Happy to be part of the Steemit Family: My Story

Hi, my name is Manka Grace but you can call me Green Grace if you want. I am passionate about the environment, especially wildlife. My passion for wildlife started in 2013 at the Limbe Wildlife Center where I volunteer as a tour guide. At the center, I educated visitors on the importance of wildlife. I also fed the gorillas, chimpanzees, and drills found at the center. After working with animals in captivity I decided to have an experience of what it takes to work with animals in the wild.

My first experience in the wild was in the Tofala Hills Wildlife Sanctuary (THWS). The THWS is one of Cameroon's biodiversity hotspot hosting the Critically Endangered Cross River gorilla and the Nigerian Cameroon chimpanzee. The THWS is managed by the Cameroon government and Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF) (my former place of work). At ERuDeF I worked as a junior wildlife biologist and later as an assistant research officer. As an assistant researcher office, I led the bio-monitoring team to collect data on Gorillas and Chimpanzees every 15 days of each month. During our bio-monitoring tour in the forest, we will occasionally sit under the rainforest canopy and watch chimpanzees and monkeys jump from tree to tree. The sit and watch moments were remarkable moments that will always stay on my mind.

Also as a research assistant, I got the opportunity to conduct research on the largest frog species called the goliath frog. I was part of a team that research on its distribution on one of Cameroon's mountain hosting the largest population in Cameroon. This mountain is called Mt Nlonako found in the Littoral region.

To move another step up the career ladder, I got another job as Content Creator with a organization called The Kedjom-Keku Association (Czech NGO) in August 2018. The Kedjom-Keku Association is conservation NGO working to save the biodiversity of the Bamenda Highlands, especially around the Abongphen Highland forest in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. The main activity of my new job entails writing environmental articles to sensitize the world around us on the environmental hazard the earth is facing and the dangers of human action to the environment and also to train all members of Kedjom-Keku CASUD (Cameroonian branch of the Czech NGO) to increase our awareness-raising effort.

As the content creator for Kedjom-Keku Association, my job entails reading so many scientific and nonscientific articles. Doing this is helping me to identify new research gaps. As an organization, we are working to seek funding to conduct research and fill these gaps. When we must have gotten the funds to carry out the identified research projects, then I am going to continue with my research field of activities again.

I am going to use my experience and knowledge to bring new ideas to add to the conservation effort in Kedjom-Keku and other parts of Bamenda Highlands as well as participating in all conservation activities at the same place.

You can read more of me on @treeplanter’s blog

@manka
content creator

	@kedjom-keku	Conservation Association
	@treeplanter	Fund-raising upvoting bot
	@forestfriendly	Water Saving bees