The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF), Louis Nkembi, has been elected pioneer President of the Alliance of Great Apes Conservation in Central Africa (GSAC). He was voted by unanimous acclamation, Thursday October 19, 2016 in Limbe during a forum that grouped Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) working on Great Apes conservation across West and Central Africa.
According to the newly elected President, pioneering a newly created initiative with high portfolio and responsibilities couldn’t come at a better time giving his tenacity and wealth of experience in organisational management.
“The central criteria to grow organisations (networks) revolve around tenacity, organisational management, and fundraising amongst others. It has been demonstrated over the years that Louis Nkembi via ERuDeF, has been progressively growing and meeting these essential requirements, which other organisations in the Sub Region are not yet fully there. So they felt that they could capture the expertise and experience that ERuDeF has had and is having, to guide them grow and increase the visibility of the contributions of national NGOs towards great apes conservation in the Central African sub region and Africa” Mr Nkembi explained.
Mr Louis Nkembi expounded that his vision for the network centres on raising a running budget which will promote national conservation, regional coordination, capacity building activities, build long-term sustainable dreams of national NGOs, among others.
“In the next five years, the great apes conservation in Central Africa should run a one, two, three million dollars budget, to support national conservation and regional coordination. We are looking at strengthening national capacity in each country, increasing their visibility, helping them to stand in the face of adversity, and build their long-term sustainable dreams,” Mr Nkembi added.
The President appealed to other regional organisations and governments concerned with conservation, for collaboration so a stronger coordination is built to fight the battle for serving the last great apes.
The Alliance for Great Apes Conservation in Central Africa was created in April 2016, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was formed by some six Non-Governmental Organisations in the Central African Sub Region who agreed to join forces in fighting against Great Ape Extinction in the Central African Sub region.
These NGOs included Mbou Mon Tour of D.R Congo, the Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF) and the Tropical Forest and Rural Development (TF-RD) from Cameroon, Association Protectrice des Grands Singes De la Moukalaba from Gabon, Endangered Species International from Republic of Congo, and Grouped’Appui a la Conservation des Ecosystems de Basankusu et Bolomba (GACEBB) from D.R Congo.
The NGOs came up with new strategies to fight against forest degradation, habitat fragmentation, poaching and illegal wildlife trade that have placed Africa’s great ape species at the risk of extinction within the last century
Among the six strategies drafted in the Congo meeting and subsequently adopted in Limbe included the need to strengthen members of the network, promote good governance and best managerial practices and most importantly mobilise funds for research, development and valorisation of work and research results of the networks’ members. It covers great apes conservation in all nine countries in the Central African Sub-Region.
