Saving Zimbabwe’s forests
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2020
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Honey bees, cow dung and mulch; how a company in Zimbabwe is protecting forests in order to offset the carbon emissions of people around the world. Even though many flights are grounded at the moment, there is still a need to reduce the amount of carbon we pump into the atmosphere. But what happens when you can’t reduce it any further? You can offset it. Charlotte Ashton discovers a company based in Zimbabwe that runs one of the largest projects of its kind in the world and finds out where your money goes if you choose to offset your carbon emissions.
Carbon Green Africa’s project focuses on protecting Zimbabwe’s existing forests, rather than planting new trees and her journey takes her to some surprising places. In a programme recorded last November, Charlotte finds that preventing deforestation not only helps her assuage her flight shame, but helps give people in a remote part of Zimbabwe new jobs, more food and an oven powered by cow dung!
Presenter: Charlotte Ashton Producer: Phoebe Keane
(Image: Forests in Guruve district, Zimbabwe. Credit: BBC/Phoebe Keane)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Oh, sorry, you're all right. Let's take this big spiky palm leaf out the way. |
| 0:08.7 | I'm fighting my way through a forest in Zimbabwe, thorny bushes, golden spiky grasses, |
| 0:15.0 | mopani trees with leaves shaped like the wings of a butterfly. |
| 0:21.0 | The colour of these leaves is so vivid. It's almost lime green and every now and then you get these fantastic palms. |
| 0:30.0 | What sort of... Oh, oh, sorry, I've just got a bike. This journey began when I started thinking seriously about my carbon footprint. The past few weeks have shown we can fly less, but at some point my family and I are going to have to get back on a plane if we want to go home. We live here in |
| 0:54.0 | Zimbabwe, our friends and family are in the UK. Sailing is not an option, it's too |
| 1:00.0 | expensive and too long, especially with small children. |
| 1:05.5 | This is assignment on the BBC World Service. |
| 1:08.2 | I'm Charlotte Ashton. |
| 1:10.3 | We may have all stopped flying for now, but reducing harmful greenhouse gases and protecting our forests is still critical for reducing global warming. |
| 1:20.0 | So I'm looking into offsetting, buying carbon credits that cancel out the carbon dioxide released by my flight. |
| 1:27.0 | It's been criticized as a distraction from the real work of reducing what we emit in the first place. |
| 1:33.4 | But for those of us with no other option, I want to understand the business model. |
| 1:38.1 | That's why I'm here in this forest with Rory Mule. |
| 1:41.9 | He's Project Area Manager for a company called Carbon Green Africa who |
| 1:46.8 | produce carbon credits. |
| 1:50.1 | This bird song really is fantastic. |
| 1:52.6 | What can we hear right now? |
| 1:54.6 | There was a cuckoo calling a lot. |
| 1:58.9 | There you go. |
| 1:59.7 | That's a cuckoo. |
| 2:00.5 | He's. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.