Comité de pilotage

Wilfried Pokam Mba est enseignant de physique et chercheur à l’Université de Yaoundé I au Cameroun. Modélisateur climatique, il se concentre sur la variabilité et les changements climatiques en Afrique centrale et a publié plus de 50 articles scientifiques et chapitres de livres. Il était auteur principal du chapitre sur les changements du cycle de l’eau du sixième rapport du Groupe Intergouvernemental des Experts sur l’évolution du Climat. Il a également contribué au chapitre sur l’Afrique du sixième rapport d’évaluation. Pokam est membre du Groupe d’experts sur l’évolution du climat en Afrique centrale (GEAC), de l’Initiative Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment et du Projet de comparaison des modèles couplés (CMIP).

Lucie TEMGOUA est Maître de Conférences à la Faculté d’Agronomie et des Sciences Agricoles de l’Université de Dschang. Ses activités de recherche se focalisent sur les forêts d’Afrique centrale. elle occupe le poste de secrétaire permanent du centre d’études et de recherches en agronomie et biodiversité. Forestière de formation, ses activités de recherche dans le domaine de l’aménagement des écosystèmes forestiers et agroforestiers sont organisées autour de l’analyse de la dynamique de la biodiversité et des services écosystémiques dans les paysages forestiers anthropisés. Ses recherches portent également sur le changement climatique et notamment sur la contribution des systèmes agroforestiers à l’atténuation mais aussi à l’adaptation des agriculteurs. Elle est co-auteure d’une trentaine d’articles scientifiques.

Cyriaque-Rufin Nguimalet is Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography at the University of Bangui, Central African Republic. His research focuses on hydrology and water resources, climate change and climate change adaptation, with peer-reviewed scientific papers published in international journals. His most recent publications focus on annual and multi-annual rainfall-discharge dynamics into catchments in the Northern Congo Basin, flood hazard occurrence, disaster risk reduction and the implications of low-flow regimes on people in the region. Since 2022 he has been a member of the Central African Group of Experts of Climate Change (GEAC).

Lydie-Stella Koutika is Director of Research at the Republic of Congo’s Centre for Plantations Research. She is a soil scientist with over 30 years of experience in applied research on agroecosystems and environment. Her research focuses on soil health and degradation processes to fight food insecurity and foster climate change mitigation and adaptation. She has published > 50 peer-reviewed journal papers and book chapters. She has won many awards, including the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Regional Scientific Award for Women (2014), the World Academy of Science Al-Kharafi Prize (2018) and UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Glinka World Soil Prize (2021). She is strongly dedicated to the development of Africa.

Jean Joël Loumeto est enseignant-chercheur spécialiste d’écologie végétale à l’université Marien N’GOUABI, Brazzaville et responsable du Laboratoire de Biodiversité, Gestion des Ecosystèmes et Environnement. Il est titulaire de deux doctorats en écologie obtenus en France en 1986 et 2002. Il a publié de nombreux ouvrages sur ces sujets, en particulier sur l’Afrique centrale. Il est l’ancien chef du département de biologie et physiologie végétales. Il est conseiller du gouvernement de la République du Congo en matière de développement durable et des changements climatiques. Il est également vice-président de l’Association Congolaise pour l’Évaluation Environnementale (ACEE) et Président de la Sous-Commission Environnement du Diocèse de Brazzaville.

Teodyl Nkuintchua is the Congo Basin Strategy and Engagement Leader for the World Resources Institute. He is an international development professional with over 13 years of experience in the field of natural resources management and organisational development and leadership. He is responsible for advancing the WRI’s mission in the Congo basin by engaging with key stakeholders, from the most vulnerable groups through to influential decision makers. Teodyl has previously worked at the Field Legality Advisory Group in Yaoundé and at the Centre for International Development and Training at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He is dedicated to capacity development initiatives for civil society organizations in Africa.

