Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
Last week CERCOPAN began the 2008 education outreach programme in urban schools in and around Calabar. Jerry started the education programme in 1997 and in its 11th year it is more popular than ever. Over the next 6 months he will visit two schools daily, each for approximately 1 hour 30 minutes, lecturing on the topic “Wildlife protection, the forest and climate change”. There are 80-100 children in each class and as he hopes to visit between 50 and 70 schools, this means that he will effectively reach out to over 5000 children.
During his talk, Jerry explains CERCOPAN’s role in protecting monkeys and their forest habitat, the importance and interactions between wildlife and the forest, why monkeys do not make good pets and the benefits and functions of tropical rainforest to society. At the end of his presentation, every child is provided with a handout that they can take home and use to persuade others to change their attitudes towards wildlife. Furthermore, as a follow up, teachers from each school are requested to repeatedly reinforce the message that students should not keep monkeys as pets and that they should choose wisely whenever they opt to consume bushmeat.
In 2007 Jerry won the Charles Southwick Conservation Education Commitment award, which he will collect at the International Primate Society congress in Edinburgh this year. We are all extremely proud of Jerry and are very pleased that his years of hard work and utter dedication have been recognized. As part of the prize, Jerry was given a cash reward to be spent on any aspect of the education programme that he considered appropriate. Always keen to motivate and reward the children, Jerry decided to use this prize to purchase trophies that were presented to schools at our 2007 World Environment Day rally. The rally was attended by thousands of children and involved a parade, school inspections, essay contest, carnival and drama competition, all related to wildlife and environmental protection. The rally is held every other year and will next take place in July 2009, yet Jerry is already making plans and is determined it will be bigger and better than ever!
It seems that no sooner we manage to find space in quarantine for one monkey, another one arrives. Last Wednesday morning we heard about a baby Putty whose owner was looking to sell the animal. I waited for Jerry to return from one of his school visits and then the two of us headed out to the man’s home, armed with education leaflets and a travel box.
We arrived to find the baby in a poor state; wet, muddy, covered in faeces and tethered so tightly that she was unable to move more than a few centimetres. Indeed, the cord around the baby’s middle was restricting her bladder to such an extent that she was urinating almost constantly. Unfortunately, the owner of the animal was not on the premises and therefore Jerry had no choice but to try to negotiate her release over the phone. Despite lengthy discussion, the man was absolutely adamant that we could not take the Putty without a face to face meeting.
Obviously I was not happy leaving the monkey tethered for even a few hours, so despite protests from the staff on site, we cut the cord and transferred her to the travel box. I had no option other than to leave, but the guilt I felt all the way to CERCOPAN was almost overpowering and it took every ounce of strength not to simply rush back and rescue her. I knew our actions were for the best however, as when we are able to educate the owners and they hand over an animal willingly, they are generally less likely to replace it with another in the future.
Jerry returned later that evening but the man was not on site and his staff asked Jerry to be there the following day at 6am. At 6am the owner spoke to Jerry, accepted the educational material and requested that he be able to consult his lawyer before handing over the animal. After speaking to his lawyer and another visit from Jerry, the man subsequently demanded that he be given the opportunity to visit CERCOPAN before making any decisions (although he was not free to do so in the near future due to time constraints). Jerry travelled to his house again and again, leaving home at 5am in an attempt to catch the man before work, returning during the day hoping the he may be there for lunch and even checking back on his way home at night. Despite phone call after phone call we were no closer to rescuing the baby monkey, but at least the trips were allowing us to ensure that she had both food and water.
Finally, on Saturday morning Jerry and I made the difficult decision that should we fail to confiscate the baby by the end of the day, we would return first thing on Monday morning with the authorities to take her by force. At 1pm Jerry, Uche and myself arrived at the house, only to find that once again the owner was not at home. After several phone calls, we were asked to return at 5pm and when we did, we were told that the man was asleep and could not be disturbed. At 5.30 we all finally gave up and went home for dinner, but before I had a chance to put a pot on the stove, Jerry rang to inform me that the owner had requested we return. Once we were finally able to meet and talk with the man inside his home, it became very apparent that he had a great deal of concern for his pet and simply wanted to make sure that we would be taking her somewhere suitable. He had bought the Putty from one of his staff who had shot her mother for meat, but due to the nature of his job he was rarely at home and had been forced to leave her in the care of others. Over an hour of questions followed and just after 7.15pm we drove out of his gate with the baby and firm promises that the owner would discourage his staff and colleagues from keeping and/or shooting monkeys.
Back at CERCOPAN, volunteer Sagan helped me to give the baby a bath, clean out the travel box and prepare fruit and milk. I returned home exhausted, but with a real feeling of achievement, with persistence, determination and extremely dedicated staff anything really is possible.
On behalf of everyone here at CERCOPAN, thank you so much to Antonio, Theresa and Cathy for your donations. The donation from Theresa will be used to supply our new babies with milk and vital drugs and those from Antonio and Cathy will support our environmental education outreach programme in Calabar and surrounding rural areas.
As a non-profit making NGO we really are utterly reliant upon the generosity of individuals, companies and foundations to undertake our vital work here in Nigeria. Consequently, everything we are able to achieve is thanks to people like you. Thanks again
Yesterday, another orphan primate, an infant Mona named J.B, entered the gates of CERCOPAN. Abraham, our ever vigilant night security guard had passed a compound and observed the monkey riding on the back of a dog.
