CIFOR has appointed a coordinator for CIFOR’s Central Africa office in Yaounde, Cameroon. The newly created position will be filled by Cyrie Sendashonga, who will commence her new role in February 2006.

CIFOR also has Regional Coordinators overseeing CIFOR’s operations in South/East Africa and West Africa.

Cyrie is CIFOR’s first female Regional Coordinator and arrives at CIFOR with a distinguished background in aid and development management and environmental research. Cyrie holds a PhD in biology from the Free University of Brussels and has worked for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) for the past 13 years. Commencing with UNEP in Nairobi, Cyrie moved to Montreal in 1999 where she led UNEP’s Biosafety Program in the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Cyrie says she thoroughly enjoys the challenge and rewards of her work at UNEP, but feels ready for a change. “I was ready for new excitement and challenges, as well as a change of work environment,” Cyrie said. Originally from Rwanda, Cyrie is keen to return to Africa and contribute to the continent’s development.
“I hope to leverage the experience I have gained at the international level to contribute to the agenda for achieving the Millennium Development Goals on the continent,” Cyrie said.

She says strengthening the Cameroon office’s regional activities will be one of the first items on her agenda when she takes up the position.

“I will try to make the office in Cameroon work more as a regional office. CIFOR is doing great work in Cameroon and it has so much expertise to offer its neighbouring countries. For example, the Congo Basin of Central Africa is an ecosystem of crucial importance and hopefully CIFOR can play a key role in helping to improve its management in a way that benefits all the countries in the region,” Cyrie said.

Cyrie will be CIFOR’s first full-time Regional Coordinator in Cameroon, a position that was carried out by Ousseynou Ndoye in addition to his research role. Ousseynou will now fully concentrate on his research portfolio in Africa and says he looks forward to working closely with Cyrie and having the opportunity to once again pursue his passion, forest research. JR