Preserving Benin's sacred forests
A look back at our field visit: the impact of 2025 activities!
🌱 Dear difteurs, planters of hope!
Thanks to your support, the GAPADOU project is progressing alongside our local partners!
In early January, Mélisande, project coordinator at Planète Urgence, visited Benin to see the progress made in 2025:
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Forest restoration 🌳
With the support of local committees and communities:
- 8,370 seedlings of indigenous species were replanted in degraded areas.- 64,000 thorn trees were installed around sacred forests to protect access and better materialize their boundaries🔎 Did you know? The regular presence of forest rangers in the field helps support communities in adopting good restoration practices, while ensuring concrete protection of the sacred forest. This shared vigilance greatly reduces vandalism, creating the conditions for sustainable forest regeneration.
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Awareness-raising for all📣
90 days of radio broadcasts reached around 195,000 listeners, with messages on protecting sacred forests and reducing human pressures. In schools there were:- 39 waste collection operations involving 1,950 pupils
- 150 pupils involved in environmental clubs to raise awareness among their peers and take part in field actions
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These advances testify to a promising collective mobilization for the preservation of sacred forests.
🙏 A huge thank you for your supportand your difts that make it all possible!
The Planète Urgence team
The Planète Urgence team
🌱 Mangrove season
The mangrove season has arrived on our Indonesian intervention grounds!
➡️ In the Mahakam delta and in Babulu Laut, mangrove planting has begun. Mangroves, one of our totem trees, represent a biodiversity-rich ecosystem that stabilizes soils and attenuates wavesand tsunamis. They capture 3 to 10 times more carbon than other forest ecosystems.
⚠️ As a reminder, almost 25% of mangroves have been destroyed in 50 yearss and these could disappear by 2040 if nothing is done.
Discover our article on super mangroves
➡️ In the Mahakam delta and in Babulu Laut, mangrove planting has begun. Mangroves, one of our totem trees, represent a biodiversity-rich ecosystem that stabilizes soils and attenuates wavesand tsunamis. They capture 3 to 10 times more carbon than other forest ecosystems.
⚠️ As a reminder, almost 25% of mangroves have been destroyed in 50 yearss and these could disappear by 2040 if nothing is done.
Discover our article on super mangroves
A summer of reforestation 🌱
Dear Difteur-ses 🌱 ,
Summer is in full swing plein☀️et July was marked by a highlight: the official launch of the 2025 reforestation campaign on GAPADOU!🌳
Every year since the project began, seedlings carefully cultivated by our nurserymen 🌱👩🌾 are planted in the project's 6 sacred forests and also on several private agricultural plots belonging to male and female farmers, beneficiaries of the project.
A total of 363,636 trees will be planted and 303 hectares reforested by 2025.
In July, 102,000 trees have already been planted during this early rainy season
Under the theme "Forests for future generations", this event brought together local communities, local institutions, BEV-ONG and our Planète Urgence teams around a symbolic activity: the planting of the 1st seedlings on a farmer's private plot.
The occasion was also a reminder of good planting practices ✅
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ℹ️ And do you know them?
No tight rows between plants!
Carefully remove the protective bag before planting
The collar (top of the root ball) must be level with the ground
Fill with soil, tamping the collar to anchor the plant well
Form a crevice around the plant so that rainwater can infiltrate properly
🎥 Discover in pictures this day with the BEV-ONG video
Beekeeping on GAPADOU - an income-generating activity for local communities
Dear Difteur-ses 🌱 ,
News from the GAPADOU project! At the end of March, we had the pleasure of talking with the apiculturists we accompany on the site of the forêt sacrée de Sérou (one of the 6 sacred forests involved in the project), to better understand the impact of the activities we carry out.
🌿 Since the pilot phase launched in 2022, we have identified beekeeping as a key activity for generating income within local communities - both for its food and therapeutic uses (honey, wax, propolis, royal jelly...).
Alongside our local partner, BEV ONG, we have selected 48 beneficiaries in 8 villages to receive comprehensive beekeeping support:
- Firstly on the establishment and management of a beekeeping site: installation, equipment, maintenance... On the Sérou site alone, 100 hives are now active!- In 2025, we'll be expanding our support to include financial management and the search for commercial outlets.
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ℹ️ Anecdote: Do you know why concrete hives rather than wooden ones?
Emmanuel, director of BEV ONG, shared with us that concrete Kenyan hives have a lifespan of around 50 years(provided they are properly monitored). They are also more resistant to bush fires, which are common in the region, and difficult to steal - a real asset against vandalism, as you don't ship a concrete hive as easily as a wooden one!
A grateful thank you for your support!
Back to our field visit at the end of 2024: a nurseryman's testimonial!
Dear difters, planters of hope 🌱
Thanks to your support, we continue to co-develop the Gapadou project with our local partners!
In November 2024, Amandine HERSANT, executive director of Planète Urgence, visited Benin and saw the major challenges: deforestation, land impoverishment, remoteness of resources.
With your help, we can :
Educate new generations in environmental preservation 🌿 ;Restore agroforestry systems 🌳 ;Train forest guardians 🛡️ ;Protect ecosystems and their inhabitants 🦜. The impacts are real, as Zingbe Sourou Victorin, the project's nurseryman whom we interviewed during our visit, can testify.
In 2025, we will :
Continue to plantand restore sacred forests🌳 ;Train 160 women for market gardening/livestock farming IGA* 👩🌾 ;Strengthen women's managerial capacities and promote female leadership 💪 ;Train 8 people in beekeeping and donate 336 beehives 🐝 ;Raise awareness among schools and the general public with waste collection actions ♻️.
A huge THANK YOU for your support!!! 🙏
*AGR: income-generating activities
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