The first week of May 2017, 25 Master and Doctoral students from the universities of Maroua and Ngaoundéré gathered in Ngaoundéré, Cameroon, for the first research workshop on Coupled Human And Natural Systems (CHANS) to be held in the region. The weeklong gathering, ran by the MORSL research team, was a combination of lectures and group work. It was an inspiring success according to both participants and faculty, and will support the advance of complex systems science in Cameroon and ultimately elsewhere on the African continent. Research on coupled human and natural systems is very relevant to environmental policy in Cameroon.