ancestors, our life is dependent on nature. Like a son and his mother the land is our life and the forests are a part of that. We can't be separated from the forest of Meratus. It would end our way of life. The Dayak Meratus is part of nature and the sacred forest. >> JULAK [Farmer and Owner of Rubber Garden]: With the money I earn I buy sugar, fish, salt, and clothing or equipment for the house. This is all possible because of the rubber. The rest of the money I save in the CU [credit union]. This is my saving for when I cannot work anymore. >> YASIR ALFATAH [LPMA]: LPMA was established in 1998 and works on strengthening indigenous people, especially the Dayak Meratus in South Kalimantan. Without our economic program here we helped to establish two community institutions in Dayak Meratus. The first of these is the CU or Credit Union. >> SIGN: Credit Union Bintang Karnatika Meratus (CU BKM). Desa Hinas Kiri Kec. Batang Alai Timur Kab. HST Kalimantan Selatan >> JULIADE [Credit Union Manager]: The CU can be called a community movement. How are you? >> JULAK: Nothing but good. >> JULIADE: CU refuse applications from members who want to buy chainsaws for illegal logging activities. The CU is more interested in giving farmers loans for seeds, as this helps to develop their income. >> YASIR ALFATAH: The second institution is the KDA or Kesatuan Dayak Alai, an institution for rubber farmers in the Hulu Sungai Tengah District. >> MIDO [KDA]: Before we formed the KDA here, we lost a lot of money through middlemen buying our non-timber forest products like rubber. So this is proof that if we stay together, the community can resolve their problems. >> TITLE: This unity of the Dayak Meratus faces an increasingly difficult future. >> ZONSON MASRI [Chairman of Permada, South Kalimantan]: "Indigenous is nothing," they say. "It's the permit that exists." So there are no indigenous rights. >> ANDY SYAHRUJI: The people will lose their rights because the companies come and take over the land. Like the oil-palm companies where there is absolutely no positive impact for the people. >> TITLE: The government of Indonesia regularly ignores indigenous land claims. >> ZONSON MASRI: In the past, before Indonesian independence, the Dayak were already here. So it's clear when we talk about the earth or trees we talk about indigenous rights. >> TITLE: The Dayak depend on a variety of plant species to sustain their livelihoods. >> TITLE: But companies are converting their land into large, single species plantations. >> ZONSON MASRI: The Dayak, if not disturbed, will not disturb: that is our principle. We are disturbed right now so we must move forward and take the risk to fight for our people in the villages. >> TITLE: The Dayak are now developing a political voice to give their ancient culture a chance of surviving. >> TITLE: If their culture is destroyed it will mirror that of the forests they inhabit. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-john-kasaona-how-poachers-became-caretakers In his home of Namibia, John Kasaona is working on an innovative way to protect endangered animal species: giving nearby villagers (including former poachers) responsibility for caring for the animals. And it's working. Wed, 17 Nov 2010 10:50:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-john-kasaona-how-poachers-became-caretakers Kunene Region, Africa, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered species, Rhinoceros, Poaching, Namibia, John Kasaona, Cheetah >> TITLE: TED: Ideas Worth Spreading.>> JOHN KASAONA: In Africa we say, "God gave the white man a watch and gave the black man time." >> TITLE: February 2010. Long Beach, California>> JOHN KASAONA: I think, how is it possible for a man with so much time to tell a story in 18 minutes. I think it will be quite a challenge for me. >> TITLE: Namibia: Wildlife and communities back from the brink>> JOHN KASAONA: Most African stories these days, they talk about famine, HIV and AIDS, poverty, or war. But my story that I would like to share with you today is the one about success. It is about a country in the southwest of Africa called Namibia. Namibia has got 2.1 million people, but it is only twice the size of California. I come from a region in the remote northwest part of the country. It's called Kunene region. And in the center of Kunene region is the village of Sesfontein. This is where I was born. This is where I am coming from. Most people that are following the story of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will know where Namibia is. They love Namibia for its beautiful dunes, that are even taller than the Empire State Building. Wind and time have twisted our landscape into very strange shapes. And these shapes are speckled with wildlife that has become so adapted to this harsh and strange land.>> JOHN KASAONA: I'm a Himba. As I'm standing, you might wonder, why are you wearing these Western clothes? I'm a Himba and Namibian. A Himba is one of the 29 ethnic groups in Namibia. We live a very traditional lifestyle. I grew up herding, looking after our livestock: goats, sheep, and cattle. And one day, my father actually took me into the bush. He said, "John, I want you to become a good herder. Boy, if you are looking after our livestock and you see a cheetah eating our goat, cheetah is very nervous. Just walk up to it. Walk up to it and smack it on the backside. And he will let go of the goat and run off." But then he said, "Boy, if you run into a lion, don't move. Don't move. Stand your ground. Puff up and just look it in the eye and it may not want to fight you." But then, he said, "If you see a leopard, boy, you better run like hell. Imagine you run faster than those goats you are looking after." >> JOHN KASAONA: In this way, I actually started to learn about nature. You know, in addition to being an ordinary Namibian and in addition to being a Himba I'm also a trained conservationist. And it is very important if you are in the field to know what to confront and what to run from. I was born in 1971. We lived under apartheid regime. The whites could farm, graze, and hunt as they wished, but we black, we were not regarded as responsible to look after, to use wildlife. Whenever we tried to hunt, we were called poachers. And, as a result, we were fined and locked up in jail.>> JOHN KASAONA: Between 1966 and 1990, the U.S. and Soviet interests fought for control over my country. And you know, during wartimes, there are militaries, armies, that are moving around. And the army hunted for valuable rhino horns and tusks. And they could sell these things for anything between UDS$5,000 a kilo. During the same year almost every Himba had a rifle. Because it was wartime, the British .303 rifle was just all over the whole country. Then in the same time, around 1980, we had a very big drought. It killed almost everything that was left. Our livestock was almost at the brink of extinction. [inaudible] We were hungry. I remember a night when a hungry leopard went into the house of one of our neighbors and took his sleeping child out of the bed. It's a very sad story. But even today, that memory is still in people's mind. They can pinpoint the exact location where this all happened. >> JOHN KASAONA: And then, the same year, we almost lost everything. And my father said, "Why don't you just go to school?" And they sent me off to school, just to get busy somewhere else. And the year I went to school, my father actually got a job with a non-governmental organization called IRDNC: Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation. They actually spend a lot of time a year in the communities. They were trusted by the local communities like our leader, Joshua Kangombe. Joshua Kangombe saw what was happening: wildlife disappearing, poaching was skyrocketing, and the situation seemed very hopeless. Death and despair surrounded Joshua and our entire communities.>> JOHN KASAONA: But then, the people from IRDNC proposed to Joshua: What if we pay people that you trust to look after wildlife? Do you have anybody in your communities, or people, that know the bush very well and that know wildlife very well? The headman said "Yes. Our poachers." "Eh? The poachers?" "Yes. Our poachers." And that was my father. My father has been a poacher for quite a long time. Instead of treating poachers' debt like they were doing elsewhere in Africa, IRDNC has helped men reclaim their abilities to manage their peoples, and their rights to own and manage wildlife. And thus, as people started feeling ownership over wildlife, wildlife numbers started coming back, and that's actually becoming a foundation for conservation in Namibia. With independence, the whole approach of community getting involved was embraced by our new government.>> TITLE: 1. Blending the old and new>> JOHN KASAONA: Three things that actually help to build on this foundation: The very first one is honoring of tradition and being open to new ideas. Here is our tradition. At every Himba village, there is a sacred fire. And at this sacred fire, the spirit of our ancestors speak through the headman and advise us where to get water, where to get grazings, and where to go and hunt. And I think this is the best way of regulating ourselves on the environment. And here are the new ideas. Transporting rhinos using helicopters I think is much easier than talking through a spirit that you can't see, isn't it? And these things we were taught by outsiders. We learned these things from outsiders. We needed new boundaries to describe our traditional lands; we needed to learn more things like GPS just to see whether can GPS really reflect the true reflection of the land or is this just a thing made somewhere in the West? And we then wanted to see whether we can match our ancestral maps with digital maps made somewhere in the world. And through this, we actually started realizing our dreams and we maintained honoring our traditions but we were still open to new ideas.>> TITLE: 2. Focusing on the solution>> JOHN KASAONA: The second element is that we wanted to have a life, a better life where we can benefit through many things. Most poachers, like my father, were people from our own community. They were not people from outside. These were our own people. And sometimes, once they were caught, they were treated with respect, brought back into the communities and they were made part of the bigger dreams. The best ones, like my father -- I'm not complaining for my father -- they were put in charge to stop others from poaching. And when this thing started going on, we started becoming one community, renewing our connection to nature. And that was a very strong thing in Namibia.>> TITLE: Stopping poaching is quite different than catching poachers>> TITLE: 3. Creating lasting partnerships>> JOHN KASAONA: The last element that actually helped develop these things was the partnerships. Our government has given legal status over our traditional lands. The other partners that we have got is business communities. Business communities helped bring Namibia onto the world map and they have also helped make wildlife a very valuable land use like any other land uses such as agriculture. And most of my conservation colleagues today that you find in Namibia have been trained through the initiative, through the involvement of World Wildlife Fund in the most up-to-date conservation practices. They have also given funding for two decades to this whole program. >> TITLE: WWF helped us scale a small program>> JOHN KASAONA: And so far, with the support of World Wildlife Fund, we've been able to scale up the very small programs to a national program today. Namibia, or, Sesfontein was no more an isolated village somewhere, hidden away in Namibia. With these assets we are now part of the global village.>> JOHN KASAONA: Thirty years have passed since my father's first job as a community game guard. It's unfortunate that he passed away and he cannot see the success as I and my children see it today. When I finished school in 1995, there were only 20 lions in the entire northwest, in our area. But today, there are more than 130 lions. So please, if you go to Namibia, make sure that you stay in the tents. Don't walk out at night. The black rhino: they were almost extinct in 1982. But today, Kunene has the largest concentration of black rhino, free-roaming black rhinos, in the world. This is outside the protected area. The leopard, they are now in big numbers but they are now far away from our village, because the natural plain has multiplied, like zebras, springboks, and everything. They stay very much far away because all these other things has multiplied from less than a thousand to tens of thousands of animals.>> JOHN KASAONA: And, what started as very small, community rangers getting community involved, has now grown into something that we call conservancies. Conservancies are legally instituted institutions, by the government, and these are run by the communities themselves, for their benefit. Today, we have got 60 conservancies that manage and protect over 13 million hectares of land in Namibia. We have already reshaped conservation in the entire country. Nowhere else in the world has community-adopted conservation at this scale. In 2008, conservancy generated USD$5.7 million. This is our new economy, an economy based on the respect of our natural resources. And, we are able to use this money for many things. Very importantly, we put it in education. Secondly, we put it for infrastructure. Food. Very important as well. We invest this money in AIDS and HIV education. You know that Africa is being affected by these viruses. And this is the good news from Africa that we have to shout from the rooftops.>> JOHN KASAONA: And now, what the world really needs is for you to help me and our partners take some of what we have learned in Namibia to other places with similar problems: places like Mongolia, or even in your own backyards, the Northern Great Plains, where buffalo and other animals have suffered and many communities are in decline. I like that one. Namibia serving as a model to Africa, and Africa serving as a model to the United States. We were successful in Namibia because we dreamed of a future that was much more than just a healthy wildlife. We knew conservation will fail if it doesn't work to improve the lives of the local communities. So, come and talk to me about Namibia, and better yet, come to Namibia and see for yourself how we have done it. And please, do visit our website to learn more and see how you can help CBNRM [Community-based natural resource management] in Africa and across the world. Thank you very much.>> TITLE: TED: New TED Talks each week at www.TED.com http://www.viewchange.org/videos/peru-from-garbage-to-gold Trash can be recycled and turned into many things&mdash;the Ciudad Saludable organization in Peru is using it create employment opportunities for local people in the city's poorest neighborhoods. Wed, 17 Nov 2010 09:49:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/peru-from-garbage-to-gold Ciudad Saludable, Albina Ruiz, Peru, Lima, Recycling, Ashoka, South America, Latin America, Social entrepreneurship, Waste management >> TITLE: Everyone a Changemaker>> TITLE: The Inventor-Entrepreneur as Pioneer, System Changer, and Role Model for Future Generations. >> TITLE: India>> TITLE: There are 8 million rickshaw pullers in India. Most spend years paying high rental fees but never succeed in owning their own rickshaws.>> TITLE: This is the story of the creation of a new, ergonomic, and inexpensive rickshaw in Guwahati, India>> PRADIP SARMAH [Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow]: In the year 2002, once I traveled with a cycle rickshaw in Guwahati. He never owned it [the rickshaw] and yet he rides this rickshaw for 16 years. If I could come out with a new design of rickshaw, with a bigger space on the back side, and I could sell that space to a corporation, he could have been the owner of that rickshaw by the end of the year. >> TITLE: As a result of his innovation, nearly 4,000 rickshaw pullers are now riding lighter, safer, and more affordable vehicles, all featuring income-generating advertisements (so drivers can afford to finance and own their rickshaw), meanwhile receiving social benefits, such as accident insurance and health care.