Cécile Ndjebet

Cameroonian environmentalist empowering women through forest conservation

Dr. Cécile Ndjebet's 2022 UN Champion of the Earth award recognized her revolutionary approach linking gender justice and ecological preservation. Her African Women's Network for Community Forest Management (REFACOF) operates in 20+ African countries.

Key achievements include:

• Training 15,000+ women in sustainable agroforestry
• Pioneering gendered carbon credit systems where women control revenues
• Drafting Cameroon's 1994 Forest Law recognizing indigenous land rights

As Landesa's Africa Director, she developed digital tools helping rural women document customary land claims. Her TEDx talk 'When Women Own Trees' went viral in conservation circles.

Ndjebet's greatest innovation? The 'Forest Grandmothers' program training elderly women as seedbank custodians. This preserves biodiversity while restoring matriarchal ecological knowledge nearly erased by colonialism.