## local-activists-fighting-climate-change-ewing-chow

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**Canonical URL:** [local-activists-fighting-climate-change-ewing-chow](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/local-activists-fighting-climate-change-ewing-chow.pdf)

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### Grass-roots overview
- Small-scale, community-led interventions across Brazil, French Polynesia, India, New Zealand, and the Lake Chad region demonstrate locally tailored responses to climate stressors and ecosystem degradation.
- Emphasis on traditional practices, community organization, and locally adapted economic alternatives (ecotourism, carbon sequestration, sustainable fisheries, radio-based knowledge dissemination).

### Waterman of India (Rajendra Singh)
- Background and motivation:
  - Rajendra Singh quit a civil service job in 1983 to practice Ayurveda and moved to Gopalpura to treat night blindness linked to vitamin A deficiency.
  - India has 17 percent of the world’s population but just 4 percent of its freshwater resources.
- Actions and outcomes:
  - Built the first johad (traditional reservoir) in 1985 with local volunteers; the johad was 15 feet deep and covered one acre.
  - The first johad filled by the end of the season and recharged wells previously dry for years, prompting return migration to the village.
  - Singh used proceeds from selling belongings and received in-kind support (truckloads of grain) from Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action to pay workers.
- Scale and organization:
  - Tarun Bharat Sangh has built more than 11,800 johads, helping make 1,200 villages water sufficient.
  - Organization staffing: 62 full-time employees, 3,000 part-time employees, and more than 10,000 volunteers; his son Maulik is the group’s director.
- Climate and policy relevance:
  - Recharging underground aquifers helps mitigate climate change by restoring tree growth in drought-stricken regions.
  - Current project: adapting to climate change through water management in 30 villages in a district of Rajasthan with predominantly marginalized and poorest communities.
  - Advocacy for community-based water-harvesting projects over large infrastructure to recharge groundwater and sustain conservation.

### Saving the Kiokio (Anaa, French Polynesia)
- Local context and challenges:
  - Anaa is a remote coral-fringed atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago; the island’s copra industry faces pest threats accentuated by a warming climate.
  - Fish stocks decimated by indiscriminate fishing; population fell from 2,000 to 500 after a hurricane in the 1980s.
- Community response and interventions:
  - The Pa‘umotu rejected a hotel development and opted for symbiotic, small-scale development; established a protected marine educational area.
  - Project supported by the Island Initiative to improve food security by taking only what is needed from the ocean at the right times.
  - Transitioned to a sustainable catch-and-release fly-fishing tourism industry centered on bonefish (kiokio), triggerfish, and trevally, led by guide Raphael Ravieno.
- Scientific findings and conservation measures:
  - Fisheries biologist Alex Filous determined viable offspring from the spawning stock were too low; female kiokio were being caught in large numbers during the spawning season.
  - Restored the rāhui (traditional ban on fishing during spawning) to protect kiokio; children recruited to persuade adults to adopt conservation measures.
- Economic and social supports and challenges:
  - Island Initiative compensates fisherfolk for income lost during the rāhui period and guarantees income for local craftspeople and fly makers via package agreements with foreign tourism providers.
  - Climate variability has made spawning timing less predictable, undercutting rāhui effectiveness.
  - Outlook: ecotourism driven by fly-fishing is expected to be a major part of the solution; researchers express confidence in the atoll as a bonefish destination.

### From Sheep to Trees (Marlene and Patrick Anderson, New Zealand)
- Property and transformation:
  - The Andersons own an 884-hectare property near Shannon; when purchased in 1987, there were no trees and land had been cleared for sheep farming.
  - They have planted extensively to return the land to native forest, nurturing natural reversion and protecting a stream running through the property.
- Policy context and incentives:
  - In 2007, New Zealand introduced an emission-trading system; in 2008, forestry was included, allowing landowners to earn revenue from carbon sequestration on trees planted since 1989.
  - The Andersons chose to regenerate native forest (kamahi, red beech, tawa) rather than plant mainly radiata pine, prioritizing ecological restoration over maximum carbon-credit revenue.
- Conservation actions and social impact:
  - Took cattle out of stream areas in 1996 after a freshwater ecologist identified native fish species (whitebait species of banded and short-jawed kokopu, koaro, torrent fish, red-finned bullies).
  - Use carbon credits to support native forest regeneration.
  - Family involvement: son Luke working on a documentary about rivers; David works for a stamp manufacturer; Monique runs a supported microenterprise producing jams, chutneys, and pickles.

