In the field I mainly wanted to see the enterprise groups TREE AID is supporting - groups who had been affected by pests, by the emergence of a gold mine and by the bank having to suspend giving loans. I also wanted to see the wider context in which TREE AID is working.
There were a lot of Fulani women in this area - pastoralists who are always on the move, so establishing communication with them directly isn't easy for TREE AID.
With no land, tree foods are vital for their consumption and that of their animals. The seeds of the Acacia nilotica are used to tan leather, in which they trade. Certainly the increased tree cover will benefit the Fulani but as trees are so vital to them, we want to do more.
Even the rope with which they pull the bucket from the well is made from the fibre of bark, often from the baobab tree (Adansonia digitata).
These blow-up globes are brilliant to show the villagers where you have come from.
The kids quickly find a use for them...
...a good alternative to their usual football, a plastic bag stuffed with other plastic bags.
At Seguenega in the north east of Burkina Faso, we met with Madame Sawadogo with Adama and Boreima (on the left), who support 65 tree enterprise groups. My TREE AID colleagues, Yarri Kamara and Yacouba Ouaedraogo are on the right.
TREE AID Updates and posters are pinned up on the walls of the small office, along with a map of all the villages where Madame Sawadogo and her team work.
On route to the villages people are heading in one direction - to the site d'ore. This has meant some groups have postponed their enterprise activities while they seek their fortune.
It all started when someone recently found the equivalent of £500 worth of gold in a day, about three times the average annual income. Word got around and now there are acres of people toiling for gold.
Everywhere there are treacherous holes that are so deep you can't see the bottom. The guy with the mud covered trousers at the back dug this one.
Working conditions are just about as bad as they can get...
...endured by women, men and children. It is a sign of how desperate their lives are and underlines how important it is that they have alternative means of income. As most of them find nothing, hopefully, this 'gold rush' will disappear as quickly as it emerged.
Villagers are here voluntarily. They are proud of their efforts and they are certainly to be admired for such hard work.
Water is at hand for a good bath at the end of a hard day at the mines. A significant amount of that being collected will be used for gold panning.
Luckily, Inoussa, Mahamadou and Arouna are not at the gold mine. Having helped them develop a business plan, TREE AID is now helping them to get their business off the ground. But it is hard. This year the baobab leaves they want to market were attacked by pests.
They used their first ever bank loan to buy extra dried baobab leaves, stored in a shed until the price goes up. This will allow them to pay back their loan and turn a profit. The group told us, "when we are out of poverty we will help people abroad like TREE AID's supporters do".
This women's group didn't want to take the risk of a loan for their baobab leaf business and had, instead, set up a group savings scheme to develop it. They too had been affected by the pest attack on the baobab leaves and hadn't had enough to sell this year.
The women hadn't lost heart. The group President, Algera Belem, tells us "Now, bit by bit, we are able to fight ignorance. The project has opened our minds to new ways of generating income".
Haoua Porogo tells us "There are ten in the group and each of us has just started putting CFA500 aside every week towards group savings, and we know that this can help us overcome our poverty". Hopefully, this will enable them to invest in a better crop of baobab leaves next year.
Yacouba (right) knows a boabab expert to help them grow 'bonzai' baobabs, small baobabs that produce leaves in 18 months and for which it is easier to control pests. Also, our next meeting presents an idea to help them reach wider markets - Hameda Belem.
Hamede Belem, an experienced entrepreneur, sells red kapok tree (Bombax costatum) sepals. He shares his entrepreneurial know-how with one of the Sima women's enterprise groups. As a man he can move around to find out market information more easily than the women.
As for the nearby gold mines, Minata tells us, "Most of the time you don't even earn a franc at the mines, so our shea enterprise is much better ...it is the best long-term option for us". Another group member tells how the group brought presents for her daughter when she gave birth. "we have solidarity" they tell us, benefits we hadn't thought of.
While we talk with their parents, curious children gather around. It's hard not to fall in love with them - seen here hiding among the newly stacked thatch for the roof of the family house.
These kids had never seen anything like these party blowers before, which gave them endless pleasure. They and their children too will benefit from their parents' tree planting and protection and enterprise development efforts.
A favourite boys' pass-time is to ride the family bullock....
...as fast as they can!!
Though they smile and bring out puppies to show the foreign visitor....
...in reality, everyday life here is tough beyond our imagination.
Life in the Capital, Ouagadougou, can be a stark contrast to life in the village.
But mostly it is very poor.
However, the city is developing rapidly and people are considering drawing on traditional materials and skills for building like those used here in this village...
This could take far less of the country's precious foreign exchange and be good for the environment too, as it uses less wood.
Obviously, urban buildings have different requirements to those of a rural family compound, like this...
...or these granaries (...on the march at Barani, "...I am a granary and I am going to exterminate you!").
However, this village Gaudi-like mosque wouldn't look out of place in Barcelona
This museum being built in Ouagadougou is using traditional skills and materials and is a non-wood construction. Encouraging this is definitely of interest to TREE AID in the long-term.
