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20260806 233000 UTC
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[00:00:32] a
[00:00:39] of
[00:00:51] of
[00:01:03] Thank you for joining us today on Netfall, welcome to the program, I'm
[00:01:07] Ayola Kasim, established in 1980, the Nigerian
[00:01:10] Conservation Foundation is a primer non-governmental organization
[00:01:14] dedicated to nature conservation. At its
[00:01:18] 37th annual general meeting in Lagos, the foundation appointed
[00:01:21] former Vice President Professor Yami Oshimbajo as the president
[00:01:25] of its board of
[00:01:27] of trustees, succeeding chief Felipe Assoju. Under this new
[00:01:30] leadership, the NCF aims to skill nationwide programs
[00:01:34] and enhance youth
[00:01:36] of participation in climate action. Today on the program, we look at the
[00:01:40] prospects and
[00:01:41] of course the challenges before the prof. Just
[00:01:44] of stay
[00:01:49] a in with us. Just 135
[00:01:52] kilometers northeast of Lagos, lies the
[00:01:55] of Omo Forest Reserve in Open
[00:01:57] State.
[00:02:02] Spanning over 130,000 hectares, om is
[00:02:06] one of West Africa's
[00:02:08] of last sanctaries for endangered chimpanzees, white
[00:02:12] throughted genon monkeys and Nigeria's few remaining
[00:02:15] forest elephants, but this globally
[00:02:19] recognized biosphere is being systematically
[00:02:23] dismantled from
[00:02:25] of within.
[00:02:27] of For generations. licensed
[00:02:30] loggers have operated on the state
[00:02:33] quarters, but as timber demand
[00:02:36] explodes in the country's commercial hubs, loggers are pushing
[00:02:40] deeper into the reserves for preservation measures, and
[00:02:44] they aren't the only ones in
[00:02:46] Europe.
[00:02:55] I living
[00:02:55] in a jebody, I'm a contractor here in area
[00:02:58] J4. say highly
[00:03:01] disappointed because when i came in here everything
[00:03:04] was the summit was working,
[00:03:08] the road was maintained by the project, but
[00:03:12] for now over close to 15
[00:03:16] years now is
[00:03:18] of only been contractor, we contractor that reparing the
[00:03:21] road and most
[00:03:24] in especially now that the the
[00:03:28] ministry of agreic.
[00:03:32] have how will i put it? they have putting their
[00:03:34] own
[00:03:38] business here, we the contractor, we
[00:03:42] loggers don't have a say more,
[00:03:45] because the ministry of agric have taken over the
[00:03:49] forest, farmers are finishing the
[00:03:53] of wood, finishing the wood, destroying the
[00:03:56] wood for us to cut. to
[00:04:00] generate resources for the for
[00:04:03] the forest ministry, why they
[00:04:07] of the farmers are generating resources for the ministry of
[00:04:11] agrek, very soon that won't
[00:04:13] be any wood left
[00:04:17] for us, it will only
[00:04:19] of be agreed forest here
[00:04:21] again, the farmers
[00:04:24] on the part say they practice
[00:04:26] agroforestry, they claim when the... loggers
[00:04:30] come, the fell giant trees right top
[00:04:37] of of the coco farms, wiping out their investments. we paid to the government and they also pay to
[00:04:41] the government, we paid the paramot ruler went to get a portion
[00:04:44] of the light, but when we want to harvest our coco,
[00:04:47] it is
[00:04:47] the government that harvest it and they receive payment on
[00:04:51] of that.
[00:04:54] of the
[00:04:55] of amount paid for a ton is more than 13,
[00:04:59] this is because We still pay the office workers in the
[00:05:02] of ministry of
[00:05:02] agrigue.
[00:05:12] Yeah.
[00:05:43] So we are an area and the loggers are in another area. The
[00:05:47] people in this forest, planting koko, got their plantation
[00:05:51] from the land owners. There is no
[00:05:55] traspasser planting here, we fight no
[00:05:57] one. We stop wherever
[00:06:01] our located boundary
[00:06:02] is.
[00:06:10] Duro. Lori ilẹ.
