Kindly download: The Note Tribute to Dr. Ibrahim Sambo Soulemane

 

 

 

 

It is with great pain and sadness that the Forestry and Environment Training Network of Central Africa (RIFFEAC) and its technical and financial partners have learned of the death of Dr. Ibrahim Sambo soulemane, March 31, 2015 in Yaounde, Cameroon, following a long illness.

 

 

The Chairman of the Board, Mr. Jean-Claude Nguinguiri, described Dr Sambo as an irreplaceable companion who was instrumental at both during creation RIFFEAC in 2001 in Libreville, Gabon and during its growth phase (2011 to date).

 

 

Professor Francis Tarla, the interim coordinator of RIFFEAC who worked with him between 2009 and 2011 for the advancement of RIFFEAC, for his part, described him as a great man of heart, very determined in the spirit that he could see opportunities where others saw obstacles.

 

 

 

 

Dr Sambo was RIFFEAC Regional Coordinator May 2011 to 31 March 2015. During this growth phase, he also coordinated the project for capacity building of members of RIFFEAC for the sustainable management of forest concessions training, funded by ITTO and the Support Project to strengthen the training and employment (PARAFE) in the forest area / environment in Central Africa, funded by the French Agency of Development Agency (AFD).

 

 

The Université Laval team has met for the first time Dr Sambo in 2005 during the first meeting held at the University of Kinshasa between RIFFEAC and representatives of Université Laval made of the Associate Dean. The Kinshasa meeting and the meeting that followed with the FAO Representation in the DRC allowed the FAO Department of Forestry in Rome to fund a study on the revival of forestry education in the DRC.

 

 

The technical report of the FAO co-written in May 2006 by Dr Sambo and retired professor at Université Laval, Jean Tomlinson, was the supporting document to convince the Regional Program of Central and Western Africa (Praco) of the Canadian International Development Agency, merged since March 2013, within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (MAECD) to finance the project to support the natural resources management training in the Congo Basin (FOGRN-BC) from July 2008 to December 2014.

 

 

 

 

The success of the implementation of this project convinced the CBFF to support the project PEFOGRN-BC-Phase I (july 2011-December 2014) in order to expand the model of FOGRN-BC project tested in three representative countries of the Congo Basin (Cameroon, Gabon and DRC) in all 10-member countries of COMIFAC. During the evaluation mission of the phase II by the CBFF Secretariat at the African Development Bank (AfDB), conducted from 11 to 20 March 2015 in Cameroon, Dr Sambo notwithstanding his precarious state of health was able to participate in a few key sessions. That is to say that Dr Sambo worked for RIFFEAC until the last moments of his life. We say a big thank you for all this self-giving for a noble cause that inspired him to see RIFFEAC adequately fulfill its mission of Forestry and Environmental Training Platform in Central Africa.

 

 

To perpetuate the memory of Dr Sambo, a proposal is made to the General Assembly of RIFFEAC to dedicate an annual mobility grant of $ 5,000, called Dr Ibrahim Sambo soulemane, which will be granted by the RFFEAC, to allow a new graduate student selected based on the excellence of its academic record to complete a specialized internship of six months in the subregion in his field of study. We thank the Chairman of the Board of RIFFEAC, Mr Jean-Claude Nguinguiri, Prof Tarla, the Interim Coordinator, Joseph Hommerd and the Chief Accountant of RIFFEAC, Joseph Hommerd, to have read and commented on this Tribute note before its publication.

 

 

Damase Khasa, Professor at the Faculty of Forestry, Geography and Geomatics, Université Laval, Quebec, Canada

 Pctures: Internet

 

 

Kindly download the Note Tribute to Dr. Ibrahim Sambo Soulemane below: