Annual Report
2024-2025
Annual Report
2024-2025

Guinea

Following a major project supporting onion and potato farmers from 2003 to 2010, we are delighted to be working once again in Guinea.

Project

Femmes Pro-Forêts

The Women for Forests project is in full swing!

For a second consecutive year, Femmes Pro-Forêts has been supporting women and young women in the Moyen-Bafing National Park as they adapt to climate change. The project aims to promote nature-based solutions, create sustainable economic opportunities for women and young women, and improve natural resource management.

This ambitious initiative reached its full momentum during the last year and thanks to the UPA DI Guinea team and the collaboration of numerous partners, consultants and volunteers, activities have been successfully implemented.

Biodiversity Regeneration and Protection

In the park, six community nurseries have been set up with the help of 150 people who have received training, including 90 women and young women. These nurseries will produce the seedlings needed to reforest 2,000 hectares of land throughout the project.

To date, 23 hectares have been reforested, contributing to the rehabilitation of biological corridors that connect habitats and thus preserve biodiversity.

 

Workshops and Training

Several training sessions and workshops have been held with the park's communities to help identify the specific needs of women and young people as they adapt to climate change:

  • In 25 villages, 44 participatory maps were created to identify key natural resources and ecosystem services on which the socio-economic activities of women and young women depend, and to better understand the dynamics of governance of these resources. More than 300 people participated in these activities, including 150 women and young women.
  • Workshops on climate justice, feminist environmental rights and advocacy were conducted with 500 women and young women and 22 civil society organisations, including four umbrella organisations. These efforts resulted in the development of approximately 60 action plans.

 

Economic Development

Organizational assessments were conducted with 128 economic interest groups and four umbrella organisations to develop a tailored organisational strengthening program. The groups will now be able to improve the collective services they provide to their members.

An initial gender- and climate-sensitive analysis of the honey sector was also completed. Honey, along with shea, is one of the project's flagship non-timber forest products.

In total, the year's activities directly reached 2,307 people. Given these promising results, we are eager to see what 2025-2026 has in store for us!

Femmes Pro-Forêts is made possible thanks to the financial support of the Government of Canada, through Global Affairs Canada.

Healthier Soils for More Resilient Agriculture

Guinean farmers face many challenges related to climate change, including soil degradation, pests, and the use of unsustainable agricultural practices.

Two volunteers from the Agro-Innov Network, Odette and Codou, went to Guinea to  support agricultural advisors and members of the Fouta Djalon Farmers' Federation (FPFD) in adopting sustainable solutions to make their farms more resilient.

Over five days of intensive training, more than 150 participants gained knowledge on soil health, the production of biopesticides using local plants, and integrated pest management techniques.

These sessions also provided hands-on experience and inspired microprojects tailored to local agricultural realities. One participant said: “I feel really equipped to better support the farmers in my community.”

Canada
Haiti
Martin Caron
President of the Board

The future of agriculture, here and around the world, depends greatly on the decisions we make and the actions we take today. Hence the expression, “The future starts now.”

This projection into the future calls for deep reflection. Are the necessary resources available? Is the sustainability of family farming assured? Are collective marketing systems alive and well? Are structural initiatives continuing to emerge? Does the next generation of farmers have confidence in the future?

Each of these questions is relevant and deserves careful consideration. If the answer to most of them is yes, we must continue along the same path. If the answer is no, we must act, innovate, unite, and collectively change the course of events —preferably sooner rather than later.

This concern for the future is central to the mission of UPA Développement international (UPA DI), which, since 1993, has drawn on Quebec's agricultural values to support the development of a large number of rural communities around the world.  To do this, we pilot environmentally friendly projects that are transferable to future generations and designed to enhance food security and autonomy for populations.

Our local farmers can take pride in all these projects, as well as in the many forms of representation that UPA DI provides to numerous international organizations. Reading this annual report will surely convince you!

Hugo Beauregard-Langelier
Chief Executive Director

While many are content to believe that the future will be the same as the past or trying to revive an idealized version of the past, others are forging ahead, dreaming of a future they are building. For them, the future is not something that simply happens to us, but something shaped by the actions we take.

These dreams to be built and actions to be taken, have been central in the past year at UPA Développement international (UPA DI).  All this leading to the adoption of a new strategic plan, an opportunity to reflect on the mark UPA DI seeks to leave in the evolving landscape of agriculture and international solidarity.

Rooted in its history, engaged in the present, and ambitious towards the future, UPA DI's vision is for those who feed the world and inhabit our agricultural lands to live with dignity from the fruit of their labour. This vision is built on ecological economic growth, strong collective action, and the socio-economic empowerment of women.

But the realization of these aspirations will inevitably depend on young people, the next generation, who will live in a time where the potential for technological and social innovation has never been greater, yet crises have never been more frequent or severe.

If, as they say, history repeats itself, we must trust these young people who will feed us tomorrow to rise to the challenges they will face, just as our ancestors did before us. And if history repeats itself, UPA DI will be by their side to dream, innovate, and build a future driven by collective action, solidarity, equity, social justice, respect, and democracy.

Happy reading!

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