Denis Jean Sonwa is the Research, Data, and Impact Director at WRI Africa, where he is responsible for research integrity across the continent.

Before WRI, Denis was a Senior scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) based in Cameroon, Africa. His research activities in CIFOR were on Forest and Climate Change responses, taking into consideration Adaptation and Mitigation in Central Africa.

Denis also previously worked with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Cameroon on cocoa agroforest management in forest landscapes of West and Central Africa. He was a visiting professor at ASC-TUFS (African Studies Center—Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) in Tokyo (Japan). Denis was trained (undergraduate studies and master's degrees) at the University of Yaoundé, defended his Ph.D. at the University of Bonn, and obtained his training certificate from the University of California Berkeley.

Trained as Ecologist Denis enjoys working in multidisciplinary contexts. He has authored and co-authored many publications including the recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) special report on climate change and Land Degradation.