>> PRADIP SARMAH: So, with that idea, I approached Indian Institute of Technology to develop a new rickshaw design, and very interestingly the corporations then came forward to sponsor 100 rickshaw advertisements. The new designed rickshaw has three dimensions: the technical dimension, the financial dimension, and the social dimension. The new designed rickshaw, which is running in Guwahati or even in other parts of the country, it's 40 percent lighter than the traditional rickshaw. The base is lower, the gravity is well centered. It's well covered for the both rickshaw pullers, as well as the passengers. The back space we are using as an advertisement cost, helps us a lot, giving support to the rickshaw driver. Traditional rickshaws can move in a very high speed. But here, purposefully, we have controlled the speed, and that's why, as of today, our rickshaw has never tilted over. >> TITLE: Pradip Sarmah continues to advance the social, financial, and the technological systems for rickshaw pullers. He is currently working on implementing the Soleckshaw, a motorized rickshaw driven by solar battery power, which will ease the physical burden placed on rickshaw drivers. >> TITLE: Everyone a Changemaker>> TITLE: The Inventor-Entrepreneur as Pioneer, System Changer, and Role Model for Future Generations. >> TITLE: Peru>> TITLE: In many cities in developing countries, some of the lowest income individuals survive by collecting trash. Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Albina Ruiz, through her organization Ciudad Saludable (Healthy City), organizes informal trash recyclers, so that they can earn a decent living. Her micro-enterprise model provides self-employment opportunities to local residents in poor neighborhoods who go door-to-door collecting garbage and fees, and educating people about respecting and protecting their environment.>> ALBINA RUIZ [Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow and Founder, Ciudad Saludable]: This story of working in the field of waste management really began when I came from the jungle to Lima. I discovered there was plastic, that there was paper, there was cardboard, there were cans, and, more than anything, that there was a big problem with garbage. I also started to learn that the garbage was not just in the city, but it was also in the dumps, in the pig farms, in the outskirts of the towns, and people lived there, people who reclaimed paper, cardboard, and plastic to sell. And I discovered that this was a world of entrepreneurs. We need to think of a different system. Garbage is a medium. >> TITLE: Organized by Ciudad Saludable, the recyclers and the unemployed (mostly women who are heads of households) offer waste management services including transportation, treatment, and final disposal of waste.>> TITLE: Plastic bottles are placed inside the empty compartment and, through the manual compression system, the mass is reduced to 75 percent of the original volume, saving significant storage space. Inspired by a technology to crush aluminum cans, Ciudad Saludable developed a manual crushing machine with the help of Californian engineer Nisar Shaikh. >> ALBINA RUIZ: Where many see a problem in garbage, we see an opportunity. An opportunity to give jobs to improve the issue of the environment, to improve public health, an opportunity to create more social entrepreneurs. When we start to clean a city or a neighborhood the people organize themselves. People don't want to go backwards. People know they can be clean and demand to be clean. >> TITLE: Rippling created by Ashoka and the Magnum Foundation, with support from The Lemelson and Woodcock Foundations>> TITLE: [end credits]>> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/resilient-bangladesh-fishermen-cope-with-rougher-seas In Bangladesh, some of the world's most vulnerable people are being adversely affected by climate change, particularly more intense and frequent storms. But Mohammed Illias, a fisherman on the Meghna River, has adapted his boat with help from a local NGO to make it stronger and more resilient. Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:50:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/resilient-bangladesh-fishermen-cope-with-rougher-seas Fishing, Bangladesh, Boat, Storm, Bay of Bengal, Noakhali District, Meghna River, Environment, Agriculture & Food, Non-governmental organization >> TITLE: TED: Ideas Worth Spreading.>> JOHN KASAONA: In Africa we say, "God gave the white man a watch and gave the black man time." >> TITLE: February 2010. Long Beach, California>> JOHN KASAONA: I think, how is it possible for a man with so much time to tell a story in 18 minutes. I think it will be quite a challenge for me. >> TITLE: Namibia: Wildlife and communities back from the brink>> JOHN KASAONA: Most African stories these days, they talk about famine, HIV and AIDS, poverty, or war. But my story that I would like to share with you today is the one about success. It is about a country in the southwest of Africa called Namibia. Namibia has got 2.1 million people, but it is only twice the size of California. I come from a region in the remote northwest part of the country. It's called Kunene region. And in the center of Kunene region is the village of Sesfontein. This is where I was born. This is where I am coming from. Most people that are following the story of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will know where Namibia is. They love Namibia for its beautiful dunes, that are even taller than the Empire State Building. Wind and time have twisted our landscape into very strange shapes. And these shapes are speckled with wildlife that has become so adapted to this harsh and strange land.>> JOHN KASAONA: I'm a Himba. As I'm standing, you might wonder, why are you wearing these Western clothes? I'm a Himba and Namibian. A Himba is one of the 29 ethnic groups in Namibia. We live a very traditional lifestyle. I grew up herding, looking after our livestock: goats, sheep, and cattle. And one day, my father actually took me into the bush. He said, "John, I want you to become a good herder. Boy, if you are looking after our livestock and you see a cheetah eating our goat, cheetah is very nervous. Just walk up to it. Walk up to it and smack it on the backside. And he will let go of the goat and run off." But then he said, "Boy, if you run into a lion, don't move. Don't move. Stand your ground. Puff up and just look it in the eye and it may not want to fight you." But then, he said, "If you see a leopard, boy, you better run like hell. Imagine you run faster than those goats you are looking after." >> JOHN KASAONA: In this way, I actually started to learn about nature. You know, in addition to being an ordinary Namibian and in addition to being a Himba I'm also a trained conservationist. And it is very important if you are in the field to know what to confront and what to run from. I was born in 1971. We lived under apartheid regime. The whites could farm, graze, and hunt as they wished, but we black, we were not regarded as responsible to look after, to use wildlife. Whenever we tried to hunt, we were called poachers. And, as a result, we were fined and locked up in jail.>> JOHN KASAONA: Between 1966 and 1990, the U.S. and Soviet interests fought for control over my country. And you know, during wartimes, there are militaries, armies, that are moving around. And the army hunted for valuable rhino horns and tusks. And they could sell these things for anything between UDS$5,000 a kilo. During the same year almost every Himba had a rifle. Because it was wartime, the British .303 rifle was just all over the whole country. Then in the same time, around 1980, we had a very big drought. It killed almost everything that was left. Our livestock was almost at the brink of extinction. [inaudible] We were hungry. I remember a night when a hungry leopard went into the house of one of our neighbors and took his sleeping child out of the bed. It's a very sad story. But even today, that memory is still in people's mind. They can pinpoint the exact location where this all happened. >> JOHN KASAONA: And then, the same year, we almost lost everything. And my father said, "Why don't you just go to school?" And they sent me off to school, just to get busy somewhere else. And the year I went to school, my father actually got a job with a non-governmental organization called IRDNC: Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation. They actually spend a lot of time a year in the communities. They were trusted by the local communities like our leader, Joshua Kangombe. Joshua Kangombe saw what was happening: wildlife disappearing, poaching was skyrocketing, and the situation seemed very hopeless. Death and despair surrounded Joshua and our entire communities.>> JOHN KASAONA: But then, the people from IRDNC proposed to Joshua: What if we pay people that you trust to look after wildlife? Do you have anybody in your communities, or people, that know the bush very well and that know wildlife very well? The headman said "Yes. Our poachers." "Eh? The poachers?" "Yes. Our poachers." And that was my father. My father has been a poacher for quite a long time. Instead of treating poachers' debt like they were doing elsewhere in Africa, IRDNC has helped men reclaim their abilities to manage their peoples, and their rights to own and manage wildlife. And thus, as people started feeling ownership over wildlife, wildlife numbers started coming back, and that's actually becoming a foundation for conservation in Namibia. With independence, the whole approach of community getting involved was embraced by our new government.>> TITLE: 1. Blending the old and new>> JOHN KASAONA: Three things that actually help to build on this foundation: The very first one is honoring of tradition and being open to new ideas. Here is our tradition. At every Himba village, there is a sacred fire. And at this sacred fire, the spirit of our ancestors speak through the headman and advise us where to get water, where to get grazings, and where to go and hunt. And I think this is the best way of regulating ourselves on the environment. And here are the new ideas. Transporting rhinos using helicopters I think is much easier than talking through a spirit that you can't see, isn't it? And these things we were taught by outsiders. We learned these things from outsiders. We needed new boundaries to describe our traditional lands; we needed to learn more things like GPS just to see whether can GPS really reflect the true reflection of the land or is this just a thing made somewhere in the West? And we then wanted to see whether we can match our ancestral maps with digital maps made somewhere in the world. And through this, we actually started realizing our dreams and we maintained honoring our traditions but we were still open to new ideas.>> TITLE: 2. Focusing on the solution>> JOHN KASAONA: The second element is that we wanted to have a life, a better life where we can benefit through many things. Most poachers, like my father, were people from our own community. They were not people from outside. These were our own people. And sometimes, once they were caught, they were treated with respect, brought back into the communities and they were made part of the bigger dreams. The best ones, like my father -- I'm not complaining for my father -- they were put in charge to stop others from poaching. And when this thing started going on, we started becoming one community, renewing our connection to nature. And that was a very strong thing in Namibia.>> TITLE: Stopping poaching is quite different than catching poachers>> TITLE: 3. Creating lasting partnerships>> JOHN KASAONA: The last element that actually helped develop these things was the partnerships. Our government has given legal status over our traditional lands. The other partners that we have got is business communities. Business communities helped bring Namibia onto the world map and they have also helped make wildlife a very valuable land use like any other land uses such as agriculture. And most of my conservation colleagues today that you find in Namibia have been trained through the initiative, through the involvement of World Wildlife Fund in the most up-to-date conservation practices. They have also given funding for two decades to this whole program. >> TITLE: WWF helped us scale a small program>> JOHN KASAONA: And so far, with the support of World Wildlife Fund, we've been able to scale up the very small programs to a national program today. Namibia, or, Sesfontein was no more an isolated village somewhere, hidden away in Namibia. With these assets we are now part of the global village.>> JOHN KASAONA: Thirty years have passed since my father's first job as a community game guard. It's unfortunate that he passed away and he cannot see the success as I and my children see it today. When I finished school in 1995, there were only 20 lions in the entire northwest, in our area. But today, there are more than 130 lions. So please, if you go to Namibia, make sure that you stay in the tents. Don't walk out at night. The black rhino: they were almost extinct in 1982. But today, Kunene has the largest concentration of black rhino, free-roaming black rhinos, in the world. This is outside the protected area. The leopard, they are now in big numbers but they are now far away from our village, because the natural plain has multiplied, like zebras, springboks, and everything. They stay very much far away because all these other things has multiplied from less than a thousand to tens of thousands of animals.>> JOHN KASAONA: And, what started as very small, community rangers getting community involved, has now grown into something that we call conservancies. Conservancies are legally instituted institutions, by the government, and these are run by the communities themselves, for their benefit. Today, we have got 60 conservancies that manage and protect over 13 million hectares of land in Namibia. We have already reshaped conservation in the entire country. Nowhere else in the world has community-adopted conservation at this scale. In 2008, conservancy generated USD$5.7 million. This is our new economy, an economy based on the respect of our natural resources. And, we are able to use this money for many things. Very importantly, we put it in education. Secondly, we put it for infrastructure. Food. Very important as well. We invest this money in AIDS and HIV education. You know that Africa is being affected by these viruses. And this is the good news from Africa that we have to shout from the rooftops.>> TITLE: Bay of Bengal. India. Noakhali, Bangladesh>> VOICEOVER: Mohammed Illias has been fishing the Meghna River from the age of 12. Like his father and relatives before him, he depends on the waters of Bangladesh to provide for his wife and four children. Now a boat owner, Mohammed hires a handful of fisherman to go out to sea for 10 days at a time to fish for hilsa. He has noticed changes in the weather over the past several years.>> MOHAMMED ILLIAS [Fisherman]: When I went fishing as a child, storms happened but the wind and waves were less frequent. Now the waves are frequent. Our situation is more critical. We are more endangered than before.>> VOICEOVER: The livelihood of a fisherman has become an increasingly dangerous one. Stronger storms and more frequent tropical cyclones along the coastlines of Bangladesh are said to be result of climate change. These traditional fishing boats are made entirely of wood. While they have served the fishermen well for generations, they no longer can cope with the growing intensity of the changing climate. In 2008, Mohammed's boat was badly damaged in a storm.>> MOHAMMED ILLIAS: When the accident happened there were 8 to 10 fishermen onboard. Our ship capsized. We were saved by boats nearby. I thought that I was going to die. My cousin and uncle lost their lives in a disaster like that. We never found their bodies.>> VOICEOVER: With a broken boat, Mohammed had no way of making money to support his family.