[00:06:17] With inadequate funding and manpower, the boundaries between legal
[00:06:21] extraction zones and protected santuries have completely
[00:06:25] blurred, corruption
[00:06:29] and unauthorized boundary expansions have left the forest
[00:06:33] vulnerable to a chaotic free for
[00:06:35] all, as loggers push deep into
[00:06:39] the core zone and farmers claim the under story.
[00:06:43] the forester elephants find their habitat fragmented into
[00:06:46] unleevable patches, stripped their food and
[00:06:49] pathways, so the elephants strike
[00:06:52] back. in
[00:06:56] 2018, the conflict became deadly a
[00:07:00] surrounding
[00:07:00] community.
[00:07:12] but on the frontline is a small team of nigerian conservation foundations
[00:07:16] rangers who patrol the thousands of hectares.
[00:07:20] many the footpath or track you are
[00:07:23] seeing are not um established by us, they actually
[00:07:27] elephant road, so any connection you see like
[00:07:31] this, no that
[00:07:31] it is elephant those all those
[00:07:34] parts, so we are right at the middle
[00:07:38] their their habitat, we just over dozen
[00:07:42] rain. just covering hundreds of square kilometers,
[00:07:45] almost thin green line is heavily outmatched, the
[00:07:49] phase armed loggers and hostile farming communities with
[00:07:53] minimal protective gear and questionable legal backing
[00:07:56] from local courts. protected area
[00:08:00] is not like a zoological garden where the
[00:08:04] wildlife are kept inside enclosure so they are
[00:08:08] moving on their free um within their free
[00:08:11] habitats. so so the possibility of wildlife
[00:08:15] encounters often arrive, they
[00:08:18] might come back come by dangerous animal
[00:08:22] that may want to um charge
[00:08:26] at them and um
[00:08:29] that also put their life at
[00:08:33] risk, also uh rangers work
[00:08:36] a rugged terrain, they have
[00:08:39] to work long
[00:08:42] distance every day, they have
[00:08:45] to um um
[00:08:48] cover um a
[00:08:51] specific um area
[00:08:54] you know ring that daily patrol regardless
[00:08:57] of the number of
[00:09:00] rivers, the hills they have
[00:09:04] to uh other
[00:09:07] obstacles
[00:09:09] they they have to overcome so...
[00:09:13] those are some of those uh uh problems
[00:09:16] and also it doesn't matter what the whether
[00:09:20] says once they are in the forest when every rain
[00:09:24] comes they still have to you know because even there is no way to
[00:09:28] hide you inside the rain uh
[00:09:31] so regardless of weather so they
[00:09:35] walk in harsh weather you know to complete their
[00:09:39] assignments the greatest paradox.
[00:09:42] or more lies in its administrative structure, managed
[00:09:46] under a dual mandate by the state government, part the forester
[00:09:50] license for commercial timber concessions,
[00:09:54] while the inner core is meant to be strictly protected
[00:09:58] conservation zone.
[00:10:01] without clearly defined physical boundaries, the line between legal
[00:10:05] economy and environmental crime has completely
[00:10:09] blurred. migrants farmers
[00:10:13] move into the fertile soils the reserve because the lack of
[00:10:16] formal land rights, they built temporary
[00:10:20] settlements, which are reported to be more than 70
[00:10:23] currently, constantly clearing deeper into the elephant
[00:10:27] habitat to avoid detection.
[00:10:31] Despite the relentless pressures, almo remains a
[00:10:34] place of profound resilience.
