oñoñoñoñoñoñoñoñ welcome to “obal 3000.” rewilding the woods -- in romania, nature conservationists are protecting forests from deforestation. the return of green -- people on the indonesian island of borneo are bringing back the trees. and, makeshift living -- the covid pandemic has left many people without a proper home. having an adequate place to live is considered a basic

human right. and yet, an estimated 150 million people are homeless. and, says the u.n., that number is rising. homelessness is commonly caused by poverty, unemployment, conflict, and natural disasters. worldwide, in 2020around 1.6 billion people were living in provisional accommodation, including tents, huts, and vehicles. even in ostensibly wealthy countries, like australia. rerter: the wind and the waves are just right. it's a fairly typical day in byron bay, a town on australia's eastern coast. surfers spend the day out on the water, hanging ten and enjoying life. gaz morgan is also back on the beach, giving surfing lessons again. for almost two years, australia's borders were closed. it was a devastating blow for

tourism, and all those who live from it, like gaz morgan. gaz: it stopped. the whole world stopped. i had to go get a job, a real job. you know, i've got an unreal job doing this and i've had this business for 23 years. we had to go pack firewood, we had to do some laboring, we had to do something else so we could get some money to buy food and live, you know? it's been a crazy time. reporter: and it's not over yet. many have lost their jobs and their homes. byron bay's streets are full of people who have lost everything. they get by thanks to free food from the local soup kitchen. volunteers are cooking for a growing number of needy people. here they get food, and more. roland: so, if we can offer them a friendly face, hopefully that eases their day a little bit anyway. but it's just amazing how tough some of these people -- what they have to deal with. reporter:

roland dickson gets by on his pension. but he says life in byron bay has become something of a paradox. roland: there's a lot of very, very wealthy people who've moved here. it's a nice place to live. and particularly during covid, the prices in byron bay went up 70% in one year. and it was expensive here anyway. that immediately cuts out all the people who work here. all the people who work in restaurants and the hotels and cafes, they can't afford to live in byron anymore. reporter: during the pandemic, many fell into poverty. it was a huge shock. there were no tourists, no jobs, and rent prices soared. the rate of homelessness in byron bay is now among the highest in australia. besides picking up food, those who need to can also do their laundry for free. pete towney has a job in a supermarket. but he can barely afford the goods he packs on the shelves. so, he comes here for the basics. pete: i've got a bit of salad and bread, some muesli bars.

there's other people where i live, so i can just take that there. i'll have a bit of stuff myself, i'll leave stuff for the other people as well. reporter: pete towney used to earn more and live well. things have never been as tight as they are now. in the evening, he shows us his home. he's renting an old van on the edge of a caravan park. he's lived here for over a year, for the equivalent of 120 euros a week -- still quite a lot of money. pete: it's not too bad. i mean, for byron, you'd never get anything cheaper. especially, you'd never get anything that price where you have a bit of your own space. reporter: so you can't afford a flat? or even a room? pete: forget it, yeah, it's impossible. you wouldn't find it to start with, and then if you did, i mean, it would just be hundreds of dollars a week. i'm only guessing, there's no

point in having a look, i would say $400, $500 a week. reporter: after a meal from the soup kitchen, the day comes to an early end. he doesn't complain because he's aware that others are even worse off. after that, that's nothing to do but lie down and wait for morning. and hopefully better times. but for those with money, or just passing through, life's a dream in byron bay. the town has 10,000 residents, but many more tourists. and some stay on. the place is a magnet for the hip and wealthy. those able to sit out the pandemic or other crises under the australian sun. while some enjoyed the quiet during the pandemic, others were bearing the full brunt of what byron's mayor calls a

