Since 2009, the Fondation Yves Rocher has been planting trees in Brukina Faso to fend off drought.
In the province of Sanguié in Burkina Faso, the land is increasingly arid. The landscape gradually turns into savannah, pushing the women on the tracks in search of the slightest tree. This is their only way to get free heating to cook their meals. In addition, the water level of the surface water tables has dropped causing the wells to dry up. It is daily extra work for women and children in search of water resources. These phenomena are increasingly pushing rural people to migrate to the city. The Baobab 29 project proposes to locally reverse this phenomenon through reforestation using agroforestry methods.
The project
In order to reduce the rural exodus from the province of Sanguié, and improve the living conditions of the inhabitants, it is essential to facilitate the work of farmers. To do this, we must plant trees that nourish the arid lands. Anne-Elisabeth Réhault observe it before creating her association Baobab 29.
Since 2009, the Fondation Yves Rocher has been working in partnership with Baobab 29 to reclaim arable land in Sanguié. Since 2011, we have set ourselves the goal of planting 100,000 trees per year in 5 towns in the region thanks to the support of around 30 tree nurseries.
Each year, after having chosen their species, it is the farmers themselves who plant the trees recovered from the nurseries on their land. The big favorites are sea buckthorn, cassia or even red gum tree because they allow you to define the plots.
A few words about the NGO
Baobab 29, created on the initiative of Anne-Elisabeth Réhault, winner of Terre de Femmes in 2009, is an association specializing in agroforestry and the development of arid lands. It “vegetates” stone cordons using Vetiver adapted to the terrain because of its deep roots and its depolluting properties. Baobab 29’s actions are mainly concentrated in the province of Sanguié, which is particularly affected by this problem.
Zoom on artemisia
In Burkina Faso, malaria kills 438,000 people each year, increasingly resistant to drugs.
In 2015, Madame Tu Youyou received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for having discovered the healing properties of annual mugwort (artemisia annua) against malaria.
To come to the aid of physician-researchers as well as victims of malaria, Baobab 29 has decided to act. Thus, the association has taken the noble initiative of planting Artemisia afra plans (a close cousin of Artemisia annua) in nurseries. It is about finding plants, training nurseries so that they prepare cuttings of artemisia. The latter will then sell their cuttings to the association so that it can replant them.
The Fondation Yves rocher is delighted to participate in the financing of this project.
