A warm welcome for me too and hope that you stay with us for the next half hour on the phone from johannesburg and south africa heres whats coming up. How an app can help protect a rare species in south africa and. Why solar energy doesnt always have to be expensive. And how music group was formed in the congo thanks to trash. South africas western Cape Province is home to stunning plants some of them found nowhere else on the planet however a recent report show that the province is experiencing this 2nd highest rate of plant extinction in the world due in large part to rapid urbanization and habitat loss we met up with researchers to investigate the region more closely. Than. This rubble and is part of the famed both biome a naturally occurring community of flora and fauna in the region around cape town in south africa its home to almost 10000. 00 species of plants many of them endemic as part of their efforts to preserve this unique ecosystem volunteers come here regularly to photograph and document the plants they work for the organization of rare and endangered wild flowers also known as crew. So the reason why we have this program is that just the sheer numbers of written plans that we have its not enough for a group of scientists to go and monitor those species so in the country we have over 3000. 00 written plants and so thats a massive undertaking. This species of erica is critically endangered that means its on the brink of extinction its found only in this immediate area measuring less than half a square kilometer. Today the crew volunteers are documenting raphe laura using a popular Citizen Science app called i naturalist. The aim is to improve the accuracy and efficiency of their Data Collection we can only do conservation intervention if we know that there is a problem but if nobody is monitoring what is happening to those populations then we wont know and those species might go extinct without us even knowing about the app allows volunteers to take a picture of a plant or an animal and log the time and exact location and upload the data to the eye naturalist platform then biologists and botanist can access the information and create detailed maps of those remaining habitats. The app also allows researchers like ebrahim to monitor the raspy shes more closely because they know where theyre located as a as a botanist and as someone that works on plants we understand that all of plants of the ecosystem and plants form the basis of the ecosystem and without the blondes the things that that sit on top of. The food chain above the plans where one exist we wont exist if it wasnt for plants and so i think to create an awareness about the importance of plants is very important for us. The western cape has already lost 40 species of plants since 1900 scientists estimate that many more are in danger the principal reasons are growing up in isolation Infrastructure Development and the expansion of agriculture me around cape town many green spaces have already been lost an Organization CalledCommunity Tree is trying to restore at least some of the Natural Habitats and their biodiversity. But what are you doing here id be busy planting the ground cabbage and the pioneers that help prepare the soil for them or think that of those pretty as erickas in recent years that are no longer here. The thought been polluted lost all of it period and microorganisms so we are bringing those back and making space. Through brain both to come back. In another example this way sis in the cape flats area of the city used to be a rubbish dump over a 4 year period Kevin Cochrane and a group of Community Volunteers planted about 50000. 00 indigenous plants and more than 300. 00 trees on the site. Was about as good an opinion poll and their relationship with all species as one and that ideology. When it comes to endangered species charismatic animals such as elephants rhinos and lions often succeed in capturing the publics attention but the endangered plants of the South African fine boast biome are no less important. Raising awareness to bring about change for the better can be a huge challenge for us to say lets go to rhonda where more than 80 percent of the rural population still live without electricity that means in the evenings a lot of school kids are left in the dock thats why you see what its called from income pain give light a Foundation Hopes to support phones of students and teachers. The idea is to brighten their lives with light heres our doing your bit for this week. Even after dark the sunlights the past for children and come on you district its all thanks to solar powered lamps. Like many parts of rwanda the region isnt on the National Power grid but now the children have light to do homework in the evening. As a result fewer students are dropping out of school for old grade civil so improved in the past they only had kerosene lamps which are unhealthy and dangerous now little sun makes doing household chores safer to. It was all the brainchild of danish icelandic artist although. He joined forces with a german startup to distribute the lamps that given out to African Students for free but sold elsewhere in the world to finance the project the Initiative Also has sponsors the way in to deliver these loans for school kids we have to live in these lands for refugees for example in settings of migration and forced migration we have to deliver our mobile phone chargers to Community Health workers and we aim to empower rule and to printers and Small Businesses as much into the ring energy. The little sun project was 1st launched 7 years ago. Its now lighting up the lives of schoolchildren in 15 african countries. And how about you if youre also doing your bit tell us about it visit our website or send his or tweet. Doing your bit. We share her story. And now off to the caucasus geographical region known as you asia i reports head its a joy to see me there we saw the residents of a small village that sought to using solar energy to heat up water which has a knock on effect of protecting local forests georgia lost 1. 