I am called Anya Dabite Abeh. I was born and raised in Mundemba, a little hamlet near the Korup National Park, South West Region, Cameroon.
During my stay in Mundemba, I witnessed indiscriminate exploitation of forest resources ranging from animals (as large as elephants, monkeys, etc to smaller ones as sunbirds) to plants for timber exploitation, medicine, and other purposes, usually by residents in the town and occasionally by the local authorities.
I was not pleased with this poor environmental behavior. This drove me to ask questions and do some investigations on how things could be mitigated and one thing I discovered was that almost 60% of the population at that time lacked awareness of conservation.
Trying to educate them seemed very impossible. More than half of the people I spoke to never listened to me, and the few who did, did so because of my relationship with them, not because of my message of conservation
As I was growing up, I started searching for better alternatives before I was introduced by Denis Kuscph to the Earth Charter and its beautiful principles, especially Pillar I: Respect and care for the community of life, respect earth in all its diversity, recognize that all beings are independent and every form of life has value regardless of its worth to humans. This is because every human being must recognize that they are not superior to biodiversity, which we must not abuse. After all, we both rely on each other to thrive.
I believed here is a place where I can equip myself to bring that change, I want to see in my community.
