Mbunya Francis Nkemnyi January 15, 2021

MEET THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF RCESD

Mr. Mbunya Francis Nkemnyi has been involved in community-based conservation, wildlife management and research since 2006. His career as a conservationist began with voluntary work with the Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF), a Cameroon non-profit organization.

He worked as a field biologist between 2007 and 2009, and was head of the Cross River gorilla Bio-Monitoring team. During this period, he managed several projects, including collaborative projects with international partners like World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Fauna and Flora International (FFI) among others. In September 2009, he saw the need to improve his expertise in community-based conservation.

He was granted a fellowship to study Masters in Human Ecology with specialization in Natural Resource Management at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, where he obtained his master degree. In 2012 he gained admission to study a PhD program in development studies, with specialization in environment-development nexus at the Institute of Development Policy and Management (IOB), University of Antwerp, Belgium. Nkemnyi has been able to effectively combine career and academic life across his study program.

From 2009 to 2013, he worked as a Program Manager for Rural Alliance for Youth Development (RAYD) and was in charge of fundraising in developing environmental programs for youths in Cameroon. Since October 2013, he works as the executive director for the Resource Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development and is also in charge of directing and managing conservation/ development projects.

With approximately 10 years of working experience, Nkemnyi has developed and implemented over 30 community-based conservation projects, with support from more than 15 international funders. He has published six peer reviewed articles amongst which are; Walk To Your Desired Job, The Abc Of Success In Examinations, Get Off Your Comfort Zone as first author and several others are under development and review.

Additionally, he is a husband and a father of two. He can be counted amongst the most emerging and successful change maker in Cameroon.

 By Techgo Gabby Reporting from AZIII