3 percent of its forest between 1992010 thats according to the f a o the aim of the initiative is to provide the people with affordable and Sustainable Energy systems and to reduce c o 2 emissions in the villages. Stage at 6 30 in the morning and i go to open it is already out of the house with a bucket of hot water fresh from the faucet. Which the cows utter has to be cleaned before milking. A little later after serving the family breakfast she makes cheese it requires a lot of patience she can tell that shes ready when the consistency is just right but everything here runs like clockwork with no time for breaks. As well respected as a housewife i have a lot of work to do i clean i make the food click house and lots of other things that would be office like theres always something to do their office floor or. Another good job and it says 60 and was a nurse for 30 years she lives with her husband son daughter in law and grandchildren. I always need hot water im glad we have this system. They received a solar powered water heater from a local Energy Cooperative. Thats. Right oh my saved up a bit of money and sold a few things but didnt know it was my husband who really wanted this work never its quite expensive but it is manageable. Like to. Like. Lisa is also in charge of the house work on her home plus the farm and the grandchildren. She still heats water the traditional way on a wood burning stove in the living room she needs a lot of hot water and therefore a lot of would come forward we save money so we can afford the wood but sadly there are a lot of families who dont care how we doing better than some we can pay for firewood the poor families cant. Get mad. The men collect the wood from high up in the forests of the carcasses mountains. Theyre still allowed to fill trees here. Gogu to here is 27 he comes here regularly. Go to estimates that each and every house in his area consumes about 2. 00 to 3. 00 truckloads of wood every year include the city and. All shuttle which basically cut down trees anywhere else we could cause rock slides. And that might endanger people in the village. The forest might seem lush but deforestation is rife across georgia the number of trees being cut has to be limited to ensure long term sustainability currently over 12 times that number is being felt. The work of dance to mechanics is helping to solve the problem theyre cutting solar panels. The machine dates back to world war 2 but it still works there part of the Energy Cooperative the systems they produce here should help to reduce wood burning and therefore Carbon Dioxide emissions. The cooperative as provided solar powered water heaters to more than 100 homes in the village. None a good job and its is back from the markets and the grandchildren are awake her son and daughter in law are at work so she has to look after the children no time for a break at this its horrendous moment im 60 years old and i think my life is almost over i do anything to get my children and grandchildren a Better Future i hope they have a better life. And hot water straight from the tap is a good place to start. Moving over to guyana to check in on a young entrepreneur who builds how this cheaply and sustainably she uses mud and all the locally produced materials this idea is becoming more and more popular across west africa one major advantage even when its hot outside but temperature inside the houses stay constant no need for expensive and conditioning but thats all theyve got going for that lets go see this. Technique called rammed earth construction has been formed into a wall. This new house has been built close to gunness capital and using an old method come on in africa now its becoming popular in cities. Clomid a year and joy and a sin founded a company in 2016 they realize theres a demand for houses that are both affordable and eco friendly. You know country well even a continent where a lot of things are very sustainable we thought of little of ways that we can renewable Natural Resources to build with and most homes in gone are the easy way of cement and materials are imported so we just for lets look to see what we can actually get in ghana to build me. Its a mixture of sand gravel and clay this is just a little bit of cement added the idea is very old. Our grandparents our forefathers were already living in models before this came up even the china wall was built with dots when you go to mali. The mali empire most of the buildings you see they are all build with. This is how the team builds a wall. They use different mud mixtures layered one over another that gives the house an interesting aesthetic theres a good exercise through you know. All the walls these solid enough. Is just like a sedimentary rock we are mimicking the 3rd dimension rock by default over thousands of years. Yes piling on top of each other over thousands of years but we are often in the process so. When false i shine the word green after some time is because its like a manmade storm. The company has built 4 houses so far it started out with a little prototype building experimenting with different materials and techniques including using bricks made of around. This cafeteria in north and gone i was more ambitious and scale. This residential project is the biggest so far materials are cheap its cost about 150000. 