Protect the Grass, Save the People (and the Monkeys) | National Geographic

Everybody says grasses are food. Grasses are our clothes. There's some ownership and some sense, you know? Everybody senses, everybody feels.

When dating Wassa Wassa community conservation area, it is a special project. The director of [Music] in many ways, the glossa conservation efforts are a very conservative kind of cultural relic and also one that's very progressive. From an outsider's perspective, the local community is taking ownership of who has access to this place and when.

The guava itself has been around for hundreds of years as a pseudo protected area. There's a long history going back to various different legends of its founding. But in short, it exists as it does because it's very difficult to grow crops at this altitude and at this exposure. The local community has realized this and kind of set it aside as a community resource that they harvest occasionally.

When you conserve the wildlife, you will conserve the habitats. Just when you conserve the habitats, you will provide some important inputs for the long-term sustainability for the community. I mean, there will be more water, there will be less degradation. But when this is conserved like this and they can get more benefits, they can take the grass once per two years or three years, and it will be more advantageous.

It is sustainable, you know? If they can use it for four generations, but if it is open and they can use it very freely, everything can be destroyed within a week or two. All things are made by the community, and the commons are living together. Each community ties transfers to the next generation. So I think we also have a very, very bright future.