AAFEBEN

• Valorising non-timber forest products (NTFP): capacity building for women’s cooperatives, supporting the NTFP value chain (finance, equipment, infrastructure), and facilitating wider markets for processed products.

• Zero-deforestation cocoa production: capacity building for cooperatives and support for good agricultural practices.

• Environmental education: raising awareness and training local populations and stakeholders on sustainable forest protection and management.

• Restoration of degraded land: reforesting threatened NTFP species such as moabi, and domesticating NTFPs for continuous supply independent of the forest.

• Agroecological activity development: supporting green income-generating activities (snail farming, caterpillar farming, beekeeping).

• Cultural heritage valorisation: recognising, preserving and promoting the cultural values, traditions and traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples and local communities, including knowledge-transmission ceremonies and Baka chieftaincy structures.

• Citizenship support: helping Indigenous peoples and local communities obtain official documents such as birth certificates and ID cards.

AAFEBEN (Support for Women’s Empowerment in Boumba and Ngoko) is a civil society organisation founded on 11 May 2001 in Yokadouma, Eastern Cameroon, to address the growing vulnerability and empowerment needs of local women. Over the years, AAFEBEN has broadened its scope to also address social, environmental and economic issues, now working for the wellbeing of other vulnerable groups, including Indigenous peoples and local communities more broadly, to improve their quality of life and resilience.