00 u. S. Dollars thats about one 3rd less than the price was conventional building and there are more advantages you get very very good in indoor air quality. The walls are 10000000 solidity of directly the Room Temperature termites cannot eat it up is proof due to the monolithic structure of the wall hasnt got any more to joints in them so when theres an egg recall theres the ground shakes you dont get them collapsing and the fact that they can stand up better to earthquakes isnt the only plus these buildings help save electricity the building food school you dont need the seeds even if you did you know the strains of the i mean its just going to be Minimal Health to. Sustain them by a moment to. Reduce our carbon prints. The companys business is booming. But a sin and have Business Partner given back to society is well ok 2 i think you are good to go we actually train the local people how to have construction say when they also have a skill that they can use a bit at the end and also. If we need to get some more workers in last minute then we can always call people from the villages to come and help us out of construction work. With Construction Cost and 30 percent less than conventional Building Techniques and creating a host of new jobs too high the earth is helping to lay the foundations for a brighter future. Saving energy would round earth construction is one way of fighting Climate Change but even though an age of buildings need paul carmen here is a great woman to feel for producing Renewable Energy in the form of. Just 10 cows can make it feasible what you think we go to kenya to find out how a German Organization is supporting the farmers building a bar gas facility is not complicated and several 100 people have already in box on the project. It takes a week to build the unit but soon it will be ready for the 1st load of cum done 2 weeks after that these daily farmers will have their own supply of buying gas. We would have written on the bio digest was a major investment for the phone but. I wanted. To of course. He did. And you know how could you afford. To cause problems here. And i wanted to give that money. Went to german n. G. O. S fair and its local partner Sustainable Energy strategies helped set up these by a gas unit and 800 others across Campbell County near the kenyan capital nairobi. But if your government can go buy a gas unit allow or still use cow dung to generate clean and buy a gas one country nothing is granted so no smoke astrology used which means no c o 2 emissions so each by a gas plant means photons less c o 2 each year. The biggest problem for people here is finding the money to pay for 1. 00 of the smallest model costs 300 year ago it is every day the market is huge in this county but the problem is people are not good work record. They dont have the money. Who for 900. Even though we get a subsidy from. Jungle county is home to hundreds of small hold farms they grow maize and vegetables and produce cattle seat. Being old is a familiar just enough to feed the families farming the land so adding a buy a gas unit is a big deal. Feeling someone who was able to afford more she saved some of the money she makes will has 600 egg laying hens and her cows and money to secure a microlight. The bio digester is fed with manure mixed with water and underground pipe takes the gas produced to her kitchen. I wanted the plant after i had seen one at my neighbors the community took it we could cook it is so easy now i used to house i got if i wouldnt go buy charcoal and it was very expensive gotta. Make or now going any now i have no problems i come home late and can have subsequently in 10 minutes. Who can i do here. That they knew i could be. A byproduct of the buy gas unit is a nutritious farm in thing agent that can be used as organic fertilizer but this year the rainy season is very late many wells have dried up and farmers here a worried their crops will grow. Buying water is their only solution. Live in a monotone when i try to talk of already going to we are suffering because of the drought we have to buy water and it is very expensive its hard for us we need water vegetables and our own animals with the money she saves using bio gas phyllis can afford that and in a years time the loan for her plants will be paid off she doesnt regret the investment and slightest the biogas system has transformed her life for the better. Now we head from rural kenya and take to the stage in kinshasa the capital of the d r congo and there we meet a band that not only produced group but a very already the instrument for a worthy eager years of their we. Do need costumes and an original sound the band full of music playing and they can just like johns festival dizzier. The name says it all full music means music from garbage in the local lingo the language. Everything about this group is impressive especially the fact that they play instruments made from west everyones dancing it was amazing the. Things. Everything made out of west the idea came from good founda pisco crim he finds his inspiration at dumping sites. This bottle produces a nice sound and me far so lucky no. This will make a good instrument for our music. A lack of proper Waste Management and recycling facilities has caused kinshasa to be littered with discarded plastic and other waste committer music you know i came here to look for things that i can use to make Musical Instruments but i also want to draw attention to their problem of west management in kinshasa the city is really dirty. Recycle things is interesting turning a waste into instruments or using it to create costumes some people just throw stuff away but i look for ways to reuse trash because with is not good for our will be a little rounding it up. So rather than buying instruments band members create their own from discarded objects. Using scrap metal. Plastic bottles to install water pipes to make their instruments the group has gained a following who allowed their signature rhythms and enforced promotes recycling in a city that produces as much as 9000 tons of waste every day. 3 it is my wish to see this music dont recognize all over the wild and also to raise awareness about the importance of Waste Management especially in africa exactly what is used for music is what i would like to find a good representative who can help us spread this message t