Hello and welcome to a new edition of eco at africa rights to you by deed stevie and katie and im sharing the money your new host i am a reporter and news anchor with katie and news in the roby here in kenya i was a very passionate about Environmental Conservation and thus im very happy to be on board the eco at africa team joining me from my days my colleague and hello hello there im now time in Lagos Nigeria and im happy to see you today we will bring you some interesting stories and all of a new up coming up on this edition of the show. Saving great white sharks in south africa. A look at insect a trend in the making. And cons of a sinister working to revive the more lines in northern germany we begin todays program with a report of truly amazing creases. White sharks scientists thought that thousands off the large predators in the waters off the cape of south africa but new Research Suggests the number is actually only between three hundred fifty and five hundred mets punish and all the fishing have contributed to the decline and motivation called save us seas is doing what its come to save the remaining shocks. The lines of the southernmost point of africa. Abundant with in the rain and bird life its home to thousands of cape first seals. These Marine Mammals are a favorite with the great white sharks. The predators trolling is waters in large numbers on the lookout for that next meal. Shock alley is also famous as one of the worlds top commercial cage diving destinations the tourism brings in revenue and also help support Scientific Research of the sharks. The white shark cage diving industry hands by its been operating for a number of years many of these boats are collecting daily Observational Data now to better protect an animal we first have to know something about it so we can hope to push legislations at higher levels if we dont have that knowledge to to first investigate. Shocks of all species are in need of protection almost one hundred million a killed each year too many for the populations to recover and some sharks are targeted simply because theyre perceived as dangerous. But thats an unjustified prejudice. Sharks rarely view humans as prey. Theyre only around five shark attacks a year in south africa. Cage diving operators use bait to attract the sharks to the cages. Its a once in a lifetime thrill for the tourists. Their size theres their the mystique that surrounds them. You know i dont live near an ocean and so. The only experience that i had was sure. This is what i see on t. V. And i know you visit and seeing a first hand is ok i dont think you can compare anything else yeah its pretty amazing. Recent studies indicate there may be only a few thousand of the iconic great white sharks left in the world. Back on land kelly baker analyzes the latest data with a colleague. Like a fingerprint each shark has a uniquely shaped back fin the scientists are interested in the animals migratory behavior. Dogs that have five hundred species and they are alternately incredible that they just continue and particularly for me the great white shark is kind of the ultimate iconic charismatic or inspiring speech but yet we still have no idea where it breeds and one way is by the amount of the metric focus and. Understanding where and when the sharks reproduce is vital for that conservation great whites are especially slow to produce offspring as females need around thirty years to reach sexual maturity and can only mate ten or fifteen times in their lifetime which is very infrequent for fish species. Long term conservation success will require a change in the perception of the animals. In nearby cape town the save osses Foundation Invests in shock education. The aim is to introduce schoolchildren to the Marine Environment from an early age. Ok so they want to know that. Sharks are dangerous. To people so know here we are trying to change their minds or trying to teach them to know that sharks are not dangerous as they think sharks are useful to us people because they can always sions in balance taking the oceans the message of save our seas is clear shocks like humans rely on healthy oceans to survive so we need to learn to live with the sea and its inhabitants not against them. In shark alley marine biologist kelly bank is back on the tourist boat. Here shocks are already celebrated stars. Who are. Looked at for so many years that we still initially were tattered her what i would like to do what i hope that we can do is to further our knowledge on this animal. In turn and then to perhaps a better idea of exactly how vulnerable this space is and what we can do to better protect it theres plenty of Research Still to be done besides the charismatic great white one hundred other shark species can be found in the waters of south africa. From south africa we had to examine whether theyre hardly any more lands left these master will have a very special more love comes through vast amounts of water so they play an Important Role in the ads what about love. But all over the world more lines are under threat well take a look at Nature Conservation projects in germany restoring devastated the border. Here. These conservationists want to save the more land near give horn in northern germany. Their most important work right now is up rooting young trees from areas that are too dry andre data of the nature and Biodiversity Conservation union nabu has been working here for many years and leads the restoration project. Were removing trees to keep them all and because its so dry the trees will otherwise keep growing and create a forest removing trees also reduces evaporation because water isnt being drawn out of the ground. Up rooting the trees also helps protect the climate the more land stores considerably more carbon than forests. Too many trees would dry out the more and slowly destroy it. In this dish pretty morelands are important for biodiversity there are many rare plants and animals that only thrive