[00:10:38] Thanks to the relentless purchers turned rangers patrols,
[00:10:42] there has not been a single recorded incident of elephant poaching
[00:10:46] in the reserve for over 10 years, but many points
[00:10:50] that the task are head is stuck, and the Nigerian Conservation
[00:10:54] Foundation knows. the challenges too well,
[00:10:57] the protected forests across the country are not peaceful sanctuaries at
[00:11:01] the moment, they are active battlegrounds over the past
[00:11:05] three decades, the country has lost nearly all of its
[00:11:09] primary forest cover, falling victim to a multi-billion nara black
[00:11:13] market driven by timber trafficking, illegal mining and
[00:11:17] unregulated coaching, for the men and
[00:11:21] women taxed with defending Nigeria's biodiversity,
[00:11:25] Leadership is measured not in corporate board rooms, but in
[00:11:28] survival. The line between environmental preservation
[00:11:32] and national security has completely
[00:11:34] vanished. This highlights the
[00:11:38] core challenge of conservation leadership in Nigeria,
[00:11:42] which experts summarize as institutional bottleneck. While
[00:11:46] the Nigerian Conservation Foundation pushes for landscape
[00:11:49] restoration. In all the areas it operates across the
[00:11:52] country. State governments have historically been slow to
[00:11:56] finalize and enforce upgraded forest bills. now the
[00:12:00] foundation is shifting its leadership strategy to bring massive
[00:12:04] political weight to the table. we also trying to replicate
[00:12:07] LCC in other parts the country. we already have a large expans of land in
[00:12:11] Abuja, we're trying to finalize the paperwork for that, because I think
[00:12:15] that also is very attractive. LCC is very attractive. In
[00:12:19] fact, lot of people who don't know NCF, when you say, oh, I'm in
[00:12:23] NCF or I'm a chairman of NCF. NCF they look a bit confused, but the
[00:12:26] moment you say lucky conservation oh their faces light up and they understand so
[00:12:30] we realize that we need to replicate this more. It's also a real
[00:12:34] hands-on way of people seeing what's the you
[00:12:38] know what's the benefits are in conservation having
[00:12:41] a green
[00:12:42] spaces.
[00:12:50] Nigeria stands a razer of thin ecological tipping
[00:12:54] point with. with over 90% of its original rain forest
[00:12:58] already degraded, the country's reach biodiversity
[00:13:01] faces an existential threat from illegal logging, urban
[00:13:05] cool and climate
[00:13:07] instability.
[00:13:11] for decades, the battle to protect these vanishing
[00:13:14] ecosystems has been fought in isolated
[00:13:18] silos. non-profits lacked political muscle,
[00:13:22] governments lacked continuity, but in mid in
[00:13:25] 2026, environmentalists say there is now
[00:13:28] seismic shift in leadership, which they believe may
[00:13:32] be right to the player book. after a
[00:13:36] quarter century of dedicated service, conservation
[00:13:39] pattract chief Philippe Assodu stepped down as president the
[00:13:43] board of trustees and in his place, the Nigerian Conservation
[00:13:47] Foundation appointed a man intimately familiar with
[00:13:51] the highest corridors of power, former vice president,
[00:13:57] and i think is even more uh remarkable
[00:14:01] that uh chiifyodu as
[00:14:04] well as several others including uh
[00:14:08] the founder chief slado of
[00:14:12] blessed memory uh
[00:14:15] and chief kinder williams, i
[00:14:19] believe um chief
[00:14:22] dr asuh professor.
[00:14:27] who were the initial uh thought leaders and
[00:14:31] founders the NCF, I think
[00:14:34] that that was a generation of visionary
[00:14:37] Nigerians who somehow so many years
[00:14:41] ago saw the importance of environmental
[00:14:45] conservation, of biodiversity,
[00:14:49] long, long before climate change ever became the issue
[00:14:52] that
[00:14:53] it is today and so I think that they deserve
[00:14:56] our commendation, they deserve our
[00:15:00] thanks, because uh, but for
[00:15:03] them, perhaps would not have the foundations that this
[00:15:07] country has been able to lay for the climate
[00:15:11] action would never have been laid, we are way ahead
[00:15:15] of several other countries the world, way, way ahead,
[00:15:18] on account the vision these gentlemen in those
[00:15:22] early days.
