this video here is sponsored by ren but
more on that later
we are going to look at five of the most
epic earth healing projects on the
planet here this is a scale that we need
to be working on if we're going to turn
this thing around here biodiversity loss
water shortages land degradation
right deforestation these are the
processes that are being reversed by
these epic scale projects that are
improving the lives of millions of
people and countless species so sit
tight here as we check out these epic
projects and get inspired because we've
got a lot of work to do
[Music]
so let's go down the list number five
the arvari river restoration in
rajasthan northwest india the arvari
river in rajasthan india had run dry for
60 years water was no longer soaking
into the ground throughout the degraded
watershed when the monsoon rains arrived
and so the water quickly ran off the
hills and out through the dry arvari
riverbed
leaving the landscape parched and
impoverished then came regendra singh
the water man of india and his
organization
in 1986 they began to rebuild
traditional crescent-shaped water
harvesting structures called johards in
order to supply water for farmers as
they built these joe hods they noticed
that water began to flow for a little
longer in the dry arvari riverbed
by 1990 the river flowed until october
before it dried up they kept on building
joe hods and other water harvesting
structures by 1991 it flowed until
january they kept on building joe huds
by 1992 it flowed until february they
kept on building joe hads by 93 it
flowed until march by 94 april and then
by 1995 just nine years after they
started the flow of the arvari river
became perennial again they had built
375 joe hods and treated all of the
slopes to stop erosion over 500 square
kilometers in 70 villages
they formed a river parliament to take
control of their new water resources and
expanded their work to over 9 000 water
harvesting structures since then four
more dry rivers in the area have now
become perennial because of their
persistent work in restoring the
watershed
number four the chicopa project in
zimbabwe southern africa
springs were drying up in the lands of
the chimanimani tribe in southeastern
zimbabwe the hillside forest had been
cleared and the land was dehydrated
depleting the water supply for the
village of titicati a small group got
together to try and figure out how to
revitalize their springs and in 1991 was
introduced the idea of permaculture as a
system for land design and water
management
the villagers got to work and built
water harvesting structures and planted
trees above the spring
the spring flow started again after the
rains and so they kept going and
restored more land around the village
with great success
before you knew it the project had
spread to the six villages of chicoa
encompassing over seven thousand people
they terraced the hillsides dug water
harvesting swales built water tanks and
ponds planted forests for fuel and
building materials fence sensitive areas
from grazing animals planted gardens
orchard and brought their community from
a place of food and water insecurity to
great abundance where today 80 of
households are food self-reliant from
there they started a larger organization
to help transform the entire chimanimani
district working with 188 villages and
engaging over 40 000 people in the work
of land restoration food and water
security
on a side note the catastrophic tropical
cyclone edai struck the region in march
of 2019.
when putting together this video i found
from the satellite imagery that even the
forested hills of the chicopa project
were not immune and we can see
landslides throughout the area we can
also see that by 2021 many landslide
areas had begun to heal
number three
gravis jodhpur in rajasthan northwest
india
this is a project that can literally be
seen from space
the tar desert is the most densely
inhabited desert on the planet the only
rainfall they get is from monsoon rains
and for a short time every year there's
water and people can grow crops but
oftentimes in the dry season wells ran
dry and people were forced to migrate
seeking water food and income
in 1983 an organization called gravis
jodhpur was founded which began
implementing small-scale water
harvesting structures on farms all built
by hand so when the monsoon rains came
the water would soak into the ground
instead of running off in flash floods
each small watershed around the farms
would be transformed by constructing
ponds berms and rock walls to soak
rainfall into the landscape
over time the water began to refill the
aquifer with each monsoon until the
farmers had enough stored water to
irrigate crops during the winter dry
season
so now farmers could grow two crops per
year instead of one which meant they did
not have to migrate away and their whole
society became more stable and abundant
gravis jodhpur has done this work in
over 1500 villages affecting over 1.3
million people so now when we look at
the tar desert from space during the dry
season the green that we see are
irrigated fields aside from some canals
from the mountains they are watered from
stored groundwater which is there
because of the nearly 40 years of
excellent work by gravis jodhpur and the
villagers to harvest the monsoon rains
before we move on we're going to take a
minute to have a word about the sponsor
of this video if you live in modern
civilization then you have a carbon
footprint i have traveled all over the
world visiting amazing earth healing
