she/her
Focus Area: Catastrophes, Conservation, & Conflict, Sustainability & Global Environmental Change
Country of Origin: Cameroon
Degree Program: PhD
Entered Program: Fall 2021
Expected Graduation: Spring 2025
Dissertation Topic: Adapting Southern Africa’s Pragmatic Conservationist Approach to the Guinean Forests of West Africa
Research Statement: Africa is not only under-represented in the conservation debate, but the voices from West Africa are nearly inexistent. By 2050, West Africa will be the most populous sub region in Africa (SWAC, 2020) – with a population expected to reach about 800 million, a 99% increase from the 2020 figure (402 million). These demographic changes during the next decades will have an overwhelming impact on forests and forestry in the sub-region. Moreover, the socio-political and institutional environment in West Africa is undergoing significant changes, with a clear trend towards the emergence of more democratic systems of government (UNECA, 2013). As a result, issues such as decentralization and involvement of local communities in resource management are receiving increasing attention (Ribot, 2002). The overall economic performance of the sub region is promising, and 10 out of the region’s 16 countries is covered by forests. However, a number of ongoing threats to biodiversity in the Guinean Forests of West Africa have resulted in the loss of more than 85 percent of the native vegetation cover, and qualify the region as a hotspot (Mittermeier, et al., 2004). Forest-cover reduction will persist in West Africa, and there is no reason not to anticipate any decline in the rate of forest loss.
My research centers on the study of Southern Africa’s pragmatic conservation approach and reflects on improvement and adaptation to the Western African context (Guinean forests) using the sustainable governance approach and Professor Brian Child’s price-proprietorship model as theoretical frameworks. I am equally interested in learning how actors in interdisciplinary fields can leverage technology and indigenous knowledge to enhance rural development, environmental protection, and the sustainable management of natural resources in Africa.
My geographic focus is Southern Africa with emphasis on Zimbabwe (Bubye Valley Conservancy) and Namibia (the works of Professor Morgan Hauptfleish in Etosha National Park and surroundings), with adaptation measures in West Africa’s ‘Upper Guinean Forests’ or ‘Guinean Moist Forests’– which stretches from Guinea in the west, through Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and, marginally, into Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin, where is located the W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP) ecological complex, also of interest to my research.
My interests focus on 1) Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM); 2) Conservation Management Systems (CMS); 3) Dynamics of Green Technology and Policy in Conservation and Development; 4) Rural Peacebuilding Dynamics in Human-Wildlife Conflict; 5) Arts and Indigenous Knowledge in Conservation and Development.
Adviser: Dr. Brian Child
Educational Background
- M.A. in Conflict, Peace and Security, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (K.A.I.P.T.C), 2019
- Certificate of Competence in Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa, University of the Western Cape, 2019
- B.A. in Politics and International Relations, Lancaster University, 2017
Publications
Foyet, M., (2021). Rethinking First Ladyship in Africa: Sustainability from
Another Lens, WACSeries, Issue Paper, Vol. 7, Issue7, West Africa Civil Society Institute, Accra, Ghana.
Foyet, M. (2021). Youth Leadership in the Public Service Sector in Africa:
Opportunities for Engagement?, WACSeries, Issue Paper, Vol. 7, Issue 4, West Africa Civil Society Institute, Accra, Ghana.
Foyet, M. (2021). Youth Leadership and Governance in West Africa, WACSeries, Issue Paper, Vol. 7, Issue 3, West Africa Civil Society Institute, Accra, Ghana.
Foyet, M., (2020). The Role of Civil Society in the Promotion of Peace in West Africa, WACSeries, Issue Paper, Vol. 6, Issue 3, West Africa Civil Society Institute, Accra, Ghana.
M. Foyet, The Use of Term Limits to Enhance Accountable Governance in Africa: Analysis from A Civil Society Activist, WACSI, WACSeries, Issue Paper, Vol. 6, Issue. 2, January 2020, Accra, Ghana.
Commonwealth Correspondent for Youth Voices Their Perspective
Le journal d’une revoltee by Metolo Foyet