August 20101 Results first half year 2010 Amsterdam, August 2010.
CERCONEWS August 2010
Transcript of CERCONEWS August 2010
remainder is Federal National Park).
Iko Esai’s community forest covers 200 sq km, and the immediately neighbouring communities add a further 400 sq km. Since Iko Esai’s community forest is the only one bordering the National Park that has an active and successful conservation programme, it is a role model for how large‐scale protection of the state’s globally‐important forest resource can occur. Capacity enhancement of the forestry professionals in the state in respect of the practical workings of community‐based environmental conservation is a critical‐path item for any ambitions to scale‐up.
The three Forestry members on‐site will be actively engaged in all of the practical activities of our working programme: forest patrols, environmental
education, alternative livelihoods, community agreements, primate reintroduction, Community Based Organisations, Eco‐tourism, etc. so that they have a full understanding of each of the elements of the programme and their interrelationships.
And from our side we will have direct links into the structure of Forestry’s organisation, allowing us to maintain regular communications, and take advantage of expertise where it applies. One of our current funding requests in process includes a prototype reforestation pilot, and if that grant is awarded we will have almost immediate capability to implement.
The Cross River State Forestry Commission has assigned three staff full‐time to our programme for the foreseeable future. First arrival Christopher Imbush, senior forest super‐intendent, is already on‐site. This is another milestone passed in our increasingly collaborative relationship with Forestry.
The Forestry Commission is a critical partner of ours in our hopes for protection of the state’s forests into the future. There are over 9,000 sq km of forest in Cross River. This accounts for half of all of the remaining forest in Nigeria. The Oban‐Korup forest block straddling the border with Cameroon is the largest continuous forest stretch in West Africa. 5,000 sq km within Cross River fall under the Forestry Commission’s jurisdiction – either as community forest or as forest reserves (the
I N S I D E TH I S
I S S U E :
Partners for Life 1
From the Director
2
Steaming ahead 2
Give as you Live 2
Education on board
3
Interest rates rise 4
We are amused 4
Compassionate Conservation
5
Racing to freedom
5
Want to be a part of it ?
6
A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
Partners for Life
V O L U M E 2 , I S S U E 8
CERCO‐NEWS
Chris Imbush (left) at
work with research
assistant Ayitu
Odigha Odigha, Chairman
Cross River State Forestry
Commission
P A G E 2
“…...every time you do a search,
you’ll be crediting your favourite
charity”
Claire Coulson
CERCOPAN
Director
Steaming ahead
Give as you Live
From the Director ‘Casablanca’, now there’s a movie! I love the exit line: ‘Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship’.
I’m hoping the same for a number of new beginnings started this month. With the arrival of staff from the State Foresty Commission in Rhoko (front page), we have the opportunity for building strong ties at the working level with a vital partner.
Visits of opinion‐makers from our neighbouring villages (page 4) could well lead to significant new progress if we can also gain the funding to expand
our programme in strength beyond Iko Esai.
Our upgrading of the education centre at Rhoko (see article to the right) will establish new friends amongst the school‐children the exhibits are primarily targeted at.
The ability to bring about a generational sea‐change in attitudes towards wildlife is the motivation behind our outreach programmes which touch over 8,000 school‐children a year.
While I’d love to make a movie for them, we’ve focussed instead on creating an experiential, potentially life‐changing,
event at our Rhoko education centre in a local, direct and therefore equally forceful way .
My beautiful friendship with wildlife and the environment started the day I was born. The reward I have had from a lifetime dedicated to the cause gives me the passion to want to pass on that opportunity to others.
More a case of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’. Now there’s another great movie!
r e g i s t e r , c h o o s e CERCOPAN as your charity, and then browse using the Yahoo Search Engine.
While the sums involved for an individual are not large, they add up to an important amount in total. It’s a perfect case of ‘every little helps’, and it doesn’t cost you a penny.
Just by browsing the internet you could be making money for CERCOPAN. ‘Everyclick’ has turned your worth as a consumer into a means of gaining money for charities. The sites you visit give money to Everyclick, who in turn pass it on to the charity of your choice. All you have to do is
Give it a try! Go to https://fundraisers.everyclick.com/signup where you can register. Under ‘Choose a different charity?’ you can select CERCOPAN as the charity to support. Then if make the site your homepage, from that point on every time you do a search, you’ll be crediting your favourite charity. you
Jonathan Heeney at Cambridge University. Its use is to separate cells from plasma in blood samples prior to diagnostic testing. These are both expensive pieces of equipment that we would be unable to purchase ourselves.