### Fighter for Forests (Clelia Maria Rossi, Brazil)
- Environmental context:
  - The Atlantic Forest five centuries ago covered 1.3 million square kilometers; today only 12 percent remains.
  - The Atlantic Forest contains 1,711 vertebrate species, 20,000 varieties of plants, and seven watersheds.
- Personal transition and land protection:
  - Rossi left São Paulo five years ago for Juquitiba (80 kilometers south of São Paulo), bought six hectares of native forest that were at risk of development.
  - Used old fire hoses instead of barbed wire for fencing to avoid harming migrant animals.
- Activities and outreach:
  - Teaches children and local communities about preserving the remaining Atlantic Forest, rivers, and clean water sources.
  - Works in public schools in Juquitiba and São Lourenço da Serra with recreational activities and competitions on waste separation and treatment, riverbank cleaning, planting native seedlings, and non-burning crop preparation.
  - Participated in a citizens group that successfully stopped plans to divert the Juquiá River.
- Impact and legacy:
  - Emphasizes educating children to become environmentally friendly adults; former students now bring their own children to her programs.
  - Describes environmental teaching as the accomplishment of her life.

### A Voice for Lake Chad (Moussa Ali Mouta and Radio Ndarason Internationale)
- Regional challenges:
  - Lake Chad region faces encroaching Sahara Desert, rising temperatures, and diminishing rainfall; the basin is environmentally distressed and conflict-ridden.
  - The area has among the world’s highest illiteracy, population growth, and unemployment; Boko Haram operates across parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.
- RNI launch and operations:
  - Radio Ndarason Internationale (RNI) launched in 2016 to broadcast to Lake Chad in local languages, including Kanembu.
  - RNI began operating in Maiduguri (Nigeria) and N’Djamena (Chad).
  - Staffing and partnerships: about 50 mainly Nigerian and Chadian staff and correspondents in Cameroon and Niger; works with the Lake Chad Basin Commission and has political support from the African Union.
- Programming, partnerships, and impact:
  - RNI devotes programming to humanitarian partners who want to reach the local population effectively, in a language they understand.
  - Since 2016, Mouta has brought agricultural specialists, veterinarians, and experts from United Nations humanitarian agencies into the studio to supplement field knowledge.
  - Radio is being used as a tool to stimulate dialogue among the primary victims of instability and the worsening climate crisis, with support from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and other donors.
  - Trains Kanembu colleagues to share best practices for fishing, agriculture, and pastoralism; maintains contact with audiences via telephone, social media, and fieldwork.
- Messaging and infrastructure:
  - Mouta, age 29, uses admonitions in Kanembu to prompt regional thinking (example: “taking care of our environment is taking care of our future, including the future of our children”).
  - Because of weak infrastructure and instability, shortwave radio remains a key source of news for the population of the lake region; transmitters are located off the Atlantic coast to protect them from attack.
- Reporting note:
  - Reported by ASHLIN MATHEW in New Delhi, India; DAPHNE EWING-CHOW in French Polynesia; ANNA JAQUIERY in Wellington, New Zealand; DENISE MARÍN in São Paulo, Brazil; and DAVID SMITH in N’Djamena, Chad.
  - PHOTO: DAVID SMITH
  - Kouri cows, found only at Lake Chad, have webbed hooves that help them swim.