[00:15:29] Health is wealth and its value cannot be
[00:15:33] overestimated, that's why on health matters we take the time to
[00:15:37] bring... you the current trends in health, the public and private
[00:15:40] sector, primary and tertiary healthcare institutions,
[00:15:44] innovations and disclosures from industry professionals with
[00:15:48] a view to keep you updated and informed, health matters
[00:15:52] on channels television, a network built on
[00:15:55] trust,
[00:16:00] the 2025 to 2013 as vice president from 2015
[00:16:04] to 2023, professor shimbaj wasn't just
[00:16:16] hem
[00:16:17] taken the country's the premier environmental non-governmental organization, he bridges the
[00:16:21] historic gap between high level state governance and grassroot
[00:16:25] ecosystem preservation. Professor
[00:16:29] Oshimbajo's leadership marks deliberates generational pivot for the
[00:16:33] NCF, while honoring pioneering founders like chief
[00:16:37] SL. He has explicitly stated that the foundation's
[00:16:41] next phase relies on the enthusiastic support of
[00:16:44] young Nigerians by senturing youth in the NCF's
[00:16:48] agenda, the foundation aims to convert youth climate
[00:16:52] anxiety into structured green jobs
[00:16:55] ranging from urban circular economy startups to
[00:16:59] rural forest restoration collectives under the green recovery
[00:17:02] Nigeria Program. One the key issues of course
[00:17:06] is: how to address biodiversity
[00:17:10] issues uh, we need to have a better
[00:17:14] plan, especially for biodiversity,
[00:17:16] we need to take advantage also of
[00:17:20] climate change. climate change offers
[00:17:23] some
[00:17:25] uh some opportunities that we have to take advantage of. one of those
[00:17:29] is climate positive growth, the notion
[00:17:33] that um using renewable
[00:17:36] energy, which we have in abundance, we
[00:17:39] can actually advance - our economic objectives,
[00:17:43] much more speedily, create more jobs and create more opportunities,
[00:17:47] so I i think that we're going to focus a great deal on
[00:17:51] the development opportunities that climate change
[00:17:54] offers, the jobs it offers, the new
[00:17:58] opportunities it offers,
[00:18:00] you know the great vistas that it opens up, especially
[00:18:03] for the generation, for this younger generation. "I
[00:18:07] think
[00:18:07] that there is great opportunity, there's great hope.
[00:18:11] Nigeria's biggest conservation challenge has never been a lack
[00:18:15] of ideas. It has been said that is been a bottleeneck in
[00:18:19] enforcement. Under professor Oshimbaju's leadership, the
[00:18:23] NCF says its first major target is transforming
[00:18:26] conservation from a charitable hobby into a core economic
[00:18:30] driver. We see new phase of conservation, because
[00:18:34] why the we are going to see lot more..." younger
[00:18:37] people being part of this move and
[00:18:41] why would they do that? because they
[00:18:45] understand now that it's not just about protect the
[00:18:49] ocean or the forest, but it's actually the
[00:18:52] infrastructure on which their generation will builds, and so except the young
[00:18:56] people have buy in into it, they have to see that it
[00:19:00] is for them, not so much for us and with that,
[00:19:04] i know that there be an improvement in the... behavior,
[00:19:08] there will be a change in the attitude and the mindsets and the
[00:19:12] culture towards conservation, because yes we need funding, because
[00:19:16] lot of what we need to do require funding, but then there is lot of money
[00:19:20] also in that space, right? now we are
[00:19:23] um in the NCF is working with federal government to um
[00:19:27] you know to have a survey and have a proper data the value
[00:19:31] of our you know of our forests and all all of
[00:19:34] our echolog that we have so we know the true value and 'we
[00:19:37] are able to you have no proper data and if
[00:19:41] these young people are part of what we are doing then we are sure that the funding
[00:19:45] will come that is required to do what needs to be done because
[00:19:49] they would also have the right attitude and culture and
[00:19:52] behavior towards protecting their own, it's not money alone
[00:19:56] that's
[00:19:56] you know that solves the problem but the mindset and the behavior. the
[00:20:00] NCF enters its next chapter with a highly visible
[00:20:03] advocate capable of elevating conservation to
[00:20:07] matter of national security and economic strategy by
[00:20:11] combining chief asiodu's institutional foundation with
[00:20:15] professor oshimba jo's expertise in global climate diplomacy
[00:20:19] and national governance. experts say Nigeria's conservation
[00:20:22] movement is positioning itself to be more technologically
[00:20:26] advanced, financially sustainable and politically
[00:20:30] influential. but I'm very optimistic and I'm
[00:20:33] optimistic because uh money will follow ideas.
[00:20:37] money will follow commitment, it will follow dedication, and I
[00:20:41] think we have all of that, we have the ideas, we have the dedication, we have the commitment, so we
[00:20:45] expect that the money will come up, I'm not unduly worried
[00:20:49] about. that and you
[00:20:52] know because
[00:20:52] I think that if you are committed to cause
[00:20:56] and and there are so many sources of
[00:21:00] of resources to do this work, there are so many sources of resources and
[00:21:03] again we are not really looking for hard cash, you are looking for
[00:21:07] collaboration, you are looking for co-travelers working with
[00:21:10] co-travelers who may have the resources that you don't have, so it's not
[00:21:14] necessarily we're not building a fund,
[00:21:16] you see what I mean, what we're doing is seeking collaborators.
