Forest Champion 2022 Cécile Ndjebet
Activist Cécile Ndjebet, of Cameroon, won the 2022 Wangari Maathai Forest Champions Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to conserving forests and improving the lives of people who depend on them.
Presented
by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), which is chaired by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the award was conferred at a ceremony during the XV World Forestry Congress in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
“This
award celebrates Cécile Ndjebet’s energy and dedication over three decades in promoting women’s rights to land and forests. She has actively shown that women’s participation in forest governance and preservation is fundamental
to achieving sustainable forest management,” said FAO Deputy Director-General and CPF Chair Maria Helena Semedo.
Championing gender equality
Roughly 70% of women in Cameroon live in rural areas and are dependent at least in part on harvesting wild forest products for their livelihoods, yet in some communities women are denied the right
to own forest land, inherit it if their husband dies or even to plant trees on degraded land.
Ndjebet has tirelessly promoted the concept that women should be involved in forest management and have equal rights to forest land and resources
- and that when they do, forests are better preserved and entire communities benefit.
Through the African Women’s Network for Community Management of Forests, which she co-founded in 2009, Ndjebet has become a leading voice, both in Cameroon and internationally, in building global recognition on
the importance of gender equality in forest management. The organisation now has 20 member countries across Africa.
“Men generally recognise the great role women play in improving families’ living standards,”
said Ndjebet. “But it is important for them also to agree that for women to continue to play that role, and even improve in that role, they need secure access to land and forests.”
Ndjebet has long been a driving force in implementing
forestry law and good governance in Cameroon and establishing a new approach on community forestry and the restoration of degraded lands and forests through Cameroon Ecology (Cam-Eco), which she founded in 2001. Cam-Eco has worked to inform, train
and support women to understand sustainability issues and to get involved in forest conservation and restoration.
