Hélène Mbaididje

Hélène is part of the Conservation and Land Use team, where, aside from supporting High Conservation Value / High Carbon Stock work, she is involved in multi-stakeholder facilitation processes in West and Central Africa and company collaboration at a landscape level for multiple commodities.

Before joining Proforest, she conducted research in Colombia, trying to understand the pertinency of transnationally funded programmes to stop deforestation in the Amazon and their impact on indigenous communities. She also has field experience in Thailand, Ecuador and Senegal where she worked with smallholders on projects relating to participatory land-use mapping, biodiversity monitoring and food security project evaluation. Helene has knowledge of GIS and spatial data analysis and is interested in issues surrounding indigenous peoples and local communities’ rights, climate adaptation, sustainable resource management and livelihoods. Hélène holds an MSc in Environment and Development from the University of Copenhagen, and undergraduate degrees in Ecology and Environment from McGill University and the University of Montreal. She speaks French, English and Spanish.