Forests are fast disappearing in Nigeria and this is directly affecting the population of chimpanzees in the country. The apes are also under threat from poachers who hunt them for their body parts. These concerns among others are some of the things that are driving Rachel Ikemeh, Director and Founder of the SW/Niger Delta Forest Project to intensify her conservation efforts in the country.
Rachel who has been working on primates conservation for about a decade reveals that about 80 percent of the country’s forests has been lost to uncontrolled farming and logging and that means chimpanzee habitat has been disappearing at an alarming rate.
Recently, Rachel won the ‘Green Oscars’ — the prestigious Whitley Award — worth £40,000 for her work in protecting rare chimpanzees found only in Nigeria. She said the funding from the award will especially boost her work at this time.
“I am extremely proud to have been recognised by the Whitley Fund for Nature. The funding will help me and my team to conserve chimpanzees and other wildlife in this fast disappearing forest ecosystem,” She said.
The Nigerian-Cameroon chimpanzee was declared the most endangered of all chimpanzee groups in 2012. That was when Rachel launched her project in the Idanre Forest cluster and Ise Forest Reserve; refusing to stand by and watch these great apes continue to decline.
Over the past eight years, she and her team have led a genetic study amongst other relevant activities, which in 2018 found that whilst chimpanzee populations in the South West and Niger Delta of Nigeria share ancestry with the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee, they are in fact a distinct group. This exciting discovery reinforced the urgent need to protect this group of chimpanzees, helping Rachel to gain support for her cause.
Rachel’s approach combines patrolling, education, research and policy reform to protect this newly discovered primate. With her Whitley Award, Rachel aims to work with the government to establish about 40,000 ha of conservation areas, and to advocate for revised laws to protect the area’s wildlife. With most wildlife preservation laws in the state created in the 70s, many have become obsolete and are in need of reform.
Her team also works closely with communities in and around forest areas, using public awareness campaigns to educate people about the importance of endangered animals and to discourage poaching.
