A "forest generation" living in harmony with nature

We need to care for and live in harmony with the environment, says climate and gender activist Ernestine Leikeki Sevidzem. The best way to do that? Nurture a forest generation: one that learns to protect nature. Sevidzem shares how she's educating both children and adults in her native Cameroon on what it means to love and preserve the Earth -- and calls for all of us to foster generations that will inherit a mindset that works with nature, not against it.

My name is Sevidzem Ernestine Leikeki.

I'm a climate activist
from the North-West Region of Cameroon.

I focus on two things:

caring for nature

and educating the next
generation to do the same.

We can't fight the climate emergency

if we cannot protect
and regenerate our land.

That's why my colleagues and I

at Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch

are dedicated to regenerating
the 20,000-hectare Kilum-Ijim Forest.

My community of 300,000 people
depends on nature for livelihood.

We find daily solutions
in our forest and in our farmlands.

But our natural resources
face a lot of challenges:

deforestation,

over-exploitation,

encroachment and poor soil conservation.

And these are made worse
by gender inequality,

cultural barriers

and little or no knowledge
about the goodness of nature.

Worst of them are
the devastating bushfires.

To make sure that this forest
continues to exist into the future,

we work to educate our children

that if they protect the forest,
it will, in turn, support them.

We educate our children

what it means to love nature
and treat it with care.

I call that "raising a forest generation."

To date, my organization
has provided environmental education

to more than 50,000 people
in the Kilum-Ijim Forest area,

60 percent of them women.

We have child-friendly sessions
every week in our nurseries

about the trees found in our forest
and how to take care of them.

Through community radio,
we reach out to many people.

We also develop economic opportunities.

We have trained over 2,000 people
in the Kilum-Ijim Forest area

in bee farming.

When we recruit bee farmers,

that's a chance
to rebalance opportunities.

We give two beehives to women
and one to men.

We also teach them about honey production,

beeswax extraction,

making honey wine and honey juice,

and making detergents
and lotions out of beeswax.

When they tend their hives,

the community keeps
an eye out for bushfires.

And the income from bee farming
means they can plant more trees.

It's a powerful equation.

Honey equals income, equals jobs,

equals gender equality,
equals conservation.

As of 2020,

we have planted 86,000 trees
to regenerate the Kilum-Ijim Forest.

Nature remains our greatest ally
to reach our climate mitigation targets.

Planting trees is essential,

but we need to raise a forest generation

that will thrive and live
in harmony with nature.

Thank you.