Description of Challenge
To inspire us to restore degraded eco-systems and to value treesThe story of a shepherd who repairs the ruined ecosystem of a secluded valley by single handedly cultivating a forest over a thirty year period.
Solution
The Man Who Planted Trees, is a short story first published in 1953 and tells the story of one shepherd’s long and successful single handed effort to re-forest a desolate valley in the foothills of the Alps in Provence throughout the first half of the 20th century.
As the forest grows so the ecosystem is restored and people return. This classic and popular ecological tale has been interpreted in the theatre and made into an animated film. Clearly and simply it encourages a love of place and of nature and of trees as essential living entities. It calls on us to accept our role to nurture the natural world and not to underestimate the good we might do.