on them was and cant be found elsewhere in the landscape to protect them the most must be maintained and its important for the climate because more store Carbon Dioxide which removes it from the atmosphere. Ninety eight percent of the more lands in germany have already been destroyed through peat harvesting logging agriculture. Teaches at the university of Sustainable Development in volved and near berlin shes very familiar with the global threat to more lands. On the other continents of the world also trying out and being destroyed but not at the level its happening in europe. In africa for example about twenty percent of my land in kenya and nigeria has been protect the cultural use making it a source of Greenhouse Gases. In indonesia and Southeast Asia is a rapid deterioration as being converted into plantations. Has been harvested here for two hundred years today its mainly used as potting soil thats caused that pete on the morris to decline from a depth of six metres to just half a metre on very data and doris planter of nabu are hoping to restore more lands currently being used for industrial purposes. They. Need in order for the peat to develop and kate moss is the most important plant when it comes to replenishing the moreland. When was that if you as peaches removed barren areas being created it could be replanted so were trying to grow as much peat moss as possible so that we can plant it on those narrow areas. That will help the more lands to recover and. To grow peat moss on a large scale water needs to be returned to the more land first. To soak the area we release the water theres a boat here and when we remove it the water flows through and fills the area. As the more land revives it slowly recovers its former biodiversity many insect species can only survive on more land. Peat moss also begins to grow again as. Its great that we were able to take land where all the pete was removed and restore it to a flourishing moreland when you look down and you can see that the paint moss is growing again it shows all our work was worth it. The peat soil here will accumulate at the rate of about one millimeter per year so its a job that requires a lot of patience. Itll take about six thousand years for the more land there get horn to fully recover. Climate change is having a huge impact on the environment one concern is that if occasion. The green initiative. Would stop and restore the natural vegetation all of which. Used what i would call it or thats how theyre doing their bit for the environmentalists. Turning the desert green. A large sand dune is in danger in the village of conduit molly. Sand is invading fields and smothering farmers crops. The twenty five kilometer long dune also threatened seven other villages. But local farmers together with an ngo have found a way to contain the sand and turn the desert green. Theyre building straw barriers to stop the Shifting Sands their growing bushes to stabilise the dunes with their roots and planting trees at that time to the sandy soil like the desert today which provides fruit and wood. Making the dune safe is an ongoing project but the results are already being felt. Like such. If youre also doing youll be telling us about. Tweet. Doing your bit we share your story. Today we made. A director in the night. We talk about how and i just fish stocks have been affected by Climate Change an effects of pollution. The effects of mans activities on this fisheries and population. So lets go meet a posse. Nice to meet you thank you for sticking with us. The ocean and the effect of Climate Change has a big. Effect of the ocean. Is a privileged piece of everything the activity. Is in fact and ocean unfortunately in most of human activities is impacting to me. Lets narrow it down to our own waters in nigeria what has the effect been like because the ocean is like a sink absorbs all the things that we do all the activities that i dont go online and pains. To dont run off all the rest and all this impacts the ocean and thats one of the activities that. Change courses globally is. In level rights as a result of the melting of ice into not you can imagine how far the north pole is to us here in the year but definitely are nigeria we have low lying coastal land so the impact will actually be more we noticed that we actually did a story one time only called africa where we talked about. Some of the communities that have lost land indeed some communities have actually been lost to rising water levels but lets look at the impact of pollution i mean Waste Management we notice that theres a lot of waste in the ocean that part of human activity or rather thats part of human activity how does affect the fish dock when all this with into the the ocean its mixed with the water. Just is and it enters into the system now gets to. Because we go out and talk to diffuse people so we need to take a course if we want to have you know they like whats the way out what are the solutions what do we do. Theres a lot of kind of ice individual of the fourth pin thats we need to know is that we need to pick your fight if you can start from. A person. If you can go. Thank you very much youre welcome and now before you let me show you some of the things i want. From that what. What youre about to see in our next report looks delicious but its not your standard but go made a big start up in germany is producing in fact but i guess yeah you heard right sharon would you be willing to try one. Maybe its probably pox with. The better for the environment the reason the meat doesnt now one reason being that cattle breeding produces a tremendous amount of Greenhouse Gases who knows maybe all your view was will soon be enjoying. Yourself. At first glance it looks like a normal hamburger but its not just any old burger because half of the meat patty consists of ground up insect larvae student beryl buckled on tried out the box burger thats right thats nice flavor and i would definitely think