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20260808 163000 UTC
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[00:00:55] the Nigerian Conservation Foundation is a primer non-governmental
[00:00:58] organization dedicated. to nature conservation
[00:01:02] its 37th annual general meeting in Lagos, the foundation
[00:01:06] appointed former vice president professor Yami Oshimbajo as
[00:01:09] the president of its board of trustees, succeeding chief Philippe
[00:01:13] asudu, under this new leadership, the NCF aims to
[00:01:17] skill nationwide programs and
[00:01:19] of enhance youth
[00:01:21] of participation in climate action. Today on the program we look at the
[00:01:25] prospects and of course the challenges before the prof, just
[00:01:29] of stay with us.
[00:01:32] of Just
[00:01:36] 135 km not east of
[00:01:38] in Lagos lies the forest Reserve in Ogun
[00:01:42] State.
[00:01:47] Spanning over 130,000 hectares or is
[00:01:51] one of West Africa's
[00:01:53] of last centuries for endangered chimpanzees, white
[00:01:56] throughted ganon monkeys and Nigeria's few. remaining
[00:02:00] forest elephants, but these globally
[00:02:04] recognized biosphere is being systematically
[00:02:08] of dismantled from
[00:02:10] of within.
[00:02:12] of For generations, licensed
[00:02:15] loggers have operated on the state
[00:02:18] quarters, but as timber demand
[00:02:21] explodes in the country's commercial hubs, loggers are pushing
[00:02:25] deeper into the reserves for preservation zones and they
[00:02:29] aren't.
[00:02:30] a
[00:02:36] of
[00:02:41] contractor here
[00:02:44] I'm in area a J4. If I could say highly disappointed because when
[00:02:48] I came in here everything was the sur
[00:02:51] was working, the road was maintained by the
[00:02:55] project, but for now
[00:02:59] over... close to 15 years now
[00:03:03] is only
[00:03:03] of been contractor we contractor that repairing the
[00:03:07] road and most
[00:03:09] in especially now
[00:03:11] a that the the ministry of
[00:03:13] ag
[00:03:17] have how will i put it they have putting their
[00:03:19] own
[00:03:23] business here we the contractor we
[00:03:27] loggers don't have a say? more
[00:03:31] of because the ministry of ag taken over the
[00:03:34] forest, farmers are finishing the wood,
[00:03:38] finishing the wood, destroying the
[00:03:41] wood for us to cut to
[00:03:45] generate resources for the for
[00:03:48] the forest ministry, why they
[00:03:52] of the farmers are generating resources for the ministry of
[00:03:56] agrek, very soon that won't be..."
[00:04:01] any wood left for us, it will only be a greek
[00:04:05] forest here again,
[00:04:09] the farmers on the part say they practice
[00:04:11] agroforestry, they claim when the loggers
[00:04:15] come, the fell giant trees right top
[00:04:18] of the coco farms, wiping out their
[00:04:22] of investments, we paid to the government and they also pay to the
[00:04:26] government, we paid the paramot ruler went to get a portion
[00:04:29] of the l. but when we want to harvest our coco, it is the
[00:04:32] government that harvest it,
[00:04:34] of and of they receive payment on
[00:04:39] of of that.
[00:04:40] of the amount paid for a ton is more than 13,
[00:04:44] this is because we still pay the office workers in the
[00:04:47] of ministry of
[00:04:47] agrigue.
[00:05:04] You know our work is different from the luggas and that may cause some
[00:05:07] ranker as our vocations are different. They deal in locks we
[00:05:11] plant coco. They may come to our plantation and call the coco trees
[00:05:14] and this may anger us,
[00:05:17] this is what may cause emity
[00:05:19] between,
[00:05:23] what i believe is that government should allocate a portion for us to plant our
[00:05:27] crop, so we are an area and the loggers are
[00:05:31] in another area, the people in this forest planting koko
[00:05:35] got their plantation from the land
[00:05:37] owners, there is no traspasser planting
[00:05:41] here, we fight now.
[00:05:45] We stop wherever our located boundary
[00:05:47] is,
[00:05:51] ibi
[00:05:52] to ma ti fun wa, ibẹ náà
[00:05:54] duro.