projects burning jet fuel gasoline
powering computers cameras and the list
goes on i didn't know how big my carbon
footprint was and ignorance is bliss but
then this company called ren offered to
sponsor my video
ren does a few things and one of them is
a free online carbon footprint
calculator let's check it out
what the
i'm sorry
whoa this put me in a real tail spin but
luckily i kept scrolling through their
website and i learned that i can offset
my carbon footprint with my carbon hand
print meaning that ren is supporting all
these amazing carbon sequestration
projects like turning forest prunings in
california into biochar instead of
burning them or planting over 20 million
trees in east africa or providing
indigenous communities in the amazon
with technology so they can monitor
illegal deforestation and protect their
ecosystem
i can pay ran a monthly subscription
based on my carbon footprint to support
these projects this doesn't erase my
footprint but it does make sure that i
have a strong hand print as well so use
ren and the first 100 people who sign up
using the link in the description will
have 10 extra trees planted in their
name
number two the lowest plateau in
northern china
i heard about this epic project through
the filmmaker john d lew who documented
it over 15 years in the series hope in a
changing climate linked above the lowest
plateau in northern china is a region
that was denuded of plants resulting in
serious soil erosion
the land dried up because hills were
stripped bare by deforestation
overcropping and over grazing the earth
was just washing down into the rivers
causing floods of muddy water below
winds were turning the unstable soils
into massive dust storms which were
blowing into china's cities and towns
the government identified this problem
and selected 35 000 square kilometers of
the plateau to regenerate
the way that the project leaders
described it to the poor farmers was
that they needed to dress the landscape
the hilltops needed to wear hats and
they were replanted with trees
the hills needed to wear belts so they
built terraces all along the slopes for
planting crops and trees and the hills
needed to wear shoes so they built dams
for water storage the base of the slopes
they designated the steepest slopes and
gullies as protected ecological zones
and farmers were paid not to farm them
and to keep their livestock away from
sensitive areas
you can see the transformation through
mr liu's footage over a 15-year period a
region-wide design implemented from the
tops to the bottoms of these slopes
brought these landscapes and communities
from degradation and poverty to natural
wealth and financial abundance in just
over a decade
so inspiring
and the number one earth healing project
is the pawnee foundation in maharashtra
western india
the pani foundation is an organization
founded by bollywood megastar amir khan
they host a competition called the water
cup which is a contest between villages
in the state of maharashtra to see which
village can install the most water
harvesting structures in a 45 day
since 2016 thousands of villages have
competed and the resulting water
harvesting structures equate to over
145 billion gallons or 550 billion
liters of water storage capacity built
between 2016 and 2020
this part of india receives nearly all
of its rainfall during the three-month
monsoons
they can then be dry for the entire nine
months remaining the year so all of the
water they have for drinking and farming
comes in a short period of time and
needs to last all the way through the
long dry season
the water cup competition builds water
tables and builds them fast with an
all-volunteer labor effort the
competition starts at midnight and the
villagers get to work with a massive
push over the 45 days
they are then judged both on the quality
and quantity of water harvesting
structures built
then all these structures await the
monsoon rains when the rains come so
much water is soaked into the ground
because of all the work that water
tables are replenished in just one rainy
season and the entire fortune the
village turns around in a very short
time as people can now plant crops two
or more times per year instead of just
planting with the rains this stabilizes
the economy and ends economic migration
to the cities for work
this project wins the number one
position because of the sheer scale and
speed by which they're restoring
watersheds transforming rural society
this is an example that can lead the
world
[Music]
and as a bonus i'm going to tell you
about the next most epic project on
earth that's in development right now
the business called regenerative
resources is currently raising the
capital to plant 100 million mangrove
trees along the coastlines in three
continents mangrove trees are the
keystone species for creating
regenerative seawater agriculture that
yields food for people while restoring
coastal ecosystems and dramatically
increasing biodiversity mangrove
ecosystems store up to 10 times more
carbon than terrestrial forests this is
one of the easiest wins for ecosystem
restoration economic security food
security and carbon sequestration on the
planet so this is a scale of project
that we need folks if we're actually
going to stabilize the climate restore
the water tables restore the forests
bring abundance and natural wealth to
humans and the environment we have got
so much work to do and these projects
are the scale that we need to be working
at so let's get busy folks