i would recommend its my friends. The maid ingredient in various boxed burger is ground lesser meal worms the larvae of the darkling beetle the production of the insect burgers begins here in the dutch town a fair amount of the manufacturers have been breeding insects here for about forty years mainly as animal feed and for the cause medics industry. But recently theyve been producing more and more larvae for human consumption nicole rude is plant manager of prodi farm he performs regular checks on the quality of his worms. Around two billion people around the world eat insects daily but its still a big taboo in europe. I think that within five years its quite normal to eat in six bad will be in size in the gradient in a lot of Food Products i think. So when in five years i think we all its just a couple of times a year and six the worms are a sustainable source of energy containing fifty percent protein they only need a fraction of the space water and feed that breeding higher orders of animals requires and their c o two emissions are minimal the larvae live for three months in these boxes where they consume grain when theyre large enough to be harvested theyre flash frozen and shipped to customers. Cramer and bearish ursule are the founders of bucks burger they started their company Bug Foundation and twenty fourteen with ten thousand euros in startup capital now the young entrepreneurs employ a team of four people. The Founders First encountered edible insects during a world trip seven years ago thats how they got the idea to start their business. I think when we first told Friends Family and acquaintances about our idea most of them said we were crazy that theres no way it would work in the meantime everybody thinks what were doing is cool and the next thing they say is hey when can we finally try it out and. They worked on the development of their burger patties for more than a year the ground feel worms are mixed with peas and water and a secret spice mixture. The founders hope their burger will lead to less meat being eaten that will be good for the environment because less grain will be used for cattle feed and the insects are also Climate Friendly i think is often an office at the same time were hoping will become a model for other countries for instance in developing countries where they used to eat insects but stopped doing so in order to adopt the western lifestyle and eat beef burgers following the mcdonalds lifestyle. In germany its still illegal to sell Food Products containing insects but a few restaurants in belgium and the netherlands already have bugs burgers on their menus the exotic hamburgers cost between twelve and seventeen euros starting next year selling insect Food Products will be legalised in germany too. Then the Bug Foundation founders will be worming their way into the fast food business. For a long time rhondas mountain nation was in severe decline the species had endured years of war. Habitat destruction and the seas to getting fears that its could become extant by the end of the Twentieth Century but that was then now in recent years the story has taken a more positive time in twenty fifteen conservationists in the. There are more than six hundred mountain gorillas living there thats three hundred and fifty more of them in the nineteen eighties a few years ago the pocket of crystal thing ceremony not on the to welcome baby gorillas but to create a connection between the human. Population. Early morning in Volcanoes National park in rwanda. Emanuel. Is out once again with a small group of adventurers. And theyre looking for mountain gorillas a man a well issues final instructions if they dont want us to join them theyre going to push the sound. Thats a warning sound wanted their point does sound with keep insisting by saying. That just for calling them down. The encounter comes at a premium. Each visitor pay seven hundred fifty dollars for an hour with the magnificent apes. But emanuel says he rarely gets any complaints afterwards. Who wonders mountain gorillas are among the worlds most endangered species. Barely one thousand of them remain. Half of them live here in the region struggling rwanda uganda and the democratic republic of congo. They live in family groups. This clan has eighteen members and impressive size. One reason for that is that theyre now being tended to by veterinary surgeons. For the simple diseases. But for this disease that can divide the interview we dont did the grass our side of forest we did them and afford it consequently an increasing number of the wonders gorillas are surviving. For a cosy is the youngest in the family his name means thank you thank you for my survival something that isnt a given. And unfortunately the gorillas share their habitat with the various rebel groups that infest the area primarily in the congo region time and again the apes get caught in the crossfire between rival militias or they fall victim to poachers in some area. Is their meat is considered a delicacy many People Living around the National Park boost their income by selling bushmeat. But thats at least been stopped in rwanda nowadays local residents here earn more by keeping gorillas alive. You know projects. Projects and it was in this country. Is among the top six. Much income in this country and i would put much effort into. It will get much money because i had the end of a five percent among the dead money what it did. Come back at the community. Gorilla conservationists now stage an annual celebration in rwanda even the countrys president comes to the grand event its a symbolic act all the newly born gorillas are giving their names. The gorillas cant attend the party themselves after all it is symbolic. But it also signals that the gorillas are an important task for the entire country so that one day little rascals like rocco say can grow up to be big and strong. Wow lets hope theres a lot more projects like this and that and this. Africa wit