The Genius Plan to Regreen the Desert

What if we could turn this desert into a forest, all without planting a single tree? Beneath this seemingly barren landscape, there's a huge underground forest that is ready and waiting to burst out. And all it needs is a little help from us. In a race against time to stop desertification, farmers in Tanzania are reviving an ancient technique that is transforming the landscape faster than planting trees ever could. So we sent Trishala to Tanzania to find out how it works and help turn this into this. We're Planet Wild. Welcome to Mission 33. Africa is losing forests faster than anywhere else on Earth. And deserts are expanding into areas that were once covered in trees. According to recent national statistics, Tanzania is losing an estimated 469,000 hectares of forest per year. To stop this, we need to act fast. So you might think, why not just plant some trees, right? Well, sadly not. Tree planting just doesn't work here. Trust me, people have tried. We will be planting 20 million trees. One trillion trees. Over the past two decades, billions of dollars have been poured into planting trees in the dry lands of Africa. Even the Pope planted a tree. While some projects flourished, many were poorly managed and sadly failed. Our friends at Ecosia actually made a super interesting video about how not to plant trees. There's a link in the description. In the Dodoma region of Tanzania, the climate and the soil is so harsh that you have to get it just right. And projects require a lot of money and time, which the people here just don't have. That means the desert is expanding at an alarming rate. But I'm here because there might just be a way to stop it. And it's right beneath my feet. I'm standing on an underground forest. It's a vast network of roots lying dormant beneath the earth, all with the potential to restore huge areas of dry, barren land. To explain what's going on here, we need to go to the other side of the continent. Niger in 1980 was facing an ecological and humanitarian disaster linked to rapid desertification and severe drought. A young agronomist named Tony Ronaldo moved to Niger to help fight the problem. And like everybody else, he planted thousands of trees. Nothing worked in a sustainable or economically viable way. More than 80% of the seedlings died. One day I was actually delivering a load of tree seedlings to the villages. And on this particular day, for some reason, a bush caught my attention. I thought it was a bush. And I walked over and took a closer look. And as soon as I saw the shape, I realized it's not a bush. It's not a weed. That's a tree. There was a stump pushing up those shoots. And for me, in that instant, everything changed. No, I'm not fighting the Sahara Desert. I'm not fighting climate change. I don't need some sophisticated biotechnology. Everything that I need is literally at my feet. What Tony had found was a so-called camel's foot, one of countless native trees that once formed vast forests across these lands. But during colonial times, everything changed. European powers redrew the landscape. Native trees were cleared for plantations, crops, and fuel. Traditional ways of caring for the land were dismissed as unproductive, replaced by systems that stripped the soil and exhausted the earth. Even after independence, the same unsustainable practices remained, and the demand for land, charcoal, and firewood kept growing. Currently, Africa is losing 3.9 million hectares of forest every single year. That's basically the size of Switzerland. But in many of these places, the roots of the old forest are still alive underground, sprouting millions and millions of what appear to be bushes across the landscape, and they are providing a huge opportunity. But how do we turn a bush into a tree? It all depends on a traditional farming technique that has almost been forgotten. But now it is coming back big time. What started as a small group of locals with the idea to teach this technique to farmers has grown into a national movement, impacting thousands of Tanzanians. People, they have started to grow their own trees by their own hands. I'm so happy because I know that this technique will work. This is Samuel Msanjila. Samuel has spent the last 15 years regreening the country with the LEAD Foundation. By empowering farmers to apply this forgotten technique, they have already transformed 500,000 hectares of land here in Tanzania. So Samuel is about to teach me the technique, and I can only imagine what I'm about to learn because it's been so successful regreening entire landscapes. It must be super complicated. That's it? Yeah. That's everything? Yeah, just simple like this. Okay, there's a little more going on than just cutting off a branch. Let's take a closer look at what's happening. When a tree grows, its main shoot releases a hormone called auxin that suppresses the growth of other shoots and buds to focus energy into one strong trunk. But when the tree is cut to a stump, the tree stops producing auxin, even though the roots stay alive underground. So now, dozens of shoots sprout at once, competing for resources and making it look like a bush. Essentially, this technique is about choosing one or two strong shoots and pruning away the rest so the chosen sprout can quickly become a tree again. This growth happens much quicker than planting a tree because the root system is already established. And as more trees recover, their shade cools the ground, their roots hold the soil, and the moisture they release helps to form clouds and bring back rain, making the land far more productive for families to grow crops, feed livestock, and rebuild their livelihoods. When you see the transfer mission, it will blow your mind. How it starts? One year, three years, five years. That's huge. So let's get to work and bring the forest and our feet back to life. For this mission, we are super excited to be partnering with Ecosia again. A lot of people know Ecosia as the search engine that plants trees because they have reforested entire landscapes by planting more than 240 million trees around the world, and they're doing it the right way. But that's not all. Every time you search with Ecosia, ad revenue goes towards responsible reforestation projects like this one. In fact, they have been supporting the LEED Foundation for years, and you can start making a difference yourself simply by switching your default search engine to Ecosia. There's a link in the description. Okay, so this one is pretty much done, and now we will mark it, and it'll be left to grow. And this cool method, which is so simple, is called a farmer management... Farmer managed natural regeneration. Farmer managed natural regeneration, or FMNR for short. Super catchy, right? But here, they call it kisikihai. And in Swahili, it literally means living stump. So I'm going to be calling it kisikihai. Kisikihai has become one of the cheapest methods of forest regeneration. By now, as many as 18 million hectares of land has been restored by bringing underground forests back to life. And literally, all you need to know is how to do it. And that's where the LEED Foundation comes in. These are the champion farmers. They've been chosen to become experts in kisikihai. After an in-depth crash course in the method, they will spend the next three years empowering and educating 4,800 households in the Kisikihai region. Teaching the technique to even the most rural farming communities. And bringing back a more holistic approach to caring for the land. The Planet Wild community is supporting the LEED Foundation to train 32 new champion farmers in eight villages across central Tanzania. To help them spread the word far and wide, we're also providing smartphones, bicycles, and community events. And our partners at Ecosia have also just signed on to support the LEED Foundation for the next three years. With all this community funding, we can restore 3,000 hectares of degraded land. Turning this into this. It's amazing to see how such a simple solution can have a huge impact. And this is not just bringing back trees. It's bringing back shade, water, habitat for all kinds of animals. And for the communities in the Dodoma region, it brings back hope for a better future. If you feel motivated to do something positive for our world, you can join Planet Wild as a backer. Every month, we go on a mission to bring back endangered species, clean up our oceans, and rewild entire landscapes. And it's all community funded. As a backer, you're directly supporting organizations on the front lines of nature protection. And you can see your own impact here on our channel. So if that sounds good, follow the QR code over here or the link down in the description. Thank you all for watching. Over and out.