[00:06:02] With inadequate funding and manpower, the boundaries between legal
[00:06:06] extraction zones and protected surs have completely
[00:06:10] blurred. Corruption
[00:06:14] and unauthorized boundary expansions have left the forest
[00:06:18] vulnerable to a chaotic free for
[00:06:20] all. As loggers push deep into
[00:06:24] the core zone and farmers claim the under story,
[00:06:28] the forest elephants find their habitat fragmented into
[00:06:31] unleevable patches, stripped their food and
[00:06:34] pathways, so the elephants strike
[00:06:37] back. In
[00:06:41] 2018, conflict became deadly in Itasin, a
[00:06:45] surrounding
[00:06:45] community,
[00:06:57] but on the front line is a small team of nigerian conservation
[00:07:01] foundations rangers who patrol the thousands of hectares,
[00:07:05] many the footpath or track you are
[00:07:08] seeing are not established by h, they actually
[00:07:12] elephant. to road, so any connection you see
[00:07:16] like this, no that
[00:07:16] it is elephant those all those
[00:07:19] parts, so we are right at the middle
[00:07:23] the their habitat, we just over
[00:07:26] dozen rangers covering hundreds of square kilometers,
[00:07:30] almost thin green line is heavily outmarched, the
[00:07:34] phase armed loggers and hostile farming communities with
[00:07:38] minimal protective gear and questionable legal backing from
[00:07:42] local court protected area is
[00:07:45] not like a zoological guardian where the
[00:07:49] wildlife are kept inside enclosure so they are
[00:07:53] moving on their free uh within their free
[00:07:56] habitat so so the possibility of wildlife
[00:08:00] encounters often arrive they
[00:08:03] might come by come by dangerous
[00:08:07] animal that may want to um
[00:08:10] charge at them. and
[00:08:14] um that also put their life at
[00:08:18] risk, also uh rangers work
[00:08:21] a rugged terrain, they have
[00:08:24] to walk long
[00:08:27] distance every day, they
[00:08:30] have to um um
[00:08:33] cover um a specific
[00:08:37] um area you
[00:08:39] know during that daily patrol. less
[00:08:43] the number of rivers, the
[00:08:47] hills, they have to
[00:08:51] uh, other obstacles the they have
[00:08:54] to overcome, so those
[00:08:58] are some of those problems
[00:09:02] and also it doesn't matter what the weather says
[00:09:06] once they are in the forest when every rain
[00:09:09] comes they still have to you know because even 'there's no way
[00:09:13] to hide
[00:09:14] you inside the rain uh so regardless of
[00:09:18] whether so they work in harsh weather
[00:09:21] you know to complete their
[00:09:24] assignments. the greatest paradox of
[00:09:28] m lies in its administrative structure managed
[00:09:31] under draw mandate by the state government part the forester
[00:09:35] licensed for commercial team concessions
[00:09:39] while the inner core is meant to be a strict'. protected
[00:09:43] conservation zone,
[00:09:46] without clearly defined physical boundaries, the line between legal
[00:09:50] economy and environmental crime has completely
[00:09:54] blurred, migrant farmers
[00:09:58] move into the fertile soils the reserve because they lack
[00:10:01] formal land rights, they build temporary
[00:10:05] settlements which are reported to be more than 70
[00:10:08] currently, constantly clearing deeper into the elephant
[00:10:12] habit. to avoid
[00:10:13] detection, despite the relentless
[00:10:17] pressures, remains a place of profound
[00:10:20] resilience, thanks to the relentless
[00:10:25] poach has turned rangers patrols, there has not been a single
[00:10:28] recorded incident of elephant poaching in the reserve for
[00:10:32] over 10 years, but many points that the task ahead
[00:10:36] is stuck and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation knows the
[00:10:40] challenges too well. The protected forests
[00:10:44] across the country are not peaceful sentuaries at the moment. They
[00:10:48] are active battlegrounds over the past three decades.