>> MOHAMMED ILLIAS: How can I educate my children? How can I provide for my family? How can I keep my business going? I had many worries. My wife told me not to be stressed because many people die of stress. >> VOICEOVER: In order to repair his boat, Mohammed took out a loan. However, his worries persisted. Even if he were to build a new boat, it still ran the risk of sinking again in Bangladesh's increasingly turbulent storms. Mohammed heard of an initiative offering assistance to build storm-resistant boats. International and local NGOs are working on the ground to implement climate change adaptation strategies to assist fishermen like Mohammed in rebuilding their boats.>> LUTFUN NAHER AZAD [Socio-Economic Development Programme/IUCN Partner]: We selected five of the most vulnerable boat owners. Their boats were repaired with the use of metal clamps. With the clamps, they can face any sudden storms. It will prevent the boat from flipping over. We provided some training on what to do. Because of this training, I think they are doing very well. Since their boats were repaired with this new technology, they have overcome their fears. >> VOICEOVER: While he still owes an equivalent of USD$1,500, he has been able to repay his debt little by little.>> MOHAMMED: My previous boat was weak. When I went to the sea I worried. What should I do if the waves and storms become stronger? Now, there is an iron belt around the boat. It is strong and I don't worry any more. The boat is strong. I used to fish near the shore and could not catch very many fish. Now that my boat is strong, I can go farther and catch much more. It will be good if the other boats are made stronger like mine. They will be safe from danger.>> VOICEOVER: With climate change a growing reality for the people of Bangladesh, adaptation projects such as this one are becoming a necessity. For now, Mohammed is grateful that he can now fish the rougher waters of Bangladesh without fear.>> TITLE: Our World 2.0>> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/planning-for-the-forests-future In Northern India, the Bhalyani forestry department is taking an inclusive approach to environmental management. In this video, members of the local community tell the story of how they helped to establish the different facets of this sustainable project, including some of the challenges they faced. Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:35:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/planning-for-the-forests-future Forest, India, Sustainable forest management, Himachal Pradesh, Joint Forest Management, Kullu, Forest management, Sustainability, Deputy Conservator of Forests (India), Paonta Sahib >> VOICEOVER: Bhalyani Panchayat is a collection of small villages that lie high in the mountains above Kullu. The area was included in phase one of the ODA [Official Development Assistance]-supported Sustainable Forest Management project in the mid-1990s, which was extended to more areas of Himachal Pradesh in phase two. The overall objectives of this project were to engage the participation of communities in forest management and conservation, tasks that had hitherto been carried out exclusively by the Forest Department. But local contexts make a difference to how policy translates into practice.>> DEVKI DEVI [Member, Bhalyani Joint Forest Management Committee]: On the day of the meeting, the forest officials, the Pradhan, and the whole community were there. They told us that there was new a plantation project that we should work on.>> JAI CHAND [Forest Guard, Himachal Pradesh Forest Department]: We gathered people together, and told them that the forest officials can't work alone because it's the villagers who damage the forest. They can save it and they can harm it. So we brought them together and told them that we want to save the forest, and we need everyone's participation in the project.>> VOICEOVER: The project was a challenging change of direction for the Forest Department's frontline staff. Previously their role was to police the forest, but now they were being asked to abandon their uniforms for village visits, and play a social development role.>> JAI CHAND: At the beginning, we couldn't get people together. They'd say: "This is the Forest Department's work, it has nothing to do with us." Then we decided to speak to a few men so they would pass the message on, and then people started to get together. We asked for the village leaders or rich men and told them about our work. Then they explained to others: "This work affects us also, and we should work with them [the Forest Department]." Then the elite men showed other villagers the destruction in the forest, and said: "Look, this is the kind of damage." Then people got together at their request.>> VOICEOVER: Like the Forest Department, the community also had to get used to this more consultative approach. However, once they understood what the Forest Department was asking of them, they had to prioritize for themselves where the forest conservation and erosion control work on offer was to be carried out.>> DAVLAT SINGH [President, Bhalyani Joint Forest Management Committee]: There are members from every village [in the panchayat]. Each village decides where to put grass, where seedlings and other work are needed. Because everyone has an opinion, we decide these things in meetings.>> VOICEOVER: Ensuring that everybody's views are represented is a challenge in any community, as all too often the rich and more powerful have undue influence on decision-making, which can sometimes lead to conflict. However, in this project, consensus appeared to be the norm.>> DEVKI DEVI: One person's opinion isn't taken over by another's in our meetings. We all speak amongst ourselves, and then begin work.>> DAVLAT SINGH: No, there's never been any trouble. It doesn't happen, because we all work together with the same goal.>> VOICEOVER: As a result of the project, grazing and lopping of trees for fodder was restricted in five hectares of forest, which were enclosed for natural regeneration. Saplings were supplied for a new two-hectare plantation, and two check-dams were built for soil conservation. Generally, people seem to like the new way of working.>> JAI CHAND: I think it's going well. What could be better than this? I believe that working with the people is the best way.>> DAVLAT SINGH: It's like this: unless we work together with the Forest Department, the work won't succeed. The Forest Department alone won't do anything like planting seedlings, or planting grass, unless we want to work together and support them. Because in areas where the Forest Department has done work before and the villagers didn't participate, it didn't work. For instance, where they have enclosed seedlings, if villagers let their animals graze there, how can it succeed? If we villagers agree and want to save it, then we should support them. With this support, those seedlings will grow, and the grazing in the forest stops.>> JAI CHAND: This is a good method. Before, people used to do a lot of lopping. But now I'm seeing that people are starting to do the right thing in the right way. It won't stop completely, but there is less harm being done to the forests.>> VOICEOVER: The Sustainable Forest Management Project wound up in 2001, and was followed by the DFID [UK Department for International Development]-supported Himachal Pradesh Forest Sector Reforms Project in 2003. This project extended the reach of participatory planning beyond forestry, and took a livelihood-centered approach to the design of micro-plans for the development of whole panchayats. Although led by the Forest Department, State Planning, Agriculture, and Rural Development Departments were also involved. The first step was to find out quite quickly what communities needed, and then they drew up "micro-plans.">> FARHAD VANIA [Team Leader, Himachal Pradesh Forest Sector Reforms Project]: This is linked to previous phases of the project, when "participatory rural appraisal" (PRA), as it was originally called, and now it's called several different names, came into the forest sector. There are focus group discussions that are held, there's some amount of resource mapping that happens, there's also assessments of trying to put priority: people are basically given to understand that there's a limited amount of resources, and there's a lot of things that you could put those resources down into. On priority, what is it that a community would like to do? And that becomes a collective participatory decision that then comes into the micro-plan.>> VOICEOVER: The project is taking place in only 85 panchayats of some 3,200 in Himachal Pradesh, which by Indian standards is a relatively well-off state. With its livelihood focus, this second phase of intervention is targeted at the poorest panchayats in the state. Mangarh Panchayat, a few kilometers from Bhalyani, is one.>> NAGIR CHAND [Forest Guard, Himachal Pradesh Forest Department]: We applied a few PRA tools in making the micro-plans. We made a social map and we did a transect walk. Then all the information we got was put into the micro-plan.>> SHABAN LAL [Group Organizer, Mangarh]: We got some paper and we recorded all the needs of a particular ward: this is needed; this kind of work should be done. Then we gave the paper to the project staff. They put up notices and we had more discussions about what we should do in the ward. We then incorporated this into the micro-plan.>> NAGIR CHAND: There were difficulties at first. About a quarter of the people understood, but three-quarters didn't. They didn't know what the problems were. They didn't understand how to do the PRA, or what it was about. This is because there's a lot of illiteracy here, there are only a few literate men. But after many meetings, people are beginning to understand.>> VOICEOVER: According to the Forest Guards, low literacy levels in a community affect not only how long it takes people to understand the objectives of the project, but also how much people participate, and whose voices are heard, especially when it comes to planning and prioritizing projects from the limited resources available. But once people saw the material benefits, their attitudes seemed to change, although some compulsion was needed.>> SHABAN LAL: Everyone was involved. This project has a special focus on the poor. In the ward development committee that we formed, we included more poor people, those who are downtrodden because of poverty.>> NATHI DEVI [Secretary, Mangarh Self-Help Committee]: First we'd ask, "What's in it for us? Nothing." We thought, "You're wasting our time." But now they tease us and say, "Look at your savings and how much you have sold!" So we've changed our minds. For example, compost is good. We can use it in our fields and don't have to buy it.>> SHABAN LAL: Most people in the ward were with us. There were a few men who didn't support us, saying, "It's not like this; it won't happen like that." But we went to their homes and spoke with them. We asked them to come to our meetings, and told them, "That's how it is and if you don't abide by it, we can take you to court and file a claim against you." We believe that it's vital to have people's support in this area. So we told them, if you don't join us, we'll exclude you from many other things. So now they have joined, and we don't have some people doing whatever they please. There's no problem now.>> NATHI DEVI: They do act on some of our ideas and some of their own. But sometimes we need to go along with them. Isn't that how it is? We follow what we believe to be true: those who tell the truth.>> SHABAN LAL: What's happening is what they want. It's not just what the important village men want that's listened to and followed.>> VOICEOVER: For the Forest Guards, the planning process itself helped to ensure that the real needs of the community were addressed, rather than those of a vocal elite. The micro-plans set out clearly and publicly the community's priorities.>> NAGIR CHAND: The micro-plans have been very useful. We can understand the actual position and get a clear view about what conditions are like. We understood all this through the PRA. We need to focus on people who depend most on the forest. When they have sustainable livelihoods, then the pressure on the forest will be reduced, and I think this will benefit our natural resources.>> FARHAD VANIA: Micro-planning itself has been tried in different sectors in India, but now is almost a decade and a half that it's been tried in the forest sector, and it becomes a sort of an institutional record of the expectations of a community. Now again here also, there are, in the use of these tools, there are challenges. Often staff haven't ever done micro-planning, so we have to give them some amount of orientation, some amount of training, and then they go out and do it, and they don't necessarily get it right the first time around. So there's a learning that happens in that, both for the communities as well as for the departments who are trying to do this kind of planning.>> VOICEOVER: Paonta Forest Division lies on the edge of the lowland plains close to the border with Haryana, and was not involved in the phase one ODA Sustainable Forest Management Project. Its focus is to harness forest resources directly for income generation and livelihoods.>> PUSHPENDRA RANA [Division Forest Officer, Paonta Sahib]: Sustainable forest management was an issue, was a concept that was always there, but now sustainable forest management has to be a little bit more purposeful in having the needs and the demands of the public in view. There is a need to establish the linkage between sustainability of the resource and how you can link the sustainability of the resource to the sustainability of the livelihood of the people.>> VOICEOVER: Palhori is a group of scattered hamlets set out along a river valley, which leads into the neighboring state of Haryana. The people here are mostly itinerant herders from scheduled castes and tribes who live at subsistence level. Involving them in the planning of their community's development is a new challenge.>> YASIN ALI [Forest Guard, Himachal Pradesh Forest Department]: There were several steps to this. A few officials from the project explained the process in a meeting. The pradhan was present, and all the people living in the area. At the meeting they were asked, "What would be the best way to protect the forest, a way in which both you benefit and the forest is maintained?" Then a working plan was made that included the people's suggestions.>> VOICEOVER: In Pushpendra Rana's view, the people's needs are so basic and obvious that there was no need to go through a detailed and time-consuming micro-planning process. This was finding out very fast!>> PUSHPENDRA RANA: The dominant problems were visuals, there was no need of any long format, or questionnaires, or anything. What we did, we just went there, we just identified a few problems, after having a series of meetings with them, we run through each problem with them, identify the problem, we worked on their solutions: how can that problem be solved, and how that particular problem can turn into an opportunity to generate forest-based livelihoods.>> RAGHUVEER SINGH [Pradhan, Palhori]: Here, people's main occupation is raising animals. People meet their household needs by selling them. The animals need fodder. Before, you could find fodder nearby, but now it's becoming scarce. And that's why people thought we should focus on fodder for our animals first, and on our river. There used to be a lot of water in our river; it met our needs, and people grew fodder plants in their fields. But now the water in the river has decreased. So we decided to focus on both water and fodder, because both these things are decreasing.>> SIGN: H.P. Forest Department Office. Divisional Forest Officer. Paonta Sahib Forest Division.>> VOICEOVER: After deciding on the needs, groups were formed to plan and oversee the actual implementation.>> SIGN: Prosperity through forestry>> PUSHPENDRA RANA: As budget was the limit, and activities were more, we just told the public, we just floated idea that only those activities would be taken which would be protective in nature and will help in sustainability, and help in your generation of forest-based livelihoods.>> RAGHUVEER SINGH: They made groups. Four or five small groups were made in this village. In those, people decided that we want a well first, or hand pumps, or to make a plantation. All of this was based on the group's wishes.