Primatologist from Cameroon accepts business excellence award for his Iqaluit janitorial company
Denis Ndeloh, left, visits a community member at a tree-planting project established as part of the Community-Based Biosynergy Management charitable foundation. (Photo courtesy of Denis Ndeloh)
Barren-ground caribou on Baffin Island and lowland gorillas in the Republic of Cameroon share an ally in Denis Ndeloh.
The 46-year-old father of three is the director of wildlife with the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board. But his focus on environmental stewardship and Indigenous self-determination spans two continents.
Ndeloh incorporated Community-Based Biosynergy Management, a Canadian charitable foundation that partners with the Baka people in the rainforests of southeastern Cameroon to preserve habitat and sustain Indigenous culture, in 2022.
He does all of this while moonlighting as founding owner of Iqaluit-based janitorial company Malvina Cleaning and Services Inc.
“I kind of do a lot of things,” Ndeloh said in an interview.
“Some of the work that we do in Cameroon is really inspired by the work that we do here in Nunavut. It’s borrowing the same philosophy,” he said.
“It is about respecting the rights of Indigenous people and moving toward their own self-determination.”
Both organizations are guided by the principle Ndeloh calls “biosynergy.”
The idea is to approach environmental problems from a holistic view that doesn’t separate humans from the ecosystem.
“We do community-based monitoring in Cameroon that’s actually borrowing from the programs of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board,” he said.
Ndeloh said he first developed his appreciation for ecology and humanity as a child growing up in Cameroon in west central Africa.
“I grew up in poverty,” he said. “There’s no shame in saying that.”
His education was rich, however, as he learned about the land and its wildlife from his late father Sam Ndeloh.
“I grew up inspired by the stories that my father, who was a hunter, would tell us about chimpanzees in the forest,” he recalled.
Ndeloh attended Cameroon’s University of Buea to pursue studies in geography and environmental sciences. A full academic scholarship allowed him to journey to Belgium, where he completed a master’s degree and PhD in human ecology from the Free University of Brussels.
Then Ndeloh studied to become one of Cameroon’s first primatologists. In this pursuit, he met several times with the late Jane Goodall, perhaps the world’s best-known primatologist, famous for her pioneering work with chimpanzees in Tanzania.
He described two values he learned from Goodall that he still carries with him throughout his career: “Sheer stubbornness and the pristine love of nature.”
That stubbornness continues to drive Ndeloh. Seven years ago, he established Malvina Cleaning and Services Inc. in his “spare time.”
Denis Ndeloh, second from right, celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the Jane Goodall Institute in Amsterdam, Netherlands in May 2023. Goodall stands in the centre, wearing white pants, accompanied by staff from the organization. (Photo courtesy of Denis Ndeloh)
Last week, the entrepreneur accepted the Sankofa Business Excellence Award from the Nunavut Black History Society, in recognition of employing seven Iqalummiut and contributing to the economy with integrity.
His approach to business, like his approach to ecology, maintains one eye on Africa.
“One of the reasons we’re in business is because every African has 1,000 mouths to feed in the continent,” he said.
“That is the reason we work hard — so that we can change not only our own lives, but the lives of others.”