Story of Dr Rene Haller: Swiss Who Turned an African Wasteland into a Green Paradise
Dr Rene Haller’s is one story of how a man transformed a wasteland corner of Africa into a fledging green paradise that today attracts thousands of tourists from around the world, and may offer lessons for green progress in America on sustainability successes elsewhere.
1957 AD: A young Swiss agronomist goes to Africa, the dark continent, to manage a coffee plantation at the foot of the ice-capped mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest; a few years later, he gets another brief - to produce food - fruit and vegetables - for cement factory workers, many of whom were undernourished, as well as spruce up the area surrounding the site.
1970 AD: Dr Haller starts a unique ecological experiment, attempting to rehabilitate the limestone quarries scarring the Mombasa coastline, including the 7 square kilometer Bamburi cement quarry site from a barren and dusty lunar landscape to an ecological haven.
