Ugandan groups are running talent competitions with music, poetry and dance to inspire their communities to fight climate change and protect the environment.
00:00The jury is ready. Let the competition begin.
00:30Entry must convey a message about the environment.
00:33The Karangara Wildlife Conservation Group is hoping to qualify for the next round.
00:38Their goal? To become the best performance group in Uganda's southwestern Kanungu district.
00:44The Dancing for Nature competition was launched in 2017 by climate activist Herbert Panovi.
00:51The sweetest dance you can talk about is the dance of nature.
00:57When a tree is being swung by the wind, it is a natural rhythmic movement responding to the force of the wind.
01:10And I find myself almost moving with the wind, moving with a tree, sharing as if we are in a Rio Rio dance.
01:21He heads up an environmental NGO and uses performance art to highlight the need to protect the environment in places where traditional media have little impact.
01:33So our other method which we think is community friendly and community powerful is to use the music, dance and drama.
01:44And then by that we are finding the reasoning capacities of the community to enter into thinking about how the environment is, was and will be in future.
02:01In the hills of Kanungu, the changing climate means heavy rainstorms are becoming more common.
02:07That resulting landslides destroy river banks, fields and houses.
02:12Farmers are partly to blame as they clear forests and drain wetlands for farming.
02:18Away from the competition, participants learn important lessons.
02:22These planted walls of earth, known as contour bands, stop rainwater gushing down the slope.
02:28Herbert Bernoulli, a biologist by profession, explains how they work.
02:34So we dig the trenches and we make a mound kind of where we put the soil down.
02:43And when the water comes, it lands in the trench.
02:47And when it stays there for a day, it now sinks within the soil.
02:53Back to the competition, the Nyakitandara Vision Club is also hoping to reach the next round.
02:59After their dance, they perform a song.
03:02The Nyakitandara Vision Club is a song.
03:27In our village, we formed a group of ten people.
03:37We began by collecting polythene bags and plastic bottles after learning that they harm our soil.
03:44Once we understood their impact, we started gathering them.
03:48We also visited various homes and planted the trees that we had been performing about.
03:58The trees are needed. The bank of the Nyarwande River has collapsed.
04:03Herbert Bernoulli's NGO has provided seedlings that they grew themselves.
04:07Once established, the adult trees will prevent further landslides.
04:12The species was chosen especially for its deep roots.
04:16So this is known as coriander tree.
04:20It has various powerful roots and they go fast.
04:25So we expect them to go and bind the whole soil so that there is no more erosion taking away this soil.
04:33Wetlands, wetlands, wetlands, how wonderful you are, how useful you are.
04:39Oh, wetlands, people are proud of you because you are the mother of life.
04:45In the competition, there is a surprise.
04:48Suddenly, a third group appears unannounced, reciting a poem on the importance of wetlands.
04:54It turns out that it's actually the first team of contestants in a different outfit.
05:00The poem should have come earlier.
05:02That loses them points.
05:04The jury then reaches a decision.
05:06And the winner is the second team that sang the song.
05:11So the best one is that one who has done much more research.
05:15So that is how the grading takes place.
05:18They told us how we can protect the environment through the song.
05:22And they told us what causes climate change.
05:27And they even told us the importance of the environment when it was still beautiful in the past.
05:32But no one lives empty handed.
05:34Beehives are given out free of charge, allowing everyone to earn some extra money without harming the environment.
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