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Brut America
  • 3/25/2025
He quit his family’s business to dedicate his life to protecting nature.
He replanted mangroves, created marine sanctuaries, managed the Ministry of Environment in Senegal, his birth country…

Brut met Haidar El Ali, one of Africa's most influential ecologists.

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Transcript
00:00♪
00:29For a very long time, I went to the marsh, I went to the sea, and I discovered the strength of nature, its beauty, its power.
00:38And as I discovered these discoveries, as well as diving in the submarine as walking in the marshes,
00:47well, I felt the need to protect it, to protect the environment,
00:51because I could see that people did not realize the damage it caused when it exploited either the aquatic or the forest resources.
01:21In the 1980s and 1985s, we were still fishing explosives in Senegal.
01:47So we threw bombs into the sea, we caught the fish.
01:50While underwater, there were hundreds, if not thousands of fish that were dead and rotting in the bottom.
01:57So I filmed this, I denounced it, I showed it to the fishermen.
02:01And when I showed it to the fishermen, well, there was an immediate result.
02:06Because I realized that the fishermen heard what I saw.
02:11So I showed it to them.
02:12Once I showed it to them, well, they stopped this technique.
02:16But well, there were quite violent conflicts between the fishermen to stop this.
02:42I started from the principle that anyone, anytime, no matter how, could fish anything.
03:09And that was not sustainable.
03:11So I said to myself, we need a sanctuary where the fish, when they are inside, are protected.
03:40One of our most beautiful operations was in Casamance, in the south of Senegal.
03:44The population was in disarray because their rice fields were occupied by salt.
03:49And they asked us for help.
03:52So we did an experiment.
03:55In 2006, we planted 65,000 feet of mangrove in a village called Taubourg.
04:11In 2010, we planted in 428 villages, mobilizing 110,000 people, 52 million mangrove plants.
04:20So in total, we have 15,000 hectares that grow and capture CO2.
04:28Because mangrove is known, it is an ecosystem that allows us to capture CO2.
04:40I am a diver.
04:48So I was often underwater.
04:50And it hurt my heart to see these fish that were in the nets.
04:55So after a while, I started to release them.
04:58And then I said, well, we have to remove the nets.
05:01And we started to remove the nets.
05:03But it's really because we noticed that the fish were dying.
05:07And for nothing.
05:08Because they were caught in the nets.
05:10And there was no fisherman to take advantage of that.
05:15And since then, every year, we clean the seabed.
05:20When I saw that politicians had no concern for the environment,
05:38I decided to create a political party that is an ecological party.
05:42When I was Minister of the Environment, we immediately reviewed the Forest Code.
05:52We increased fines.
05:54And we made it penal to catch someone who traffics wood.
06:00He must go to jail.
06:02We put in place the Plastic Law.
06:04So a law that prohibited the use of plastic bags.
06:07I remember I was a minister who was never in his office.
06:10I was always on the ground.
06:12Because the traffickers were on the ground.
06:14And we had to fight them.
06:40It's not a question of overfishing.
06:42It's a question of survival.
06:44Because these are boats that have highly devastating techniques.
06:49They pollute the sea.
06:51They come into your waters without permission.
06:53They pollute your resources.
06:55And they leave quietly.
06:57So it's really a terrible situation.
07:10We were on the ground and we fought against it.
07:20We were really concerned about the result for the protection of the environment.
07:25Whether marine or forest.
07:27Now when you are a minister who does more action than politics,
07:33you never stay long.
07:35Because interests that are at stake are very important.
07:39And you end up disturbing lobbies that benefit from the system.
07:43And then we end up kicking you out.
08:40It's primordial, it's capital.
08:42Because of the forest, there is the whole ecosystem,
08:46the animal biodiversity.
08:48There is all the biomass that feeds the earth.
09:04What I would like to say to a young person
09:06What I would like to say to a young person
09:08is that the planet is suffering.
09:10The world is dying.
09:12Why?
09:14Because the economic system has taken it hostage.
09:18The world is taken hostage by the economic system, by finance.
09:23And we have to get out of this if we want to save our world.
09:27So what I want to say to young people is one word, action.
09:33Act also on your side as if you were your own ruler.
09:38Act also on your side to plant trees.
09:42Act also on your side when you consume,
09:45to refuse this system that is being sold to us through advertising and TV
09:50that says that such a product is good, while it destroys the forest.
09:55So for me, I have a lot of hope with young people
09:58because they have understood that they have to give meaning to their lives.
10:03They no longer want to be those sheep that are embarked on stories that are false.
10:09So maybe with them we have hope that change is possible.