Sixteen years ago, a young agronomist quit the civil service, jumped on the conservation train, headed to the hinterlands, and never looked back.

Louis Nkembi did not change his name, but changed his vision to support the development of a healthy environment through the development of a holistic and balanced environmental movement with focus on saving the last endangered species of fauna and flora alongside their fragile ecosystems.

By M. Abio

In the last 16 years, ERuDeF has touched the lives of thousands of rural people in four Regions through its programmes in Wildlife Conservation, Agroforestry and Agricultural Development, Sustainable Livelihoods and Economic Development, Environmental Education, amongst others, that promote the conservation of wildlife and the restoration of fragile landscapes.

To further build a strong constituency and help drive its conservation initiatives in the right direction, and give everyone at ERuDeF a feeling of working towards the same goal, an Annual Dinner was launched in 2013.

In 2015, the Annual Dinner culminated in the launching of ERuDeF 2015 Programmes organised on March 7 at the Hotel Carlos Residence in Muea, Buea.

The dinner brought together the staff of ERuDeF, NGO and Conservation leaders, Researchers and the Corporate provided the opportunity for all to get a deeper understanding of ERuDeF’s work and they con better contribute towards making ERuDeF the leading national conservation group in Cameroon and Africa at large and especially through the development of an effective corporate social responsibility in Cameroon and Africa.

It also provided an opportunity for the staff to honour their CEO, Louis Nkembi, for his pioneering vision and making ERuDeF an award winning organisation and increasingly competitive at the international scene.

“We wish to thank Mr. Louis Nkembi for mentoring us in the career of environmental conservation and for steering ERuDeF skilfully over the years,” said Limbi Blessing, Director of Forest Resources Management and Conservation at ERuDeF.

The CEO further announced a new addition to their 2015 programmes to include the Green Corporate Leadership Award, Smartphone Monitoring Programme, Forest Garden and the Friends of ERuDeF Initiative.

The ERuDeF Green Corporate Leaders Award aspires to promote compliance of companies in Cameroon to Corporate Social Responsibility and to move them towards achieving and contribution towards the green economy.

As a conservation NGO, ERuDeF aims to encourage business corporations to preserve the environment, which they degrade through their industrial and commercial actions.

The Green Corporate Leadership Award is an annual event that will bring together business executives to celebrate with the award-winning companies as ERuDeF’s contribution to Corporate Social Responsibility in Cameroon.

The ERuDeF Forest Garden Programme is a 4-year programme designed to holistically and economically empower resource poor farmers through the development of forest-based economic value chains starting from soil health improvement. It aims to support “the Second Generation Family Farms as ERuDeF’s contribution to the current Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development policy on family farms. In its first year of operation, the CEO announced that about 200 farms will be developed and supported with generous funding from Trees for the Future, USA.

The Smartphone Monitoring Programme is a new technology based programme designed to improve the overall organisational efficiency and productivity and needed to scale up ERuDeF’s programmes nationally. As ERuDeF anticipates to open regional offices in Yaounde, Bamenda and Maroua, this new technology will smartly increase the management efficiency of the organisation, the Director of Programmes at ERuDeF, Derrick Messape, said.

Meanwhile, the Friends of ERuDeF Initiative will lead the effort to alleviate suffering experienced by the most deprived persons such as orphans, people in despair, prisoners, the sick, the handicapped, and the needy school children through voluntary and public-generated donations.

The Friends of ERuDeF Initiative will through its “Give Back to the Community” project reach the most deprived spectrum of the population to support such major social problems deprivation, affecting the local people living in areas where ERuDeF operates.

“We are excited about the opportunity to focus on the programmes that promote the policies of the government of Cameroon through the different sectoral Ministries and with increasing collaboration from corporate and civil society partners – both national and international,” said ERuDeF CEO, Louis Nkembi.

He said after the achievements recorded in 2014, the organisation is aiming for greater achievements that will project ERuDeF to the international level as the leading conservation NGO in Africa.

ERuDeF works in collaboration with the Ministries of Forestry Wildlife, Environment and Nature Protection, Agriculture and Rural Development, and international partners in an effort to conserve wildlife by protecting populations of declining species, restoring degraded landscapes and strengthening rural economies through productive farmlands and rural industries as well as the development of economic value chains.

ERuDeF wants to say thank you to all its national and international partners for all the support both technically and financially towards all of its programmes. These partners include but are not limited to the Ministries of Forestry and Wildlife, Environment, Protection of Environment and Sustainable Development, Agriculture and Rural Development, national CSOs, WWF, Fauna and Flora International, Tusk Trust, Trees for the Future, Man & Nature, Mane Foundation, the French Embassy of Cameroon, the Government of Taiwan, African Conservation Foundation, Whitley Fund for Nature, Association for Wildlife Protection, US Fish and Wildlife Service, People’s Trust for Endangered Species and Wildlife Conservation Society.

By M. Abio