PARTNER UPDATE. By combining ancient rainwater harvesting techniques with modern communication methods, Justdiggit is successfully regreening parts of Africa.
Now the Dutch organization has teamed up with We Don’t Have Time and is ”excited to explore the new partnership”.
The result of Justdiggit's regreening project in Pembamoto village in Tanzania.
Looking at the ”before and after” pictures from some of Justdiggit’s projects in Kenya and Tanzania, you might be forgiven for thinking they must be fake. Or heavily photoshopped, or altered in some other way. But they are not.
”This is the number one question I get at any given time. But yes, this is as effective as it seems, and we have the scientific measurement to back it up”, says Wessel van Eeden, marketing and communications director at Justdiggit.
The method is almost ridiculously simple. You take a shovel and dig a hole in the ground, preferably in a bit of a slope. Then you do nothing more. When the rain falls, the water is stored in the hole, making it possible for bushes and grasses to make a comeback on previously degraded land. When the tree shoots start growing, they are pruned, which increases their chances of growing into big trees.
Supercheap. And super scalable.
”In just 10 years we have brought back 6,3 million trees and restored 60 000 hectares of degraded land with this method”, says Wessel van Eeden.
”If we can warm up the earth, we can also cool it down”, says Wessel van Eeden, marketing and communications director at Justdiggit.
Restoring degraded land is a multi win-win thing. It creates jobs, enhances biodiversity and sequesters carbon. A study made by Nature Conservancy shows that 37 percent of the emission reductions needed by 2030 to keep global temperature increases under 2°C can be provided by restoring land with the help of nature-based solutions. ”Plants function as the earth’s air conditioning system. Trees and other plants can lower the temperature by ten degrees Celcius on a local level, says Wessel van Eeden.
But while the digging technique itself is ancient, Justdiggit’s methods of spreading the word are both modern and innovative. By forming effective partnerships with artists, brands, trustworthy organizations and international media and advertising companies, Justdiggit has created awareness in the form of music, phone apps, billboarding and powerful information campaigns in villages – sometimes including DJ:s, dance performances and live music. https://youtu.be/r5qZZhChYP4
Currently Justdiggit has 4 campaigns going on in 26 African countries. For the remaining part of this decade, Justdiggit has set a moonshot goal. ”There are 350 million smallhold farmers in Sub Saharan Africa. If they are empowered, then the whole continent could be regreened within the next ten years”, says Wessel van Eeden.
In the latest campaign, called Stream to Regreen, you can help restore degraded land simply by listening to music. For every 25 streams of the new song ”Too much to ask”, performed by Don Diablo and Ty Dolla $ign, 1 m2 of land will be regreened. The campaign was launched in mid-June. Two weeks later the song had already had 2,5 million streams.
”We hadn’t even released the official video by then”, says Wessel van Eeden.
Justdiggit has now also partnered with We Don’t Have Time, the world’s largest social network for climate action.
”I was a speaker at We Don’t Have Time’s Earth Day event. It was only a 90-second presentation, but I got a lot of positive feedback from that. So I started exploring the platform and really liked the communication approach, we share the same mindset in that respect. I also think the Climate Review system is an innovative way to do something for the climate. We all need to work together to solve the climate crisis.” How will you use your Climate Dialogue page?
”So far, we have only posted a few things, but we are working on some ideas right now, so hopefully you’ll soon start seeing a lot of things going on. We are very excited to explore our partnership!” Wessel van Eeden’s speech during We Don’t Have Time’s digital, global event “Financing the Race to Zero”, which was broadcast live on Earth Day, April 22.
By MARKUS LUTTEMAN
ABOUT
Justdiggit is a Dutch non-profit with offices in Amsterdam and Nairobi, aiming to ”cool down the planet by regreening Africa”. The idea is to make dry land green again by inspiring and mobilizing farmers to regreen their own land. The farmers bring back nature with help of simple landscape restoration techniques. Bringing back vegetation has a positive effect on the (local) nature, biodiversity, communities and the climate. Justdiggit also uses global awareness campaigns to promote nature-based solutions as the solution to reverse climate change.
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That’s amazing! Such a simple but impactful solution!
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@justdiggit is doing an awesome job! Let's dig for a greener future