>> hello and welcome to "global 3000." this is where you get in-depth analysis on the global issues that affect us all. and here's what we have coming up for you today -- drought and no end in sight, why californian farmers fear what lies ahead. saving paradise, what makes mauritius a laboratory of conservation. and laughing as a recipe for life, we meet the man who makes that work.

now, despite better human rights protection on paper, the un estimates that in many countries the number of young girls forced into marriage is actually on the rise. some 35 underage girls get married every day. and although most countries have outlawed the practice, child marriage is still common in some 100 nations around the globe. the top offenders including niger, chad and bangladesh have two things in common -- high poverty and low literacy rates. so what is a bangladeshi girl to do if she desperately wants to avoid that fate? in one region, at least, she can call the wedding busters. and this is what they do. >> these kids are out to make a difference. they're children who refuse to be robbed of their childhood. the wedding busters work to prevent child marriages in rural areas in the far north of bangladesh. they're daring, and for that they are admired, and also a

little feared. shirin has been taking part in sabotaging child marriages since she was eleven. >> i want to be a good person. i want to change something. i want all children to be able to go to school like me. >> in bangladesh, girls only go to school if they're not housewives. shirin is unmarried. at 14, as a girl, she's an exception. when she was eleven, a husband was found for her. but she refused. this is how it could have ended. wedding videos promise love, happiness and travel to faraway places. but they're orchestrated, just like the child marriages. hardly any of them are happy.

the wedding busters and shirin want many more girls to say no. that's why they visit homes unannounced, like a raid squad. suddenly teenagers are standing at the door with arguments against these rigid traditions. but these are people who can neither read nor write. >> people here have a hard time understanding what we want. we have to explain it, over and over. >> they're still children themselves, or teenagers at best. but they're doing what politicians aren't doing -- explaining the law. women aren't allowed to marry until they're 18, men can marry at 21. many parents don't know that, or it doesn't bother them. because if their daughter is married, there's one less mouth to feed at home. and the younger the bride, the

cheaper her dowry, no matter whether they're muslims or hindus. shirin's family wanted to marry her off early. she still remembers a man suddenly appearing at the door. >> i have no idea what his name was. he was 21, maybe even 23. i'm not sure. i didn't want to get married. i was still a child. a girl who marries that young soon gets pregnant. that's dangerous at that age. i explained that to my parents, and somehow they accepted it. >> this couple are also underage. they've been married for nine months now. din must be about 17, and misti, his wife, 16 or maybe just 15. she doesn't know exactly. they quit school. their first child is due soon. misti cooks, cleans and serves.

it's not a very fulfulling life. they scarcely speak, and there's no sense of love. >> i was 16 when we got married and i thought my bride should be younger. that's why i married her -- because she was about 15. >> and now? what does he expect from his wife now? "no idea," he murmurs. misti says they married for love, but she doesn't even believe that herself. >> it was wrong to marry.

when our children are older, we won't make the same mistake. >> shirin didn't want to throw her life away like that. she's made quite a name for herself in her village. her mother must be around 30, at least that's what she presumes. >> i don't know anymore exactly when i got married. i was very young. >> you might have been only 9. >> shirin and her parents get along well. perhaps they've learned more from their own child than they ever expected to. >> it hurts me to think of how early my parents got married. if they'd waited until they were 18, they'd have a better life.

>> shirin has managed to take control of her life and her mother and father are a little proud of her. a few villages away, a theatre group are performing a play based on real life. the wedding busters are on stage. daughters have to work, sons go to school. and then an arranged, unhappy marriage, much too early. at first the villagers laugh, then they cry, because they're all familiar with this. so is shirin. she's not going to let her youth be stolen from her, and she has big plans. she wants to become a doctor. >> i'll get married later. i'm not thinking about it right now. i have dreams. but first i'm going to study.

and if a suitable husband is found, i can decide if i want him later. >> that's because it's the parents who choose the husband, that's not likely to change in bangladesh. not even shirin or the wedding busters expect she'll ever marry for love. >> the u.s. state of california declared a state of emergency after one of the worst droughts on record began to bite. on the ground that means dry, barren land, at a time when watermelons and other crops should be flourishing. during his recent visit to the region, president barack obama didn't just tell californians what they wanted to hear -- yes, he announced emergency funds. but obama also warned that this trend was going to get a lot worse unless americans do more to combat climate change. we meet those in the middle of a fight for their future. >> grapevines. >> ryan jacobsen's german ancestors planted them here more

than a hundred years ago, when they settled as farmers in central california. since then, the family has survived several droughts. >> the drought here in san joachin valley is absolutely the worst we've ever seen. and what we're looking at as far as this year, we're looking at hundreds of thousands of acres being fallowed, tens of thousands of jobs being lost, and billions of dollars of economic activity not coming to this community. >> high temperatures in winter, earth dry as dust, fields that wither because the usual winter rains failed to materialize. here, where most of the fruit and vegetables in the us are grown, the harvest is likely to be meager this year. food prices will rise, but that won't compensate for the farmers' losses. ryan jacobsen and thousands of other farmers fear for their livelihoods. >> we're in year three of a drought that we don't know how long is going to last.

