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Project

Le Paysan Urbain is an association that develops responsible and virtuous urban agriculture that complements rural agriculture as part of a social and solidarity-based economy. The association is based at the 6,700 m² Charonne reservoir behind the Père Lachaise cemetery in the east of Paris. Its core business is the production of micro-greens and the sale of edible flowers, vegetables and aromatic plants via catering professionals, grocers and individuals using short supply chains. Lastly, education is the latest route of action for this association that welcomes diverse groups of people (school classes, families, partner associations) in order to raise awareness of issues such as sustainable food, urban biodiversity and the environment.

Gambetta elementary school

The Akuo Foundation supported Le Paysan Urbain by financing material for the two projects: firstly, the organization of workshops on invertebrates in towns and cities with the Gambetta elementary school, co-constructed with the school’s teachers. A variety of approaches were used to involve the schoolchildren in a fun way: games, manual activities, observation, drawing, etc. Each pupil was able to directly benefit from the threefold aspect of this project, with the acquisition of knowledge (life and earth sciences, botany), know-how (DIY, gardening, painting) and soft skills (working as a group, a bond with the living world). At the end of the project, three planters were created on the Paysan Urbain farm: a human area with a small pond and a watering place for insects, a dry area with an aromatic rocky spiral and a layered planter for observing a decomposition area.  

Paysan urbain

Riblette elementary school

The second project concerned the construction of two permaculture planters with the nearby Riblette elementary school. Each pupil needed to use what they had learned in school to undertake the project: for example, they used mathematical concepts to design the planters (measuring the planks of wood required and calculating the volume). The pupils also made a substrate using local sources of materials, reaffirming their knowledge of the fauna and flora.  

Paysan urbain

250

number of pupils from the Gambetta school involved in the invertebrate workshops project

10

number of workshops organized for children from the Gambetta school 

110

number of pupils from the Riblette school involved in the plant box construction project