>> YASIN ALI: The people's demands were listened to. Before, projects would come from the top, whatever the government decided would be done without considering whether it would benefit people or not. But now, projects are planned with the people. If people want certain work, they say, "We need this work done," and the Forest Department proceeds with that in mind.>> VOICEOVER: The project has brought very obvious physical benefits to Palori in terms of improved water resources and plantations. But whether it has made a lasting impact on the community's ability to participate in sustainable forest management remains to be seen.>> RAGHUVEER SINGH: When the group committees were set up, people were told that this project would run until December 2006. After that we'd have to look after it ourselves, but the Forest Department would assist us. People do have some knowledge now, but they need more awareness about the forest, so that the work that has been done in the forest progresses.>> TITLE: In the village of Barog Beneri, the forestry project involves local women>> HARI SHASAN VERMA [Forest Ranger, Himachal Pradesh Forest Department]: In our region, Paonta, the most backward [poorest] panchayats were chosen to participate [in the Himachal Pradesh Forest Sector Reforms Project]. The plan's aims included both the well-being of people and the well-being of the forest. The department encouraged people to contribute, and with them we were able to develop a very good plan in which both the needs of the department and of the public could be addressed. We received a great deal of support from people to do this.>> DAMYATI SHARMA [Bharog Baneri]: When the DFID project first came, they called many people to join in. So then the DFO, the Forest Department, suggested that the focus should be on work that keeps the forest healthy, and that allows people to earn something, so that people can benefit too, and seedlings are protected. So we thought that, years ago, we used to work with palm leaves. A few women in the village do this and make things to use in their homes, and they sell any surplus. So I suggested that this could be expanded, if the women were ready to be involved.>> PUSHPENDRA RANA: What we think [is] that women can protect forest better if they are dependent on the forest. They are the first to go to the forest and meet the needs of the people for fodder, for the milk, the cow dung, and everything, the entire concept, because the household living is run by women, and that women we haven't ignored.>> VOICEOVER: The Forest Department set up a workshop for the women to do palm weaving, organized training, and appointed field coordinators to assist with marketing. After a good start, some social conflicts emerged.>> PINKI [Coordinator, Palm Weaving Project]: The palm group started off well, but then there was a problem with the accounts. The secretary's accounts weren't transparent. She wouldn't discuss her expenses with the group: where money was spent, how much she paid for things. The group didn't get this information, and because of this, they wanted to change their secretary.>> PUSHPENDRA RANA: What happened, two or three women, they became very strong, and what they tried to do is they tried to utilize the entire group for their own purpose. And they were high caste women, so low caste women, they get separated now.>> ASHA DEVI [Bharog Baneri]: At first we were fine. Then there was some problem with the money or with materials, and then the meetings became a bit difficult. Then they insulted us; they said that people from scheduled castes are like this, like that. They said many insulting things. Then we thought, "It's us that are making the items, and you are putting your names on it." We told them this, but they didn't agree, so we separated. Since then we've formed a good group and things are running well.>> DAMYATI SHARMA: At first nothing happened; everyone was working together. I don't know what happened between them. A few women said, "This woman," the one who keeps accounts, the secretary, "is from a different panchayat." They didn't raise an objection at the start, but later said that, "This women is from a different panchayat, we don't accept her." The DFO said that there is no question of objecting, so then we decided to split the group. We said, "Those who want to go in that group, go; those who want to be in this group, stay." For me, there's no problem; it's up to them how they want to work. I have no objection.>> VOICEOVER: The crisis forced some hard talking and some changes in the way the groups worked.>> ASHA DEVI: Since then, things are running well and we are making even better things. Many women come, the previous members come, and they make the products even better. It's running even better, everyone comes.>> PINKI: One important thing is that the secretary and pradhan who are chosen are completely transparent with everything and everyone, and discuss everything with the group: what's happening, what's not happening. Because of this, we made lots of changes to our record system. Every month she [the secretary] will discuss how much is being spent and on what. They'll be audited four times, a self-audit, to see how much they have made and what they have spent in three months, and after that we will have a full record of the outcome for the year. Transparency is the first rule.>> PUSHPENDRA RANA: It's a social mobilization, it is a social organization. It will take time. It will not happen in one or two years that we will find that everything will be okay. We have to work to remove their differences, we have to work on social agendas, we have to work on their political issues, some of the political-economic issues we have to discuss and elaborate and to work on them, then we can definitely have results. We have to educate them also, we have to make them aware that these resources are for their common purpose, nobody can have an agenda on a particular resource which is common for them. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/resilient-bangladesh-songs-for-a-changing-world Meet 14 year-old Titu Illias, who is using his talents as a singer to educate his community about the changes occurring in the environment -- a pressing issue in Bangladesh, considered by many to be one of the most climate-risk countries in the world. Fri, 12 Nov 2010 08:22:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/resilient-bangladesh-songs-for-a-changing-world Bangladesh, Climate change, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Noakhali District, South Asia, Environment, Bay of Bengal, Change Makers, Climate, Education >> TITLE: India. Bay of Bengal. >> TITLE: Bangladesh, Noakhali >> VOICEOVER: Fourteen-year-old Titu is getting ready for a day of school. >> TITU ILLIAS: Mom, I am going to school. >> VOICEOVER: Unlike children in the West, Titu knows nothing about how climate change is affecting the polar bears in the Arctic. However, he too has noticed changes in his environment. >> TITU ILLIAS: Now we are in rainy season but from what I can see, I don't think we are getting enough rain. Day by day the climate is changing. The number of droughts and floods is increasing. People are struggling with this more and more. >> VOICEOVER: In grade nine at the Obaidullah Memorial High School of the Noakhali district, Titu is participating in a troupe of young performers raising awareness of the challenges Bangladesh is facing as a result of climate change. >>TITU ILLIAS: We will listen to all what Brother Rana says, now we will not listen to anyone else >> VOICEOVER: This song is part of the play "Let's Hear Brother Rana," developed with the assistance of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in order to empower youth with knowledge and skills to adapt to the impending environmental changes. The character Brother Rana is based on the local bullfrog which is highly sensitive to climatic changes. The children relate to him because Rana is a common Bangla name. Titu is selected as one of the main performers for his exceptional singing ability. Together with his friends, he is taking the message of Brother Rana to schools and communities throughout Bangladesh. >> TITU ILLIAS: Brother Rana tells us to listen carefully to the cyclone warnings when we see a cyclone approaching. We should tell people to go to the cyclone center. Brother Rana tells us to cultivate crops that resist salty water. Because of cyclones and flooding, salty water from the sea enters the fields. Crops cannot be produced in the salty water. We need to make a moat around the field so that salty water does not enter the fields. Before, I knew nothing about Brother Rana and the environment. But since taking part in the Brother Rana play, I know everything. >> VOICEOVER: While world leaders struggle to agree on ways to tackle climate change, Titu and his schoolmates are already helping their community to adapt to the increasingly destructive climate. >> TITU ILLIAS: It's enjoyable to help people understand the problems we face and their solutions. If we put our hearts into delivering this message, and everybody talks about it, then everybody will be aware. >> TITLE: OurWorld 2.0 >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/green-power-from-pigs <p>Pig waste stinks, but it can also be a valuable source of renewable energy. We visit a farm in Thailand that is turning unwanted muck into biofuel.</p> Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:15:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/green-power-from-pigs Renewable energy, Biogas, United Nations Development Programme, Thailand, Methane, Sustainable development, Agriculture, UN in Action, Environment >> VOICEOVER: Pigs, specifically their waste, which is often regarded as a smelly nuisance, has increasingly become a valuable source of renewable energy. When this pig farm in northern Thailand started a few years ago, people living in the surrounding area complained that the pigs created a dreadful smell and a public health hazard. They petitioned the local district office to relocate the farm. Kiangkom Kommalai is the owner. >> KIANGKOM KOMMALAI: Then the local agriculture officer suggested that I install a biogas system to convert animal waste into biogas. >> VOICEOVER: With financial support from the local authority, Kiangkom built a cement container, called a digester, to produce biogas. It's a fairly simple operation, says Yubon Yawai from the local District Administration. >> YUBON YAWAI: First you collect the waste and transfer them into the digester. The decomposed waste inside the container will generate methane gas which is then piped off to the households. >> VOICEOVER: Thailand is a fast-developing country. It relies on foreign oil for more than 50 percent of its energy needs. To ensure continued sustainable development, the country has actively encouraged its citizens to find ways to conserve energy, including an effort to spread the use of renewable energy in rural communities. This remote mountainous village in northern Thailand is home to over 200 Lisu ethnic families. Like most other villagers, they lack information about and access to biogas. Loyi did not know that the waste of four pigs is sufficient to produce enough cooking gas for her family. Like everyone else in the village, she relies on firewood as the main source of cooking fuel. Each morning, she gets up at 4:30 to prepare breakfast. It often takes her an hour just to get the fire started -- and longer if the wood is damp. >> LOYI: If it's raining, it's very difficult to get the wood set on fire. It gives out a lot of smoke too. >> VOICEOVER: To encourage villagers to use biogas, the UN Small Grants Program, funded by the Global Environment Facility, launched a pilot project to build a digester in the village. Three other digesters are being built, and another nine are slated to be built over the coming year. Nicholas Keyes is from the UN Development Programme. >> NICOLAS KEYES: The biofuel collectors are intended to demonstrate to people in agricultural communities there is a renewable energy resource in their community that they can use and that they can benefit from. >> VOICEOVER: Despite the obvious benefits, villagers are reluctant to sign up for the service. Manop Yangjar, the Project Coordinator for the UNDP Small Grants Program, explains. >> MANOP YANGJAR: They've never seen this before and they never use this kind of project. So it would very difficult for them to change their attitudes and their behavior. Some villagers they thought that if we produce gas, cooking gas, by pig manure, when we cook it can smell. Actually this is not true. >> VOICEOVER: While some villagers continue their age?old practice of scavenging for firewood, many are beginning to realize the benefits and the convenience of biogas. Today, Loyi and her family have signed up for the service. She is eager to have her stove connected to the biofuel collector. >> LOYI: Then I don't have to spend time to collect wood. And I will also save money, energy, and power. >> VOICEOVER: The 500 pigs at Kiangkom's farm are now providing free biogas to over 100 local residents. Their only cost is a one?time charge of 400 baht, about USD$12, for the purchase of a pipe. >> KIANGKOM KOMMALAI: We are all happy now. Everyone benefits from the biogas system. >> VOICEOVER: There are over eight million pigs in Thailand. The drive to introduce biogas technology to rural communities is one of the latest efforts to provide better living, while conserving energy and reducing the effects of global warming. >> VOICEOVER: This report was prepared by Patricia Chan for the United Nations. >> TITLE: www.un.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/solar-power-lights-up-remote-communities <p>One third of the world's population doesn't have access to electricity. The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) is helping remote rural communities to harness the power of the sun to give them safe, cheap energy to power lighting, medical refrigerators, and modern communications devices.