a wonderful report for right here and south africa about the important role livestock herds can play and maintaining biodiversity but there's more of course. we had to be easier to see what's being done to protect us from our so that. we learn how an army of insects can provide excellent pest control. and that lives are unique as fingerprints also flags. if you head out into the open country here in south africa you can't help but notice the thousands of kilometers of fencing that cuts across the land intended to contain herds senses actually have a devastating effect on the environment not only are they a deadly trap for wildlife the also prevents livestock from roaming free which leads to all the grazing and lends degradation summer days and now reversing this trend spading an ecological revolution. when how does lead their lives took on to the great plains in central south africa the animals aren't allowed to lead or to protect live edition from increasing they have to be kept on the so that they can only eat the tips of the plants. has years of experience and have seen how the landscape has changed since he's been grazing animals. at his. pitches and. ask growth was not that much but now since we have at it and you see process we're heading. in that nor is it now changing on crazing plate or the practice. of. the how does a part of the shift back by the day was it to protect it supports commercial life still keeping what was the land restoring these 2400 hectare farm. the kind who was once much greener and home to millions of antelope in buffalo the hooves loosened the top soil and the droppings vitalized it in of the drug created the great migrations of the past the predicted employees shipyards to lead livestock over the plains. it was much the political leader is confident that habits can help revive the region's hooty yet to this referendum. mean fundamentally believe that this method of farming give space for wildlife to co-exist with production actor culture so that's really the simple vision is to find a make an ism by which we can. foster biodiversity on production farms the thousands of kilometers of fences needed for the intensive livestock agriculture one of the main reasons why wildlife has disappeared fences prevent the animals from running free such for grazing land in water the often end up tangled in the barbed wire bush much wants to move over fences on the farm since he started the put it 5 years ago hundreds of kilometers of fence line have already been dismantled and stored in the sheds like this one but it will be at least another 3 years before the families fenceless. in order to study the effects of defenseless farming methods on the environment ecologist are monitoring the product over the past 2 years headley such a janine mcmanus and a group. students have recorded the number of plant species selected study sites. in europe. in addition to the group which the affluent you dish an index the index is the timing by the amount of protein seen on the ground by satellite and allows you such as to compare plant growth in different regions over time. and you can already start picking up changes in trains with the way the hood has been grazing especially over a longer recent period in parts of the farm and the green index shows up quite pronounced and we compared it to traditional farms where it isn't quite as pronounced and they seems to be quite a significant color it's just looking at the pixels are learning you know and taking the green out of pixelization but from that you can really start seeing a difference. there are many positive signs that have been grazed by the hives think of plant growth slowly world and most are returning to the farm more than 500 antelope have been counted and even a loop that was recently cited. a major success for dickson especially since south africa is still recovering from one of the last drop in recorded history. we should be seeing process continues for the rest of the life of the so that is there any damage to be led on to so that even the neighbors in other countries can be more inspired about what it is seeing in the strike. we tried. to go but now he's suing them saying. that the grade and most their livestock due to severe drought for the ships how it. turned out to divert a successful $200.00 ship. slowly but surely the put it into a profitable venture. it's not just animals that can devastate forests or farmlands fires and he can dry out the ground so severely that entire sections of forest may die out in the last few years 2000 acts as a forest have been destroyed by fires in northwestern tunisia alone we need wooded areas they prevent soil erosion to provide shade and storm oyster hussam humvees started an initiative called the solly and green and uses social media to call on his fellow tunisians to regrind devastated stretches all the land find out more in our during your big series. forest fires have become a big problem in tunisia 2 years ago wildfires ravaged the country's northwest destroying 2000 hectares of forest. the result was widespread soil erosion and desert if occasion environmentalist who some hamdeen mobilized people via social media to plant new trees to combat these effects each seedling may be just a drop in the ocean but as the activist says drugs do accumulate he and hundreds of volunteers manage to plant some $20000.00 trees in just one month. but we did receive support from the forestry authorities. about the tree planting action is a public initiative. anyone can take part of the fun. it's the newly planted trees will also benefit local people economically pine nuts are used to produce popular baked goods the initiative soli and green is planning to promote similar tree planting schemes in other parts of the country. and how about you if you're also doing your bit tell us about it visit our website or send us a tweet. and doing your bit. we share your story. was keeping our planet green has become a serious concern around the globe the forests of rwanda are in danger to a small country with over 12000000 people run to is one of the most densely populated countries and africa and many trees they are cut down for cook fires yes that's true z. and that's why a non-governmental organization is aiming to protect the forest by encouraging as many households as possible to use energy efficient stoves what as you will see benefit the lives of more than just the people go see this. they can only be found in the mountains and even here only in a few forests golden monkeys. golden monkeys