MEET THE FOUNDER
Ebenezar Asaah (Ph.D)
Ebenezar Asaah (Ph.D) doubles as Founder and President of Asaah Fonyam & Angwi Foundation (AFAF). AFAF is committed to being a premier grassroots non-governmental organization in Cameroon; focusing on environment, agriculture and sustainable socio-economic as well as capacity development. The Foundation works in partnership with local communities and organizations to maintain environment health while building a sustainable, healthy, food-secure and productive economy with technical, moral, financial support and experience from its national and international partners.
He is an Agroforestry & Food Security Expert with a distinguished career in research integrating diverse trees (indigenous & exotic) as a valuable resource in both agriculture for forest landscapes in West and Central Africa over the last two decades. His goal is to use and manage science for development to contribute to food security, poverty reduction, enhanced resilience of livelihoods and ecosystems while sustainably managing natural resources for reduced emissions.
His works on Agroforestry for soil fertility management using leguminous (soil fertilizer species) and domestication of nutritionally, economically and culturally important indigenous trees species in agricultural landscapes has brought multidimensional benefits to small scale farmers: food security, alternative income options, social cohesion, enhance human and ecosystem health amidst a changing climate.
He is a former Country Representative and Tree Scientist of World Agroforestry Centre – brand name for the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) Sierra Leone Country Office. In that capacity, He coordinated the implementation of a climate change project ‘Building Biological Carbon for Rural Development in West Africa (BIODEV) in Sierra Leone, and Republic of Guinea implemented by a consortium led by World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) University of Helsinki, Viikki Tropical Resources Institute (VITRI) of the University of Helsinki, in addition to national partners Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS), Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI).
Formerly, he coordinated the implementation of diverse projects notably: ‘Promoting Development of Economically Viable Rubber Smallholdings in West Africa – Nigeria’ and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded Food for Progress 2006 project; ‘Agricultural and Tree Products Program for the Western Highlands of Cameroon’ respectively.
He is a native English speaker and fluent in French; and is currently an independent consultant providing advisory services, and technical backstopping to community projects promoting innovative agroforestry solutions to the challenging natural resources and environmental management / sustainability issues affecting food and nutritional security, poverty and agroecological degradation in Developing Countries.
He also serves as part–time lecturer on agroforestry and tree domestication in professional tertiary institutions in Cameroon and has authored and co-authored about 100 diverse publications and supervised 18 Bachelors and Master’s degree end of course dissertations in diverse domains: agriculture, forestry and environmental sciences.
He holds a B of Agriculture (Hons) from the University of Benin City Nigeria on Crop Sciences, a Master’s of Science in Agricultural Biology with specialty in Entomology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Applied Biological Sciences from Ghent University, Belgium. He has also attended several intensive professional courses notably: Bearhs Environmental Leadership Summer Course Program, University of California Berkeley, USA and Certificate Course on Project, Planning, Management and Evaluation, Pan African Institute for Development, West Africa among others.