Non-profit association · Krefeld, Germany, and Guereo, Senegal
Synergie – Institut für Ökologie & nachhaltige Entwicklung e.V. is a German non-profit association with no paid staff. Since 2015 we have worked in Guereo, a fishing village some 70 kilometres south of Dakar. Two projects are at the heart of our work: an eco-farm that helps secure a livelihood for the women who work on it, and the step-by-step conversion of the boats on the Somone lagoon to electric motors.
The women’s group planting.
7 August 2026We discussed converting the boats with the commander of the marine protected area.
An association from Krefeld in Germany, founded in 1987. It began with ecological environmental planning in Germany. Hence the name: good results only come when different disciplines work together.
Since 2015 our focus has been West Africa. We are a registered non-profit, nobody is paid, and members of the association spend months on site every year. We are not an aid organisation: we see ourselves as partners.
2 February 2015Guereo between bushland and sea, with Cap de Naze on the horizon to the right.
Guereo is a fishing village between the Somone lagoon, Senegal’s oldest nature reserve, and Cap de Naze with the Popenguine nature reserve.
The village sits at a dead end: there is no coastal road, no bridge over the river mouth and no road over the cape. That is exactly why nature there is still intact. Many of the birds that winter here breed in Europe in spring.
23 January 2023On the Somone lagoon. Shallow water, sandbanks and the mangroves on the horizon.
A protected area only stays protected if the people who live beside it can make a living from it. Here, nature conservation and income are not two issues but one.
Hence our two projects: the farm produces yields that are shared among the women. The electric motors take noise and oil out of the lagoon, and those who run the boats save on fuel.
24 m
is the depth of the well since it was deepened by six metres this year
1,350
moringa seeds were planted in 2026 for the hedges around the fields
45
women oyster and shellfish gatherers own the boat that gets the first electric motor
€2,650
is the cost of an electric motor and battery for one boat. It charges on solar power.
On the edge of the village, women from Guereo and a gardener grow staple foods, fruit and medicinal plants. It is run as a cooperative: whatever remains after costs is shared among those who did the work. This year brought electricity, two pumps and four planted fields.
Some 45 pirogues cross the lagoon with old petrol engines: noise, exhaust and oil from leaking fuel lines, right in the middle of a nature reserve. We are fitting them with electric motors one by one. The first boat belongs to the lagoon’s 45 women oyster and shellfish gatherers.
Synergie – Institut für Ökologie & nachhaltige Entwicklung e.V. has been entered in the register of associations at the Krefeld local court (VR 4719) since 1 August 2017 and is recognised as a non-profit by the Krefeld tax office.
The association has no paid staff. Everything donated goes into the two projects: the well, the fields and the planting at the eco-farm, and the electric motors for the boats on the lagoon.
We are a registered non-profit in Germany and issue donation receipts. If you would like to support us regularly, you can become a supporting member from €50 a year.