Our veterinary work ensures the health of our 170 primates in captive
care, in particular the orphans who are brought to us more often than not in a pitiful state. We also c o n d u c t r e g u l a r monitoring and testing to determine if any of our animals are carrying diseases that require their isolation in quarantine. As a member of PASA we have to exceed the strictest standards of welfare for our animals.
Recent donations of veterinary equipment have given our lab more of a 21st century feel. An Autoclave (a device that uses steam to sterilise equipment) was donated by Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo in the U.S. and passed on to us by the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA). Close on its heels we received a Centrifuge donated by Professor
The Autoclave donated
to PASA by Fort Worth
Children’s Zoo
Education on board
P A G E 3
Our Education Centre at Rhoko is undergoing a transformation thanks to a grant from the International Primatological Society (IPS).
Our exhibits, rather worn and aged by humidity, are being exchanged for a beautiful new set of state‐of‐the art Dibond boards.
High‐resolution photos and supporting text are mounted onto a lightweight aluminium plate with a permanent bond that is weatherproof and produces a finish that is perfect for images of nature.
We developed the posters using a very classy graphics software package, but even we were taken aback by the quality of the final result when we took delivery of 23 new boards shipped in from the UK recently.
Quality counts in this setting. We host schoolchildren and their teachers from the neighbouring villages for a day‐out event where they can observe socialised primate groups interacting within their natural environment, and take our
Nature Walk that demonstrates biodiversity they seldom encounter (the trail has been upgraded with improved signs and handrails thanks to funding from IUCN).
A conservation message at the education centre of what can be lost by the continuation of existing community practices threatening primates is there to close the event.
Our new posters are striking and modern, and we think they will place conservation in the same light in the hearts of our audience.
Environmental Education is a key stream within our integrated set of activities to ensure protection for primate populations in Southeastern Nigeria.
The IPS funds will not only provide a high‐quality upgrade to the Education Centre at our field site, but
will also allow transportation for school groups to the site that otherwise would not be able to attend.
V O L U M E 2 , I S S U E 8
“Our new posters are striking and modern, and we think they will place conservation in the same light in the hearts of our audience.”
Two of the new
posters designed
for Rhoko
Schoolchildren from Iko
Ekperem enjoying their
day out at Rhoko
P A G E 4
need to ensure a variety of
props and challenges are
available for our inquisitive
and energetic lodgers.
To make sure that they are
entertained and happy, our
keepers develop
activities for them
referred to as
‘enrichment’.
This past month
we’ve been
having a push to
improve and
rejuvenate the
enrichment for
each enclosure to
keep the monkeys
fully amused
during the day
with a new set of
playthings.
Unfortunately we don’t
have a lot of money to buy
fancy equipment, but we
have become imaginative
in making use of what
people throw out.
Monkeys love swinging
and climbing, so cage
furniture that enables this
tends to be very well used.
We particularly make use
of old tyres and thick
lengths of rope.
A major hit with the mona monkeys was an old shopping basket strung up from the roof. Their new swing has been a constant source of amusement for them and their keepers, and has sparked endless fun and games.
Monkeys need to play just
as much as humans do, and
in the wild there are
endless opportunities to
exercise their minds and
bodies through play. So for
our captive primates we
We are amused
Geizmo: first into
the new swing
Interest rates rise We have just concluded visits to Rhoko Camp by Chiefs, hunters and womens groups from three surrounding communities .
Our guests from Agoi, Iko Ekperem and Owai came to see CERCOPAN’s operation first‐hand. For the Owai hunters it took a 5‐hour trek through the forest to arrive.
The groups toured the monkey enclosures and education centre, and then spent time with our staff discussing the importance of maintaining a healthy f o re s t f o r f u t u re generations.
These visits represent early discussions that may lead to
deeper partnerships with these villages in the future. Raising the interest on the benefits of sustainable f o r e s t managemen t practices to a community will in time lead to future exchanges to understand more about conservation in practice.
We presently have funding applications in process which, if successful, would allow us to build on the strong interest generated by these visits.
