The Vaudois mayor who dreams of reforesting Afghanistan
16 Jul 2012 Health and nutritionAfghanistanSource: 24 Heures
Terre des hommes is counting on Reto Zehnder, an expert in project management, to reduce the poverty in Rustaq.
Rustaq: A remote region of Afghanistan, a country devastated by war and an earthquake in 1998. Arid soil, but on which trees grow and beehives are seen (see below); this is the challenge for Reto Zehnder, a specialist in rural development and mayor of the tiny village of Mauraz, at the foot of the Jura. Five years after launching the project initiated by Terre des hommes (Tdh), 800 beehives have already been built – one project amongst others to relieve some sixty Afghan communities. “Only later will these families be able to think about protecting and developing their natural resources”, says Reto Zehnder. “Terre des hommes is there to give them ideas. But they themselves have to find their own solutions and get them organised.” With patience and perseverance, qualities recognised in this expert in management and project monitoring; “It is his ability to bring the local people into our programmes”, emphasizes Pierre Zwahlen, Tdh’s spokesperson. “And this without lecturing them.”
Many assignments . . .
Imposing his own point of view would be counter to his character. The son of an employee of the Swiss military department and a hairdressing teacher, Reto Zehnder has always fought against imperialism. He was only 21 when he started with the Red Cross, going to Biafra, where he was one of the first humanitarian workers to adventure into this region of Nigeria. Kouchner and others followed.
This experience, “probably the toughest of all of them!” changed his life. With a degree from the African Institute in Geneva in his pocket, Reto Zehnder has travelled to the four corners of the earth. Often for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), even since he became independent.
To list all his assignments is an impossible task. Even for him. “One day”, he took part in the setting up of the Swiss Corps for Disaster Aid “as duty anthropologist”, he suddenly remembers. “Anthropologist, ethnologist, the unemployment agency registered me as an Africanist!” jokes the spectacled man with the hands of a mason.
. . . and one passion
A clue to another of his passions: craft industries, both here and elsewhere. Going to Benin to join his first companion and to write his doctorate on the phosphate industry, he fell madly in love with African craftwork – up to the point of going back to Geneva and holding an exhibition there. It was also he who renovated the ancient mill of Mauraz bit by bit, bought thirty years ago. The intellectual needs to create, too; a way of occupying his free time and of assuaging his curiosity, which has been whet by “family travel to places where few tourists venture”.
A voice that is heard
His expertise in project management and his knowledge of village development have also helped him to guide Mauraz – 54 inhabitants – for three terms of office. As he recalls: “Keeping an executive avoids us falling under the supervision of L’Isle VD” (canton administration). As leader of other small entities, in 2008 Mauraz appealed against the social invoice and the way of calculating the adjustment. Despite a negative response from the Administrative Court, “Our voice was heard”, said the town councillor, “Since the law was reformed, the costs are again bearable.”
At 65, Reto Zehnder is not yet ready to put away his bags and turn off his PC, which make it possible for him to follow the projects from a distance. His assignment in Afghanistan will last until at least 2016. In the next four years, the man who wants to see trees growing in the desert regions of Afghanistan will continue to travel the roads of Rustaq for some three months every year.
An example of sustainable development
Apiculture, vegetables conserved in reusable jars, reforestation with pistachio and almond trees, a range of varieties of better drought-resistant wheat, an increase in the number of fodder plants for soil retention and the construction of natural terraces in mountainous areas; “Following the 20th Rio Summit Meeting, this Afghani project is an example of sustainable development”, says Reto Zehnder, a specialist for rural development and mayor of Mauraz, “because it combines the development of revenue-generating activities and the management of natural resources.”
With apiculture as an example: “Of high quality, this honey can be sold locally at prices above those of the world market. Once sold, the product, added to other newly created revenue, allows the families to devote themselves to sustainable rural development. This programme also enables avoidance of negative effects such as the marriage of young girls to old men and the exploitation of boys as domestic servants.”
Financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) with 5 million Swiss francs, this Terre des hommes project affects more than one third of the Rustaq district –180,000 inhabitants – and should definitely continue until 2016.
