Nigeria is a huge and fascinating country, with the vibrant culture and places to visit. If you would like to give back there are lots of ways to help, including working with animals, nature and communities.
Helping Wildlife & Conservation
Some conservation charities operate in Cross River State, south-eastern Nigeria, the location of the oldest and most biodiverse rainforests in Africa. Over 60% of the country’s endangered plant and animal species occur here. This includes 132 tree species listed by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre as globally threatened. It is also a centre of endemism for birds and amphibians, and harbours the highest density of butterfly species (>1,000) in Africa.
Most importantly for conservation work, Cross River has the highest diversity of primates (18 species) recorded anywhere in Africa, including the critically endangered Cross River Gorilla, and the most endangered of the chimpanzee subspecies.
However, this biodiversity jewel is under the most severe of threats. Nigeria has the world’s highest rate of deforestation of primary forests. According to FAO, Nigeria lost 56% of its remaining forest between 2000-2005, and current deforestation is proceeding at more than 3% per year. If environmental degradation in Nigeria continues at this pace, the consequences will be disastrous for its unique wildlife.
Approximately 70% of rainforest community inhabitants are entirely reliant on the forest for their livelihoods, food, shelter and medicines, and the threat to their future is no less than for wildlife. With the majority earning less than $300 a year, through slash and burn farming and logging they are destroying the very forests on which their lives depend, often unaware of the disastrous consequences, or the fact that there are alternatives.
Unless strategies are put in place to educate the public on the importance and advantages of conservation, build the capacity of those charged with protecting the environment and find financially viable alternatives to forest exploitation, the survival potential of the Cross River State rainforest in the next thirty years is very low. If action is not taken and the forests are lost, previously self-sufficient people will migrate to urban areas looking for work, squatter communities will multiply, and poverty, disease and hunger will soar. The State will not only have lost a huge irreplaceable biological treasure, but will also be facing a humanitarian crisis.
This is where local and international organisations are using expertise in environmental conservation, specialisation in primates, and proven track record, and leading the effort to ensure that the forests of Cross River are conserved into the future for its people and its primates.
Primate Rehabilitation
Organisations provide sanctuary for rescued monkeys (victims of the bush-meat trade) of 6 native monkey species (Preuss’s Guenon, Putty nosed Guenon, Mona Monkey, Sclater’s Guenon, Red Capped Mangabey, Red Eared Guenon), with over 170 individuals currently in captive care as part of a successful Primate Rehabilitation Programme. There is the only captive breeding group of Sclater’s guenons, and the largest captive group of Red-capped mangabeys, in the world. Check for organisations that are a member of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) and as such abide by PASA’s code of ethics and behaviour, including strict quarantine protocol.
The keeping of monkeys as pets and the hunting of monkeys are both banned by law in Nigeria, but enforcement agencies have no incentive to uphold these rules without both direct encouragement and an option of sanctuary for confiscated animals.
NGO’s provides both of these support elements to great effect in Cross River State. As a consequence we are able to work side by side with the State authorities to make confiscations and to drive home the message of compliance with the law. Whilst in care, these rescued primates serve as ambassadors for their kind, changing the attitudes to conservation of the over 20,000 people a year who visit them at the sanctuary and take part in environmental education programmes.
Once rehabilitated, a number of these animals are also anticipated to be candidates for future release into protected community forest as part of our goal to re-establish the full primate community at this site. All of these elements mean that the primates in our care have a very significant positive impact on protection of primates in the wild in Cross River State.
Whilst wildlife conservation is one of the most important aspects of work being done in Nigeroa, it is also sadly the hardest to fund. If you would like to help, but can’t actually travel to Nigeria, please consider contributing towards primate appeals or making a general donation.