Forest protection and sustainable development in Nigeria are showing results

Rare forest elephant spotted in the Iko Esai community forest

The Iko Esai community forest in south-eastern Nigeria is mostly covered with tropical primary rainforest and forms an important buffer zone for the transboundary Cross River National Park. The community forest is home to a wide variety of species, especially primates such as wet-nosed monkeys and drills, but also rare great apes such as chimpanzees and the endemic Cross River gorilla. Other inhabitants include mammals such as buffaloes, and also approximately 350 bird species. In 2025, African forest elephants were once again recorded in the area.

In addition, the community forest provides livelihoods for about 12,000 people in the remote and rural region. This entails severe anthropogenic pressures: overexploitation and deforestation endanger the habitat for many animal species and reduce income opportunities for people in the long term.

NABU has therefore launched a project to protect these extraordinary forests together with local community representatives. The project is based on the needs of the local communities and is implemented in cooperation with our partner organisation "Nigerian Conservation Foundation".

What is a community forest?

A community forest is a forest area that is jointly managed and sustainably used by the local population. The residents not only benefit from the forest and its resources, but also act as its guardians: together they decide on conservation measures, permitted uses and reforestation activities. In doing so, they assume – comparable to the work of a forester or ranger – responsibility for the protection, care and sustainable development of their forest. Community forests also guarantee local people long-term use rights, alongside their responsibility for managing and protecting these areas.

In Nigeria, as in the project area of Iko Esai, this model helps to preserve the unique biological diversity of the forest. It safeguards and creates self-sufficiency and income opportunities for local communities, for example through the sustainable use of forest products or ecotourism. In this way, the community forest strengthens local responsibility and ownership, links nature conservation with regional development and ensures the long-term protection of valuable ecosystems.

Our commitment to the forest and people of Iko Esai

Our approach: Together with local forest communities, we establish forest management structures, strengthen knowledge and awareness, and promote nature-friendly land and forest use that provides sustainable local incomes.

Our work in Iko Esai is built on four key pillars:

• supporting sustainable forest management through community forest representatives;
• promoting improved and sustainable farming practices to increase local farmers’ incomes;
• developing alternative sources of income from forest products;
• and training local eco-guards to enforce community forest protection statutes.

The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) is one of Nigeria’s leading non-governmental organizations dedicated to conserving nature and its resources, with the goal of improving the quality of life for people in Nigeria today and for future generations. NABU and NCF are long-standing partners within the BirdLife International network and share the same values and objectives. NCF implements development and conservation projects across all geopolitical zones of the country.

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