&nbsp;</p> Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:41:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/solar-power-lights-up-remote-communities Solar Electric Light Fund, Solar energy, Renewable energy, Electricity, Developing country, Technology, Electric light, Solar panel, Non-governmental organization, Alternative energy >> VOICEOVER: It's called energy poverty. One out of three people in the world don't have access to electricity. Most live in rural areas in developing countries and for them it's a blackout every night. As the world's population grows, so does demand for electricity, and the energy gap between the rich and the poor increases. The poor use wood, dung, or kerosene for fuel. Energy poverty means no power to pump water, refrigerate vaccine, or to connect to the global information network. For some in remote areas, hooking up to the grid is an impossible dream. But there are solutions that are making a difference. Solar energy is changing lives and livelihoods in the most unlikely of places. The Solomon Islands are an example. Let's take a look >> VOICEOVER: They live in Sukiki, a small village on the coast of Guadalcanal. >> TITLE: Sukiki, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands >> VOICEOVER: It's part of the Solomon Islands, an island nation in the South Pacific. They have no electricity, but they do have the sun. Without electricity, the people of Sukiki are forced to use kerosene, and kerosene isn't always their friend. >> DR. SILENT TOVOSIA: The lantern was empty and she was going to fill the empty lantern with the kerosene when the whole thing caught fire and exploded, so she got burns to quite a large percentage of her body. >> DR. HERMAN OBERLI [Central Hospital, Honiara, Solomon Islands]: This patient you have seen is typical for an exploding kerosene light. She's burned all over her front. Those patients, they stay in the hospital an average of at least 20 days per patient. They have no alternative. There's no electricity in the village. It's just what is available, these kerosene lamps. Nothing else. If they could have any other kind of lighting all these burns could be prevented. >> VOICEOVER: This is the story of how the people of Sukiki learned to make their own electricity by capturing the light from the sun. That's Bob Freling. Bob is the executive director of a group called the Solar Electric Light Fund, or SELF. After all the equipment is delivered, the staff from SELF works with the villagers to map out a strategy. They trained some of the Sukiki villagers back in Honiara, in a week-long orientation session, and now everyone is learning, so that the village can continue to build and maintain the system after SELF is gone. So they set about making poles and digging holes and cutting down trees so there would be no shade where they put up the poles. And now it's time to turn on the lights. [cheering] Sukiki has electricity, but its essence will not change because of it. Sukiki will hold on to its nature. The people love this land, they are part of it. And now the light from the sun is more a part of them. >> VOICEOVER: Bob Freling has directed SELF projects in more than 15 countries since 1997. He has received many awards for his work, including the 2008 King Hussein leadership award, presented by Queen Noor of Jordan in March 2009. He speaks with Earth Focus correspondent Miles Benson, about how solar power can bridge the energy gap. >> MILES BENSON: Bob Freling, the Solar Electric Light Fund, what exactly are you trying to do in the world? >> ROBERT FRELING [Executive Director, Solar Electric Light Fund]: Well, Miles, the Solar Electric Light Fund is a Washington DC based nonprofit organization whose mission is to bring solar power to rural and remote villages in the developing world >> MILES BENSON: What is life like in a village where there is no lighting. >> ROBERT FRELING: For approximately two billion people in the world, roughly a third or perhaps a fourth of humanity, whatever number you use, it's a very large percentage of humanity, that even in the 21st century does not have access to electricity. And imagine for these people, when the sun goes down, these folks are retreating into homes that are lit dimly, if at all, by candles or kerosene lamps. Their productive day pretty much comes to an end when the sun goes down. >> MILES BENSON: There are health problems that are exacerbated by the absence of electricity. People depend on kerosene, and burning kerosene emits fumes and smoke and that causes problems, doesn't it? >> ROBERT FRELING: It is said that people who live with kerosene lanterns end up smoking the equivalent of two packs of cigarettes a day. It's a couple of million people a year die from respiratory illnesses that are caused by indoor air pollution: open fires, kerosene lanterns. It's a huge health hazard. If you do nothing but replace those with solar electric lighting systems, you will have made a huge contribution to improving the health of rural families and communities in the developing world. >> MILES BENSON: What changes do people experience when they're given light. >> ROBERT FRELING: The moment when families are able to flip a switch and have an electric light come on for the first time in their lives, the first time that happened for me was in western China. I traveled into these remote mountain villages which could only be reached on foot, and we installed these solar home systems and I observed families experience electric light for the first time in their lives. And they were very moved, as I was. Also, I saw them be able to turn on a television set, and access news from around the world for the first time. So their whole world was basically opening up before them. The power can be used to not just provide lighting but also computers, where children can start to gain computer literacy skills at an early age. And, when combined with wireless communication technology, when you bring both computers and the internet to a rural community, then you've really accomplished something meaningful. >> MILES BENSON: You have a project in Bhutan. Let's take a look. >> VOICEOVER: Light is the language of the universe. >> TITLE: Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan >> VOICEOVER: And in the heart of Bhutan, deep in the Himalayas, where the rare black-necked crane flies south from Tibet, the universe is in the midst of a breathtaking conversation. Each winter, the black-necked crane makes its home here in the valley. The people devote art and prayer to this winged messenger that flies on the light from its summer home in the mountains of Tibet. Bob and his organization SELF are here at the invitation of the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature, to try to save the habitat of the black-necked crane, while preserving the path toward modernization for the people of Phobjikha Valley. >> ROBERT FRELING: There are a lot of conservation efforts going on which often overlook how the needs of people that live in and near these ecosystems are so critical to the preservation of these ecosystems, because a lot of people haven't made that connection. >> LAM DORJE [Executive Director, RSPN, Royal Society for the Protection of Nature]: This here for example, Phobjikha, is a very pristine environment, habitat for the endangered black-necked cranes, not ... ecologically very significant, and at the same time we have people with aspirations for development. There are ways by which both can be brought together. Conservation can be a basis for human welfare. >> VOICEOVER: The 500 families who live in Phobjikha still cut down trees to make wood chips to light their homes. Even when supplemented with kerosene and its noxious fumes, the light is so meager that it is difficult for children to do homework, for weavers to weave, for tailors to sew, and for doctors to practice their art. Kerosene must be brought many miles over the mountains, often by hand, and at great expense. To discourage the people of Phobjikha from leaving for the city, and to help preserve the habitat of the black-necked crane, the people of Bhutan ask SELF to bring in a clean, renewable source of energy for the valley. And so into this world steps the Solar Electric Light Fund. >> JEFF DAHL [Project Director, Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF)]: It's been a pleasure just walking into each house and seeing how people are living, and then just seeing the instant transformation from the time you show up at the house to the time you leave. Their house and their lives have been transformed. >> ROBERT FRELING: We also electrified the health clinic in Phobjikha Valley, as well as the education center that is run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature. >> MILES BENSON: Two billion is a lot of people to be living without light. SELF can't raise enough money all by itself to solve this problem. Governments are going to have to get more involved, aren't they? >> ROBERT FRELING: Well, most of our projects have been focused at the village level at the household level, and we've typically worked with local NGOs, non-government organizations, to manage the projects. So we will always have a local partner that we work with. And training and capacity building is a very important part of our approach to project design and implementation. But if our models can be adopted by governments and they see that these solutions are actually working and they can be scaled then I think that we will have really accomplished something significant. >> MILES BENSON: Do you see a day coming, perhaps not too far off, when solar power will provide most of our energy needs? >> ROBERT FRELING: Within the next few years it is predicted that solar will achieve what is referred to as "grid parity," where it becomes as cheap to use solar for grid electricity than conventional fossil fuels. It's an opportunity for us now to take the lead in bringing advanced energy technologies to the developing world because at the end of the day creating a world that works for everybody, bringing social justice to the parts of the world that have been so lacking in resources and opportunity, that will go a long way, in my opinion, to making the world safe and secure for everybody. >> MILES BENSON: Bob Freling, thank you very much. >> ROBERT FRELING: My pleasure Miles. >> TITLES: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/saving-cambodias-great-lake The Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia is among the most productive freshwater fisheries in the world. But the lake is being threatened by deforestation, illegal fishing practices, and pollution, so the local communities who depend on the lake for survival are working together to protect the lake's resources and improve their livelihoods. Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:36:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/saving-cambodias-great-lake Cambodia, Tonlé Sap, Siem Reap, Conservation, Environment, Kompong Phluk, Fishing, Phnom Krom, Fishery, Mekong >> TITLE: Saving Cambodia's Great Lake>> TUY RAAN [School Principal, Chong Kneas]: The Tonle Sap Lake was rich in fish when I was young. People went fishing and usually brought back enough fish to support their families. But I've seen that our Tonle Sap has changed. Now the lake is poorer, with fewer fish and less forests.>> VOICEOVER: In Cambodia today, there is growing awareness that the Tonle Sap Lake and its remarkable wetland habitat must be protected before it's too late. Flooded forests of tall trees, shrubs, and plants thrive in this magical watery world. The Tonle Sap is the largest and most important freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, covering over 12,000 square kilometers at the height of the flood season. The profusion of vegetation nourishes a rich biological diversity, including over 400 species of fish, as well as reptiles, mammals, and birds. The sanctuary at Prek Toal is the last the last haven in Southeast Asia for large water birds such as pelicans, egrets, darters, cormorants, as well as rare, endangered storks. In 1997, the Tonle Sap was designated a biosphere reserve by UNESCO to ensure the long-term conservation of its vibrant ecosystem. Throughout the ages, the lake's rich resources have attracted human settlement. On the hilltop of Phnom Krom stands an ancient temple overlooking the lake, a relic of the powerful empire of Angkor that dominated the region for 600 years. The center of the kingdom, the temple city of Angkor, is very close to the lake. In the Bayon temple, stone carvings depict daily life on the Tonle Sap, and the flora and fauna, which sustained early Khmer civilization. Today, the lake continues to nourish the nation, a vital source of food in one of Asia's poorest countries. The Tonle Sap is among the most productive freshwater fisheries in the world. The annual catch provides protein for two out of three Cambodians, whose diet is mostly rice and fish. With the lake yielding such plenty, Cambodians feel that the Tonle Sap is truly the heart of their country.>> H.E. NGY CHANPHAL [Ministry of Rural Development]: Without the lake, it would be difficult for Cambodians to survive. 1.2 million live around this lake. It's not a small number. 200,000 to 300,000 tons of fish have been captured every year to supply a major role to us in terms of development, preservation, conservation, and a natural resource for the people.>> VOICEOVER: The secret of the lake's riches lies in its unique hydrological cycle of seasonal flooding. From the lowest level in the dry season to the highest point of the flood season, the lake rises by eight or nine meters. During the dry season, water flows out of the lake, down the Tonle Sap River, and into the Mekong, the major river system of the region. However, the Tonle Sap River reverses direction in the rainy season under pressure from the floodwaters of the Mekong. Water flows back into the lake, which swells to five times its dry season size. Arrow-shaped traps lure fish in the floodplain. As water inundates the lake, fish migrate from the Mekong River to spawn and flourish in the vegetation of the wetland. When the water recedes, a layer of silt is deposited on the floodplain, fertilizing fields planted to crops in the dry season. The people who live on the Tonle Sap have long adapted to the annual cycle of flooding. Many live in floating houses. As the lakeshore moves, so do the people. During the dry season, when the water is low and muddy, the floating villages of Chong Kneas cluster on the lake. But during the wet season, villages are relocated along a channel in the floodplain, as the lakeshore moves more than five kilometers to the foot of Phnom Krom. The Cambodian people depend on the lake's resources, but how long can it last? The Tonle Sap has become an environmental hotspot, threatened by human encroachment, and degraded as never before. Cutting and clearing of the flooded forest for farmland and fuelwood are harming fish spawning grounds. It's estimated that the lake's forests once covered 10,000 square kilometers of the floodplain. Today, two-thirds of the forest is gone.>> PATRICK EVANS [Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN]: Protection of the flood forest ... This is critical habitat for fish production. It's been under lots of pressure from farmers moving down to this area, wanting more land for dry season rice cultivation. But, as the forest goes, so does fishery spawning grounds. Fish productivity is directly linked to this flood forest vegetation. People see the resources disappearing before their eyes.>> VOICEOVER: The health of the Tonle Sap is threatened in other ways. After years of civil strife in Cambodia, peace has led to a rapid growth in the number of people settling around the lake to seek a livelihood. Fish stocks are threatened by over-exploitation and illegal fishing practices. Increasing pollution and erosion of soil from the watershed are accelerating the lake's demise. >> VOICEOVER: The situation at Chong Kneas on the northwestern shore is a microcosm of the problems occurring on the lake. Chong Kneas is a crowded, chaotic landing for fish, goods, and tourists from the nearby town of Siem Reap. Chong Kneas has been a port and a gateway to the region since Angkorian times. The constant pressure of human settlement has taken a heavy toll on the lake's ecosystem. The floodplain around Chong Kneas has long since been denuded, leaving a dusty landscape of scrub bushes exposed in the dry season. In the flood season, Chong Kneas is transformed. The quaint, colorful life of this floating village, however, masks a deeper reality. Despite the extraordinary riches of the lake, most people in Chong Kneas are very poor, barely surviving on less than a dollar a day. In fact, poverty is worse here than in the nation as a whole. Like most residents of the floating village, Yim Pha and her family depend on fishing for survival.>> YIM PHA [Chong Kneas Resident]: Today I only caught 10 kilos of fish. It is not enough to pay for fuel for the boat. Our house is broken, but we have no money for repairs, no money to buy medicine or clothes for the children to wear.>> VOICEOVER: The population of Chong Kneas has tripled during the past decade to over 6,000 people. Huts crowd the embankment. Chong Kneas has become a magnet for migrants, mostly destitute families of landless farmers. They eke out a living as petty traders, or as porters unloading the boats. They cast their nets in the channel for the family meal, even in the shallow pools left behind in the dry season. As Chong Kneas grows, so does the pollution. Plastic bags and other garbage from the fish market, as well as human waste, go straight into the channel. The Tonle Sap has become a sewer for the expanding urban centers near the lake like Siem Reap. Waste discharged into the Siem Reap River, which flows through the town, ends up in the lake at Chong Kneas. With Siem Reap now in the midst of a construction boom fueled by tourism, the volume of waste going into the lake is a serious concern. At Chong Kneas, poor families have little choice but to use the polluted water in the channel for cooking and bathing. Inevitably, young children sometimes take a drink, and may get sick as a result. Waterborne diseases are rampant among the children of Chong Kneas. The local health clinic treats four times the number of young children with diarrhea compared to other villages in the district. It's the leading cause of death among children under five. >> VOICEOVER: The widespread poverty at Chong Kneas is closely related to the decline of fishing as a viable livelihood of the growing population. To try to get a decent catch, residents must travel an hour or more. Every day in the dry season, Yim Pha and her family head out to fish on the lake. It's the height of the fishing season, and the family hopes the catch will be plentiful. The livelihood from fishing used to be good, but now, she says, it's tough to make ends meet.