are endangered their habitat is shrinking rapidly so conservationists are especially keen to preserve this forest. gets off to an early start on her to where she collects wood by the time she gets home she'll be tired and her back will take. she can no longer carry so much wood now that she's had a baby so instead claudine frequently buys food. cooking on a traditional 3 stone fireplace wastes a lot of wood it takes hours for the mother of 4 to prepare a meal as most of the heat disappears into the room and the acrid smoke pollutes the air. about 18 months ago her neighbor. got a new stove she only had to pay part of the cost but even that is an affordable for most people here. with the new stove cooking takes only half as long and there's less smoke pollution. but when. my health is improved my eyes don't water any more when i cook. my cough is gone and i no longer get dizzy. dean got her new stove from an austrian firm called li cano. soon the company wants to equip even more communities around the national park with these cookers. the plan is to supply $50000.00 households all together. and distribute. a contributing to delay doctrine of carbon so we have those credits are not. funds for again this dough from defunct. this is coffee husk residue which can be purchased cheaply from local farmers coffee is a key export product in rwanda the husks are mixed with locally sourced clay to form an insulating material. that is then used to create clay cylinders like these which are placed inside the stove an element like this can withstand heat of $1300.00 degrees celsius from its walkies to insulate they take to the flame and then create jimminy effect which is needed for efficient banning of the few or so in the 2 or it is going to reduce on this smoke on the other products or combustion ones which are not healthy to the user. to the end right on me. company developed the design together with the women who use the cookers. scientists from neighboring york and have tested how much would they can save with it out surely we meant to live on the workshop we are finding that it goes on. 60 plus thing comparing to the previous. consumption. claudine used to spend 7 euro zone week on firewood now she only spends a 3rd of that. she has already bought 5 sheep with the money she saved they provide the family with wool and meat. the reduction in wood consumption is also relieving the pressure on the remaining primeval forest an important step in preserving the habitat of the endangered golden monkeys the. forests are not just home to a larger on a mall's what many tiny ones as well insects pollinate fruit trees flaws and vegetables and they're also they also produce many years for tasty items like honey bees walks or so others helps of breakdown waste carry on and plan otherwise accumulates in the environment and same insects even play an important role in pest control by facing on bugs that prey on useful plants let's see the story on the on the use of insects. gardeners love lady bugs because they devour aphids. cats and his staff breed the colorful beetles and send their eggs to mainly private customers his company has been in the business for over 20 years. not all their beneficial bugs are suitable for use outdoors though. if you capture grown lady bugs and want to use them somewhere there's always the possibility that they will fly away so if you deploy ladybugs then only in enclosed spaces. minute predatory mites on the other hand tend to stay put here they've made themselves comfortably at home on some bean plants the staff then harvest them along with the leaves they're attached to the predatory mites have already decimated an entire colony of spider mites here and bred prolifically in the process just a few leaves are enough to provide a customer with more than a 1000 of the useful predators. became natural pest control works particularly well if you use beneficial insects at the 1st signs of infestation you have to look at it mathematically if you have 100000000 pests you need 800000 beneficial insects to fight them that's an enormous number if you only have a 1000 pests you only need 20 beneficial insects so you have to identify the infestation at an early stage and deploy beneficial insects straight away. business is booming the company sends insects to fight plant pests to customers across europe transport has to be speedy since both insects and their eggs can perish along the way. calf's has also visited greenhouses in ethiopia where plant breeders work with beneficial bugs but he says in conventional outdoor farming in africa it's not really advisable for. your home in all part of europe we have the advantage of having cold winters in this period the past population is reduced to 0 but in tropical or subtropical regions that's obviously not the case the past populations there persist throughout the year it's very difficult to work with beneficial insects when pest infestation levels are high 5 and in my opinion that can only work in isolated cases war i 95 cleaning so preferably in controlled environments like greenhouses because beneficial insects have their limits the company also works together with the chemicals industry cuts is preparing predatory my dogs for a manufacturer of conventional pesticides the industry is working to develop substances that won't kill the little helpers peter katz says that without artificial pesticides food security isn't achievable instead he wants to see chemical agents that have a lower impact on predators that can kill pasts. like these green lace wing larvae which hoover up the feds in a big way they're a real boon for any garden now gardens are an essential part of an ambitious project aimed at stopping the certification here in africa every year the claims about 17 kilometers are 1st. on the green green wall wants to put an end to that by growing about if 1000 kilometer long belt of trees and plants that were wrong through countries like senegal your p.r. nigeria sudan will kill a fossil molly us well and we will see that in our next report the gambia where one young man is doing what he can to help the projects at sea. came off and he is passionate about the environment he's the founder of greenup gambia the young activist learns about sustainable farming at an early age from his father and now he's eager to pass on his knowledge to the next generation. today he came and was visiting his former school to plant a treat with the students green club. you put this up front and they're going to wonder if the idea was not just