More People, More Trees : Environmental Recovery in Africa

More People, More Trees highlights a success story for community participation in agricultural change in Burkina Faso and Kenya. The book and film inform development policy makers, agricultural extension workers, NGO workers, and the broader development community about a notable achievement in participatory agricultural development.

Over 20 years ago, concerned famers’ groups in Kenya and Burkina Faso began to adopt new measures to conserve soil and water and to re-establish trees in their fields. Two videos, Looking after our Land and Building on Traditions, recorded the new participatory approaches for land conservation being developed at that time in various countries. More People, More Trees returns to the same communities, and some of the same people, in Kenya and Burkina Faso to document developments since the original filming. The film shows spectacular changes: most obviously more trees planted and protected by the people themselves aided and encouraged by continuing community projects. More People, More Trees thus highlights a demonstrable success story for community participation in agricultural change in Burkina Faso and Kenya. In this film, the landscapes tell their own story, but so do the local people. The accompanying book expounds upon the powerful messages in the film and describes the technologies employed by the communities, provides hard data to support their testimonies, and looks at the current challenges of soil conservation in the context of climate change.