CERCOPAN

Category: Cercopan, Education, Nigeria, Rain Forests, Uncategorized | Date: Jul 22 2008 | By: cercopan

by Sagan Friant

The word classroom usually brings to mind images of a four walled room with desks lined up in rows filled with students facing their teacher who stands against the all too familiar backdrop of his/her whiteboard.  Recently, 9 students from the University of Calabar, Department of Forestry and Wildlife and Resources Management visited CERCOPAN’s Rhoko camp where the classroom is everywhere. 

Students learning about sustainable livelihoods with Mike Ekpe Community Liaison Officer

After a long journey to the bush the students arrived at their new home Ebontema, the student accommodation set up at Rhoko, where they settled in for a week of classes in the field!  This week there were no walls, rather the vastness of the surrounding forest.  There is no air conditioning in these classroom’s either, the temperature is hot, the rain is unpredictable, and the mosquitoes and flies pester you throughout the day.  Instead of your legs cramping up from sitting at a desk, your feet may be swollen from hiking in the forest.  To be in class at Rhoko is to truly experience life in “the field”. 

The students were first given an introduction to CERCOPAN’s Rhoko Camp and our role in helping to conserve Nigeria’s primates through sustainable rainforest conservation, community partnerships, education, primate rehabilitation and research.  Since CERCOPAN started with monkeys, I figured that’s what we would do too.

Introductory Lecture at the Rhoko Education Centre 

The students spent the first few days learning about primate taxonomy, distribution, and patterns of diversity.  After spending the previous week visiting CERCOPAN’s sanctuary in Calabar they had become very familiar with the primates of Nigeria, specifically the species that we have on site.  However, primate diversity is much greater than that which is seen in Nigeria and even in Africa.  So we spent a day to learn about what makes a primate different from all other animals, to explore the various regions of the world which they inhabit, the different habitats they have adapted to live in, and the myriad adaptive characteristics that have allowed these primates to diversify and flourish over the past millions of years!  After the lecture I introduced the students to our group of 41 semi-captive mangabeys.  We sat on the viewing platform outside the enclosure and took a very close look at mangabey behaviour, ecology, and physical characteristics, and discussed managbeys in the context of the rest of the primates of the world and how they have adapted to live in Nigeria’s tropical rainforest.  I myself cannot help but to be excited as I describe the different groups and species of primates.  I believe these students took a bit of excitement with them as they explored the world of primate diversity whilst in the forest in which they inhabit.

Mangabeys free-ranging in their open topped enclosure

Our knowledge of primate diversity, however, is hardly complete and it takes new innovative research to help broaden our knowledge of their behavioral ecology conservation needs.  For instance many of the primates at CERCOPAN have been studied very little in the wild and some have never been studied in Nigeria before.  For this reason the students spent the next few days learning and practicing different methods of studying primate behaviour, distribution and density, and assessing the habitat in which they live in.  The students took behavioral data on our monas and mangabeys, did vegetation surveys within the core area, and practiced censusing our nocturnal primate population.  Leah Schien, a visiting MSc student, was able to give a lecture on the often forgotten nocturnal primate populations.  Since she is at Rhoko to census some of our nocturnal primates the students were able to learn about and participate in her research first hand!  Such wildlife monitoring skills are not only important for conserving primates, but can be applied to all animals and used to conserve forest throughout Nigeria and beyond.

After practicing methods of studying forests and the animals that inhabit them, we moved on to a much harder lesson – forest destruction and conservation.  On the last day I took the students on a walk along the edges of the forest to witness the threatening pressures upon it.  We walked along the road and talked about the threats that roads pose by allowing access to loggers and hunters who wouldn’t have before had access.  We discussed about the encroaching farmlands and their effects on the integrity of the forest.  We then reached our destination, a newly felled area for farmland.  The students sat along the log of a massive felled tree and learned about the uniqueness of tropical biodiversity and the conflicts that arise between wildlife and encroaching human populations.  The tone was somber, but the students were intrigued.  They asked a wide variety of thought provoking questions that illustrated that many of them had not only learned something new, but were concerned for the future of Nigeria’s rainforest.

Studying at the forests edge

Finally, after discussing about conserving areas that local human populations rely on to live, we went into the village to visit some of the alternative livelihoods being practiced in the village.  We visited local bee hives for honey production, a snail farm, and discussed technical training that has been given in various fields, and ideas for future avenues for alternative livlihoods.  This was the perfect end to the week as it illustrated how conservation efforts can work in partnerships with local communities to ensure that livelihoods are not being ruined and that the community supports local conservation efforts.

As a volunteer for CERCOPAN I am not permanently based Nigeria.  Depending on the position volunteers tend to come for 1 month to over 3 years.  These students who live in Nigeria and have an interest in wildlife are extremely valuable for the future of conservation as they have the opportunity to carry out long term projects and really see them through.  Having the opportunity to share my passion for conservation with these students was amazing.  I hope they took home new and memorable experiences along with some inspiration.  Maybe someday I will run across them working for wildlife within Nigeria!

UNICAL students saying goodbye at the education centre