*https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/local-activists-fighting-climate-change-ewing-chow.pdf*

### Section 1

### Grass Roots — From Brazil to New Zealand, local activists show that small-scale initiatives can make a difference

### Waterman of India (Rajendra Singh)
- Background and motivation:
  - Rajendra Singh quit a civil service job in 1983 to practice Ayurveda and moved to Gopalpura to treat night blindness linked to vitamin A deficiency.
  - Villagers identified water scarcity as their immediate crisis; India has 17 percent of the world’s population but just 4 percent of its freshwater resources.
- Actions and outcomes:
  - Built the first johad (traditional reservoir) in 1985 with local volunteers; the johad was 15 feet deep and covered one acre.
  - The first johad filled by the end of the season and recharged wells previously dry for years, prompting return migration to the village.
  - Singh used proceeds from selling belongings and received in-kind support (truckloads of grain) from Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action to pay workers.
- Scale and organization:
  - Tarun Bharat Sangh has built more than 11,800 johads, helping make 1,200 villages water sufficient.
  - Organization staffing: 62 full-time employees, 3,000 part-time employees, and more than 10,000 volunteers; his son Maulik is the group’s director.
- Climate and policy relevance:
  - Recharging underground aquifers helps mitigate climate change by restoring tree growth in drought-stricken regions.
  - Current project: adapting to climate change through water management in 30 villages in a district of Rajasthan with predominantly marginalized and poorest communities.
  - Singh’s advocacy: community-based water-harvesting projects are preferred over large infrastructure projects to recharge groundwater levels and sustain conservation efforts.

### Saving the Kiokio (Anaa, French Polynesia)
- Local context and challenges:
  - Anaa is a remote coral-fringed atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago; the island’s copra (coconut) industry faces pest threats (caterpillars) accentuated by a warming climate.
  - Fisherfolk are struggling with stocks decimated by indiscriminate fishing practices; population fell from 2,000 to 500 after a hurricane in the 1980s.
- Community response and interventions:
  - The Pa‘umotu rejected a hotel development and opted for symbiotic, small-scale development; established a protected marine educational area.
  - Project supported by the Island Initiative to improve food security by taking only what is needed from the ocean at the right times.
  - Transitioned to a sustainable catch-and-release fly-fishing tourism industry centered on bonefish (kiokio), triggerfish, and trevally, led by guide Raphael Ravieno.
- Scientific findings and conservation measures:
  - Fisheries biologist Alex Filous determined viable offspring from the spawning stock were too low; female kiokio were being caught in large numbers during the spawning season.
  - Restored the rāhui (traditional ban on fishing during spawning) to protect kiokio; children recruited to persuade adults to adopt conservation measures.
- Economic and social supports:
  - Island Initiative compensates fisherfolk for income lost during the rāhui period and guarantees income for local craftspeople and fly makers via package agreements with foreign tourism providers.
  - Challenges: climate variability has made spawning timing less predictable, undercutting rāhui effectiveness.
  - Outlook: ecotourism driven by fly-fishing is expected to be a major part of the solution; researchers express confidence in the atoll as a bonefish destination.

### From Sheep to Trees (Marlene and Patrick Anderson, New Zealand)
- Property and transformation:
  - The Andersons own an 884-hectare property near Shannon, about an hour and half’s drive northeast of Wellington; when purchased in 1987, there were no trees and land had been cleared for sheep farming.
  - They have planted extensively to return the land to native forest, nurturing natural reversion and protecting a stream running through the property.
- Motivations and decisions:
  - In 2007, New Zealand introduced an emission-trading system; in 2008, forestry was included, allowing landowners to earn revenue from carbon sequestration on trees planted since 1989.
  - The Andersons chose to regenerate native forest (kamahi, red beech, tawa) rather than plant mainly radiata pine, prioritizing ecological restoration over maximum carbon-credit revenue.
- Conservation actions:
  - Took cattle out of stream areas in 1996 after a freshwater ecologist identified native fish species (whitebait species of banded and short-jawed kokopu, koaro, torrent fish, red-finned bullies).
  - Use carbon credits to support native forest regeneration.
- Family and social impact:
  - Children are involved in environmental pursuits: son Luke working on a documentary about rivers; David works for a stamp manufacturer; Monique runs a supported microenterprise producing jams, chutneys, and pickles.