[00:21:22] going the same pathway as as we are, and we're trying to work together with them, and there are so many
[00:21:26] all over the world, international alliance, a
[00:21:30] global alliance of people, a global coalitions of people who
[00:21:34] are doing exactly the same sort of work, and that has been the case since the
[00:21:38] foundation of this, this foundation the
[00:21:41] NCM, so we are not unduly worried about
[00:21:44] resources, under these new
[00:21:48] leadership era,
[00:21:49] the NC. is heavily investing in digital
[00:21:53] technology to modernize field operations across
[00:21:56] Nigeria. The foundation is rolling out specialized tracking
[00:22:00] systems designed to monitor project stages, manage
[00:22:04] outstanding funds and oversee fuwed officers in real
[00:22:07] time. This technological modernization,
[00:22:11] the say will directly back the protection of 58
[00:22:15] endangered species. They say it provides better
[00:22:18] intelligence for Rangers defending critically threatened
[00:22:22] habitats, us at NCF, we deal
[00:22:26] with lot of partners, we we're conducting lot of projects
[00:22:29] all over the country, and so in our strategic action plan that
[00:22:33] we commenced last year, we agreed and decided to invest more in
[00:22:37] technology, so that at click of a button we can say at what
[00:22:41] stage each project is, who are the field officers in charge, what
[00:22:45] was the aim the project, how far have we covered, what is
[00:22:48] left, what is the... balance on the funds that we're given, do we have
[00:22:52] any challenges that we want the partners to to meet, you know, and
[00:22:56] so on, so we've we're deploying technology, we've invested heavily in
[00:23:00] technology, and the investment is going to continue over the next five years, and we
[00:23:04] charge other enges at all, not only in the environment
[00:23:08] space, to be able to, I mean, we all know that AI technology is
[00:23:11] available, I mean, you can use it for good, you can use it for mischief,
[00:23:15] but there's a lot of good, lot of
[00:23:17] benefit
[00:23:19] in it. With the renewed strategic direction, measurable conservation
[00:23:23] impact and a historic transition in leadership, the Nigerian
[00:23:27] Conservation Foundation says it enters its next structure
[00:23:31] with confidence building on decades of service while remaining
[00:23:34] stepfast in its mission to protect Nigeria's natural
[00:23:38] heritage for present and future generations.
[00:23:41] Environmental challenges confronting Nigeria remain
[00:23:44] significant, but experts say so two are the
[00:23:48] opportunities to build resilient. landscapes, restore
[00:23:51] ecosystems, strengthen livelihoods and inspire a
[00:23:55] new generation of environmental leaders. achieving these
[00:23:59] outcomes will require both leadership, strong partnerships,
[00:24:02] sustained investment and collective action across every
[00:24:06] sector of society. NCF is
[00:24:10] not is not working alone and you cannot work
[00:24:14] alone, this is a global alliance, a global
[00:24:17] coalition, by working with everyone. is interested in the same things
[00:24:21] with government, with civil society, with
[00:24:24] practitioners in this field, and as I said, the important thing is
[00:24:28] to look at the opportunities that climate action and and
[00:24:32] environmental action present, there are very many opportunities
[00:24:36] presented, I think that if you look at the opportunities, even
[00:24:39] even the opportunities that are created by
[00:24:42] maintaining uh biodiversity and by
[00:24:46] the various aspects of climate action that we think,
[00:24:50] "we can actually participate in, the opportunities are
[00:24:53] huge.
[00:30:27] 23° celsius here in Abuja, the federal capital
[00:30:30] territory, good morning, welcome to your daily dose of
[00:30:34] sunshine, sunrise daily, and Yusuf, what
[00:30:38] i can tell you is that the sky is heavy with rain here
[00:30:42] in lagos, but guess what, it's still 26 degrees
[00:30:45] according to the weather man, and it's the 20 is
[00:30:49] the sixth day in the month of august 2026, i say welcome to the
[00:30:53] show, my name is
[00:30:54] io, but we do
[00:30:58] have quite a bit lined up for