Urbanisation threatens sacred Benin forests of Voodoo believers

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00:00 Making his way through the bushes of the Buezun forests,

00:04 Voodoo priest Gilbert Gakpo uses a silver bell

00:07 to summon and locate a spirit.

00:10 He finds a dwelling inside a sacred tree

00:13 where he performs a traditional ritual

00:15 to help cleanse his followers.

00:17 If you are being targeted by witchcraft or dark magic,

00:23 you can come here for rituals

00:24 and you'll never endure those hardships again.

00:28 To this day, Voodoo remains deeply anchored

00:31 in Beninese culture.

00:33 The religion, which is still practiced

00:35 by over 10% of the population,

00:37 is based on the belief that all things,

00:39 from trees to rocks to animals,

00:41 have a solar spirit,

00:43 and it considers forests as sacred places of worship.

00:47 But these spiritual havens are being wiped out

00:50 by deforestation amid widespread urbanization,

00:53 intensive agriculture,

00:55 and the use of wood for energy and fuel.

00:58 People are poor.

01:02 They can't afford to buy fertilizer or gas for energy.

01:06 From 2001 to 2012,

01:09 we noticed that 14% of the country's sacred forests

01:12 have disappeared.

01:14 Torn between demographic pressure

01:17 and environmental concerns,

01:19 Beninese government said it's doing what it can

01:22 to halt deforestation.

01:24 In 2019, it launched a joint project with the World Bank,

01:28 aiming to replant some 22,000 hectares of forests

01:32 and better protect these sacred spaces.

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