there are farmers that probably will go under this year, that will no longer be in business. and based off of how long this lasts, there are farmers that cannot go through this for very many years in a row before they're gonna have to go under. >> the large neighbouring farm, which belongs to the stamoules produce company, isn't ready to go under yet. it employs 300 staffers and several thousand seasonal workers. but the extreme drought has left its mark here, two-hour's drive from san francisco. >> as you can see over here there's a big piece of land, about 650 acres. it's fallow, it's empty, because there's simply not enough water to farm. >> the farm's 43-year-old manager is under no illusions. the drought will cost the company a lot of money. a quarter of the land can't be farmed. >> it means that the company's probably gonna have to suffer. loss of money, loss of revenue,

loss of profit, and we're just barely surviving as it is. we're hoping that the water that we can pump from the wells will be enough to farm something in this area. >> but well water alone isn't enough to irrigate the fields, especially as the low water table is sinking even further. this water comes from reservoirs. it's transported many miles to the fields via canals. it's a time-consuming and expensive process. irrigating this comparatively small field for a few hours costs a hundred dollars. the process has to be repeated several times a week for the crops to grow. but now the reservoirs are emptying. the san luis reservoir is one of the most important in the region and it's only 40 percent full. scientists in california expect the situation to worsen in the future. >> there's very high consensus around increasing droughts in

the future related to global climate change, because not only are we having earlier snow melts and less snow pack, which is one of our largest water reservoirs in the western u.s., but we're also having hotter temperatures which means that outdoor plants require more water to survive. >> that will force people to manage their resources differently. >> in the past, we have had droughts, but they've typically been two to three years, which means that we can wait for a wet year. that might not be what happens in the future. if we look at the science, it tells us that we're likely to see longer and more severe droughts. and as that begins to happen, people are really going to have to think about water differently. >> water efficiency is the only way that ryan jacobsen will be able to secure his livelihood in the long term. >> once the water enters the system, it's delivered directly right to the root zone. doesn't have any kind of waste or evaporative losses of any kind. so as you can see here, as we pull this up a little bit, it's anywhere between six and eight

inches deep here, but it goes right below the plant, and right here we happen to see, as we go in and dig into here, we got the crop and you can tell it was right next to where this plant was. >> one day his son maverick will take over the farm. he's already making friends with the right animals. goats are known to be very low maintenance and can manage fine in dry climates. >> and while california is trying to cope with its historic drought, in the island nation of mauritius, the battle is of a different kind. this apparent paradise is also a global exporter of sugarcane. but this has come at a cost. together with some one million tourists who visit every year, the over-use of land has pushed several native species to extinction with many more threatened. we meet those who are trying to reverse that trend.

>> this is a biology lesson outside the classroom. school girls from loretto college are on a field trip to the ile aux aigrettes, egret island. most of what grows and lives here is unique to mauritius. but the great white egrets are long gone. the mauritius wildlife foundation maintains a dozen nature reserves throughout the country. diane laboucherie is an eco-ranger for the ngo. today's she's guiding the girls on a nature trail. >> the theme of our tour here is exactly, 'let us go back in time' and that's my role. for learning with nature it is more to help the mauritian people to know more about the endemic species. so this is where people definitely find both endemic plants and animals completely

free. >> more than 60 species, most of them endemic like this rare olive white-eye, are at home here. the girls get worksheets and exercises. and they regularly encounter animals that have resettled in their former habitats. mauritian society is gradually gaining awareness. the learning with nature program is consistently acquiring more converts. this is the reason most of the primeval forests have disappeared from mauritius -- sugar cane plantations. together with the textile trade they sustain the country's economy. after nearly 500 years of settlement, the country now has only 5 percent of its original forests. vincent florens says it's impossible to turn back the clock. preserving what's left is hard enough. biologists like him find the

highland forest here the best place to do their research. this cleared area is in private hands. >> the forest was really well-preserved in the first place. but then very importantly the invasive plants have been removed as you can see just behind here. this tree is an invasive plant and it has been ring barked at the base. and if you look over there, this area is very dense because it's still full of alien invasive plants. they have not yet been removed. when you remove them you have a much lighter place what we have in here. and as you look around you have a lot of young plants growing. the forest starts regenerating again. >> the scientists register every discovery and later analyze it in the lab. they are cataloguing the unique biodiversity of mauritius. it will take years before this forest area is completely freed of invasive plants. time and again, they have to cut

down non-endemic species, like this cinnamon tree. and the giant bats known as flying foxes are returning, the only mammals indigenous to the country. they're especially fond of eating the ripe fruits of the ebony tree, which is again growing here in increased numbers. >> they are more important now than they were before in the sense that they replace the role of two other species that have gone extinct, beyond their own role, which is disseminating seeds of many trees. particularly the very large species of trees in the forest. >> invasive crab-eating macaques have been removed from these forests. they were destroying endemic plants and the broods of rare birds. this is where they used to be taken and kept in cages.

