Man of the Trees

English conservationist Richard St Barbe Baker, here aged 92,  presents his ideas with a simple and desperate clarity: "We have to plant forest trees for our lives".

He brings world attentiont to the alarming rate at which the world's deserts are expanding because of tree-felling and overgrazing.

Man of the trees includes footage from Richard St Barbe Baker's 1952 Sahara crossing and ecological survey, plus other archival material that sketches his early life in the forests of Canada, colonial Kenya and Nigeria, and the struggle for the Redwoods of California. The film shows his support for the Chipko people in India, and explores his involvement in New Zealand.

Well know cinematographer Leon Narbey directs this visionary documentary about the man behind the International Tree Foundation.  His two-minute morning and night tree hugging routine is something that should be an inspiration to us all as we grow further and further away from nature.