The Story Behind

It all started with Augustin …

The women and men of the rural community of Diembering in Casamance, Senegal, wanted to protect their forest from poaching, uncontrolled woodcutting and real estate exploitation. Their own resources were not enough. One of them, Augustin, set out to find additional funds to fence in the beautiful 32-hectare forest, so precious to his village. Did we want to help Augustin? Certainly! But how could we ensure that support for committed local people like him would be sustainable in the long term?

This question inspired us to create Ecofund: a web platform designed to present local initiatives to a wider audience, raise funds online and help modest projects make a lasting, positive impact.

We launched Ecofund with Augustin's project. His story convinced 39 individual donors, while two corporations, encouraged by the Ecofund community, also made significant contributions. Thanks to this support, the Diembering forest could finally be protected.

Though Augustin would always say he was doing nothing special, we saw him working every day to protect his environment. To us, he was a modern-day hero.

Over time, we met many others: women and men committed to protecting forests, endangered species, marine ecosystems and the natural resources on which their communities depend.

We called them our Ecofund Champions. We chose to believe in the potential of these Champions, in their projects and in the power of collective action.

Fifteen years later, we are proud to look back on 20 initiatives supported in 4 West and North African countries and on the extraordinary people behind them. To celebrate this journey, we have brought their stories together in our book.

These are our Champions. Their stories are a testimony to the power of commitment and collective action.