housing crisis. michael: we've seen a huge move from the cities to the regions in the pandemic, so that means more pressure on housing, more people displaced, higher house prices, higher rental costs. getting the job is the hard part. and once you'd had that, you're fine, you'd get a house no problem. now, if you've got a job, it's meaningless. it needs to be a really well-paid job. reporter: michaela bailey has just finished one job but is on her way to the next. after her shift at a cafe, she works at this take away food shop. double duty means double the stress. michaela: i was five minutes late to this job, but that's ok. i'll make up for it. reporter: there's stiff competition for jobs. for employers, it's cheaper to pay several temporary workers than one fixed employee. michaela baileys two jobs keep

a roof over her head, just. her small van is parked on the edge of town. this is home. michaela: even with the two i still wouldn't be able to afford a place around here. but, yeah, maybe with a higher paying job, but they're both relatively low paying, so i can't really pay for that sort of stuff. reporter: picturesque byron bay has a problem. while the return of tourists is being celebrated by the industry, many residents priced out of the market during the pandemic can no longer make ends meet. host: forests play a crucial role for our planet. they regulate the climate -- wooded areas are cooler and more moist than elsewhere. and every year they also absorb around two billion tons of co2 from the atmosphere.

forests span just under a third of the world's surface. the largest of these areas are in the northern hemisphere and near the equator. rainforest boast huge biodiversity, including large animals like forest elephants and gorillas, through to insects and fungi. despite this, every year, around 10 million hectares of forest are cut down or burnt. that's an area the size of iceland. our reporter a.b. rodhial falah travelled to the island of borneo, where large areas of rainforest have already disappeared. reporter: farmer linga kasan is heading to a forest on the island of borneo. in recent years, he's planted around 1000 trees on his seven hectares of land, where there was once just bare earth. he sees the work as an investment in his future. linga: i'd like to chop this tree down.

but i might wait until the trunk is more than 30 centimeters wide. then i'll get the maximum price for it. reporter: linga kasan also keeps oil palms and rubber trees, but they don't yield enough profit. so in 2016, he was among the first to sign up for a reforestation project. it aims to create sustainable forests and provide an income for local people. it includes growing crops, to avoid creating a monoculture. the farmers are allowed to chop down some of the larger trees to sell. more than 1000 farmers are now involved in the project, dubbed “100 million trees.” indonesia has lost nearly a fifth of its forests in just the last 20 years. some were cleared for gold mining, like here. the damage to the environment that comes from gold mining is huge, as the project manager explains. monalisa:

it used to be a forest. but after a year it become like this. they basically flipped the sand, and then bring the topsoil in the inside part. so, it's almost impossible to reforest this area. and it's a very high-risk job. because in the process they are using dangerous chemicals such as mercury. and of course, it's very bad for the environment, as well as the people. but unfortunately, this is one of the few sources of incomes for the local people here. reporter: so it's vital to create alternative sources of income. monalisa putri kaharap is reaching out to the gold miners, hoping to bring them into the reforestation project. monalisa: they are actually very open to new ideas as long as it is not illegal, they are not risking their lives.

this is what we try to bring through fairventures, through 100 million trees. reporter: this former forest was burned down to make way for a palm oil plantation. now a new forest is being planted here. many local villagers are pitching in. that allows them to earn some extra money. it's being financed by private investors and the german government's international climate initiative. the farmers get the seedlings directly from fairventures, once they've received training on how and where to plant them. today, kaharap is visiting farmer pasihan. he's only been involved in the project for a year. but he's already planted several hundred sengon trees. the sengon is very fast-growing. monalisa: around five to six meters in 11 months. this is why we love these kind

of trees so much. because the more they grow, the more nutrition they put in the soil, the more it fertilizes the soil. and it allows the farmers to actually plant any other things in his field. and yeah, this is how fast it is growing. then imagine millions of trees in central kalimantan that were planted by the farmers here to absorb the carbon. reporter: for the farmer, it's not only about providing a stable income for himself, and later his children. like in many parts of borneo, floods are a growing problem here. pasihan: these days, our village floods three to four times a year. it used to flood only once a year. but it doesn't seem to matter anymore what the season is, we still get flooded. i think it's down to the impact

