A voice for Just climate action – Zakaria Hechmi

VCA launches its third video story this time from Tunisia, featuring Zakaria Hechmi, a peasant farmer, local seeds producer and activist from Gabes (Chenini Oasis) who has traditional knowledge and is active in several local and national NGOs and movements.

The region of Gabes faces uncontrolled monopolization of water by the chemical industries and a cement factory. This, together with the impacts of climate change, has a negative impact on the residents and their crop production. Zakaria believes that one way of combating the effects of climate change and achieving food sovereignty would be to rely on and grow original seeds instead of hybrid seeds. To achieve this goal, Zakaria organizes local forums with CSOs and activists to raise awareness of the social and economic importance of local crops and of building the resilience of local communities by applying local solutions and scaling up traditional knowledge.