Through her academic research and collaboration with civil society organizations, Jeanne has been involved in environmental protection in West Africa – and specifically biodiversity conservation – for several decades. Her work has included the assessment and regulation of GMOs in French-speaking African countries, and the last Ph.D. thesis she supervised was on the sexual reproduction of yams in Benin’s agroecological zones. Jeanne is a founding member of JINUKUN (a local network for the sustainable use of biodiversity in Benin active since 2003), and COPAGEN (Coalition for the Protection of African Genetic Heritage), launched in 2004, which includes the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Bissau Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Benin) and Guinea. In 2022, Jeanne resigned from JINUKUN, but remained a member of the Federation of AgroEcologists of Benin (FAEB) until January 2025. Currently, she is continuing her activities in West Africa as an independent scientist.

In 2023, she published the results of more than three decades of scientific research on the genetic resources of african yams in a book titled “YAM, WORTHY PLANT WITH PLURAL FUTURE”. This book was launched on June 7th 2024 at the University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin), and was presented on June 28th 2024 at the University of Nangui Abrogoua (Côte d’Ivoire), as well as to key farmers and civil society organizations in Benin.