of mining. the forest has been cleared, so the ground doesn't absorb the water anymore. and when it rains heavily, everywhere just floods. reporter: planting more trees could help prevent such damaging floods in the future. more than a million new trees have been planted throughout the region so far. some of them will now be felled and sold as timber, while others are planted in their place. the idea is to attract more business to borneo, to help the farmers. monalisa: the timber industry in indonesia now is still very centralized in java island, right? and then we try to convince the industry to also invest in kalimantan. or what we're trying to do is we try to connect the farmers directly with the industry, to

cut out the middlemen. we try to make the most profit for the farmers through this system. reporter: farmer linga kasan, who's been involved from the start, is optimistic. he's hoping that the 100 million trees initiative will improve his life in the long-term, while also benefiting the environment. host: even better than reforestation is preserving old-growth forest in the first place. that's what conservationists in romania's carpathian mountains are working to do, by creating one of europe's largest national parks. reporter: in romania's carpathian mountains, it's easy to get lost. everything here is big, even the animals we are looking for, europe's largest herbivores.

christoph: these fagaras mountains here in the romanian carpathians are the largest contiguous and intact natural area we have in central and eastern europe. for this reason, we believe this has the potential of becoming the yellowstone of europe. reporter: a foundation set up by christoph and barbara promberger has been progressively buying up and leasing land in the fagaras mountains. the carpathia project is set to cover 2000 square kilometers of land. but what's a national park without wildlife? 75 bison now have been reintroduced to this same area that they used to roam 200 years ago. christoph: we always tend to say that we want to create something great. but it costs a lot of money, and a whole lot of building and other activities. but we don't need that. when we talk about nature, the best thing we can do is fix what we broke and then leave it alone. reporter: but you are actually intervening by releasing wild animals, for example.

so you're intentionally altering what's here. barbara: what we're doing is bringing back the animals, or the species, that actually belong in this system. reporter: the bison are shy, but their tracks are everywhere. after hours of searching, we just about manage to spot one, from behind. humans constitute a disruptive presence in their world. the video trap shows that a large number of the animals were here a short while ago. adrian: one, two, three, four, five, six. reporter: 10 minutes ago? adrian: 10 minutes ago, yes. the pasture, keep it open, and their footprints, because they are heavy, create small holes here, which collect water and then amphibians will live. so, our umbrella species.

reporter: what the prombergers have in mind is a long-term undertaking. restoring the complex ecosystems will take more than a century. the park's main benefactor, swiss entrepreneur hansjörg wyss has donated 47 million euros to the project. the prombergers' motto is, think big. christoph: we weren't born with big visions, of course, but we learned somewhere along the way in our lives that if you really want to accomplish something, you need to have a big vision. barbara: it's a very nice story. but in the day-to-day, it's also an emotional roller coaster. there are lots of highs and lows.

reporter: although they've not always been welcome here. locals' attitudes to them soured due to the couple from austria and germany being seen as caring more for the welfare of wild animals than people. romania is part of the eu, but a country still undergoing transformation. with widespread poverty and little industry, corruption is rampant. the idea of giving nature free rein and having bears, for example, living in the local wilderness is not a very popular one here. barbara: the bear population is exploding right now. there have always been conflicts. but at the moment, people have strong opinions about it. so support is dropping a bit right now. reporter: more bears live here than anywhere else in europe. trophy hunting was ended in 2016. now the bears are protected. and with the winters are getting warmer, the bears don't hibernate anymore, while beech

trees shed more nuts more frequently. and the improved food situation means the bears in turn produce more offspring. barbara: let's have a look. it's a little dry, but we're in luck. of course this is no longer fresh, but you can see a bear track here that's maybe four or five days old. the important thing is not how high the population is, but how big the conflicts are, and that's what the management side needs to focus on. it doesn't really matter how many bears there are in the forest. people wouldn't have a problem with 10,000 bears in the forest if they stayed there. reporter: the conservation carpathia foundation pays compensation. sheep killed by the bears are replaced, and the fcc also provides herding dogs. dealing with the country's timber mafia is not so easy.