[00:10:52] The country has lost nearly all of its primary. rest cover,
[00:10:56] falling victim to a multi-billion nara black market driven by
[00:10:59] timber trafficking, illegal mining and unregulated
[00:11:03] proaching. for the men and women
[00:11:06] taxed with defending nigeria's biodiversity,
[00:11:09] leadership is measured not in corporate board rooms, but in
[00:11:13] survival. the line between environmental preservation and
[00:11:17] national security has completely
[00:11:20] vanished. this highlights the
[00:11:23] core challenge. conservation leadership in Nigeria, which
[00:11:27] experts summarize as institutional bottleneck, while the
[00:11:31] Nigerian Conservation Foundation pushes for landscape
[00:11:34] restoration in all the areas it operates across the country,
[00:11:38] state governments have historically been slow to finalize and
[00:11:42] enforce upgraded forest bills, now the foundation is shifting
[00:11:46] its leadership strategy to bring massive political weight
[00:11:50] to the table. We're also trying to replicate LCC in other parts the
[00:11:54] country. already have a large expanse of land in Abuja, we're trying to
[00:11:58] finalize the paperwork for that, because I think that also is very
[00:12:01] attractive, LCC is very attractive, a lot of people who don't know
[00:12:05] NCF, when you say, oh, I'm in NCF or I'm a chairman
[00:12:09] of NCF, they look a
[00:12:10] bit confused, but the moment you say lucky conservation, oh, their faces light
[00:12:14] up and they understand, so we realize that we need to replicate this more, it's
[00:12:18] also a real hands-on way of people seeing
[00:12:22] what's the, you know, what's the benefit? in
[00:12:25] conservation, in having a green
[00:12:27] space.
[00:12:35] Nigeria stands a razer of thin ecological tipping
[00:12:39] point with over 90% of its original rain
[00:12:42] forest already degraded. The country's reach biodiversity
[00:12:46] faces an existential threat from illegal login, urban
[00:12:50] proal and climate
[00:12:52] instability.
[00:12:56] For decades, the battle to protect these vanishing
[00:12:59] ecosystems has been fort in isolated
[00:13:03] silos. Non-profits lacked political muscle,
[00:13:07] governments lacked continuity, but in
[00:13:09] mid-2026, environmentalists say there is now
[00:13:13] seismic shift in leadership, which they believe
[00:13:17] may rewrite the player book.
[00:13:21] After a quarter century of dedicated service, conservation.
[00:13:25] pattract chief Philippedu stepped down as president the board
[00:13:29] of trustees and in his place the Nigerian Conservation
[00:13:32] Foundation appointed a man intimately familiar with
[00:13:36] the highest corridors of power former vice president professor
[00:13:40] Yami Oshibaju and I think is even
[00:13:44] more uh remarkable that
[00:13:47] uh chiifyodu as well as several others
[00:13:51] including uh the
[00:13:54] who
[00:14:12] were the initial thought leaders and
[00:14:16] founders the NCF, I
[00:14:19] think that that was a generation of visionary
[00:14:23] Nigerians who somehow... so many years
[00:14:26] ago, saw the importance of
[00:14:29] environmental conservation, of
[00:14:32] biodiversity, long, long before climate change
[00:14:35] ever became the issue that
[00:14:38] it is today, and so I think that they deserve
[00:14:42] our commendation, they deserve our
[00:14:45] thanks, because uh, but for them,
[00:14:49] perhaps would not have the foundations that this country
[00:14:53] has been able to lay. for climate action
[00:14:57] would never have belaid, we are way ahead of several other
[00:15:01] countries the world, way way ahead on account the
[00:15:04] vision these gentlemen in those early
[00:15:08] days.