### Fighter for Forests (Clelia Maria Rossi, Brazil)
- Environmental context:
  - Atlantic Forest five centuries ago covered 1.3 million square kilometers; today only 12 percent remains.
  - The Atlantic Forest contains 1,711 vertebrate species, 20,000 varieties of plants, and seven watersheds.
- Personal transition and land protection:
  - Rossi left São Paulo five years ago for Juquitiba (80 kilometers south of São Paulo), bought six hectares of native forest that were at risk of development.
  - Used old fire hoses instead of barbed wire for fencing to avoid harming migrant animals.
- Activities and outreach:
  - Teaches children and local communities about preserving the remaining Atlantic Forest, rivers, and clean water sources.
  - Works in public schools in Juquitiba and São Lourenço da Serra with recreational activities and competitions on waste separation and treatment, riverbank cleaning, planting native seedlings, and non-burning crop preparation.
  - Participated in a citizens group that successfully stopped plans to divert the Juquiá River.
- Impact and legacy:
  - Rossi emphasizes educating children so they grow into environmentally friendly adults; former students now bring their own children to her programs.
  - Describes environmental teaching as the accomplishment of her life.

### A Voice for Lake Chad (Moussa Ali Mouta, Radio Ndarason Internationale)
- Regional challenges:
  - Lake Chad region is environmentally distressed and conflict-ridden; encroaching Sahara Desert, rising temperatures, and diminishing rainfall are shrinking the lake.
  - The area has among the world’s highest illiteracy, population growth, and unemployment; Boko Haram operates across parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.
- Media initiative and objectives:
  - Radio Ndarason Internationale (RNI) launched in 2016 to broadcast to Lake Chad in local languages, including Kanembu; prior to RNI, residents relied on shortwave foreign-language broadcasts.
  - Mouta’s goal: engage the population using local knowledge to forge grassroots solutions across climate, development, health, and education challenges.
- Operations and partnerships:
  - RNI began operating in Maiduguri (Nigeria) and N’Djamena (Chad).
  - Staffing and partnerships: about 50 mainly Nigerian and Chadian staff and correspondents in Cameroon and Niger; works with the Lake Chad Basin Commission and has political support from the African Union.
- Programming and methods:
  - Trains Kanembu colleagues to share best practices for fishing, agriculture, and pastoralism; maintains contact with audiences via telephone, social media, and fieldwork.
  - Example: interviews with fishermen in Chadian waters to share practical knowledge with listeners.

*Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/local-activists-fighting-climate-change-ewing-chow.pdf*

### Section 2

### local-activists-fighting-climate-change-ewing-chow - Section 2

### RNI programming and partnerships
- RNI devotes programming to humanitarian partners who want to reach the local population effectively, in a language they understand.
- Since starting at RNI in 2016, Mouta has brought agricultural specialists, veterinarians, and experts from United Nations humanitarian agencies into the studio to supplement the knowledge he gathers in the field.
- Mouta notes that this is a change for the agencies, which are not accustomed to taking advantage of a regional-radio approach.
- With buy-in from the region’s four national governments and the support of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and other donors, radio is being used as a tool to stimulate dialogue among the primary victims of instability and the worsening climate crisis.

### Local messaging and leadership
- Mouta, who is 29 years old, is a natural behind the microphone, throwing out admonitions in Kanembu in an effort to prompt people to think regionally rather than locally.
- Example phrasing used on air: “taking care of our environment is taking care of our future, including the future of our children.”
- If the goal is a stable, prosperous, and sustainable Lake Chad region, the people of the lake must believe it is possible; Mouta is proof they do.

### Media environment and infrastructure considerations
- Because of weak infrastructure and instability, shortwave radio remains a key source of news for the population of the lake region.
- Transmitters are located off the Atlantic coast, protecting them from attack.

### Reporting and imagery credits
- Reported by ASHLIN MATHEW in New Delhi, India; DAPHNE EWING-CHOW in French Polynesia; ANNA JAQUIERY in Wellington, New Zealand; DENISE MARÍN in São Paulo, Brazil; and DAVID SMITH in N’Djamena, Chad.
- PHOTO: DAVID SMITH
- Kouri cows, found only at Lake Chad, have webbed hooves that help them swim.

*https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/local-activists-fighting-climate-change-ewing-chow.pdf*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/december/local-activists-fighting-climate-change-ewing-chow.pdf_