>> YIM PHA: About 20 or 30 years ago there were plenty of fish, but not now. I could catch about 100 kilos, but this year, we're lucky to get 10 to 50 kilos a day. It keeps getting worse, especially with the commercial fishing operators with big nets and small holes, who start fishing in November. They catch all the fish.>> VOICEOVER: The family lands a few small fish. Their catch for the day is only 10 kilos for 10 hours' hard work. Yim Pha blames the big commercial operators that control the best fishing grounds on the lake, where crews can pull in one ton in an hour. The commercial lots are exclusive fishing areas auctioned by the government to the highest bidder. These large-scale commercial fishing operations are very effective in exploiting the fishery, harvesting most of the total annual catch from the lake. But they're also a source of conflict with small fishermen. Miles of fencing and nets surround the vast fishing domains to keep fish in and other people fishing out. No one can fish there without the lot owner's permission. It's now November in the flood season. At this time of year, fishing usually takes place at night, using kerosene lamps to attract the tiny fish, which are the scooped up in a net attached to the bow of the boat. At home, on her small floating house in Chong Kneas, Yim Pha plucks last night's catch from the net. The fish caught at this time of year are mostly small varieties, which will serve as feed for fingerlings she is raising in a bamboo cage. Many families have fish cages to earn some income during the lean season.>> YIM PHA: We leave here at 5pm before dark. We travel about two kilometers. We return at 3am. We usually catch about 100 kilos of small fish. Then, I leave home again at 5am to sell in the market. When I get home, I do chores like chopping fish, cooking rice, and looking after my grandchild The fish we caught won't even cover the cost of running the boat. When I'm short of money, I just borrow from other people to buy fuel for the next trip.>> VOICEOVER: As the livelihood from fishing becomes more and more difficult, Yim Pha worries about the education of her children.>> YIM PHA: I would like my children to continue to go to school, but we are poor. I want my daughters to study one more year. I hope they will become tour guides. If they learn English they can be translators. I'm worried about my youngest boy. I worry about accidents because of the motorboats. I dare not let him take the boat alone.>> VOICEOVER: Yim Pha has cause to be concerned. The wake from passing boats can easily swamp and sometimes overturn the small skiffs. In fact, drowning is the second leading cause of death among small children in Chong Kneas. School regulations stipulate that children cannot be enrolled until they've learned to swim. It's one reason why half of the children here do not attend school. What does the future hold for Yim Pha's family and the hundreds of other poor families in Chong Kneas who depend on fishing for survival?>> EM MANN [Chairman, Chong Kneas Commune]: We are very worried about the future here in our place. Our people are fishermen. What hope is there for our fishermen if there are no fish to catch? How are we going to survive? There is no other work that could replace fishing to provide for our future. This is really our biggest concern right now.>> VOICEOVER: If the Tonle Sap Lake is further degraded, Cambodia faces an environmental disaster. However, there are hopeful signs that this can be averted.>> IAN FOX [Asian Development Bank]: The lake is under attack on many fronts, but there are some reasons for optimism. The government for the first time is taking concerted action at different levels in a coordinated manner: promoting alternative livelihoods to take pressure off the lake's resources, increasing public awareness, making changes in laws and institutions. The type of community involvement we see around the lake -- people coming together to solve problems affecting their livelihoods -- this is a vital component of an overall management strategy for the lake.>> VOICEOVER: Just 20 kilometers from Chong Kneas is Kompong Phluk. Kompong Phluk is a very different world of houses built on stilts: practical in the dry season, with a lower floor for work and storage, yet high enough for the second-floor living area to be above the high waterline in the flood season. Unlike the shifting villages of Chong Kneas, Kompong Phluk is a permanent site located along a river channel not far from the open lake. During the dry season, the water level is too low for boats to reach the village from the lake. Temporary dwellings are built out on the lake and dismantled when the lake rises again and stored for next year. Kompong Phluk is remarkable in other ways. It's surrounded by the largest closed-canopy gallery forest left on the Tonle Sap. This is the community's most valuable resource, and residents are determined to preserve it at all costs. Ng Mi is patrolling the forest, on the lookout for anyone illegally cutting trees.>> NG MI [Fishery Management Committee, Kompong Phluk: We have to be on the lookout for people cutting trees to clear land to plant rice in the dry season. And the other problem is cutting firewood. People just don't care how they cut the trees. In the dry season, sometimes they cut the whole tree, which destroys our forest.>> VOICEOVER: Ng Mi is a member of the community fishery's management committee of Kompong Phluk. He's responsible for patrolling the forest and the village fishery. Mi explains how the forest has been divided into zones under a plan that allows villagers to cut firewood for cooking and fish processing. Cutting areas are rotated from zone to zone to allow the forest to recover. Each household is allowed to cut seven cubic meters per year. Only the ends of branches can be cut so the trees are preserved.>> HEOURING HAK [Kompong Phluk Resident]: We look for the big trees with many branches as big as our wrists, 10 to 20 branches. Then we cut four to five, but we don't cut the big ones, only the small ones. The forest is where fish spawn. When there's a storm from the lake, the forest protects our houses.>> VOICEOVER: The community has established a fish sanctuary, and works with the government fisheries officer to intercept boats in the area using illegal nets and other harmful fishing practices. In 2000, the government released to communities half of the private commercial fishing lot areas on the Tonle Sap. A new fisheries law and regulations that reflect this far-reaching change are before the national assembly. Now, with access to half a million hectares of good fishing grounds, poor fishing families have a real opportunity to improve their livelihood, provided the lake's resources are managed well. The village longboat team practices for races to take place during the annual water festival. This important festival celebrates the reversing of the Tonle Sap River and the opening of the fishing season. Taking advantage of the occasion, education officer Nok Nak paddles through the community spreading his message. >> NOK NAK [Education Officer]: I've been responsible for education since the beginning of the community fisheries committee. We sensitize people about the importance of the flooded forest as a sanctuary for fish to multiply. We also teach them not to use illegal fishing tools to ensure the sustainable supplies of our fish. We do this so that we will have fish to catch in the future. It's not the fisheries committee who set the rules; it's the people themselves, so they dare not go against what they themselves decided. We all have to stick to our rules and regulations. If someone breaks a regulation, they deserve to be fined. It's fair, because the people themselves made the rules.>> VOICEOVER: In Kompong Phluk, the differences with Chong Kneas are clear to see: sturdy houses, a plentiful catch, healthier children. It comes down to safeguarding the resources which provide people's livelihood according to a community leader.>> SOK PLONG [Chairman, Community Fisheries]: If you compare fishing here with Chong Kneas, the two places are very different. Here, we have protected the flooded forests, so lots of fish come and live in the forests. But in places that are not protected, there are few fish. If you compare living standards, there are more rich people in Chong Kneas, but there are also a lot of poor people. In Kompong Phluk, it's not like that. There are a few rich people but there are also very few poor families who do not have enough food. Their living standard is in the middle, not high, not low. Everyone at least has enough to survive in our community. >> VOICEOVER: Community management of the lake's resources is a new trend. But the experience in Kompong Phluk shows its promise. Pioneered in Siem Reap Province by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, this grassroots approach is being extended by the government to villages all around the lake. >> H.E. NGY CHANPHAL: The involvement of the community, it's a major change. It's a catalyst for change in terms of preservation, and they understand: not only the older people but the younger generation. This is not for us now, it's for the future.>> VOICEOVER: Schoolchildren gather around a pile of firewood for a lesson on the loss of the flooded forest. Creating awareness, especially among children, about the need to protect the Tonle Sap Lake may be the best hope to conserve this wondrous wetland for generations to come.>> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-positive-effect-of-gorilla-tourism <p>Dr. Paul Williams from the Bwindi Community Health Center highlights the ways in which revenue from gorilla tourism has benefited the health of the local community.</p> Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:42:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-positive-effect-of-gorilla-tourism Tourism, Health, Uganda, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Ecotourism, Central Africa, Buhoma, Environment, Community Health Center, Open University >> DR. PAUL WILLIAMS [Bwindi Community Health Center]: My name is Dr. Paul Williams and I work as a doctor here at Bwindi Community Health Center. Bwindi Community Health Center is in the village of Buhoma, which is about a mile from the northern entrance to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. >> SIGN: Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC), Bwindi Health Centre Treat Collaboration>> DR. PAUL WILLIAMS: It's about a mile from the main place where tourists come to trek the habituated gorilla groups. Tourism has undoubtedly benefited this area in many ways. Now, one of the things that it's done is it's made this area richer and there is a direct connection between economic wealth and health. Richer people, up to a point, are healthier people, and many of the diseases that we encounter in this area are diseases of poverty.>> DR. PAUL WILLIAMS: This health center costs about US$300,000, so about GBP£150,000, to run every year. So, the health center running costs are got from two different sources. One is by charging user fees and, for the sustainability, the long-term sustainability of an organization like this, it's really important that the community are contributing something towards the cost of their healthcare. But we only actually manage to get about 20 percent of our income from user fees. Now, if we ran the whole health center on that, then the quality of healthcare that we delivered would be very low, but it would be sustainable. So we actually make up the other 80 percent by donations from the gorilla tourism in this area. And part of my strategy as a fundraiser here is to try and use the goodwill of the people that come in order to visit, tourists, in order to try and help to fund the health center. It enables us to have doctors, it enables us to make sure that we have very high quality, highly trained staff here.>> DR. PAUL WILLIAMS: In the last year, through spraying inside of all of the houses and by helping people to access mosquito nets at prices that they can afford, we've managed to almost eliminate malaria as a big problem within this area. You can't be complacent about a disease like malaria, but malaria has become a rare disease, just within the last year, rather than a common disease. So I'm able to tell tourists these positive stories. I'm able to, if people want, to show them around the health center, to expose them to some of the work that we're doing. And I've been very fortunate in that people have been good-natured and people have been kind enough to give either one-off donations or, my strategy is to try and get people tied into the health center and giving longer-term donations.>> SIGN: Family Planning Available Here: Depo injection, Condoms, Oral contraceptive pill, IUCD (coil). All Free. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/gorilla-tourism <p>In Uganda, conservationists and local people are discovering that tourism can help preserve gorilla habitats and create sustainable jobs.</p> Thu, 14 Oct 2010 08:42:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/gorilla-tourism Uganda, Ecotourism, Gorilla, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Uganda Wildlife Authority, Central Africa, Integrated conservation and development, Conservation, Bwindi gorilla >> ALASTAIR MCNEILAGE [Wildlife Conservation Society]: At the same time, another organization was starting up a gorilla tourism program, trying to find ways that the forest could generate income sustainably without being harvested, without being cut down, without killing animals, so that that provided income, both to pay for the management of the park itself, to pay for all the salaries of the rangers and the guides and the park staff and the maintenance of the forest, but also to generate income for the local communities.>> WOMAN [Tourist]: It's amazing. You never see anything like this.>> VOICEOVER: Now, gorilla tourism is seen as the answer to conservation. It's based on the simple economic principle that there is more money to be made from tourist dollars than from selling of natural resources.>> MOSES MAPESA [Executive Director, Uganda Wildlife Authority]: We stopped timber companies from timber harvesting in Bwindi and we earn a lot more money from the great apes tourism, from the gorilla tourism, than we'd ever earn from timber production.>> TUGUMISIRIZE YESE [Local Entrepreneur]: We respect the gorilla because of tourism. It's a bigger income to our country.>> DR. GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA [CEO, Conservation Through Public Health]: What's also very wonderful about the gorillas coming, gorilla tourism beginning, is that the local communities' perceptions of conservation have changed significantly, because they now see the gorillas as a sustainable source of income for them.>> VOICEOVER: Revenue from tourism trickles down to communities via job creation and extra trade, but there is also a scheme that puts a percentage of park entrance fees directly into the hands of local people.>> ENOCK TURYAGYENDA [Local Resident]: You know, there is some little money that normally comes into parishes every year. We call it revenue sharing. That money comes from UWA. It is the money which the whites normally contribute to visit this park, to help the citizens who live around the park.>> GHAD KANYANGYEYO [Local Resident]: In the beginning, everything like wildlife to me, it was like useless, because there was nothing I was benefiting from them. Many local people were just taking anything as if it were nothing and then they could chop the trees down, they could kill the animals, but now things have changed. Everybody's now putting on pressure on conservation because we are benefiting from wildlife. Everybody's benefiting from tourism.