Editor’s note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series dedicated to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet and their solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to promote awareness and education on key sustainability issues and inspire positive action.
Deep in the swampy forests of the Niger Delta lives a monkey that was unknown to science until 1993. Within 20 years of its discovery, approximately 90% of its population was extinct.
The red colobus of the Niger Delta, with its striking black, orange and white fur, familiar to forest dwellers, was already rare when it was first recorded by researchers, with an estimated 10,000 monkeys living in the region. However, by 2010, due to habitat loss due to hunting, logging, oil extraction roads and canals, it was ranked as the world’s most endangered primate.
When she first visited the area in 2013, Nigerian conservationist Rachel Ikeme knew she had to act quickly to save the monkeys. Endemic to Nigeria, the surviving populations have retreated to fragmented habitats scattered over 77 square miles of southern Nigeria’s vast Niger Delta region.
Spanning 27,000 square miles, this ancestral landscape includes Africa’s second-largest wetland forest, the world’s third-largest mangrove forest, and significant coral reef and marine ecosystems, once a free-roaming playground for primates.
At first, Ikeme was reluctant to involve local people.
“In my line of work, I’ve always had the impression that I have a responsibility to the community,” Ikeme told CNN. “They’re the culprits, they’re the problem for the natural environment. They’re the ones hunting[animals]to extinction, they’re the ones driving deforestation.”
With no other options in sight, Ikeme decided to take the plunge. She launched a community-led conservation program, the South West/Niger Delta Forest Project (SWNDFP), and visited Apoi Creek Forest to meet with local people. She taught them about conservation, animal needs, and data collection, and by 2021 they successfully established a protected area covering 2,500 acres of surrounding forest policed and protected by the local Apoi community.
Red colobus in the Niger Delta were “on the verge of extinction,” Ikeme recalls. “But as I tell you today, we have records of four groups thriving, suckling and nurturing their babies. They are repopulating where protected areas have been created, where habitat restoration is underway, and where forests are currently being restored.”
At one time, the population was thought to have fallen to 200, but it is estimated that it has doubled since the system was established. This is a success for Ikeme, who never expected this initial effort to become a 10-year community-based project.
Over the years, SWNDFP’s reach has expanded far beyond the Apoi Creek Forest and community, and it now protects more than 20,000 acres of forest and at least 16 endangered species, according to SWNDFP. “The only way these monkeys have a long-term future is if we expand to other areas around them,” Ikeme explained.
Earlier this year, the Rolex Award winner took its mission a step further by establishing Nigeria’s first locally managed waters in the Kingdom of Folopa Middleton, a coastal community along the Atlantic Ocean.
Located in the heart of the Niger Delta, the region’s coast has changed dramatically in recent decades. Sharks, dolphins, sea turtles and schools of fish were once common sightings, but these numbers have now declined. Aging equipment, sabotage by armed groups, and oil spills caused by illegal artisanal refining have made the delta one of the most heavily polluted environments on earth.
Black sand mining (the extraction of heavy mineral deposits from the coast) is also having an impact. Ikeme explained that this pollution has forced local fishing communities like the Foropa Kingdom to engage in logging and poaching, further degrading the habitat of red colobus in the Niger Delta.
For monkey populations to expand in the area, the area needed to be restored to a healthy state. But unlike swamp forests, marine life is not Ikeme’s forte. She realized once again that community involvement is key.
“When you want something to be sustainable, it should be managed by the people who live near it and who need it for their livelihood,” Ikeme said. “They have seen exploitation and now they want a different future.”
Ikeme explained that although local fishermen were the first to join the project, “former loggers and former hunters also brought their skills and knowledge and are now using them for conservation efforts.”
Chef Josai Yuson, former chairman of the Council of Chiefs of the Kingdom of Folopa Middleton, explained the involvement of local people: “We conserve protected areas by actively preventing the arrival of hunters and fishermen,” adding that they are directing these activities towards non-protected areas, as well as prohibiting fishermen from using tools that damage coral reefs, such as dynamite, and educating against mangrove felling.
“Future generations will enjoy this,” Wooson said. “The area is now safer and more jobs have been created.” SWNDFP estimates that the area has supported the livelihoods of approximately 14,000 people.
Local villager Mary Wallson Aramen is leading the women in organizing the cleanup.
“Women in my community are now cleaning the land and waterfront,” she said. “Bottles, bags, Pampers (diapers)…if you don’t contaminate marine life, you don’t lose it.”
She also educates youth about environmental protection and has contributed to 27,000 people currently engaged in environmental education through Ikeme’s organization.
“All the news about the Niger Delta is about oil, but there is so much more to this place than just oil,” Ikeme said. “Everyone is a victim of exploitation here, both the land and the people.”
The project’s long-term goal is to bring more than 1 million acres in the region under community supervision. It’s a monumental task, but Ikeme knows it benefits people and wildlife.
“Conserving this landscape and seascape should be the first (priority) because that is the most important thing to ensure the peace and security that people need to thrive in this region,” she said. “So until we address the conservation of this area, anything else will just be addressing the symptoms of what’s happening here.”
