ENVIRONMENT: How we made progress despite COVID-19 — NCF

By Eyo Nsima

Despite the Coronavirus pandemic, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, NCF, said it has made progress in many areas of its operations.

Speaking at the just-concluded 32nd Annual General Meeting, AGM, Chief Ede Dafinone Chairman, National Executive Council of the organisation, said: “The year 2020 started off well, looking quite promising until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national lockdown at the end of the first quarter of the year, which drastically changed the course of events and made the year one of the most challenging years in the history of the country and our Foundation.”

Achievements

He said: “That notwithstanding, we were able to weather the storm and with the support of our partners and the enhanced deployment of technology, the Foundation was able to creatively implement a number of programmes and projects that positively impacted people and nature.

“Before the outbreak of the pandemic, we successfully started the year with the 18th edition of the Chief S.L Edu Memorial Lecture. With the deliberate intention to drive partnership and bring on board a key constituency, the lecture focused on an important theme:

“The Role of Traditional Leaders in Protecting and Restoring the Nigerian Environment. Speaking on the theme, the Keynote Speaker, His Eminence Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, clearly brought out the traditional rulers as a key stakeholder in nature conservation.

“As the Chairman of the Nigerian Council of Traditional Leaders, he indicated their willingness to continue to partner with NCF and continue to support the protection and preservation of our environment. The year’s public lecture was loud in terms of engagement, direction, participation and outcome.”

He said: “Among the great dignitaries that graced the event were the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by his deputy, Dr. Olufemi Hamzat, the Ooni of Ife, Alake of Egbaland, Olu of Epe, Elegushi of Ikate many others, who participated in the lecture and pledged to continue to champion the cause of conservation in their different domains. The lecture was not only attended by traditional rulers, there were participants from academia, environmentalists, the media, and the youth.

“Despite the pandemic and national lockdown, we succeeded in carrying out the vulture conservation project which was started in 2017. Efforts were intensified, new strategies were adopted in campaigning for vulture conservation and more relevant stakeholders were seriously engaged. There were visits to some trado-medics in Abeokuta, Ibadan, Kano, Sokoto and Nguru to discuss their role in vulture conservation. NCF is truly concerned about the decline of this bird species, therefore, we are determined to change human behaviour towards them. Working with Birdlife International, we were able to come up with innovative and globally accepted approaches and models for vulture conservation.

“NCF’s effort in youth and students’ engagement, went beyond setting up conservation clubs in their schools, encouraging them to have gardens within the schools and in their homes. In response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant national lockdown, we introduced the virtual eco summer school to ensure continued environmental education. This was successfully implemented by the Education Unit of NCF and had more than 100 participants.

“An aspect of environment we consider important is waste management. This includes recycling and upcycling. NCF in partnership with Oando Foundation commenced a sensitization on this in some selected schools in Lagos. We equally had a beach clean-up campaign with Rotary International.

“Green Recovery Nigeria (GRN) programme was successfully implemented in more than 14 states of the country. NCF and our partners planted over 1.7 million seedlings out of the 2 million seedlings targeted for the year 2020 across Nigeria.  GRN is an important project for nature conservation, designed to help Nigeria recover its forest cover to 25% of its landmass. We thank the Federal Government of Nigeria, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), His royal highness the Emir of Keffi, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nassarawa State University, Abuja Technology Village and many Community Based Organisations across Nigeria who was our partners in this initiative.”

Appreciation

The Chairman, who commended stakeholders for their contributions, said: “Dear members, many of these projects would not have been possible without your unflinching support. I thank the Trustees, the members of the National Executive Council, our partners (both local and international) and our esteemed members for your continued contribution and support to nature conservation and sustainable development. We solicit your continued support and collaboration as we aim to achieve ‘a Nigeria where people live in harmony with nature.”

Report

“Remarkably, most of our field projects were not severely affected. However, vulnerable initiatives such as the Lekki Conservation Centre, the Vulture Advocacy Project and Field Research across the country came to a standstill for some period because of lockdown and other measures taken by the authorities in response to the pandemic. Some of the challenges we encountered included restrictions to face-to-face meetings due to social distancing measures and lockdowns, an increase in illegal activities in some locations and loss of supplementary income in communities benefiting from eco-tourism. Social distancing rules affected many planned physical public engagement events.

“Nevertheless, we responded adequately by moving many project meetings and activities to online platforms for compliant stakeholders; using phone calls, WhatsApp messaging and even radio broadcasts for interaction with project participants and contacts; working with Partners based near project sites for monitoring and implementation; and providing increased support to Community Scouts to deter illegal activities in forests.

