I've looked for a universal language everyone understands:
Investors and entrepreneurs, farmers and landowners...
...local communities and ecological experts.
Restoration is not a hobby, it's a new industry we have to establish.
I don't need this forest. I planted it for the people.
I didn't do it for the money.
They want us to plant trees, even on the good land.
Even there.
When I met John in 2009, I really was touched.
That was exactly the missing link I needed.
The Löss plateau, but especially the before and after footage...
...told the full story.
I'd been working on this for years but this link really hit home.
Restoration is not a hobby, it's a new industry we have to establish.
Not to maximize profits per hectare...
...but to maximize four returns per hectare.
The four returns are:
Return of inspirational capital: people, passion.
Return of social capital: job creation.
Return of natural capital: creating biodiversity...
...restoring biodiversity and nature.
And they lead to return on investment, financial capital.
It can be agriculture, carbon sinks...
...or tourism, hunting or whatever.
It could be real estate, all depending on the local situation.
But these basic principles of the four returns apply to anything.
To any project, wherever you are.
Fertilize.
Happiness.
SEKEM's vision is in fact the four returns vision.
Everyone is inspired by different things, return of inspiration...
...but by using this model...
...another SEKEM could get capital and grow elsewhere...
...with different people.
Because that's what we want: growth.
One SEKEM is not enough, we need hundreds.
I've looked for a universal language everyone understands.
Investors and entrepreneurs, farmers and landowners...
...local communities and ecological experts.
What have you got here? Little trees? - These are pistachios.
Pistachios?
We use a system here where they are kept in a water box.
I know the system. - This way we control the watering.
And this one? How long has it been here? How many months?
This was planted in November.
25 hectares. How did this originate?
There's degraded soil everywhere in Europe, mainly in the South...
...where there's an unfavourable balance of rain and evaporation.
You see a lot of wasteland there...
...and especially in Spain, Greece and the North African countries...
...you see the huge effect of erosion every year...
...where with every downpour tonnes of fertile soil are washed away.
Erosion, in combination with devegetation...
...is one of the biggest problems facing us.
The fertility of the soil disappears...
...so making use of the soil is impossible.
The combination of biodiversity and agriculture is something we really need.
Especially in countries...
...with an unfavourable balance of evaporation and precipitation.
I mean the South of Europe, Spain.
Spain has 10 million hectares of degraded soil.
And what's more, the countryside has been depopulating for decades.
This is a devastating combination if you want to develop a country.
You can't build an economy on cities and tourism alone.
You have to consider the land and its fertility.
Some 240 people live in Ayoo.
And the total population of the community is some 350 people.
And in the old days?
More, much more.
Ayoo had about 700 to 1000 inhabitants.
But now the young people move away.
Because they...
There are few opportunities here.
They can't live off the land.
There's hardly any guarantee they'll have a decent income.
It hurts me to see the village like this.
We used to have a lot of arable farming and stockbreeding.
Now you can see how our villages are declining.
It hurts.
It is very hard.
A lot more people are retiring.
They think it's a shame their fields are out of crop.
And no one's farming them.
Every year more fields become useless because they're abandoned.
It worries them a lot too.
They would have preferred their children and grandchildren...
...to profit from the land.
It hurts them to see their land being abandoned.
There's no one to farm the fields anymore.
They've stopped planting.
At the moment there's no crop here...
...that's being grown or produced.
There's nothing left.
And there's no one here who works the fields.
Here you see the results of erosion.
We see a hill.
The hillsides are overgrown...
...but at the edges you can see the vegetation disappear.
By fires or other causes.
Then the water washes away the soil...
...and as a result nothing can grow there anymore.
No grass, no shrubs.
Not a single plant can grow here anymore.
This is what's happening with arable land on a large scale...
...when nothing is grown on the hillsides which are then exposed to the rains.
That's why it's important to farm the land all the time.
This is a degraded area.
2000 years ago this was an oak forest with a brook that fed it constantly.
The soil was much richer in humus and carbon than today.
It offered useful services for the people downstream.
In the course of history the soil has become degraded.
Here and in many other parts of the world.
In the Netherlands too, as in other Western countries.
In places where there's more evaporation than precipitation...
...this has led to an increased pace of erosion.
We must restore the natural systems...
...because they offer us services that we can't do without.
They are the building blocks of our economy...
...and we're removing them on a large scale.
In the old days people always did something for a reason.
Nothing was done without a reason.
But then we came here and changed everything just like that...
...thinking we were very smart...
...with our big tractors and large quantities of chemicals...
...and all sorts of pesticides.
We thought that was the way to solve everything.
That's how it was done. Here and in the rest of the world.
Time has shown us we were wrong.
At first the yields were bigger.
After that more and more money had to be invested.
And now more money has to be put into the ground than comes out of it.
This has resulted in less and less agriculture.
Just look at this whole area.
On these 25 hectares we carry out our project.
But there are thousands of hectares that are not used at all.
Maybe a shepherd herds his cattle there.
But what you also see, and that's much more poignant...
...is that the land is ploughed from time to time...
...to be eligible for EU subsidies.
I arrived here 14 to 15 years ago.
This whole area, up to the shrubs over there...
...was overgrown.
I cut everything down and now I've been ploughing it for some time.
That's all we're doing.
The young people are not interested.
And it costs a lot of money as well.
A tractor like this one is about 70,000 euros.
And with all the other stuff you need you have to dish out loads of cash.
You really need to invest a lot.
The fields are owned by the villagers.
So, here I have the fields of 50 to 60 owners.
There are no large landowners here.
These fields never yield a lot.
The only way to benefit from a large piece of land is by EU hand-outs.
