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<\/p>\nPrimatologist from Cameroon accepts business excellence award for his Iqaluit janitorial company<\/p>\n
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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)<\/p>\n
Barren-ground caribou on Baffin Island and lowland gorillas in the Republic of Cameroon share an ally in Denis Ndeloh.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He does all of this while moonlighting as founding owner of Iqaluit-based janitorial company Malvina Cleaning and Services Inc.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of do a lot of things,\u201d Ndeloh said in an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the work that we do in Cameroon is really inspired by the work that we do here in Nunavut. It\u2019s borrowing the same philosophy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is about respecting the rights of Indigenous people and moving toward their own self-determination.\u201d<\/p>\n Both organizations are guided by the principle Ndeloh calls \u201cbiosynergy.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea is to approach environmental problems from a holistic view that doesn\u2019t separate humans from the ecosystem.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do community-based monitoring in Cameroon that\u2019s actually borrowing from the programs of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ndeloh said he first developed his appreciation for ecology and humanity as a child growing up in Cameroon in west central Africa.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up in poverty,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no shame in saying that.\u201d<\/p>\n His education was rich, however, as he learned about the land and its wildlife from his late father Sam Ndeloh.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up inspired by the stories that my father, who was a hunter, would tell us about chimpanzees in the forest,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n Ndeloh attended Cameroon\u2019s 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\u2019s degree and PhD in human ecology from the Free University of Brussels.<\/p>\n Then Ndeloh studied to become one of Cameroon\u2019s first primatologists. In this pursuit, he met several times with the late Jane Goodall, perhaps the world\u2019s best-known primatologist, famous for her pioneering work with chimpanzees in Tanzania.<\/p>\n He described two values he learned from Goodall that he still carries with him throughout his career: \u201cSheer stubbornness and the pristine love of nature.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770713368_348_A-14680.95.png\" "\\"\\"")
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