right we learned that plants are very important because they do what their needs lead to fly down people who seem to cut down trees without replacing them so that's what's good brings up is all about it once a stop forestry said and preserve them literally. leave today that planting and i'm brenda tree but will one day provide shade for me. the green clubs plant vegetable gardens on school grounds students are responsible for their upkeep. so far the country has 4 schools with fully functioning green clubs but kamal fatty hopes that many more will be set up in the future to help make the gambia green again. whether this question basically about africa in the global set up and well agricultural activities and the climate so global warming was just a passing idea and i was like you know you could try that go into a garden. and gaze in activities or. counter some of the homes that were going through right now and there they were they were all in for it. came a funny is on the way to caravan in the north bank region of the gambia practically all the land here has been cleared for agriculture kamal's father has been a farmer here for years if. this is full of trees what well you know what you can see. we use it as fences reuse it. you know people are growing this kind of. naturally now it is becoming bare but there was a time pick the cross it for one is a problem. to minimise the impact people try to green up their region for example with community run gardens. around the whole garden the farmers plant economically viable trees like cashews or mangoes to effectively create a fence protecting their vegetables from animals. these planting techniques are directly linked to the africa union led great green wall. the idea is to plant trees from east to west africa to prevent desert if occasion to adapt to climate change and to improve food security. you know and we know that most of the children here don't have access to. you know. not eating healthily so they're among nor'east so this green wall initiative will help to revive communities and give them the power and strength to be able to help themselves 20 countries are taking part in a great project with the ultimate goal of restoring 100000000 hectares of degraded land by 2030. let's cross the continent now and have to kenya where we do a little bit of detective work are you ready for that i sure am n.t. well look out for an endangered her before that once roamed the savannah and bushland all over east africa now conservationists are trying to gather as much precise information about grady zebras as possible in an effort to find out exactly how many are left the black to get some assistance from it's a cold a citizen scientists. at the crack of dawn a group of schoolchildren and like u.p.i. in northern kenya had out on a very special school trip. that possible big project involving many teams across the region adults children and scientists drive as far as they come to find and photograph as many red separates as they can. the 1st sighting separates yes but with normal thick stripes so the journey continues. and then they appear gravity separates with a distinctive stripes the teams get to work always photographing the animals right hand side. the photos the latest saved and analyzed using software with artificial intelligence. that compared with separate is already in the database also taken from the right each separate has a pattern as unique as a fingerprint. the photos from this large scale search operation and up with this mom daniel rubenstein as a wall of just from princeton university he's helped by tanya bag-o. both a computer scientist who's responsible for the image analysis they can clearly identify which on a model has been one and one. on ok and i have them both beautiful and the founder of. what the research is really want to know is how many gravy steppers are left. the most recent estimate was 2350 it's an important piece of information for the kenyan government if they really believe that the 2350 is the real number then they may invest and change policy the protections they may engage the people and invest in them to change their behavior in a way that's profitable for them and profitable for the species but it all starts with accurate data. the search takes place a for 2 consecutive days which means the analysis tools can give them a very accurate estimate daniel rubenstein one piece of the puzzle together from tens of thousands of photos for. a bunch of the transitions or other sometimes up there by having so many people engaged it's not the pendent on my ability to find the animals collectively will find a large number we're never going to find them all but that's the beauty of doing a census as opposed to account. it's kenyan safari with a difference a project about nature that relies on big data and artificial intelligence. will come to the end of this week's eco africa featuring an inspiring mix of small initiatives big projects and dedicated people thanks for joining us on the phone so long from here in johannesburg and see you next time see all the best on a good bye also for me i hope you'll tune in again next week for another edition of the show in the meantime we've received us on our web pages and media handles. signing off from the faucet talking lagos nigeria. you gotta be much. use in bunks enjoy sport. even heidi klum is pina bausch have. to talk to sit down ben you know gets close to the stocks. by selling what they call in there a preference to stuff. the moment. d.w. . board. rock n roll. sinful rhythms condemned by the church. i know that evil feeling that you feel when you fight. to go past so. hard to stop and no one is more popular than jesus come look. rock and religion a clash that brings many poles too late. for the 2 really soon to reconcilable come the devil and broken late. june 17th t w. i'm not laughing at the gym i just sometimes out but i stand up and whip it up and think they can for general culture of looking at the stereotypes question but if you think the future of this country that i not. need it seems to take the most drama day out to me it's all about a new i might show join me for meet the gentleman from d.w. post they're super shy. themselves away super secretive then you'll think like i'm going super rich definitely around 20000000000 on me more like how do germany's wealthiest people live why do they have such a low profile we have a snoop around to catch a glimpse of top of the disc requires discipline which starts june 10th c.w. . hong kong. a lot. of people.