From October to November 2025, the Senegalese association Poumon Vert carried out the second phase of the “Acting for Nature Conservation” project, led by PAPACO/Play for Nature in partnership with Youth Conservation and the Fondation Audemars-Watkins. Two flagship programmes shaped this phase: the Green School Challenge, which grew teaching gardens in three schools in Mbour, and the Kaffrine Green Week, a territorial mobilisation so successful it doubled in scale along the way.
Three schools in Mbour, one shared tree-sponsorship scheme
After a first phase marked by one-off events — a giant basketball match, a drawing competition, an ecological visit to the Somone marine protected area — Poumon Vert chose a more structuring approach for this second phase: a teaching garden in each school, paired with a system where students individually sponsor a plant, monitored monthly throughout the school year.
CEM El Hadji Thierno Amadou Barro — An already-active Environment Club takes it further
Already a partner in Phase 1, this public secondary school in Mbour had an active Environment Club, a valuable asset for quickly anchoring the new scheme. Between 27 October and 1 November 2025, students took part in an urban forestry awareness workshop, hands-on training in micro-gardening, and a planting session where each student received their own plant to sponsor.
Result: 50 to 55 students involved, 1 to 2 teachers mobilised, 15 young plants put in the ground and a fully operational school garden.
École Élémentaire de Mbour Sérère — A first environment club taking root
Unlike CEM ETAB, this elementary school in the peri-urban Mbour Sérère neighbourhood had no pre-existing environmental structure. Poumon Vert’s team therefore had to invest more heavily in mobilising the teaching staff, before running the same three-session cycle between 3 and 8 November 2025.
Result: 50 to 55 students reached, 15 plants sponsored, and above all the school’s teaching staff’s first-ever involvement in a Poumon Vert activity — a solid foundation for a future environment club.
Franco-Arabe Oumar Ibn Abdoul Aziz — A new audience, a welcome pedagogical surprise
For the first time, Poumon Vert partnered with a Franco-Arab school, extending its network of educational partners to a type of institution not previously covered. The usual cycle — awareness, hands-on training, planting — ran from 24 to 29 November 2025, right after the team returned from Kaffrine.
Result: 50 to 55 students involved, and above all 3 to 5 teachers mobilised — the widest teacher engagement of the three schools — reflecting strong interest from the teaching staff. 10 plants were put in the ground.
Kaffrine Green Week — when a 3-day format becomes a territorial event
Born from the momentum sparked by Phase 1, Poumon Vert’s local Kaffrine antenna took charge of organising a community mobilisation initially planned under the name “Kaffrine Green Days,” targeting 40 young people over three days. Given the enthusiasm generated on the ground, the event scaled up and was renamed Kaffrine Green Week, running from 14 to 16 November 2025.
The programme unfolded over three stages: a first day of training (environmental education and club facilitation) followed by an evening of exchange; a second day devoted to leadership and public speaking, leading into a collective reforestation drive in a public space and a large Assiko cultural evening; and a third day of debrief, culminating in a local charter for Kaffrine’s eco-actors.
The numbers speak for themselves: where the original format targeted 40 participants and 300 plants, reality far exceeded projections:
- Over 200 participants across the two training sessions (versus 40 planned)
- 500 participants in the collective reforestation drive
- 250 plants put in the ground — 200 eucalyptus, 20 filao trees, 10 cordia, 10 mentalys, 10 macroptera
- 750 to 1,000 participants at the Assiko cultural evening
But the most structuring outcome remains institutional: the official creation of the Poumon Vert Kaffrine Environment Club, made possible through the joint involvement of the Kaffrine Municipality, the Water and Forestry department, and the Fondation Audemars-Watkins. Several associations and schools in the region have since spontaneously reached out to Poumon Vert to join this momentum.
A tally that reaches well beyond Mbour
Altogether, Poumon Vert’s Phase 2 directly engaged more than 1,600 people: 150 to 165 students across the three Green School Challenge schools, over 200 participants in Kaffrine’s training sessions, 500 participants in the reforestation drive, and 750 to 1,000 people at the Assiko evening. Communication relied on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, alongside solid on-the-ground outreach — posters in schools, word of mouth through environment clubs, and direct engagement with teachers.
A success built on individual responsibility
The strength of this second phase lies in the shift from one-off events to a programme structured over time. Individual plant sponsorship engages every student for the whole school year, with an evaluation and awards ceremony planned between April and May 2026. In Kaffrine, the territorial extension demonstrates Poumon Vert’s ability to replicate its model beyond Mbour — a prospect only sketched out at the end of Phase 1, and fully realised this year.
Challenges overcome with agility
The main challenge of this second phase was financial: the transfer of funds allocated by PAPACO/Play for Nature was delayed due to a compliance check by CENTIF (Senegal’s financial intelligence unit) on incoming international transfers. Rather than delaying activities, Poumon Vert drew on its own resources to cover initial expenses while awaiting the funds’ release.
The scale-up in Kaffrine — from the “Green Days” format to “Green Week” — also required logistical adjustments along the way, resolved thanks to the support of the local antenna, which handled on-the-ground coordination. Finally, coordinating three activity cycles across different schools within a single month called for rigorous planning; repeating the same format from one school to the next progressively smoothed out the organisation.
Phase 1 to Phase 2: from a local association to a structured actor
Compared to the first phase, this second edition marks a genuine step up in maturity: a programme structured over time rather than a string of events, a more empowering approach through individual sponsorship, and above all a successful territorial extension to Kaffrine — with community mobilisation (up to 1,000 people at the Assiko evening) that surpasses the largest gatherings of Phase 1. The watch points remain familiar: multi-site logistics management and the need for additional resources to extend activities further, two challenges already identified in Phase 1 and confirmed by the organic growth of the Kaffrine format.
A “before and after” that changes the nature of the association
Before the Acting project, Poumon Vert’s actions remained occasional and concentrated in Mbour. After these two phases, the association has a proven intervention model, an operational antenna in Kaffrine, and greater legitimacy with schools and partner associations — as reflected in the spontaneous requests received since the activities wrapped up. Monitoring is ensured through logbooks kept at each school and site, complemented by regular visits from the association’s teams.
What’s next? Consolidating four relays to last
Poumon Vert intends to carry the project forward by consolidating four complementary relays already set in motion this year: the schools themselves, now equipped with an operational teaching garden and mobilised teachers; the Poumon Vert Kaffrine antenna, turning a one-off event into a lasting local presence that can be replicated in other municipalities; the institutional partners mobilised in Kaffrine (Municipality, Water and Forestry department, Fondation Audemars-Watkins), who can be approached independently of the PAPACO/Play for Nature funding cycle; and the wider associative network, with several organisations already having spontaneously reached out to join the momentum.
“The Acting project allowed Poumon Vert to move from a local association driven by one-off events to a structured actor, equipped with a reproducible school programme and a first operational regional antenna,” the association notes in its Phase 2 report.
Want to support initiatives like Poumon Vert’s in Mbour and Kaffrine? Discover the full “Acting for Nature Conservation” project and its ten partner NGOs at youth-conservation.org.
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