Transcriber: Maurício Kakuei Tanaka Reviewer: Anna Sobota
“We must dare to invent the future.”
That’s what Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso former leader, once said.
And that was my motto
when I was traveling across the Great Green Wall.
I went from Senegal to Ethiopia to film a documentary.
I had actually heard about the Great Green Wall
10 years ago.
A friend of mine told me about it,
and then nothing.
And in January 2017, while I was touring India,
I received an email.
Another friend wanted to tell me about the Great Green Wall
and a documentary project.
I immediately responded,
and the next day, I was on the phone with Fernando Meirelles,
who was an executive producer for the film the UNCCD
and the production company.
And they told me about this African-led movement
that aims to restore degraded lands from Senegal to Djibouti,
all across the Sahel,
an 8,000 km wall of green, of trees.
And it’s not just about planting trees -
planting trees are really important -
but it’s about the people;
it’s about bringing job opportunities;
it’s about dealing with the issues that are strongly tied to climate change,
like conflicts, forced migration,
access to energy,
access to water,
and really bringing the African dream back to the continent.
Because for a long time, for a lot of people like myself,
we thought that to make it, we had to leave the continent.
And this idea of The Great Green Wall
would bring an African dream back to the continent.
And so I started my journey
going into the rural communities all across the Sahel.
I wanted to spend time with them to learn more about them,
how they were facing climate change,
how they were taking their destiny to their own hands,
and the resilience and the strength that I saw, really gave me the hope that
I knew we could make it.
We could make The Great Green Wall a reality.
When I started working on this project five years ago,
it was really under the radar.
And at COP26, we had reached a huge political momentum
and multi-billion dollars pledges.
And for me, to make The Great Green Wall a reality,
we have to include the people;
the people who are living on the ground,
the people who are living at the frontline of these climate changes;
and community-driven projects, women-driven projects,
because women and girls are the most vulnerable ones.
And that is my mission.
I believe that if we include everybody
and give these communities the power to bring solutions,
really empower them,
help them with tools like new technologies,
that’s one of the reason why I set up “Code Green”.
On a sustainable blockchain,
it’s a new way to have fundings to connect NFT and creativity
with climate solutions.
I really believe that we can make a change.
We have to make this Great Green Wall a global movement.
Because it’s not just about the Sahel.
It’s not just about Africa.
At the end, when the project will be achieved,
it will benefit the whole world.
We will have a new lung for the world.
As an ambassador for UNCCD
and one of the main faces of The Great Green Wall,
this is a long-time mission for me.
It’s a lifelong commitment
that I’m taking to really be present
and make sure that my activism, my voice for the voiceless,
can make a change
and that we can make this Great Green Wall a reality.
Take it from political stages to the people
and work together.
That’s one of the ways that we can become stronger
and make it a reality.
Thank you for your time.
I’m Inna Modja.