Support and Funding
Making the transition from vision to experimentation possible
From vision to experimentation
EDIBLE FOREST — Organization of African Unity — EF-OUA is carried by a French association loi 1901 created in 2014. Its legal name is EDIBLE FOREST Organisation de l’Unité Africaine.
Its vision is now structured. Its foundations, organization and initial operational directions are documented.
The next step is to bring together, progressively, the human, material, scientific, technical and financial resources needed to move from preparation to real, verifiable experiments.
Supporting EF-OUA therefore does not mean funding an abstraction. It means enabling identifiable steps to become possible.
What resources can make possible
The first phase aims in particular to prepare the conditions needed to develop EDIBLE FOREST SEEDS and a first territorial pilot. Resources mobilized could progressively help to:
- Research, acquire and document natural, reproducible seeds.
- Organize their identification, traceability and conservation.
- Study their adaptation to different tropical contexts.
- Prepare agronomic experiments.
- Identify needs for land, water, equipment, nurseries and logistics.
- Establish scientific and technical cooperation.
- Document results, failures and lessons learned.
- Analyze the local reproduction of plants and seeds.
- Prepare the transmission of knowledge acquired.
- Develop the digital tools needed for organization, monitoring and documentation.
No establishment or experimental success is presented as already achieved when it is not.
A first demonstration before expansion
EF-OUA’s ambition is pan-African, but its development does not mean claiming to act everywhere simultaneously. The approach is progressive:
PREPARE → EXPERIMENT → OBSERVE → UNDERSTAND → DOCUMENT → REPRODUCE → TRANSMIT → EXPAND
Gabon is the first territory envisaged for structured experimentation. Liberia could be a later stage, before gradual expansion to other African territories and interested communities.
The aim is not to impose an identical model everywhere, but to develop a method that can take ecological, human and territorial particularities into account.
From funding to a verifiable outcome
FUNDING → RESOURCES → EXPERIMENTATION → OBSERVATIONS → KNOWLEDGE → REPRODUCTION → TRANSMISSION
As far as possible, support should be traceable to resources used, steps completed and knowledge produced. This approach to traceability is part of EF-OUA’s method.
How to support EF-OUA
Support the association and its actions without acquiring an equity stake.
Help make a clearly identified phase possible: research, seeds, experimentation, equipment, analyses, documentation, logistics or another defined need.
Build cooperation with a company, foundation, institution, organization, university or another actor with complementary skills or resources.
Provide equipment, technologies, skills, analyses, infrastructure, land or other relevant resources.
Contribute to research, documentation, experimentation and the transmission of knowledge.
What about investors?
EF-OUA is currently a French association loi 1901. The association therefore has no share capital in which an investor could buy shares or acquire a percentage of EF-OUA as in a commercial company.
Some future developments may nevertheless have an economic dimension. If a project later requires a genuine investment with a financial return, it will need to be structured within an appropriate legal and economic framework, separate from the association itself where necessary.
EF-OUA can therefore engage with entrepreneurs and investors without confusing:
SUPPORTING THE ASSOCIATION ≠ INVESTING IN AN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
An organization still at the beginning of its operational phase
The association has legally existed since 2014. Its new organization, bylaws and current direction were adopted in 2026. The first programmes are in preparation.
The first territorial establishments and experiments are not presented as already completed. This transparency enables a funder or partner to understand precisely at what stage of development they are contributing.
Budget and funding needs
EF-OUA does not publish an artificially fixed funding target. The budget for the first operational stage will be established on the basis of real needs:
- Plant resources.
- Travel.
- Facilities.
- Equipment.
- Analyses.
- Logistics.
- Documentation.
- Digital tools.
- Administration.
- Other expenses directly related to implementation.
Once this assessment has been established, needs can be presented by stage and expenditure category.
The aim is for a funder to understand what their support actually makes possible.
The association’s bank account
Arrangements for direct payments to the association will be communicated once its institutional bank account is operational.
Personal support for preparatory steps
While the association's institutional bank account is not yet operational, a personal collection opened by Grégory Mastorgio, treasurer, makes it possible to support the preparatory steps of the project.
This is personal, temporary support, distinct from the resources of the association. It gives no entitlement to a tax receipt, does not constitute membership, and confers no right over the association or the project.
External platform, independent of EF-OUA.
Get in touch
Are you a funder, philanthropic donor, entrepreneur, foundation, company, researcher, institution, organization or potential partner?
Would you like to help make an identifiable stage of EDIBLE FOREST — Organization of African Unity possible?
Contact: spirit@mystik.work