“Overall, we have been lucky to escape from the past waves of the pandemic with only minor impacts on our field projects. In fact, last year witnessed the ramping-up of the afforestation component of our Green Recovery Nigeria (GRN) initiative and either directly or through our partners, we planted up to one million, seven hundred seedlings in 14 states across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria.

“Expectedly, the pandemic took a toll on some of our traditional sources of financial resource mobilisation. Financial contributions from entry fees to our Parks and Reserves dried up. Also, public fundraising events such as the Green Ball and Walk for Nature could not take place and funding from those sources was not available either. Further, companies and individual Nigerians experiencing the impacts of COVID-19 were less forthcoming with contributions to NCF membership dues. The cumulative impact of these developments was a shortfall in our finances from these sources. However, we responded to this by looking to maximise other sources of funding and scaling down our expenditure. We, therefore, ended the year with a healthy balance sheet.

“COVID-19 should teach humanity some key lessons. Firstly, since there is a distinct possibility that the pandemic is of zoonotic (wildlife) origins, we should therefore recognize that activities that shrink the space available for wildlife, such as deforestation, and those that bring us in much closer contact with them, such as killing and consumption of wild animals, will only lead to more frequent occurrences of pandemics in the future.  My view is that unless we practice requisite “ecological distancing”, we will continue to be forced to practice “social distancing” in future. Secondly, as demonstrated during the lockdown, we have seen that wildlife has a remarkable ability to recover fast and recolonise spaces from which it has been hitherto displaced once it is allowed to do so by the exclusion of harmful activities. The videos and pictures of charismatic animals roaming empty streets in cities around the world during lockdowns is a symbolic manifestation of this ability.”

Similarly, the President, Board of Trustees, NCF, Izoma Philip C. Asiodu, also said: “Our main business today is to review the reports of the activities of the Foundation and to receive and approve the audited Financial Statements for the year 2020 as part of the efforts at ensuring that NCF remains the leading nature conservation organization in Nigeria.

“I shall start by expressing our gratitude and appreciation to our members, sponsors, local and international partners, Governments at all levels, volunteers, media, and the general public for their unflinching support to NCF over the last four decades, especially, their support in 2020.

“We started the year under review as a promising year, poised to intensify the campaign and awareness about environment conservation. As usual, one of our flagship programmes that have served as an advocacy tool over the years, the Chief S.L. Edu Memorial Lecture, helped set the tone for the year. The lecture which focused on The Role of Traditional Leaders in Protecting and Restoring the Nigerian Environment featured His Eminence, Alhaji Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar as the Keynote Speaker, who delivered an impressive lecture.

“Other A-list Obas and traditional leaders honoured our invitation by attending in person or by proxy. It was a major shift and a deliberate effort to bring traditional leaders to be part of nature conservation. The event was followed up with visits to some traditional rulers. This has been yielding great results, as some have dedicated lands for us to plant trees for reforestation purposes or designated lands for conservation purposes.

“The debut entry into the South-East states in 2019 was followed up with various awareness campaign activities in Enugu and Imo states in 2020. Some of the activities were sponsored by BirdLife Africa, while some were in partnership with State Governments, NAZAP etc. The Federal Government through the ecological fund sponsored the afforestation programme we are currently having in Nnamdi Azikwe University, Anambra State.

“NCF had beautiful, laudable, achievable plans for 2020 until COVID-19 came in the first quarter of the year and almost shut the whole world down. This global pandemic which has been described by many as a zoonotic disease is a result of man’s refusal to keep animals in the wild and allow sleeping dogs to lie. The pandemic is considered an avoidable risk. Just like all others, we have had in the past such as Ebola.

“Dear members, I say this with all sense of responsibility, that if people have listened, agreed and teamed up with NCF and other conservation NGOs, the world would not be experiencing this disruption to its happy living.

“Despite the obstacle COVID presented, we took the advantage of technology and organised various webinars during the lockdown in collaboration with BirdLife Africa, Federal Ministry of the Environment, Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd., religious groups and others. Immediately the Federal Government removed restrictions on movement, while still observing COVID-19 safety measures, we hit the ground running again. This document contains a report of activities and achievements made by the Foundation during and after the lockdown. They created a great impact on the environment and Nigerians

“We recorded a slight increase in our membership base for the year which encourages us to put in more efforts into becoming a mass membership organization in the coming years.”

He added: “The Foundation has continued to survive on partnerships. We could not have achieved anything without the full support of our international partners, funders, corporate organisations here in Nigeria, the media, individuals, and the youth. Over the years, we have come to understand that truly, no person or institution can engage in conservation work alone, but with collective effort, extensive outcomes are achieved. I appreciate all those who made great sacrifices during the COVID-19 year by opening their arms to support us financially and those who rolled up their sleeves to volunteer in one way or the other. Your efforts are invaluable.”