Agriculture was a consistent theme throughout Mbacham Itagah's childhood. His father's work as a farmer and a primary school teacher and his mother's as a farmer in their Cameroon hometown inspired Itagah to study environmental science and sustainable agriculture. 

"I love nature and work in the fields of forestry, climate change, community development, and biodiversity conservation," says Itagah, who earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and a master's degree in environmental and natural resource management at the University of Buea and the University of Dschang Cameroon, respectively.

"Bringing to light high-integrity, nature-based carbon projects in the tropics is what I am excited about,"  he adds.

Itagah is a carbon analyst for Revalue Nature, working on the feasibility of carbon market development activities. He is also a program coordinator for the Climate Smart Community Actions (CSCA). The community association works to protect vulnerable habitats and harness the resources needed for sustainable development in the Western Highlands of Cameroon.

Itagah has found the People Course in TFL’s program, which focuses on the social aspects of tropical landscape restoration, particularly beneficial for his work supporting the development of a REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries) project in Tanzania that is helping local communities and the government utilize carbon financing streams to support their livelihoods while conserving the area's Miombo woodland landscape. His role is to ensure that the proposed actions to develop and implement nature-based solutions align with carbon standards, methodological requirements, local laws, and national policies. He believes the People Course will help him incorporate more Indigenous and youth perspectives in his policy work.

"The People Course is very important for me," Itagah says. "How do we engage stakeholders? How do we discuss this with the government? How do we look at the policies? How do we help in policy development? Learning more about how policies are being developed is the next step I'm really looking forward to."