The Man Who Stopped The Desert

If a single person can do something like this, imagine what thousands of people working together can accomplish…

Yacouba Sawadogo, a peasant farmer from Burkina Faso, is known as the “man who stopped the desert.” But when he first tried to save his arid land from desertification by planting the trees that have since grown into a 15-hectare forest, people in his village thought he was mad.

Some 30 years later the people of Gourga, in northwestern Burkina Faso, who left the infertile area for a better life in the city, are returning while Sawadogo travels the world sharing his success story.

Farmers, environmental experts and scientists are also flocking to Sawadogo’s home to learn about the man who singlehandedly stopped the desert.

Sawadogo’s story also attracted film director Mark Dodd who produced an award-winning film titled “The Man who Stopped the Desert”, which was showcased at the 10th session of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)…