Because the produce alone is not enough to survive on.
You survive because the EU is handing out money.
In Spain you see a combination of failing water management...
...and several political measures...
...that make it more profitable for farmers to let their land go to waste.
The people we need, the smart ones, the good ones...
...and they are there in Spain, and great institutions...
...have to work together on the land in order to prepare it for the next step.
To make the social and natural returns possible.
For that you need inspirational return.
The inspiration of people who look out from their tunnel...
...and say: We're going to do things differently.
After the erosion the people moved away.
Before, there were no trees here.
This village didn't exist nor did the forest.
They evolved gradually.
There was only sand. No forest, no trees. Nothing at all.
I started in 1979...
...when the Brahmaputra overflowed.
In the summer months of June and July it was so hot...
...that the snakes in the sand all died.
I was afraid that the people, like the snakes, would perish in the heat.
When my beloved snakes died I asked the elders:
All the snakes have died. What can we do? How can we save them?
They said: Go and plant trees.
'What kind of trees?' Bamboo, they said.
But apart from the bamboo I planted other trees, a complete forest.
I wanted to make the land greener so I planted more trees.
Nature gave me a hand.
Seeds fell into the Brahmaputra river.
When it overflows, it spreads the seeds.
So it helps me too.
And the God of the winds helps me. When the kapok tree bears kapok...
...it will fly away and spread. So there'll be new kapok trees.
People only know how to cut down trees.
After having done this for years, I saw the tiger.
The rhino came, the birds came...
...the snakes and the peacocks.
They all gave me knowledge and helped me.
The villagers have cattle and are making money that way.
And for some people the plum trees...
...yield 40,000 to 50,000 rupees in three months.
So it's very profitable.
And the cotton of the Shimul trees is worth some 150 rupees per kilo.
This way the people earn money from what the forest gives them.
If the forest wasn't here, it would not have been possible.
Everyone is dependent on this forest.
I don't need the forest myself. I created it for the people.
I didn't do it for the money.
It's not what the land does for me but what I can do for the land.
That's why I planted this forest.
Over there were sandbanks.
Since a few months those new trees have been growing there.
There aren't many, but when the trees grow tall, they'll make a forest.
My dream is for Assam and India to become green.
I don't have my own future in mind...
...but when the land has become green, that's my future.
During the time I've got left, I want to make it greener.
But I can't do it alone.
If we can teach the young generation, they'll be able to take over.
In one year many, many children in India were admitted...
...to primary schools.
They must learn that trees need to grow undisturbed for five years.
Only then they'll pass their exams.
In the coming five years they'll need to plant two trees...
...and give the oxygen they produce to the world.
That's what all the world should do.
Then no one wants to cut down trees anymore.
They won't allow people to kill animals and they won't let the birds die.
This will make the whole world greener.
It must be done now, it's the only way.
Globally, 2 billion hectares of soil are degraded...
...and we haven't even mentioned marine systems.
We mainly see this in places where precipitation is low.
The corn belt in the USA, several places in Central and South America...
...areas here, where there are huge areas of monocultures.
All of the Middle East and the Mediterranean area...
...and continuing into Central Asia and India...
...with the Brahmaputra and the Himalayas.
Australia, that has to deal with invasive animal species.
And several places in Africa.
So it's a big problem, as is the opportunity to tackle it...
...and the opportunity for businesses to invest.
Money from governments and charities is absolutely inadequate.
So it's a great challenge for a new economy.
We planted the fields after we had spread our compost.
Every year we grew different crops...
...and after five years we had succeeded in turning the desert soil...
...into a green farm with organic agriculture.
The soil changed from sand into fertile soil...
...with more and more organic matter, season after season, year after year.
Then it's time to change our crops.
In the first year we select specific plants.
The year after we take different kinds and we do the same the third year.
This lemon grass you see was impossible to grow in the first year.
But now the soil is ready...
...because it holds more organic matter.
We now plant crops with bigger yields.
Our farm is important for the village of Harra which is close-by.
When we first came here, there was a lot of unemployment.
We created new jobs for the people.
Most of our work force comes from the village.
They have a better income now.
So, reclaiming desert soil...
...is definitely a good way to make the soil fertile.
It's the only way. It's better than importing food from abroad.
We have a great area of desert in Egypt.
In the western desert there's a lot of water underground.
It'll improve the social situation and employment...
...and thus will solve not only our fertility problem...
...but it'll provide jobs for the young who can't find work elsewhere.
Back up this way.
The roots are deeply embedded.
And as you see, there are fungi too.
The roots and the fungi have formed a mycorrhiza.
It means that in this piece of land down to this depth...
...the roots and the fungi will act as one ecosystem.
If this project develops any further...
...and becomes a success...
...also because we have more of this type of soil...
...we might get bigger yields.
What to do? Take action, I think.
Stop what you were doing, change the way you work...
...and take matters into your own hands so it all restores quickly.
We must have a restoration economy and Pedro, SEKEM and Yadav...
...have been doing this, and for quite some time.
And they have a clear picture of it.
They have experience in the field.
And we can put their experience in a larger framework...
...and build the industry together.
And the trick is to establish it on a political and national level...
...so that Spain can be a model of what I call a restoration industry.
In my view that's what the four returns are all about:
To move from a degradation industry to a restoration industry.
I think everything and everyone are part of the whole system.
In nature all things belong together.
If all the little insects in the soil and in the grass survive...
...then everything survives.
If they die, everyone dies...
...and so does nature. That's why we have to do this.
The earth doesn't belong to us.
We're allowed to live here for a while.
We don't have the right to burden the next generations...
...with deserts.
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