Michel Bisa Kibul est professeur de Géographie politique et des Sciences politiques à l’Université de Kinshasa. Il est le Secrétaire scientifique de l’Observatoire de la Gouvernance en RDC et le Secrétaire général académique de l’Université Panafricaine de Gouvernance et Innovations. Il est titulaire d’un doctorat en sciences politiques et mène des recherches sur la gouvernance des terres et des ressources naturelles, la migration et la sociologie des conflits, la résilience des communautés, la construction de la paix et les impacts sociaux du changement climatique, à l’aide de recherches qualitatives et quantitatives sur le terrain. Il a publié plus d’une vingtaine d’études évaluées par des pairs sur la géographie politique de l’Afrique centrale.

Corneille Ewango is Professor of Tropical Forest Ecology and Management at the University of Kisangani, DRC. He was Scientific Director of the Centre de Formation et de Recherche en Conservation Forestière (CEFRECOF), a research and training centre in the Ituri Forest (2003-2006 and 2012-2017). He led the DRC team who mapped the central Congo peatlands, and is Project Scientist for the DRC Peatlands Management Unit and National Forest Inventories, providing scientific and technical support to government. He has published over 100 scientific papers and is a member of the Central African Group of Experts of Climate Change (GEAC). He is a recipient of the prestigious Goldman Environment Prize (2005).

Bila-Isia Inogwabini is Professor of Biodiversity at the Catholic University of Congo, in Kinshasa. He is Visiting Scholar at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at Uppsala. Inogwabini has a BSc in Physics, MSc in Ecology, MA in Advanced Applied Ethics and a PhD in Biodiversity Science. He has published several dozen scientific papers, book chapters and books. His work led to the creation of two new protected areas, the Ngiri Triangle and the Tumba-Lediima Nature Reserves, and the classification of the Ramsar site Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe. He is the recipient of the UNESCO Young Scholar Award (2006) and the National Geographic Leadership in Conservation in Africa (2007).

Raphael Tshimanga is Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Kinshasa, DRC. He is Director of the School of Water and the Congo Basin Water Resources Research Center (CRREBaC, www.crrebac.org). He co-developed the Congo Basin Catchment Information System, a water resources management tool, and is author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. His is Co-Chair of CBSI and President of the Central African Group of Experts of Climate Change (GEAC). Currently he is also a Research Fellow under the Feature African Independent Research (FLAIR) programme of the UK Royal Society and African Academy of Science.

Maximiliano Fero Meñe is Professor of Botany and Dean of the National University of Equatorial Guinea, since 2014. He holds two Masters, one in Conservation Biology (2009) and the second in Nature Management and Conservation (2009), as well as a PhD in Biology (2012). He has published widely on botany and the impacts of hunting in tropical forests. As Dean he manages aspects of policy, training, and advocacy for research, including linking the university to respected research groups at the regional and international levels. He is a member of the “Flora of Equatorial Guinea” project, contributing to the editing of a number of volumes, checklists and revisions of the local flora.

Gaspard Abitsi is Country Director of Wildlife Conservation Society Gabon. He is a conservation practitioner with almost twenty years’ experience working in partnership with the private sector, government representatives and the local community in Gabon. He is interested in understanding how various land use strategies, such as logging, mining, fishing, and protected area management, differentially impact wildlife, habitats, and local community livelihoods. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for the Tri-National Sangha, Gabon’s national parks service Management Committee, and Congo Basin Forest Partnerships as co-leader for the College of International NGOs.

Alfred Ngomanda est Commissaire Général du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique (CENAREST) et professeur d’écologie forestière à l’Institut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale (IRET). Ses thématiques de recherche sont focalisées sur la compréhension des effets des changements environnementaux (passés, présents et futurs), d’origine naturelle ou anthropique, sur l’écologie et la biodiversité végétale des forêts du bassin du Congo. Il a publié plus de 50 articles scientifiques évalués par des pairs sur les forêts tropicales d’Afrique centrale. Il enseigne dans différentes universités et grandes écoles supérieures au Gabon (Université de Masuku et École nationale des eaux et forêts) et en Afrique centrale (Université de Kinshasa-ERAIFT), afin de renforcer les capacités dans la région.

