Some companies have attracted the attention of small communities who value the commitment they attach to their social responsibility actions.

“We want to encourage companies to comply with the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) principles which are in vogue in the corporate world today,” says Louis Nkembi, CEO of the Environment and Rural Development Foundation, ERUDEF.

Nkembi was speaking at the launch of the ERuDeF Green Corporate Leaders Award recently held at Hotel Carlos in Buea.

The occasion also featured an annual dinner to celebrate achievements the organisation recorded in 2014. It was an opportunity for staff to also honour their CEO.

Nkembi noted that the Green Corporate Leaders Award is to promote compliance of companies in Cameroon to CSR principles.

“It aims to encourage business corporations to preserve the environment, which they degrade through commercial and industrial actions,” Nkembi said in a press release.

The ERuDeF CEO explained that the Award will be an annual event that will help to bring together business executives to celebrate with the award-winning companies as ERuDeF’s contribution to corporate social responsibility principles.

Other programmes the conservation NGO launched this year include Smartphone Monitoring, Forest Garden System and the Friends of ERuDeF Initiative.

The ERuDeF Forest Garden programme is designated to economically empower resource-poor farmers through the development of forest-based economic value chains starting from soil health improvement.

It aims to support second generation family farms as ERUDEF’s contribution to the current Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development policy to family farms.

As concerns the Smartphone Monitoring programme, Nkembi said the main objective is to increase the quality and the exactness of data collected across all ERuDeF’s programmes as a means to ensure transparency and accountability among workers.

Meanwhile, the Friends of ERuDeF Initiatives will support people suffering from social deprivation and living in areas where ERUDEF operates such as orphans, prisoners, the sick and the handicapped through voluntary and public generated donations.

After receiving gifts from his staff, Nkembi challenged them to increase their output as a means to take the organisation to another level.

The CEO equally used the occasion to disclose some of the achievements of the organisation since its creation in 1999.

He said it is the organisation’s action that led to the creation of the Tofala Wildlife Sanctuary in 2014, saying it was a milestone achievement.

He added that ERuDeF looks into the future for greater achievements that will haul it into the international level as the leading conservation NGO in Africa.

Created in 1999, the main objective of ERuDeF is to work to protect Cameroon’s most valuable biological and land resources while improving on the quality of human lives by conserving wildlife and protecting fragile landscapes through research, training, education and community engagements.

The launching ceremony was attended by the South West Regional Delegate of Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development, partners of ERuDeF, a cross-section of ERuDeF staff and some leaders in conservation.