Protect Waterways/Protect Life

Bio-Benin's care for the environment is starting to pay off. One day last summer, 25 volunteers from Switzerland, France, Canada and Benin came together to plant some 500 tree seedlings of Kapok trees along the waterway that runs through our organic farm.

Concerned about local people cutting trees for cooking, we have also created a video to educate the local population about how destroying trees destroys topsoil and leads to desertification of the land that formerly grew crops that sustain life.

By continuing with this ongoing effort and protecting the trees we plant from harm, we plan to involve the local forestry service and the local government to do more to expand this effort to protect the environment. In this way we will help preserve the local watershed for farming and for life in this increasingly dry part of the world.

Since we launched this project in March, 2025, we have planted some 500 trees along the waterways of Natitingou in the north of Benin, and created seedlings from the hardiest trees that already grow along the water's edge. By continuously growing resistent seedlings such as these,  and encouraging the local population to join us in planting trees we will help preserve the trees, the earth and the waterways in this part of the world. Thank you for your help in making this work possible.

We are also starting the work of sensitizing the local population, especially the women, to the dangers of cutting trees, the need to use fuel-efficient stoves that use less wood to cook food, and the importance of replanting trees along the water's edge to preserve the soil and the waterways. The forest rangers are working with us in this effort and over time we hope to restore the waterways to full health and agricultural usefulness.