Sevidzem Ernestine Leikeki, the Cameroonian activist committed to preserving forests through beekeeping

Sevidzem Ernestine Leikeki is a climate and women’s rights activist from Cameroon. As the founding member of Cameroon Gender and environment Watch (CAMGEW), she is committed to the protection and regeneration of forests, as well as agroecology in Cameroon. Thanks to her commitment, she was awarded the 2019 and 2021 ‘Gender Just Climate Solutions’ prizes.

For several years now, Sevidzem Ernestine Leikeki, an activist from the north-west of Cameroon, has been known for her commitment to protecting the environment through CAWGEW whom she is social and environmental manager. The organisation works with local communities to promote agro-ecology, forest protection and regeneration, sustainable job creation, women’s entrepreneurship and environmental education.

Working in the Kilum-Ijim forest area, in the north-west region of Cameroon, she is working to preserve the forest through beekeeping, mainly by involving women and young people. Her strategy aims at combating bush fires, and focuses on training beekeepers to extract beeswax, make honey wine, and produce honey-based detergents and lotions. To date, she has trained over 2,000 beekeepers in 5 cooperatives, 3 of whose 6 executive members are women. Together with these beekeepers and other members of the local community, she has planted more than 86,000 forest trees to increase the number of bees and fight deforestation and climate change.

In addition to her commitment to protecting the environment, she also campaigns to combat domestic violence against women. She has helped 800 women escape violence.

In 2019 and 2021, she received the Gender Just Climate Solutions Award for transformational solutions, because of her commitment to the climate and the promotion of women’s rights.

Sevidzem Ernestine Leikeki holds a degree in common law and has certificates in creative collaboration and systems training, agroforestry, conflict analysis, negotiation and conflict management, advocacy and civic engagement.