On both banks of the Oiapoque River, agroforestry plots regenerate the forest while feeding communities. Combining ancestral knowledge, solidarity, and the right to life, the initiative anchors sustainable food sovereignty between French Guiana and the Amazonian states of Brazil.
A network born from the forest
"The more we share our knowledge, the more the forest nourishes us," summarizes Massiri Gueye, coordinator of the Forest Knowledge program since 2018. The diagnosis was harsh: agricultural practices that are disappearing, gold panning and illegal logging that are undermining ecosystems.
The meetings hosted by Nature Rights Guyane have been a game-changer: plants were exchanged, recipes were tested, and collective construction sites (Mayouri) were transformed into laboratories where cassava, cocoa, banana, timber, and medicinal plants are combined. The dynamic quickly spread throughout Guyana.
Seeds from here… and from across the street
The next step is crossing the river: Amapá shares the same challenges. Ties are being forged in 2019 with traditional agricultural stakeholders in Amapá.1In April 2025, six Guyanese project leaders and three representatives of Amapà agricultural structures spent ten days training with the CAMPTA cooperative and the Brazilian Agronomic Institute (Embrapa), a regional reference in agroforestry.
With field notebooks in hand, they developed a joint plan: three pilot plots in French Guiana in Saint-Georges, Roura and Macouria – at the Panakuh association, Ku Matu and Ferme Singe Rouge – and three others in the family agricultural schools of the State of Amapà.
From concept to plot
Long informal, the initiative has changed scale with the SAF Trans-Amazonia project, thanks to the COREOM program. Financial support and a support system via regional relay partners, scientific monitoring by INRAE Antilles-Guyane: the framework is set. Above all, the project is part of Nature Rights' advocacy for the legal recognition of natural entities: by proving that production can be achieved without cutting down the canopy, these plots give substance to the forest's right to exist, and to the right of communities to feed themselves with dignity.
By 2026, indicators must confirm soil regeneration, improved production conditions, and the reappropriation of traditional agricultural practices. When the first cocoa trees offer their pods, they will speak of the taste of local chocolate, the rediscovered memory of ancestors, and the promise of a territory
able to live from his own forest.
Crossword
“The forest knows no boundaries;
knowledge either,”
Massiri Gueye,
coordinator, Forest Knowledge
"This project is above all a solidarity alliance to bring about sustainable agricultural models. Together, we are cultivating solutions that nourish, educate, and preserve."
Francisco Anchieta Anacleto de Andrade, Agricultural Technician of the Municipality of Santana (Amapà)
- Federated state in the far north of Brazil. ↩︎