[00:15:15] the day begins with news gathering and research. we need to confirm the
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[00:16:41] the 2025 vice to 2030 on channels president
[00:16:43] television as from 2015 to 2023, professor
[00:16:47] shimbajo wasn't just a politician, he was the architect of
[00:16:50] Nigeria's Net Zero 2060 economic
[00:16:53] blueprint, by taking the ham the
[00:16:57] country's premier environmental non-governmental
[00:17:00] organization, he bridges the historic gap between
[00:17:04] high-level state governance and grassroot ecosystem. them
[00:17:07] preservation. Professor Oshimbajo's leadership
[00:17:11] marks deliberate generational pivot for the NCF,
[00:17:15] while honoring pioneering founders like Chief SLAju, he
[00:17:19] has explicitly stated that the foundation's next phase
[00:17:23] relies on the enthusiastic support of young
[00:17:26] Nigerians by senturing youth in the NCF's
[00:17:29] agenda, the foundation aims to convert youth climate
[00:17:33] anxiety into structured green jobs ranging
[00:17:37] from urban circular economy startups to rural forest
[00:17:41] restoration collectives under the green recovery nigeria
[00:17:44] program. one the key issues of course is
[00:17:47] how to address biodiversity
[00:17:51] issues. we need to have a
[00:17:55] better plan, especially for biodiversity. we need to take
[00:17:58] advantage also of climate
[00:18:02] change. climate change offers
[00:18:04] some some opportunity. is that we
[00:18:08] have to take advantage of, one of those is climate positive
[00:18:11] growth, the notion
[00:18:15] that using renewable energy, which
[00:18:19] we have in abundance, we can actually advance our
[00:18:22] economic objectives, much more speedily, create more jobs
[00:18:26] and create more opportunities, so I i think that we're going to focus
[00:18:30] a great deal on the development
[00:18:34] opportunities that climate change offers, the jobs of
[00:18:37] because the new opportunities it offers, the
[00:18:41] great visters that it opens up, especially for
[00:18:45] the generation, for this younger generation, I think there is
[00:18:49] great opportunity, there is great hope. Nigeria's
[00:18:53] biggest conservation challenge has never been a lack of
[00:18:56] ideas. It has been said that is been a bottleneck in
[00:19:00] enforcement. Under professor Oshimbaj's leadership, the
[00:19:04] NCF says its first major target is transfer.
[00:19:07] conservation from a charitable hobby into a core economic
[00:19:11] driver to see new phase of conservation, because
[00:19:15] why the we are going to see lot more younger
[00:19:19] people being part of this move and
[00:19:23] why would they do that, because they
[00:19:26] understand now that it's not just about protect the
[00:19:30] ocean or the forest, but it's actually the
[00:19:34] infrastructure on which their generation we builts and so except the... young
[00:19:37] people have buyin into it, they have to see that it
[00:19:41] is for them, not so much for us and with that,
[00:19:45] I know that there be an improvement in the behavior,
[00:19:49] there will be a change in the attitude and the mindsets and the
[00:19:53] culture towards conservation, because yes we need funding,
[00:19:57] because lot of what we need to do require funding, but then there is lot of
[00:20:00] money also in that space, right? now we
[00:20:04] are um in the NCF is working with federal. meant
[00:20:07] to um to have a survey and have a proper
[00:20:11] data the value of our you know of our forests and all all of
[00:20:15] our college that we have so we know the true value and we are able
[00:20:19] to
[00:20:19] you know um have you proper data and if these young people are part
[00:20:23] of what we are doing then we are sure that the funding will come that
[00:20:27] is required to do what needs to be done because they would also have
[00:20:31] the right attitude and culture and behavior towards protecting their
[00:20:35] own it's not money alone that's the problem,
[00:20:39] that but solves the mindset and the behavior. The NCF enters its
[00:20:42] next chapter with a highly visible advocate
[00:20:46] capable of elevating conservation
[00:20:48] to matter of national. security and economic strategy
[00:20:52] by combining chief asiodu's institutional foundation with
[00:20:56] professor oshinbajo's expertise in global climate diplomacy
[00:21:00] and national governance. experts say Nigeria's conservation
[00:21:03] movement is positioning itself to be more technologically
[00:21:07] advanced, financially sustainable and politically
[00:21:11] influential. but I'm very optimistic and I'm
[00:21:15] optimistic because uh money will follow
[00:21:17] ideas, money will fall. commitment, it do follow
[00:21:21] dedication, and I think we have
[00:21:23] all of that, we have the ideas, we have the dedication, we have the commitment, so we expect that the
[00:21:27] money will come, I'm not unduly worried about about
