Seeding the future: children committed to nature in the Mono Transboundary Biosphere Reserve

Through the AGeReB/Delta-Mono project, implemented by IUCN-PACO in partnership with the NGO Eco-Bénin, around 100 schoolchildren occasionally swap their pencils for shovels and their desks for forest trails to explore their environment. It is a bold challenge: to transform young learners into true ambassadors for nature.

An environmental education guide and a teaching booklet, specially designed for the context of Community Biodiversity Conservation Areas (ACCB), serve as a common thread for this initiative. Adapted to the local reality, these tools illustrate the fauna, flora, water and soil issues, and ecological interactions, with a particular focus on life around the Mono River.
In the field, this translates into more than 60 interactive sessions in 14 schools in the Mono and Couffo departments. Every week, children in grades 3 and 4 participate in role-playing games, recycling workshops, tree planting sessions, nature observations, and other fun activities that spark their curiosity and sense of responsibility. These are no longer just lessons: they are life experiences.

To date, nearly 1,400 schoolchildren have benefited from this innovative approach. The impact is palpable: children talk about mangroves, explain the water cycle to their parents, and proudly plant trees in the schoolyard. Environmental education is becoming a shared adventure between the classroom and the village.
But beyond the numbers, a new generation of citizens is being built. Children who are able to understand the challenges of deforestation, climate change, and pollution, and above all, to take concrete action to protect their land.

This project is fully in line with the conservation objectives of the Mono Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, recognized by UNESCO for its ecological richness and community mobilization. It also embodies one of the founding values of the IUCN : making nature an ally in human development.

By educating children today, AGeReB/Delta-Mono project is investing in a future where protecting the environment will no longer be an option, but a reflex. Because preserving biodiversity also means preserving our roots, our identities, and our dreams of a more harmonious world.