Iko Ekperem
visitors on their
way home
Sylvain, Zena and
CERCOPAN’s poster
presentation
P A G E 5 V O L U M E 2 , I S S U E 8
Racing to freedom
Compassionate conservation With an active research programme at Rhoko, we frequently take the opportunity to present our work at international conferences, to showcase our programme and to gain learnings from practitioners in the same fields. Our Mona Research Coordinator Sylvain Lemoine has just returned from giving a poster presentation at the Compassionate Conservation symposium in Oxford together with Zena Tooze our founder.
The symposium debated ethical issues related to conservation which arise when seen in the light of the welfare of individual animals. As an example, the breeding of rare animals in zoos to ensure the survival
of the species is a less straightforward decision if the evidence is that the individual animals suffer high levels of stress and reduced mortality. Then again, the release of animals into the wild to enhance the well‐being of individual animals may be detrimental to conservation if they carry diseases that threaten the wild populations.
Welfare science and Conservation science are not necessarily in conflict, but they have developed as two independent disciplines. CERCOPAN’s programme, however, is firmly involved in both branches. Originally founded to address the welfare of primates orphaned by the bushmeat trade, the care of each individual has always been at the forefront
of our agenda. Protecting the habitat of the species and reducing hunting to address the original cause of the problem led to CERCOPAN’s growth into a conservation organisation. The reintroduction of animals in captive care back into the wild marries both the welfare and conservation aspects, and this was the subject of Sylvain’s poster.
AAP Stichting provided funding to help both participants attend for which we are very thankful.
our care. The tortoise was being kept as a pet, but was originally a wild tortoise picked up by hunters. The ‘owner’ who had paid money for the tortoise at a market decided he could no longer look after it.
Shelly is a medium sized species of tortoise, found in Nigeria, the Congo and the Ivory Coast. Hingeback tortoises are omnivorous and in the wild eat a variety of molluscs, insects and other invertebrates, fallen fruit and various plants species.
She is currently tucking into a plate of fruit, veggies, grasses, earthworms and snails while we check her over and organise transportation for her to get back home. At her pace it would be a long and dangerous walk.
With no new orphan monkeys rescued or brought to CERCOPAN this month, we can celebrate because that means fewer animals out there suffering from the consequences of the bushmeat trade.
But our reputation in the region for responsible care of wild animals in need did bring us one new arrival.
Shelly, a female Home’s Hinged Tortoise Kinixys homeana a species of African hingeback tortoise has been surrendered into
“…we can celebrate because that means fewer animals out there suffering from the consequences of the bush meat trade.”
Shelly: born to be
WILD!
All photos in this newsletter were taken at CERCOPAN or Iko Esai by staff, volunteers and visitors.
Photo Credits: Amy Baxter, Sylvain Lemoine © Copyright CERCOPAN 2010
Design & Layout by Claire Coulson; Written by Claire Coulson, Amy Baxter Edited by Claire Coulson
WANT TO BE A PART OF IT?
• Stay in touch with our on‐going programme by bookmarking our home page http://www.cercopan.org/ and our Blog site http://cercopan.wildlifedirect.org/ and joining our Facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/cercopan/
• Volunteer for CERCOPAN in either Nigeria or the UK. We offer a range of different programmes so there is something for everyone! Visit our website volunteer section for further details.
• Help CERCOPAN attain corporate funding. If you work for a corporate sponsor who may be interested in funding CERCOPAN please contact [email protected]
• Undertake a sponsored event to raise funds for CERCOPAN. Use the Fundraising Pack on our web site to help you.
• Make a cash donation to CERCOPAN via our website...every little helps!
• Buy a gift for friends or family from the Good Gifts Catalogue (www.goodgifts.org). You can buy a month's supply of fruit for growing CERCOPAN orphan monkeys ‐ called in the catalogue 'A‐peeling Monkeys' for only £20! The price of the gift is passed on to CERCOPAN. So, it is an excellent way of solving your gift problems, and supporting our work! Alternatively visit the CERCOPAN gift shop on our website today.
• Donate useful goods and equipment such as building and fencing materials, veterinary medicines, old laptop computers etc. or services such as printing, blood testing and architectural design.
www.cercopan.org http://cercopan.wildlifedirect.org
http://www.facebook.com/cercopan/