[00:21:31] that, I'm
[00:21:33] you know, because I think that if you are committed to
[00:21:36] cause, and and there are so many
[00:21:38] sources of of resources to do this one, there
[00:21:42] are so many sources of resources, and again we are not really looking
[00:21:46] for hard cash, you are looking for collaboration,
[00:21:50] for co-travelers, working with co-travelers who may have the
[00:21:54] resources that you don't have, so it's not necessarily we're not building a
[00:21:57] fund,
[00:21:58] you see what i mean, what we're doing is seeking collaborators, people who
[00:22:01] are going the same pathway as as we are, and we're
[00:22:05] trying to work together with them, and there are so many all over the world, this is an
[00:22:09] international alliance, a global alliance of people
[00:22:13] a global coalitions, people who are doing exactly the same
[00:22:17] sort of work, and that has been the case since the foundation. of
[00:22:20] this uh this foundation the NCM, so we are
[00:22:24] not unduly worried about
[00:22:25] resources. Under these new
[00:22:29] leadership era, the NCF is heavily
[00:22:32] investing in digital technology to modernize field
[00:22:36] operations across Nigeria. The foundation is rolling out
[00:22:39] specialized tracking systems designed to monitor project
[00:22:43] stages, manage outstanding fronts and oversee field
[00:22:47] officers in real time. This technological
[00:22:51] modernization, the say will directly back the
[00:22:54] protection of 58 endangered species, they
[00:22:58] say it provides better intelligence for rangers defending
[00:23:02] critically threatened habitats. As at
[00:23:06] NCF, we deal with lot of partners, we we're conducting lot of
[00:23:10] projects all over the country, and so in our
[00:23:13] strategic action plan that we commenced last year, we agreed
[00:23:17] and decided to invest more in technology so that... by click of a button
[00:23:21] we can say at what stage each project is, who are the field officers
[00:23:25] in charge, what was the aim the project, how far have we
[00:23:28] covered, what is left, what is the outstanding balance on the funds that we're
[00:23:32] given, do we have any challenges that we want the partners to
[00:23:36] to meet you know and so on, so we've we're deploying technology,
[00:23:40] we've invested heavily in technology and the investment is going to continue over the next
[00:23:44] five years and we charge other NGOs at all, not
[00:23:48] only in the environment space. be able to, mean we all know that AI
[00:23:51] technology is available, mean you can use it for good, you can use
[00:23:55] it for mischief, but there's a lot of good, lot of benefit in
[00:23:58] it, with renew strategic
[00:24:02] direction, measurable conservation impact and a historic
[00:24:06] transition in leadership, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation says it
[00:24:10] enters its next chapter with confidence building on
[00:24:13] decades of service while remaining steadfast in its mission
[00:24:17] to protect Nigeria's natural heritage, for present and future
[00:24:21] generations, environmental challenges confronting Nigeria
[00:24:25] remain significant, but experts say so to are
[00:24:29] the opportunities to build resilient landscapes, restore
[00:24:32] ecosystems, strengthen livelihoods and inspire a
[00:24:36] new generation of environmental leaders. Achieving these
[00:24:40] outcomes will require both leadership, strong partnerships,
[00:24:44] sustained investment and collective action across every
[00:24:47] sector of society. "NCF is
[00:24:51] not is not working alone and you cannot work
[00:24:55] alone, this is a global alliance, this
[00:24:58] is a global coalition, you're working with everyone who is interested in
[00:25:01] the same things, with government, with civil society, with
[00:25:05] practitioners in this field, and as I said, the important thing is to
[00:25:09] look at the opportunities that climate action
[00:25:13] and and the environmental action present, there are very many
[00:25:16] opportunities presented, I think that if you look at the opportunity. is even
[00:25:20] even the opportunities that are created by
[00:25:23] maintaining uh the biodiversity and by
[00:25:27] the various aspects of climate action that we
[00:25:30] think we can actually participate in, the opportunities are
[00:25:34] huge.
[00:30:28] Hello, welcome to news track, I'm Lady Williams and these are the stories we're tracking.
[00:30:32] This hour begin with security mart is now where operatives the department
[00:30:36] of state services have arrested three more suspects allegedly linked to
[00:30:40] the kidnapping of dean of agriculture at NASA state
[00:30:44] university professor Samuel according
[00:30:47] to security source the suspects were reportedly arrested on
[00:30:51] Friday night a local bruffle in Mararaban Akunza
[00:30:55] along the Lafia Makadi highway. Professor Kuncebow was abdocted
[00:30:59] by Gund men