‘Biggest cause of deforestation in Nigeria is small-scale farming’

Andrew Dunn is the Country Director, Wildlife Conservation Society, Nigeria. He spoke with CHINEDUM UWAEGBULAM on the rising demand for wildlife products globally and challenges of logging in the Niger Delta region.

Major watershed communities have been neglected and abandoned. How has this impacted on conservation? How do we ensure long-term management of these areas?
Watershed communities surrounding Cross River National Park, Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary and the Mbe Mountains may have been neglected but they have certainly not been abandoned.  A new United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Project ‘Watershed Protection for Safe and Sustainable Water Supply’ aims to increase water security and resilience of 137 communities and ecosystems that depend upon the Cross River Watershed in Cross River State and the Pai River Watershed in Bauchi State.

The project intends to improve availability of safe drinking water and gender-responsive sanitation facilities; ensuring that local communities and civil society organisations are engaged in the management of their natural resources and watersheds; providing improved opportunities for economically viable and sustainable livelihoods; and ensuring that protected areas serve as anchor institutions that maintain critical ecosystem services.

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has been working in both landscapes for more than 20 years, recognising that successful conservation needs the support of local communities. Long-term management of these watersheds should be based around strengthening existing protected areas such as Cross River National Park and Yankari Game Reserve, as well as developing watershed management plans with communities living on the edge of these protected areas.

Nigerian forests are being depleted yearly through logging, how massive is this trend? How do we ensure sustainable management of forests and benefits for the communities?
Logging has always been a threat to the remaining forests of Cross River State, as well as other areas in Nigeria.  Much of the lucrative logging in Cross River involves the logging of ebony for the export market.  In recent years, logging has increased dramatically – often backed by powerful local politicians, it has become a free for all and the rule of law has broken down.  The logging ban in Cross River State disenfranchised local communities and the Cross River State Forestry Commission has been unable to do anything at all, standing by while the state is looted.

We need to lift the logging ban in the state and allow local communities better control of their forests.  At the same time, we need to revitalise the moribund Cross River State Forestry Commission and improve the funding of Cross River National Park.  But logging isn’t the biggest threat to the forests of Cross River State and Nigeria.

The biggest cause of deforestation in Nigeria is small-scale farming – clearing forest to plant bananas, plantains, and cocoa. Cocoa is the major cause of deforestation in Cross River State.  WCS is working with more than 1,000 cocoa farmers in Cross River State to improve the sustainability of cocoa production to reduce rates of forest loss and protect local watersheds and wildlife.

Kidnapping and insecurity has been major threat to conservation activities in Northern Nigeria. How has this affected conservation of endangered species in the country?
Yes, kidnapping and insecurity has affected our work around Yankari Game Reserve in the last year, and it became too dangerous to visit certain communities.  However, we have always work closely with local security agencies and the situation has improved in recent months.  Kidnapping and insecurity were also a problem earlier this year in Cross River State.  Until kidnapping and security issues are addressed it is difficult to persuade tourists to visit our national parks, and revenue generation opportunities are therefore limited.

Nigeria is home to endangered species, what level of conservation education is in place to ensure change on behaviour and attitude in the communities harbouring the species?
Nigeria has already lost a number of iconic species including the giraffe, rhinoceros, and wild dog.  WCS is determined to ensure that species such as gorillas, elephants, lions and chimpanzees, are fully protected.  The key to protecting such species is by ensuring that we develop wildlife champions for the future, so that more people are committed to ensuring that Nigeria’s endangered species don’t go extinct.  In Cross River State, we have helped to establish more than 200 conservation clubs in local schools and this year, we have started establishing such clubs around Yankari Game Reserve in Bauchi State.  We also have a weekly radio drama programme in Cross River and extending that to Bauchi State later this year.

There is evidence that behaviour and attitudes in some of the communities in which we work is slowly changing.  When a Cross River gorilla recently left the confines of Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary and was seen close to local farms, his presence was tolerated and eventually, he returned to the sanctuary after a few days.  In the past, the gorilla would have been quickly killed, but now more people support conservation and there is greater tolerance.

There has been rapidly expanding demand for a variety of wildlife products globally, how has this affected illegal wildlife trade in Nigeria?
Nigeria has become a global hub for illegal wildlife trade: pangolin scales and elephant ivory are trafficked into Nigeria from central Africa where they are stockpiled and then loaded onto containers to be shipped out – often to China or Vietnam.  Nigeria is also heavily involved in the export of rosewood and ebony.

Nigeria and Cameroon share conservation boundaries, what is being done to check illegal wildlife trafficking in the area?
We are currently working with colleagues in Cameroon to support the signing of a transboundary Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Nigeria and Cameroon.  In the longer-term, we are working to develop a Transboundary World Heritage Site between Cross River National Park and Takamanda National Park and Korup National Park in Cameroon.  We have also been helping to train officials from National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and Customs to combat illegal wildlife trade in the border area.

WCS has been in Nigeria over two decades, what have been the challenges and achievements?
WCS is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organisation established in 1895 that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity.

With more than a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, presence in more than 60 nations and experience helping to establish over 350 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding, and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities.  Working with local communities and organisations, that knowledge is applied to address species, habitat, and ecosystem management issues critical to improving the quality of life of poor rural people whose livelihoods depend on the direct utilisation of natural resources.

WCS has been supporting conservation and conservation-related research in Nigeria since 1996 and has been officially registered with the Government of Nigeria through the Ministry of Budget and National Planning since 2007.  Our key activities are to strengthen law enforcement and monitoring of existing protected areas; promote conservation education and awareness in local communities; provide support for sustainable livelihoods in communities surrounding protected areas; tackling the illegal wildlife trade and promoting transboundary conservation between Nigeria and Cameroon.

There are many challenges to conservation in Nigeria and they are growing.  For example the greatest threat to Nigeria’s remaining elephants is not poaching for ivory, but human-elephant conflict caused when elephants raid local farms.  Another growing problem is illegal livestock grazing inside protected areas, a situation exacerbated by the loss of grazing reserves and traditional stock routes.

Despite the challenges there is hope for the future: we have a strong network of national parks in the country, although they need more support, and there is growing interest in conservation in Nigeria, particularly from young people.

In Nigeria, WCS has made a number of significant achievements over the past 20 years.  Our main achievement has been to save Cross River gorillas from extinction by helping to protect Cross River National Park, Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Mbe Mountains, working together with local communities and long-term partners such as the National Park Service and the Conservation Association of the Mbe Mountains.  WCS helped support the creation of the Mbe Mountains Community Wildlife Sanctuary in 2007.  In Yankari Game Reserve, our efforts have ensured the continued survival of Nigeria’s largest elephant population – which is likely to have gone extinct without our support.