Award winning climate activist Dr Cécile Ndjebet visits Wakehurst
This week, Wakehurst were delighted to welcome the 17th winner of the Kew International Medal, Dr Cécile Ndjebet, to Sussex. Dr Ndjebet is a Cameroonian activist and social forester, and has received this award in recognition of her long career campaigning for the involvement of women in forest management and their right to forested lands and resources. Previous winners of the Kew International Medal include David Attenborough and former Irish President Mary Robinson.
On Tuesday, she spent the morning with a local Sussex school Eco Club, counting pollinators on Wakehurst's Trees for Bees trail and engaging in a discussion about how young people could drive change in their schools and communities. Dr Ndjebet then had a tour of the Wakehurst landscape from Head of Landscape and Horticulture Iain Parkinson, and visited the Millennium Seed Bank.
Dr Ndjebet said of her trip to Wakehurst: "I was very lucky to visit Wakehurst and learned so much during my visit. I was very pleased to meet with a group of young people while I was there and was inspired by the work they are doing in the landscape with them. The way they are documenting and researching nature is very important and something I will take back to my country. I also visited the Millenium Seed Bank and met with scientists who shared information with me that I will be able to share with the women and communities I work with who are urgently trying to restore their lands with forests.
"We can see the effects of climate change and we need the kinds of solutions that are being developed by people here at Kew, Wakehurst and in the MSB."
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