En route between villages there are plenty of opportunities to see trees supporting livelihoods. Here sorghum dries on straw ropes coiled like a mamba snake around the branches.
These baobabs (Adansonia digitata) are kept small for the harvesting of leaves, which are a great source of minerals.
Baobab fruit is an excellent source of vitamin C and the roasted seeds make a nutritious protein snack.
Kids love the sweetness and sherbetty flavour of the fruit.
The fire-ball dawadawa tree (Parkia biglobosa) blossom...
....hangs like brightly lit lanterns in the trees.
The resulting seeds from the fruits, seen on the left, rolled into balls, are a staple product of local markets and make a protein-rich gravy - the Bisto of West Africa. It's a familiar smell on the air at meal times in villages, but also found on the menus in the capital.
These weeda (Saba senegalensis) fruits were being widely sold along the roads when I was last in Burkina in July.
Seeing a good blossoming of the shea trees (Vitellaria paradoxa) is reassuring as the fruit is a vital part of the local economy.
Oil, extracted from the nuts, is used for cooking and cosmetics, for which there is a growing overseas market, particularly now it is a permissible ingredient in chocolate. (taken last July).
Kapok (Ceiba pentandra), also known as cotton silk, was once widely used in Europe for mattresses, upholstered chairs and saddles. Now the pods of this tree just lay on the ground rotting. At least the leaves can be eaten. Foam, feathers and cotton have replaced kapok' and ...
...its key product being no longer marketable, this tree is now threatened in many parts of Burkina ...and yet one tree can produce a huge crop without the expensive inputs and environmentally damaging effects of cotton. I'd like to see a 'kapok comeback' for stuffing and insulation!
This delicate blossom belies the enormous value of the neem tree (Azadirachta indica)...
The neem seeds produce a high quality oil. It has been estimated that the potential lifetime pharmaceutical value of this tree alone could be as much as $25,000. The economic value of the many different local trees if they were developed could do much to overcome poverty in West Africa.
These Gaka fruit (Diospyros mespilisormis) proved a refreshing snack while I was out horse riding (one of the best ways to see the countryside). Some boy-goat-herds were up the tree feasting on them and handed me a bunch.
Travelling back from Po, we happened upon this village market mainly selling kaga fruit (Detarium microcarpum). This little girl's face reveals how much children relish this avacado-green fruit, which is excellent because it is packed with goodness.
Whoops! She got more kaga fruit than she bargained for! The bag fell too suddenly to stop it but she was well compensated with her favourite fruit and quickly forgot the trauma!
If that is not proof enough of the deliciousness of the kaga fruit, then this gift of a basket of kaga fruit to distribute to the kids nearly caused a riot in the market they were so popular!
These mugununga fruit (Ziziphus) are as popular today as they were 200 years ago when explorer Mungo Park, travelling in West Africa, wrote about them. They made vitamin-rich cakes with them then as they do today.
Elephants like trees too, but it looked like he thought we might be an even sweeter fruit than the ones on offer ...and so we scarpered sharpish!
There are no elephants on the streets of Ouagadougou. But there are billboards like this. I'd like it in green and saying "In Ouaga we know why we love baobab juice" (or tamarind, kaga, raison, or one of the many other fruit juices from Burkina that are also packed with nutrition etc)
In 2002 TREE AID held its first workshop on tree products and invited key players to participate. Then people told us it was the first of its kind. Effectively marketed non-wood forest products were rare. Now that is changing. This woman is selling juices previously unavailable.
Our awareness-raising about the value of non-wood forest products at all levels is having an impact on the volume, variety and quality of products now available in urban areas across Burkina. This sesame oil trader is now also selling shea fruit jams and tree oils (centre and right).
Joseph Zongo (left), adviser to the Minister of Environment, tells Yacouba that non-wood forest products are to form a "critical" element of the economy because of TREE AID. Both the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture are to take this forward. GREAT NEWS for the villagers we work with, for whom it will mean vital markets.
March 15th was farmers day in Burkina Faso and the President Campaore told the country that they would be diversifying into non-wood forest products. Focusing on what grows locally and marketing that will give the country a unique niche in the market. This is typical of Burkina Faso's 'Yes we can' attitude. No wonder they love Obama!
This is news worth celebrating!! At the end of one of the enterprise group meetings flip-flops, plastic pots with stones in, a kalabash bowl, a plastic bottle and various sticks were used to beat out a rhythm...
...which the kids did so well that there was nothing for it but to dance!
Say it with a chicken. A thank you to TREE AID (and that includes our supporters) from the villagers of Nobere, which TREE AID's driver and his family will enjoy.
Planting and looking after trees with their parents means these kids are saving the world that we are responsible for destroying! With the government focus on non-wood forest products, there is real hope that millions of village children like these will have a better future. TREE AID has played an important role in bringing that about. We couldn't have done it without the generosity of our supporters. THANK YOU!