mary anne and owen griffiths have made a business of breeding the macaques, known in laboratories as cynomolgus monkeys, and selling them for animal experimentation abroad. the proceeds go to biodiversity protection. >> our challenge is to help with government and other ngos protect the remaining bits of land. and one way of doing it, as you just alluded to, is buying up threatened areas and put in a conservation program, which means removing the invasive alien species and helping restore the original forest. >> the company's macaques are used in research on alzheimer's disease and on developing treatments for multiple sclerosis. the company also has a zoo. there's a rare giant tortoise nursery here. as adults, they are released into the wild. the griffith's own more than 300 hectares of forest, which they're clearing of invasive species. >> mauritius is number one in terms of saving endangered bird species.

we've had five species that have been downgraded from critically endangered to endangered and that's an improvement. >> but is it right to sacrifice one animal to preserve many other species? on the internet and social media, opposition to the trade in monkeys from mauritius is growing. animal protectionists in germany have joined the protest. in 2013, hundreds of laboratory macaques from mauritius were imported to the country. >> this isn't about individual species, it's about the suffering of individual animals. these animals suffer terribly, especially once they are in the lab, when they are subjected to toxicity tests, when they're tortured to death. there's no way any benefit to other species can counterbalance that. >> corina gericke considers the macaques that were introduced to mauritius a part of the country's history, and says there's no need to catch them or breed them for experimentation. >> if we use human cell

cultures, there's no problem transferring results because it's the same species. we can work with microchips, and of course, a lot can be tested directly on humans without harming them. >> at the university of mauritius, vincent florens knows opinions are divided on the griffith's model of species protection. but he says that, without access to the forests, the research wouldn't be so productive. >> mauritius is a bit of a precursor of what the world is going to go through. because of the extent of degradation here, a lot of extinction, we are had in the world in many ways. so studying conservation in mauritius gives us a bit of a advanced notice of what is going to happen around the world. >> the flying foxes of mauritius are returning to the primeval forests. they can find food there now, and they don't risk getting shot in the farmers' orchards. >> so what do you make of that?

one species is sold into potential suffering to save the other? to share your views, do join our debate on facebook. when we say a problem "can't just be laughed off", we mean that it's really serious. and everyone of us can think of at least one that isn't funny in the least. but then there's this man from ethiopia who says it's those major troubles we should laugh at most. sounds crazy, but since belachew girma is invited around the world to, well, laugh, we wondered whether there might be something to it -- >> his laughter is simply contagious. the children can't contain themselves. once a week belachew girma gives laughter classes at a primary school, and he's convinced the pupils learn better afterwards. he clowns around with the children and gets them to laugh out loud.

his laughter classes don't just exercise the face muscles. they are a full-body workout. towards the end, it's the teachers' turn. laughing is something you can learn. afterwards, regular lessons continue. >> it helps for them even to grow positive thinkers. now here, when you see the muslim, the christian believer, everyone can laugh together. when these children grow, really, they can have optimist mind, optimist thinking, positivity, good communication. >> belachew is a master of communication. and yet he hardly knows any jokes. he just laughs right in people's faces, and they can't help but laugh back. he says laughter isn't just good for you, it can even cure disease. some of his laughter classes are with cancer patients.

tennis instructor gashaw teferra was diagnosed with a tumor five years ago. his weight dropped to 40 kilos and he could no longer work. after chemotherapy he met belachew girma and learned how to laugh again. classical medical practitioners may smile about belachew's methods. but his patient says the treatment has helped him. >> since i've been coming here, i've felt better. i can talk to people again and even work. i don't need painkillers anymore. laughter is like medicine to me. i've left my cancer behind. >> the laughter therapist has hard times behind him as well. ten years ago, after his wife died, belachew became addicted to drugs and alcohol. he's now married again and his two children seem to be as

upbeat as he is. it took a lot of effort for belachew to learn how to laugh. during his addiction, he came upon a book that praised the healing effects of laughter. after that, he treated himself. >> laughter is the best cleaner. it can clean or delete the old files. the way, the two keys for laughing, is, the first is forgetting negative memory or negative emotion. that means deleting all the files. when you delete it, laughter helps you to delete. that means you never focus on back history. >> belachew opened a laughter school in an office building in addis abeba. his students include business people, doctors, and even football players. and he travels the world giving laughter classes, for good money.

his idol is nelson mandela, who could not only laugh, but also forgive and forget. >> positive thinkers are dynamic leaders of tomorrow's world. so in the new year, laughter make happy, healthy and positive, so please join the laughing everywhere. happy new year. [laughter] >> well, that man seems to know what he's talking about so we can happily recommend trying this at home, whether you follow him or as part of yoga therapy or just like that. and that brings us to the end of this edition of global 3000. if you'd like to watch one of our reports again please join us online. but for now from me and the whole global team here in berlin have a good week and bye bye! captioned by the national captioning institute ---www.ncicap.org---@ ññññx >> the following program is an

original production of link tv. coming up, growing anger over flight 370. malaysia's government attacked over the search for the missing plane. arming fishermen, china giving them military training to push its claim on the south china sea. and indonesia's new hope. can this man clean up the country's politics? the latest news in asia and on social media, all here on "linkasia."