>> VOICEOVER: Any long-term plan needed to be profitable and offer sustainable livelihoods to local communities. Gorilla tourism has done this with some surprising results. In 2006, a census found a total of 340 gorillas in the park, an astonishing 12 percent increase in the population over the preceding decade.>> MOSES MAPESA: We can begin to talk about a very positive trend, in the conservation of Bwindi and the gorillas specifically. We have seen a steady rise in the gorilla population and the habitat is still large enough to accommodate a few more gorilla families.>> VOICEOVER: But is the integrated conservation and development [ICD] approach, supported by the money from tourism, really sustainable? Is it the answer to saving the gorillas?>> ALASTAIR MCNEILAGE: What doesn't always work as well, and which is perhaps a bit unrealistic, is to think that through these ICD projects you're going to improve people's livelihoods so much. I mean, you're talking about maybe helping people to move from being very poor to poor, but they're still poor. And so, just because they may be able to cultivate more crops and raise some goats, doesn't mean to say that they still don't have great needs which could still be met by getting resources from the park.>> JAMES BYAMUKAMA [International Gorilla Conservation Programme]: You cannot be in charge of the minds of the people; the needs of the people keep changing, day by day. There are quite many people around here for example, who still feel, even if you gave them alternatives or substitutes for bushmeat, who still feel that bushmeat is what they need. What would you do with them? They will still have to get back into the forest to trap. So I think fortress conservation and integrated conservation and development approaches have to be combined, and the kind of management that brings about that is what we call adaptive management. You adapt the management according to the situation. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/conservation-for-whom At the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, endangered gorillas used to be protected by a "fortress" conservation policy, where armed guards kept locals out of certain areas by force. This bred hostility and mistrust, so now a new approach, called "integrated conservation and development," is helping gorillas and humans coexist more peacefully. Fri, 08 Oct 2010 08:04:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/conservation-for-whom Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda Wildlife Authority, Central Africa, Uganda, Environment, Open University, Mountain gorilla, Endangered species, Integrated conservation and development, Fortress conservation >> DR. GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA [CEO, Conservation Through Public Health]: The gorillas are very important and mountain gorillas are one of our closest living relatives; we share 98.4 percent genetic material. And, when you go out to see them, it's very therapeutic, they look into your eyes and you feel like you're connecting with a close relative. There's only over 700 gorillas left in the world.>> VOICEOVER: Mountain gorillas are one of the world's most endangered species, teetering on the edge of extinction for decades. Today they survive only in the forests of Central Africa, where they have endured years of civil war, habitat loss, and poaching for bushmeat.>> TUGUMISIRIZE YESE [Local Entrepreneur]: We used to see the gorillas. There were very few but, those few, people never feared killing them. They were vermin like other vermin, they were killed, they were poached, there was no problem.>> TITLE: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Central Africa>> VOICEOVER: Half of the world's remaining population of mountain gorillas is found here in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. But, as the park lies in the heart of one of the most densely populated parts of Africa, it's continually under threat from people, eager to use the forest's rich resources.>> CHARITY BWIZA [Program Manager, The Bwindi Trust]: The population pressure is increasing and the population in southwestern Uganda is the highest in Uganda. And it is also said that it's the highest in Africa. But the land is not increasing>> VOICEOVER: To deal with this threat the "fortress conservation" approach was adopted in Bwindi. This aimed for the total exclusion of people and their activities from the forest, enforced by armed rangers.>> JAMES BYAMUKAMA [International Gorilla Conservation Programme]: Originally the communities were allowed to access a number of resources. They would access firewood, they would get mushrooms, they would get wild meat, they would get bamboo shoots, bamboo, and many handicraft products. And when it was made a National Park, then these rights were removed. >> SIGN: Uganda Wildlife Authority Protected Areas -- Management for Sustainable Used Project (PAMSU)>> JAMES BYAMUKAMA: The removal of any of the forest products was stopped and this implied that the communities lost all what they would get as contributions to their livelihoods. Therefore the communities came out in rage.>> CHARITY BWIZA: Communities used to set fire intentionally to the protected area. Then communities used to fight with the law enforcement. So, the communities were really, really very hostile>> VOICEOVER: As conservation by force wasn't working, a new approach was needed. This conflict had to be resolved. For gorillas to have a sustainable future, local people needed to be involved in their conservation rather than excluded from the forest.>> JAMES BYAMUKAMA: A question had come: Conserving for who? Therefore we had to make a shift from that fortress approach to an integrated conservation development approach and put the people into conservation.>> VOICEOVER: The integrated conservation and development approach works by linking wildlife conservation with the welfare of the people around the park.>> MOSES MAPESA [Executive Director, Uganda Wildlife Authority]: We had to review and rethink the strategy to look into how to make these conservation areas more relevant to the people who live close to them or even have ancestral claims to these lands. And that is how the whole notion of integrated conservation development programs started.>> ALASTAIR MCNEILAGE [Wildlife Conservation Society]: One initiative designed to reduce the conflict was also what we call the multiple use program. The idea was to take account of the fact that actually some of the things that people want from the forest -- small amounts of medicinal plants, weaving materials -- could actually be harvested without having a major impact on the forest itself. The quantities they need may be quite small, the resources may be plants which grow quite quickly and are easily renewed, and allowing the communities to access those resources could be used as a strategy to give them something back.>> MAN 1: Wild yams help us live longer and remain resistant to diseases. That's the main reason we like them.>> WOMAN: I gather enough material to weave three baskets and I keep one to use in the home and sell two.>> MAN 2: When the forest was closed there were problems but since we've been able to access things we need, we've collaborated with the park officials and there have been no problems.>> TUGUMISIRIZE YESE: Some non-government organizations, even the government have tried to improve the nature of the people neighboring that gorilla so that they shouldn't at any time point a finger at the gorilla.>> VOICEOVER: Communities were helped to develop new livelihood activities to replace those lost from their restricted access to the park.>> CHARITY BWIZA: We are funding different varieties of community projects like beekeeping and like mushroom growing. People used to go into the park to harvest wild mushrooms, so we started funding individuals and groups to grow mushrooms.>> TUGUMISIRIZE YESE: They gave me the materials, the sterilizing drums, the drier. After helping me with such [things], then they gave me knowledge, enough knowledge, they give me enough knowledge to grow mushrooms.>> VOICEOVER: Now conservation was actually benefiting the local communities and their view of gorillas and the forest began to change.>> TUGUMISIRIZE YESE: Do I need to go to the park to look for mushrooms to supply the hotels? The mushrooms are here. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kenya-flip-flotsam <p>People from wealthy industrialized nations see flip-flops as cheap and disposable. But in Kenya, much-loved "pata-patas" are repaired, reused, and recycled&mdash;but never wasted. The film follows the long life cycle of this colorful footwear, a story full of resourcefulness, enterprise, and creativity.</p> Sat, 25 Sep 2010 00:29:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/kenya-flip-flotsam Kenya, Flip-flops, Recycling, Africa, Kiwayu Island, Bajuni, Lamu, Swahili people, Environment, Journeyman Pictures >> TITLE: Filmed along the coast of Kenya, East Africa >> TITLE: In association with Kenya Wildlife Service and WWF, Kiunga Marine Reserve >> VOICEOVER: This is the beach where the flip-flops come at the end of their flip-flop trip. But where does a flip-flop trip begin? The floor of a flip-flop factory? On the shelf of a flip-flop shop? Or the foot of a flip-flop fan? And what snaps the strap of each flip-flop that finds its flip-flop fate? A flip too far, a flop too fast, or a slip that flapped it back? And what does the sea say when she sees another flip-flop fall? "Oh flip-flop and flotsam, fair and foul, I'll freely float you all?" But is a flip-flop trip really finished once the waves wash them up on the shore? Or could the beachcombers bring them back to life, turning flotsam into something worth much more? >> TITLE: Flip-Flotsam >> VOICEOVER: Flip-flop trips are beginning the world over, in huge numbers every day. And nowhere are they more prolific than here in East Africa, where the coastal city of Mombasa alone is the origin of 20 million pairs a year. The production process is simple, but requires many hands. Originally, the ancient footwear was made of wood, but now strong, synthetic rubber meets the need. In various sizes, one by one, the soles are stamped out, each with three holes for the straps. >> VOICEOVER: Bagging up, sacking up, and stacking up. Ready for action, they take to the streets where the demand is high, but the supply is always a step ahead. The market is flooded with choice and the styles change endlessly as the brands compete for a foothold in the industry. >> SIGN: Umoja: Quality Rubber Products. Kiboko Yao >> SIGN: A Treat to Your Feet >> SIGN: Bata. Beware of Imitations: Look for the Bata label >> VOICEOVER: Some even design their own home-brands; using old car tires, they create the ultimate road-worthy footwear. But, whatever the style, the business is big, and Mombasa is just the beginning. Eighty thousand pairs leave the town each day, heading all over the African continent. But there's one particular place where flip-flops really make their mark. >> TITLE: Kenya, Lamu >> VOICEOVER: Lamu. A small island of Swahili people whose vibrant culture grew from the African and Arabian trading legacy a thousand years ago. The traditional sailing dhows are still central to their way of life, and much time is spent at the water's edge. Nothing could suit the seafarers better than this cheap, cheerful, and amphibious footwear. Known here as pata-patas, they are a basic necessity for all and have become an integral part of Swahili dress. Without any cars on the island, the Lamu feet are hard working, and, at market time, the pata-patas are out in full swing. Worn by all ages, slipping into all sizes, they resound throughout the town. >> VOICEOVER: The meandering route to Madrasa, the Islamic school, is a well-trodden one, but, in keeping with Swahili culture, the footwear seldom gets beyond the doorstep. Whilst the children learn the Koran, their flip-flops, cast aside, lie in wait. Five times a day from mosques all over town, the call to prayer rings out bringing all Muslim men together. Well-accustomed to the routine, the flip-flops know their place. Being left somewhere particular avoids getting lost in the crowd. Older ones are molded to the shape of the feet they wear, the colors and patterns a measure of the weight they bear. Back on the streets, and each on a journey of their own: familiar paths, though no two souls are the same. Worn in, worn out, and in need of some attention, they go to a place where, at last, they are welcomed beyond the doorstep. >> VOICEOVER: Lamu cobblers seldom make shoes, but mend them, and flip-flop maintenance has become their specialty. Well cared for by the cobblers, these will all walk again, but others, beyond repair, lie rejected with the rest of Lamu litter. In May, a change in the monsoon winds brings stormy weather to Lamu, and all the year's rain falls in just a few weeks. The downpours flush the town clean, and the cast-offs make their break. Footloose and fancy-free, they're headed for the open sea. Much of the town's rubbish ends up in the sea, and flip-flops are no exception. Buoyant and resilient, they are swept along by the powerful ocean currents. There is no telling how long their journey will be, or where it will take them, as they join the fleet of flotsam. Flip-flotsam. And so begins their voyage in this mysterious new world. >> VOICEOVER: Skimming the surface and riding the waves, they brush shoulders with other ocean wanderers of all shapes and sizes. For the pelagic drifters the journey is effortless, but for a tiring long-distance swimmer, what better find than this? Seaborne for years, the flotsam is put to good use, and many an ocean hitchhiker gets on board. Anchored firmly to the straps and reliant on their seaworthy host, this colony of goose barnacles feeds from the nutrient-rich surface waters. Adopting marine fashions, they can put on quite a display. >> VOICEOVER: For some this may be a trip to far-off lands -- for others, eventual integration into the ocean's endlessness. But along the remote northern coast of Kenya, converging oceanic currents bring trash ashore with tidal regularity. When the wind is strong, and the tide is high, the coastal release valves kick in, and all that floats, flies. Flung back onto dry land, exposed to the scorching African sun, they begin to curl and crumble, and, sitting out the seasons, they blend into the surroundings. For these noddy terns, roosting on this craggy coral coastline, finding a comfortable perch can be difficult. Though, amidst the crowd, someone has found a solution. >> VOICEOVER: But it's in the bays and along the beaches that most of the litter comes ashore. The resident ghost crabs scavenge for nutritious arrivals, dodging the coastal clutter, which, at every tide, clearly leaves its mark. Day after day, high tide after high tide, the debris chokes the shoreline, and the supplies will just keep coming. On this long island beach, the tide has offered up something a little more interesting. The well-traveled goose barnacles have been left high and dry, and the beachcombers know a good thing when they see it. Whilst the barnacles' protective shells served them well at sea, they are no defense from the powerful claws of ghost crabs. >> VOICEOVER: But the crabs are not the only beachcombers. And, in these hands, a whole new colorful adventure lies ahead. These are the Bajuni people of Kiwayu Island. Their lives are finely tuned to the cycles of the moon and the ocean. After every high tide they search the flotsam for good firewood and other useful pickings. And, of late, this includes flip-flops too, gathered, however ragged, their full potential still untapped. >> VOICEOVER: Kiwayu Island has long been home to the descendants of seafaring Arabs and wandering Somalis, drawn here by the freshwater so scarce on this coastline. Now part of the Kiunga Marine Reserve, remote and unspoiled, this hardy community live off the land and sea. While most men fish or tend livestock, women are making-do with flip-flops. With no electricity on the island the driftwood fuels their stoves, whilst the flip-flops fuel a new cottage industry. >> VOICEOVER: In the midst of this closely-knit village of 500 people, skilled hands are bringing about change. The flotsam is free, the tools are cheap, and the women, mostly housebound with little means of earning a living, are resourceful and productive. Amidst their daily jobs, more and more of them are fashioning the rubber as part of a day's work. The pata-patas, now elevated from castoffs to a valued resource, get to show their true colors once more. Inspired by their rich marine environment, the islanders transform the flotsam into new and vibrant life forms. Initially the carvings were pieced together with Acacia thorns, but the crafting techniques have evolved, and the production line keeps churning them out. >> VOICEOVER: It was the children who originally inspired the recycled creations. Hungry for toys, beach trash can provide good substitutes, and flip-flop models have long been in production. The older boys carve intricate flip-flop replicas of the dhows all around them, and set sail with an old plastic bag. Such creative recycling is an old habit here, but, with the support of conservation organizations, this flip-flop art has made its way into distant markets. Loaded up in dhows, the flip-flops, transformed, begin yet another journey. They leave the quiet shores, to be taken back where their epic adventures began. >> TITLE: Kiwayu, Lamu, Mombasa -- Kenya >> VOICEOVER: Put on sale at craft markets across the country, the flip-flops once again display their bright colors. Brought here by one of the craftswomen, the eco-friendly creations and their unusual origins capture the imaginations of all. The business is good, so completing the cycle as trash, turned into craft, becomes cash. The market, and all it leaves in its wake, has brought to the resourceful beachcombers a valuable trade, precious assets, and their own way forward. And all this, because theirs is the beach where the flip-flops come at the end of their flip-flop trip. