JC (Jessica) Gansonkeng Zambou

I'm Jessica Gansonkeng from Cameroon, a forester.  I'm passionate about social forestry, forest policy and governance..... I love fieldwork and working with local people around the forest. I'm a hard-working girl who loves a challenge.I'm based in Dschang (Cameroon). I am currently doing a double degree PhD between ERAIFT (DRC) and WUR.

My PhD project is about "Governance of sacred Forests in the Western Region of Current state and prospects for sustainable management."

Sacred forests exist around the world. In West Africa, these serve as ritual and sacred sites and also to protect biodiversity. In the West region of Cameroon, land use change has intensified with forest areas once classified as biodiversity hotspots becoming increasingly degraded and encroached by human activities. These sacred forests do not have any legal protection and are governed under the customary rights. However traditional governance has been eroding, with entry and access rights less enforced and insufficient to prevent anthropogenic activities. This study aims to contribute to improve the governance, management and conservation of sacred forests in the West region of Cameroon by (1) assessing their current spatial, socio-cultural and political status and interplay of politics, formal laws, and customary, informal rules, and (2) coproducing options for the implementation of sustainable governance and management strategies.The study is expected to address a knowledge gap that exists on the state and prospects of sacred forests in Cameroon, thereby contributing to the larger debates on customary governance, forest conservation and management in Cameroon and the African tropics in general.