Green Earth

The NGO TERRE VERTE has been working in Burkina Faso since 1989 through inter-village association pilot farms, in the creation of bocage perimeters (wégoubri in the Mooré language), a new concept of rural development developed by the Pilot Farm of Guiè in the 90s to curb soil degradation and which is now taken up by other Burkinabè inter-village associations. The hedging of the rural space makes it possible to solve the problems linked to extensive agriculture (slash-and-burn cultivation, wandering livestock, deforestation, mining agriculture) by establishing a new landscape framework and bio-ecological agriculture. Through a global approach to the problem, the Pilot Farm of Guiè has succeeded in integrating environmental protection into Sahelian agriculture. The concept is based on the creation of bocage perimeters in co-ownership, comprising individual plots and commons whose management is organized around a land grouping of beneficiaries. The result is a completely restored environment where agriculture is no longer synonymous with erosion, where livestock farming is no longer synonymous with overgrazing and where trees and shrubs are harmoniously integrated into the environment.