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/making-profit-from-waste-in-ghana Plastic waste is an enormous problem in Ghana: you can see it almost everywhere you look. But local people have found ways to use these plastics to create jobs and a make a profit, while also improving the environment. Wed, 22 Sep 2010 08:29:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/making-profit-from-waste-in-ghana Recycling, Ghana, Green job, Accra, Creative reuse, Environmental art, Plastic Recycling, Africa, ViewChange Online Film Contest, LinkTV Picks >> TITLE: Spark Africa: New Business Perspectives>> VOICEOVER: Spark Africa is always looking for new businesses and surprising initiatives. Today we report from Ghana. The biggest problem here is litter and waste.>> TITLE: Ghana. Population: 23.9 million. GNP per capita USD$485. Plastic waste in 2008: 22,000 tonnes.>> DIANA DINSY-SOWAH [Spark Africa Ghana]: Everywhere you go, one will see the streets littered with empty water bags and bottles. This is why the plastic bag is often referred to as the flower of Africa. Recently, however, several initiatives that are making use of the waste to produce new products have come to light in Ghana. Now we go to Amina, a coastal town two hours' drive from Accra.>> SIGN: Cyclus Elmina Plastic Recycling Ltd.>> VOICEOVER: This company is called Cyclus. They collect and process street litter. It seems even waste can be profitable. How that works: a construction company in Ghana and a waste company in Netherlands have joined forces. >> NANA PAAPA VAN DYCK [Director, Vanhold Construction Ltd]: And in the process we realized that there were too many plastics in our environment. We can do something about it.>> WIM HARDEMAN [Project manager, Cyclus Elmina]: We collect waste from households, from hotels, restaurants, bars. But as well we also recycle waste which comes from the industry.>> VOICEOVER: The sorting, assembly, and transportation of plastic waste is a business alone. More than 500 people are involved in the process. >> WIM HARDEMAN: Where it comes down is that the people who pick the plastics are being paid for the work they do. So the PET [polyethylene terephthalate] is being turned into fiber, being used to make anything, like jeans, jackets, carpets, tennis balls, etc.>> VOICEOVER: There are plenty of clients, including the local metal industry or an international fiber company.>> WIM HARDEMAN: And if you look at the whole chain, from the picking to the recycling, everything can be a very sound business.>> NANA PAAPA VAN DYCK: The environment is cleaner. All those plastics you see here, would have been in the soil of Ghana.>> VOICEOVER: Another option is to leave the bottles exactly as they are, and create something totally different. This is a new business idea invented by an artist.>> JOHANNES ARTHUR [Plastic Artist]: If you realize, it was a need for furniture in my room. And it was my desire as an artist to create something new. The double lounge chair, the three-in-one armchair, the single armchair, I have a center table ... The ultimate would be a full house built with the bottles.>> DIANA DINSY-SOWAH: So now you've seen how companies in Ghana and the people of Ghana have found ways of making money out of plastic waste. The environment is getting cleaner, and the people who collect the waste are getting an income. Above all, this chair is very comfortable. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/wealth-from-waste <p>Solid waste management is a serious problem in developing countries like Nepal, as dumping garbage in open spaces can cause disease and environmental pollution. One Nepalese woman, Tulasa Gyawali, has developed a practical and innovative way to deal with household garbage. Her kitchen compost nourishes her beautiful garden, and she earns additional income from selling reusable material like paper.</p> Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:27:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/wealth-from-waste Waste management, Nepal, Municipal solid waste, Compost, Urban agriculture, Kathmandu, Environment, Paper recycling, Recycling, Sustainability >> TITLE: A film on Wealth from Waste by Bal Krishna Sharma >> VOICEOVER: These are some glimpses of Thamel and Durbar Marg, the major tourist hubs in Kathmandu and their vicinity. Rapid urbanization, growing population, and lack of appropriate technologies for solid waste management have been posing serious threats in big cities of Nepal. >> VOICEOVER: A bad culture has been taking place in Nepali urban life regarding the management of household waste. They feel their responsibility is over once they throw the household waste on the road. This sort of tradition is nothing but an invitation to various fatal diseases and plague. It has also been degrading [the] environment and income due to the lack of knowledge and ideas in transforming "waste into wealth." As lotus that blossoms in sunlight, shadows, mud, laborious hands ready to turn waste into wealth are emerging. Tulasa Gyawali, from Bharatpur Municipality-10, is one such example. She is a woman with innovative ideas and positive thinking. >> TULASA GYAWALI: I dump kitchen waste into compost bin and plastic to make flower vase. Kitchen waste changes into manure after about two months. >> VOICEOVER: Tulasa used to dump her household garbage into the garbage pickup trolley from the municipality. The trolley unloaded such garbage at the center of Bharatpur city. That made the market place smelly and dirty. On her way to the market one day, she saw this awful sight. Then she started wondering if the household garbage could be managed at its origin. >> VOICEOVER: She then started managing the solid waste from her household. She dumped degradable, reusable, and non-degradable wastes into three different buckets. She used the degradable waste for vermicomposting. The product is used as manure in her garden. Now, she has grown plenty of vegetables in her kitchen garden and roof of her house. She has also made a very beautiful garden using the same organic compost. She started creating sandals and bags out of milk, noodles, and biscuit packets. A model of Taj Mahal, by using empty bottles of polio vaccine, is one of the finest examples of her creation. Her additional income comes from selling reusable goods like iron and paper. >> VOICEOVER: Unlike common plight of Nepalese women, Tulasa no more depends on her husband for small amounts of money. This has given her dignity and pride. She is encouraged and has been developing her leadership capacity. Tulasa's work is a very good example of managing challenges of poverty, unemployment, and household waste. She turned our social threat into an opportunity. She created double opportunities of employment and income by creatively tackling the challenge. >> VOICEOVER: Tulasa now has proved herself a leader in the household solid waste management. She sticks to her slogan: "usages of household solid waste in urban agriculture system," and has now proven to be a leader in household solid waste management. According to the center for solid waste management program, 85 percent of total solid waste can be reduced if household waste can be managed at its origin. Tulasa says that management of household waste at home can be profitable, reliable, and sustainable method of solid waste management. >> TULASA GYAWALI: Kitchen waste is clean but we are not. It changes into garbage only if you throw it outside your house in the environment. >> VOICEOVER: As Tulasa did, we can also generate biogas, organic manure, and reusable items from our household solid waste. Isn't it the need of current times? >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/trash-is-cash <p>Wafalme is a hip-hop group formed by Kenyan kids who grew up in the slums around Nairobi. They recorded "Trash Is Cash" in a bid to enlighten humanity about innovative ways to recycle waste. These won't just improve the environment, but also produce wealth and employment.</p> Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:27:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/trash-is-cash Cultural Video Foundation, Kenya, Wafalme, Nairobi, Slum Talent Trust, Slum, ViewChange Online Film Contest, Climate change, Recycling, Pollution >> TITLE: Song: Trash is Cash. Artist: Wafalme. Producer: Homeboyz, Slum Talent Trust. Video: Cultural Video Foundation. >> INTRO: Yeah-ee-yeah, no more pollution This my solution Make it clean, make it clean >> VERSE: Millions living here The litter they call dear They weren't born here It's survival for revival Air filled with polluted bubbles Sky's the limit every day hustle Conserving the slum building up muscle Clean up the streets, recycling the trash Save the environment and make some cash People wake up and wander right about outside The narrow dirty streets shanty built muddy shacks Discarded garbage kids playing on filthy paths Within the atmosphere of alcohol, violence, and drugs Education, medication, a distant hope in them >> CHORUS: No more pollution, trash is cash This my solution, trash is cash No more pollution, trash is cash This my solution, trash is cash Make a town a green town, make a town a green town Make a town a green town, make a town a green town Climate change, environment, make a town a green town Climate change, environment, make a town a green town >> SIGN: Kibera Youth Self Help Project: Waste Management Composting Site. >> VERSE: Community groups, micro entrepreneurs Selling to farmers asset compost manure Irrigation from the river Eco sandals, handbags, jewelry made from the trashy granular Mattress, pillow baskets, roof tiles from the trash plastic Sold to local and foreign market Metals sold to scrap dealers in a rampage Cheap cookers made using dumped coffee seeds and paper as fuel Feed the poor, the price not cruel Millions of people trying to save the world While make a living with the strong unemployment And pollution solution, innovative lesson to the world my conclusion Starved women bathing in dirty rivers, planting veggies along rivers Kids forage in waste, drinking water from pipes, covered in garbage Raw sewers overflowing, open sewage, eyes can't bandage Improper sanitation, no latrine variation, garbage mountains, can't manage >> CHORUS: No more pollution, trash is cash This my solution, trash is cash No more pollution, trash is cash This my solution, trash is cash Make a town a green town, make a town a green town Make a town a green town, make a town a green town Climate change, environment, make a town a green town Climate change, environment, make a town a green town >> VERSE: So when I sit back and reminisce about the future Things the way they were, wishing they wouldn't last My thoughts about conservation run inside of me Now I can get the best life I wanted to achieve The ozone layer depletion, mankind threat I mention The planet getting warmer, resource scarcity informer Slums overpopulated, people starving, some don't make it No trees around the slum This can't be a greener ground environment surround Charcoal and biogas production Youth employed for garbage collection, an ideal correction Water purifiers, ceramic material Fine art sculptures made from trash Youth to generate some cash Fire stutter by the roadside, spreading acrid smoke near food kiosks in the air It's pollution here, pollution there, pollution everywhere, beware. >> CHORUS: No more pollution, trash is cash This my solution, trash is cash No more pollution, trash is cash This my solution, trash is cash Make a town a green town, make a town a green town Make a town a green town, make a town a green town Climate change, environment, make a town a green town Climate change, environment, make a town a green town http://www.viewchange.org/videos/guardarecurso <p>A new generation of leaders is rising in El Salvador, tackling some of the toughest environmental and community-driven challenges in unlikely ways. This film profiles Douglas Chica, a young wetlands ranger who is working to protect marshland. He also hopes to inspire local youth to follow his example.</p> Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:21:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/guardarecurso El Salvador, Wetlands, Mangrove, Sea turtle, Central America, Forest, Endangered species, Youth, Community, Fishing >> DOUGLAS CHICA [Wetlands Ranger]: I've been fishing. I've gone crabbing and all that. Yes, yes it's so much fun, but more than anything, just being out there, out in the mangroves, on the water. >> TITLE: Douglas Chica joined the Wetlands Ranger Program in high school. >> TITLE: He works to protect local mangrove forests and endangered sea turtles through awareness raising. >> DOUGLAS CHICA: I started this year, 2009, first patrolling on land, seeing what different trees there were, and the animals, too. In a lot of places, we're seeing problems with people fishing with explosives. They're killing their resources when it should be the opposite. They should be caring for them. Part of it, you know, is how you feel working in nature. You feel so tranquil out there, more than anything, when you meet someone out there doing something, something that's not correct. So it's about informing them and chatting, holding a conversation with them. >> DOUGLAS CHICA: I believe if we were a large force for caring for this resource that's the bay, it would be really valuable because, in these communities, there are young people who can't find anything to do. These programs are one of the few alternatives that exist for developing yourself. It's a way of having something to do, to not fall into self-destructive behaviors that won't help our communities move forward. We are setting the example so that other youths can get involved in the program and continue strengthening our community. It's important that, as youth, we keep integrating ourselves into the challenges facing this community. If someone isn't on the right track, it's difficult to turn them around, but when you get them focused, it's one of the best alternatives for developing our communities with the resources we have at hand. We can do a lot and have fun in the process. It's fun, it's satisfying, sharing all this. They're seeing that us young people, we're also capable of supporting and caring for our home.