Georges-Noel Longandjo is Senior Lecturer at Institut Supérieur des Techniques Appliquées and Research Fellow at University of Cape Town. Trained as a physicist, his research addresses understanding the climate dynamics over central and southern Africa. He has published several peer-reviewed scientific papers in internationally leading journals. He has more than ten years of experience as a Research Scientist and a Remote Sensing/GIS professional. He is also involved in capacity building, training and institutional development. He was a contributing author on the 2021 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on “Weather and Climate Extreme Events in a Changing Climate”.

Carlos Nobre is a Brazilian Earth System scientist with a PhD in Meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. Nobre’s work focuses on the Amazon and its impacts on the Earth system, publishing over 200 scientific papers. He chaired the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA). He was National Secretary for Research and Development Policies at the Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation of Brazil and President of Brazil’s Agency for Post-Graduate Education (CAPES). He has been a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He is honoured as a foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.

Gilvan Sampaio is the Earth Sciences General Coordinator at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), where he has been for 28 years. His areas of expertise are biosphere-atmosphere interactions, climate modelling and paleoclimatology, publishing over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers. From 2019 to 2020 he was the General Coordinator of the Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies (CWPCP) at INPE, and before that head of the Operations Division (2016-2019). From 2009 to 2016 he was head of the Group of Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions at the Earth System Science Centre at INPE.

Jean-Jacques Braun a Senior Scientist at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development. He is a geochemist and a specialist in integrated studies of the tropical Critical Zone, including initiating an observatory in Cameroon. He has published over 150 scientific studies. He has more than 25 years of experience in field studies, research and development projects, and team management. He co-manages the International Joint Laboratory « Dynamics of Central African forest ecosystems in a context of global change », and leads the development of the Centre in Environmental Biogeosciences, Cameroon. He leads the project “Global change impact on vulnerable carbon reservoirs” focused on the Ogooué river basin.

Symphorien Ongolo est chargé de recherche à l’Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) depuis décembre 2020. Il est politologue et ses recherches portent sur les dynamiques de pouvoir, liens entre mondialisation et gouvernance des ressources naturelles dans les pays du Sud et en Afrique en particulier. Il a publié de nombreux ouvrages sur ces sujets, en particulier sur l’Afrique centrale. Avant de rejoindre l’IRD, il a travaillé comme chercheur postdoctorant Alexander von Humboldt au sein de la chaire « Politiques forestières et de conservation de la nature » à l’université de Göttingen (Allemagne). Il est titulaire d’un doctorat en sciences politiques de l’École polytechnique fédérale de Zurich (ETH).

Simon Lewis is Professor of Global Change Science at both University College London and the University of Leeds. He is author of over 160 scientific publications on how humans are changing the Earth system, with major discoveries including quantifying the globally significant carbon sink in intact tropical forests, including the first evidence from the Congo Basin, and mapping the world’s largest tropical peatland complex in the heart of the Congo Basin. He co-founded and co-manages the African Tropical Rainforest Observatory, the global data repository and management tool forestplot.net, and the CongoPeat network. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2023.

Nicola Anthony is Professor and endowed Chair in Wildlife Sustainability at the University of New Orleans. Her focus is on the conservation genetics and evolutionary diversification of central African tropical forest vertebrates. She has worked for over 20 years with the Université des Sciences et Techniques de Masuku (UTSM) in Gabon and in two international partnerships (CAB-Alliance and ECOTROP) engaging in conservation research, education and scientific training. She has delivered professional development workshops and international field schools that partnered students from the US and Gabon on joint research projects. She is committed to developing ways to promote biodiversity capacity building in the Central African region.

Michael Keller is a Senior Scientist with the US Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry and Distinguished Visiting Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has published over 200 scientific papers. He was the US scientific leader for the Large-Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) for ten years, followed by being Project Scientist for the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) its guiding the scientific development of the observatory, and then technical leader of the US-Brazilian Sustainable Landscapes Program. Keller is honoured as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.

Emma Torres is Vice-President for the Americas and Head of the New York office of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) led by Professor Jeffrey Sachs. SDSN is a global network of more than 1,700 universities and knowledge institutions committed to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other agreements such as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. An economist by training, she also serves as Strategic Coordinator of the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA), composed of more than 250 Scientists, which issued its report on the State of the Amazon at COP 26 in November 2021.