government of Cameroon has worked towards transferring some responsibilities and local resources to the country's councils, making the region's councils a focal point for orientation and management of local development. However, the council personnel have suffered from deficient capacities for the appropriate functioning of council institutions. The Bafut council has just completed a community-driven sustainable development plan with qualitative and quantitative needs of the villages within the council, that would facilitate the proper orientation and management of the development of the council area. Very aware of the limitations in its resources, the Council has been working to build public–private partnerships to be better able to use its resources for local development of the council area in an environmentally sustainable way. In its sustainable development work, the council has strongly partnered with an indigenous Cameroonian NGO, BetterWorld Cameroon (BWC). Mayor Mayor Ngwasoh Abel Langsi, originally a trained educationalist and a science teacher, was elected in July 2007 along with 4 deputy mayors and 35 councillors. His term of office runs up until 2014. The Mayor has demonstrated an interest in pursuing sustainable development in Bafut, working on empowering local Cameroonian youth through the creation of Green Jobs and developing projects such as the Bafut Ecovillage project and the Green Heart of Bafut conceived with Ecovillage Designer Joshua Konkankoh. The latter programme (through its extensive reforestation projects, especially on the upper mountain slopes) has intended to combat severe soil erosion and re-establish degraded water catchments, and thus to protect the huge farmlands located in the lower valleys of Bafut. The newly established council industrial nursery employs local youth to reforest the mountaintops, water catchments, and town streets, additionally aiming to fight the spread of malaria and cholera, as well as to serve as a template for similar projects in the neighbouring communes. Together with Better World Cameroon NGO he also established a climate change and agricultural research unit within the council, to educate farmers and local youth on the most productive and sustainable modern farming techniques. Through Ndanifor Permaculture Demonstration Land Trust in Bawum he is working with Better World Cameroon in using permaculture to develop the future of agriculture in Cameroon into a more constructive, modern, creative and rewarding sector by 2035. He has subsequently joined the World Mayors Council on Climate Change, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, and been hailed by the Cameroon government as a "national green hero".