Blessing Limbi

Blessing is helping communities in Cameroon fight deforestation by showing them how to protect their forests from illegal activities while helping them improve their livelihoods without damaging their forests.

Blessing is empowering communities in Cameroon to have a voice and agency to develop sustainable economic alternatives to deforestation, as well as protect their forests from the activities of loggers destroying natural forests. She is doing this through several programs that include raising awareness of the forests’ economic benefits, and ultimately giving men, women and youth, skills to protect their forests through sustainable practices.

Blessing is also raising awareness about the forest’s economic promises and benefits, providing men, women, and youth with the skills and economic opportunities to generate products from the forest that sustain their livelihood without harming the natural ecosystem.

Her model has two components. First, she is leveraging on her partnership with the media to teach communities through radio and in-person sessions how to use the natural resources of the forests around them like spices and nuts to improve their livelihoods. Second, through her partnership with the Cameroonian Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development, and the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, she helps communities become responsible stewards of their forests by teaching them how to conserve, replant trees, and regenerate their forests.

Cameroon is home to 10% of the Congo Basin Forest, the second largest tropical rainforest in the world according to the Global Forest Atlas. However, about 30 hectares of mangrove forests are felled every day to meet timber and fuel wood demands of illegal loggers. The loss of flora in these natural forests and savannas directly impacts incomes in forest-dependent communities. For rural women especially, these forests provide cash all year round through forest spices, nuts, fruits, vegetables, medicinal herbs, mushrooms, etc. Forest fauna, such as the Nigerian-Cameroon Chimpanzees, have already been devastated by the rate of habitat loss, and conservationists lack the necessary government support to begin rolling back the damage. Unsustainable agricultural practices of overgrazing, over-farming, and logging are accelerating deforestation under the pressures of rapid and uncontrolled urbanization.

Rampant deforestation also erodes the region’s watersheds, creating entrenched water scarcity. When the world celebrated ‘halving the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation’ in 2015, many communities in Cameroon continued to experience acute water shortages. For instance, over 86% of the 300,000 people living in Buea, Southwest Cameroon that houses Mount Cameroon, still experience acute water shortage as a result of the activities of illegal loggers in the forest around the mountain. Soil erosion due to deforestation and the destruction of entire mangrove forests makes Cameroon more vulnerable than ever to worsening coastal flooding, flash floods, and landslides. The combination of growing instability in Cameroon’s landscape with rapid habitat loss rests on a foundation of unregulated agricultural practices that will continue to diminish the lives of all Cameroonians who depend on the Congo Basin forests whether they realize it or not.

Over the years, local communities have begun to speak out against development efforts that are unsustainable and harmful. These actions are perpetuatedby private actors sometimes with government issued licences. However, much more action is needed for the Cameroonian government to value the conservation of local habitats and resources as much as the development of more land to meet the needs of an urbanizing society. For motivated local communities, it is not enough for the government and stakeholders to just agree that nature is important. They want everyone to understand how neglecting natural resource conservation is the root cause of many social problems. Sadly, people perceive nature as a free gift that cannot be lost. Little do they know that it is gradually slipping away.

Blessing's work focuses on holistic environmental sustainability, combining livelihood development with nature preservation. Some of her initiatives include educating local communities on forestry laws, advocating for their rights, and training farmers in sustainable agricultural practices. Her strategy is double pronged. On one hand, she is teaching communities how to leverage the abundant natural and non-timber resources offered by the natural forests around them to improve their livelihoods, and on the other hand recruiting them as responsible caretakers of the source of their livelihoods through conservation and reforestation efforts.

Due to the abundance of natural resources available in the forest communities, Blessing and her team at Ecological Balance Cameroon focus on educating farmers, especially women and youth, on techniques such as the forest garden that ensures high yield, conserve resources, and improve soil health. Through the forest gardens, Blessing works with them to plant seasonal crops such as fruits, nuts, spices, etc, within the abundant forest ecosystem around them. In addition to this, she also works with them to properly harvest and regenerate trees that produce edible leaves, mushrooms, fodder, sap products, fibers, etc, to ensure continuous year-round production. Through this method, she is helping them improve their livelihoods while restoring natural farmlands through nitrogen fixation, and rotation. So far, she has successfully worked with 50 forest communities in three regions of Cameroon, namely, Southwest Cameroon, East Cameroon, and Northwest Cameroon. Blessing's overarching strategy provides tangible benefits for forest farmers through education, awareness creation, and livelihood improvement, thereby empowering communities with the very forest resources that they are protecting from illegal logging activities. Blessing’s central mission is to create empowered communities with sustainable livelihoods, ensuring a balance between economic development and environmental preservation.

Through her partnership with the Ministry of Forestry & Wildlife, Blessing is establishing local forest management committees supported by the government to enforce regulations at the local level, enabling the communities to check and reduce the activities of illegal loggers who profit from extracting timber from the forests without any government oversight. After working with Blessing, these local committees have a new sense of shared ownership of the forests in their local communities because they derive numerous economic benefits from their responsible stewardship of Cameroon’s forests. Blessing has amplified Ecological Balance’s mission and value to over 200,000 people through targeted media campaigns and community events. She measures her impact through regular feedback forms, frequent calls to studios during her radio programs, and more visible changes in landscapes and farming practices at the local level.

Blessing is also introducing to local communities the Miyawaki Method a technique for growing forests quickly by mimicking nature and focusing on trees native to specific habitats. This effort has resulted in over 300,000 trees planted on over 15,000 square meters of land. The expected outcome is the recharging of depleted groundwater and improving the water supply. Blessing and her team have also begun repairing and restoring 10,000 hectares of degraded watersheds. They’ve partnered with the government to achieve this, and they’re beginning to revive rivers in local communities.

In 30 years, Blessing envisions forest communities where people live healthier lives, economies are resilient and connected to nature, and farmers produce food using sustainable and restorative practices that will protect the environment for future generations.

Blessing grew up in a farming family in a remote village in northwestern Cameroon. Surrounded by forests, Blessing saw how these forests sustained the community. People relied on the natural bounty of the woods for their food and livelihood.

Despite being the only girl in her family, Blessing's parents defied tradition and enrolled her in school. In their community, where boys traditionally received education while girls helped with farm work, Blessing's journey was groundbreaking. As the sole female from her village to reach secondary school, she emerged as a powerful voice for women and girls on environmental issues. Their precious forest ecosystem was facing depletion due to human activity, and Blessing became a passionate advocate for its protection.

Fueled by a passion for vast ecosystems and the intricate web connecting forests to human well-being, Blessing pursued degrees in plant science. Her studies focused on the delicate balance of nature's interdependence. Upon graduation, she entered the conservation field, diving into the complex debate surrounding land use and resource management. On one side, conservationists advocated for preserving forest ecosystems entirely, untouched by development. On the other hand, proponents of large-scale development argued for utilizing forest resources like timber to fuel societal progress.

In 2016, Blessing clearly understood that development and conservation could coexist. She championed the idea that forests could provide resources beyond timber, empowering communities to protect and replenish these vital ecosystems. This conviction led Blessing to resign from her prestigious role as Director in the organization she was working for, opting instead to take the bold step to set up Ecological Balance Cameroon, a non-profit with a groundbreaking approach. Her organization would champion both environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture, fostering positive social change within local communities. Blessing's core belief is that successful interventions require local leadership. She envisioned empowering local people to become stewards of their natural heritage, placing them at the forefront of the movement to preserve their precious forests.