Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet
Cécile is an agronomist and social forester from rural Cameroon, specializing in women’s leadership and the intersection with the environment. She has 33+ years of extensive experience at the intersection of gender equality with land tenure, conservation, climate change, and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+).
Cécile is the founder of Cameroon Ecology, which has restored over 800 hectares of degraded land and mangrove forest since 2001, and President and the founder of African Women’s Network for Community Management of Forests (REFACOF), which encourages the representation of women’s interests in environmental policies across 20 African countries.
Cécile has been honored as Wangari Maathai Forests Champion, Climate Change Champion of the Central African Commission on Forests, and Ramsar Women Changemakers in the World of Wetlands. In 2023, she was the co-winner of The Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity and in March 2024, awarded the prestigious KEW International Medal by the UK Royal Society. More recently, she was named a Champion of the Earth for Inspiration and Action by the UNEP.