“In 2023, Terre & Humanisme is rolling out its awareness-raising, training and consultancy activities in France and internationally to foster the emergence of a small-scale, community-led agroecology that addresses the food and climate challenges facing local areas.”
For 30 years, Terre & Humanisme has been championing the agroecology movement. The organisation’s work is divided into three areas: Training, Expertise and Solidarity. Developing a network of agroecological farms, supporting vulnerable groups, training farmers, courses for the general public, hosting radio programmes, community gardens, lecture series, an online resource library, raising awareness amongst schoolchildren… it is difficult to summarise all of Terre & Humanisme’s activities, such is the richness and variety of the organisation’s work.
Mas Beaulieu in the Ardèche: a garden for experimentation and training
“It was here, at Mas de Beaulieu, that it all began, and it is here that life still teems. The barren land has become a lush jungle that withstands the vagaries of the climate. Here, our gardeners tend to living things, experiment, invent and innovate! And they pass on their knowledge. To those who wish to discover agroecology during a stay, whether for a week or just a few hours’ holiday.”
A veritable open-air laboratory garden, teeming with plants and life, the Terre & Humanisme garden demonstrates through example the resilience of agroecology. This garden has welcomed over 2,000 visitors a year for the past 24 years. Despite some years of catastrophic weather, such as 2022—marked by 35 days of heatwave during the summer—the gardens (covering a total area of 1.2 hectares including paths, of which 600 m² is dedicated to cultivation) recorded a record yield that year of 1,400 kg of vegetables and 176 kg of fruit. This is a good way of demonstrating the effectiveness of agroecological techniques that are resilient to climate change: water conservation, soil fertilisation, companion planting and the selection of suitable seeds.
In 2023, Terre & Humanisme supported 110 young people on immersion programmes to help them bring their food self-sufficiency projects to fruition. This programme, which lies at the heart of the organisation’s awareness-raising mission, serves as a springboard for young people towards the socio-economic integration of future project leaders and, more broadly, the large-scale dissemination of ecological and environmental values that foster public awareness.
Terre & Humanisme: courses and training programmes
If you’d like to learn about permaculture, find out more about aromatic and medicinal plants, or create an agroecological vegetable garden, discover all the Terre & Humanisme training courses on their website.
Community gardens
In 2023, Terre & Humanisme is continuing its ‘Solidarity Gardens’ programme ” in partnership with Habitat et Humanisme to create and run 25 therapeutic and community gardens within the network’s care and accommodation facilities (accommodation centres, community and intergenerational homes, care homes for the elderly, and reception centres for asylum seekers…), aimed at people in extremely vulnerable circumstances. This project, which restores a zest for life to more than 3,000 beneficiaries, will be further expanded in 2024 to reach as many centres as possible.
La Ferme de la Noria: training the farming community
“For the past ten years or so, we have been searching for a place to pass on and put agroecology into practice, aimed primarily at the farming community, on a larger scale than the gardens at Mas de Beaulieu, to demonstrate that agroecology is viable and to encourage as many people as possible to embark on this journey. Let me remind you that a farm disappears every quarter of an hour in France and that in 10 years’ time we are likely to have fewer than half the number of farmers we have now – that is, 200,000 people. There is therefore an urgent need to (re)learn how to feed ourselves, to care for living things and not to let our land fall victim to urban sprawl.” Françoise Vernet, chair of the Terre et Humanisme association
The Noria farm is situated in the commune of Robiac-Rochessadoule, near Bessèges in the north of the Gard department, 32 km from the Mas de Beaulieu, the association’s headquarters. The farm’s objectives are:
To experiment with and demonstrate on a larger scale the economic and environmental viability of agroecological models
To promote agroecology amongst those developing agricultural and food production projects
To co-design a food and agriculture project rooted in the local area
To become a hub for resources and knowledge-sharing centred on agriculture and nature, and a catalyst for social cohesion.
Terre & Humanisme in the Maghreb and the Middle East
Since 2018, Terre & Humanisme has been supporting the development of agroecology in six countries in the Maghreb and the Middle East: Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia. Climate change is exacerbating drought, which is becoming a major issue. To tackle this, the Terre & Humanisme association is rolling out initiatives that promote agroecology in a holistic manner and support the farming communities in these countries.
As a result, by 2023, there will be 7 partner organisations, 20 trained and supported facilitators, 11 model agroecology farms receiving support, 310 farmers trained and supported (67 per cent of whom are women) and 4,000 people made aware of agroecology.
Terre & Humanisme in West Africa
The climate, political and security crisis affecting the Sahel complicates Terre & Humanisme’s work in collaboration with its local partners. Supporting family farming to feed local communities is the central objective. Consequently, 6 partner organisations and 2 partner networks are being supported, with 80 facilitators spreading their work across Togo, Burkina Faso and Benin, 90 farmers’ organisations have been trained and supported, 72 farms have been strengthened with small-scale agricultural equipment, livestock or access to water, and 5,000 farmers (70 per cent of whom are women) have been trained, supported and assisted in 2023.