they make millions in profits from logging local forests, and, the prombergers tell us, have strong connections to the corrupt authorities. christoph: of course they're afraid of the national park because they know it poses a threat to their business model. and that potential change is why they're fighting us so fiercely. reporter: the couple want to show me the scars left by the timber mafia. even before we reach the mountains, the impact of the clear-cutting is clear to see -- widespread erosion and overflowing streams. chief forester mihai zotta is distraught at how even today the mountain tops up here still resemble a battlefield. mihai: it's much easier to destroy. it's harder to restore. but we have to wait 100 years before the real forests will come back. reporter: 300 hectares of woodland have

been completely razed here. in the meantime, the foundation has begun to reforest the area, by planting spruce trees and sycamore maples. a laborious task. and there's no quick and easy fix fodoing whatn old, mature forest can,uch as producing oxygen and filtering water. mihai: if somebody would ask you 20 years ago and would have told you that we will drink only bottled water, you wouldn't believe it. and now we are drinking almost only bottled water. and what will come next? reporter: what do you fear? mihai: i think the importance of the water sources will increase dramatically. reporter: you need to see the disastrous consequences up here, but also witness the beauty of nature, to understand that large national parks and nature reserves are crucial for our future, even if ultimately the

most immediate argument is that protecting nature brings more prosperity than destroying it. christoph: people here can then see for themselves that there's money to be made from this beautiful area without destroying it, without shooting and killing any animals or using any other kind of extractive activity. barbara: overall, the trend is a positive one, and that's also a motivation boost. reporter: there's no doubt that a european yellowstone park would be a blessing, but it won't come to fruition all by itself. host: this week's global snack is a sweet treat from south africa. reporter: bo-kaap lies at the foot of signal hill in cape town. the muslim-influenced quarter is renowned for s colorful .

it's home to kubra mohamed, or aunty kubra as she's known in the neighborhood. her specialty is koeksister. a sticky, spicy, deep-fried pastry -- a must at sunday breakfast in bo-kaap. kubra: koeksister comes from those years when the dutch came to south africa that time, right. and they gave our people a recipe of a doughnut. and what our people did is they added a little bit of cinnamon, then they added cardamon until they came to the aniseed and they called it then a koeksister. reporter: first, butter and sugar are blended in hot water. then yeast, and the spices. kubra: that is ginger, that is mixed spice, with the cardomon, that is my fine aniseed, and this little yellow thing here

is my dry, fine naartjie peel. naartjiee peel is a citrus fruit that i dry out the peels and grind it every week. reporter: then milk, eggs, and flour are stirred in to form a dough for kneading, but on no account mechanically, or the dough will be too soft. kubra: i've been doing this over 20 years and it's all with the one hand. reporter: the dough then stands for two hours before it's time to shape the koeksisters. and deep fry them for around four minutes. every saturday, aunty kubra's kitchen is transformed into a bakery. work continues on sunday morning at daybreak.

the koeksisters are warmed in syrup and then rolled in desiccated coconut. the first customer's already waiting. >> every sunday, we must eat koeksisters, otherwise it's not a sunday. reporter: aunty kubra charges five south african rand, equivalent to 30 eurocents, for three koeksister. >> in cape town, sunday is koeksister day. you taste them all over the show. and this one for me and my wife is the best. reporter: aunty kubra can sell up to 1000 koeksisters on sunday mornings in winter, a few less in summer. and because south africans love them so much, september 1st has been official world koeksister day since 2019. host: and that's all from us all

at “global 3000” this week. don't forget to drop us a line with your feedback. write to global3000@dw.com, and check us out on facebook too, dw global ideas.

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