After speaking to Abraham, Jerry and Uche drove to the site hoping to persuade J.B’s owners to release him into our care. In the end, I would say that this animal was actually more of a donation than a confiscation as the family did not hesitate to hand him over once Uche and Jerry explained why primates should not be kept as pets. Indeed, the head of the family even requested permission to visit CERCOPAN HQ today so that they can learn more about primates!
The owners dog however, was not as keen for us to take J.B away and ran after the travel box whining. J.B spent all of his early life playing with and suckling from the dog and so it will be vital once he has had all of his vaccinations and tests to find him a new friend so that he will not be lonely.
J.B is our 7th new primate since the middle of October and our premises are becoming increasingly crowded. If this continues over the coming weeks, we may be forced to construct new enclosures or to extend our existing facilities in order to deal with the sheer number of animals. In addition, the sudden influx of primates is placing tremendous strain on our financial resources as the price of primate food has almost doubled in the last year.
It has been another amazingly busy week at CERCOPAN and despite trying every day to find the time to write our blog, this is the first spare minute I have actually had! The highlight of the last week was the arrival of another Mangabey on Wednesday, this time a 7 month old infant male. The call came in at around 9.00am, from Abraham, one of our night security guards. On his way home from work, he had spotted the baby playing with a dog and a group of children in someone’s backyard. As soon as I put down the phone, Richard, Jerry and Egu (one of our primate keepers), prepared a travel box and headed off in the truck to meet Abraham. Speed is always imperative with confiscations, even a slight delay can mean that the animal is no longer on view, or worse still, it has disappeared altogether.
The team arrived at the compound to find a tiny Mangabey, drinking from a bowl of stagnant water. The monkey, later known to be called “Murphy”, was not chained, but looked very malnourished and dirty. After introducing the team as CERCOPAN employees, Jerry asked to speak with the owner of the monkey. Nobody immediately stepped forward, so our staff handed out educational materials, including a poster entitled “Why monkeys do not make good pets” whilst they waited. After about 15 minutes a man approached Jerry and proclaimed that he was the rightful owner of the animal, having bought the creature from a hunter and subsequently paid for its feed.
Despite Jerry’s generally very persuasive manner and his repeated pleas for the monkey to be donated to CERCOPAN, the owner stubbornly refused to part with the Mangabey without some form of financial compensation. This is a common problem, as people tend to feel that they should be repaid for having bought and fed the animal. In most cases, the owners relent once they are certain that we will not pay, but this man held firm and threatened that he would rather kill the monkey and go to jail than hand him over for free.
As time passed, the crowd grew and tempers began to fray, with all bystanders supporting the owners claim to compensation. Jerry however, remained calm, firm and patient, explaining repeatedly that buying the monkey constituted trading in endangered wildlife and that we would rather solve the problem via calm discussion than involve the police. After approximately two hours of negotiating, the mood finally changed and the owner handed Murphy to Richard, along with a smile and a hand shake. This little Mangabey is very lucky that we found him when we did, given that he is approximately half the size that he should be at his age. Thankfully he is already taking to the bottle well, so I am sure that it will not be too long before he catches up to his age mates at CERCOPAN.
There are many components which have contributed to the success of our community programme, but the most important has been establishing royalties, community development projects and employment. In 2006, we started the sustainable livelihoods program in Iko Esai and worked with the youth association to sponsor 9 men and 9 women in alternative livelihood apprenticeships (driving, sewing, baking). We also trained and sponsored 4 groups of men and women for training in snail farming, bread baking workshops and small business development.
Bread making training in Iko Esai Our latest project is to build a community centre in the village. The centre will include a visitor area, small library with reading rooms and a classroom/ meeting room. We hope to hold adult literacy classes at night (after people have returned from farm), health seminars about HIV and the benefits of clean water etc and sustainable livelihoods training. The centre will also be used as a centre for conservation education where we will offer lectures and show films about wildlife. When I first announced the building of the community centre to the Chiefs council a few months ago, everyone became deadly quiet. After a few moments the clan head, Chief Etan spoke and said “Sometimes it is impossible to put into words how you feel”. He then disappeared and was away quite some time before returning with a grin on his face brandishing a large bunch of bananas. In my own country we say it with flowers, but it seems in Iko Esai, when words are simply not enough, you say it with bananas.
Members of the Chiefs Council - Centre Chief Owai, (Traditional ruler), Left Chief Etan (Clan Head) A couple of days ago, Chief Etan and Chief Owai (the traditional ruler) took me to visit the land that they are donating for the centre. It was difficult to tell which of us was most excited. Obviously it will be a long process and this was only the first step, but from small beginnings big things can grow. We are now seeking funds in order to complete the centre, watch this space over the coming months to read about our progress.
Claire, Richard and Mike (Community Liaison Officer) visiting the new Community Centre site
This is me, Claire Coulson, Deputy Director transferring Mickey and Big Qua to their outdoor enclosure. CERCOPAN is dedicated to primate conservation through the rehabilitation of endangered primates, environmental education, forest protection, and research. CERCOPAN’s Director Zena Tooze, founded the project in 1995. Based in Calabar, Cross River State, CERCOPAN is now a non-governmental non-profit organisation with charity registration in the UK and in progress in Nigeria. The forest site at Rhoko (near the host community of Iko Esai) is a Centre for Research, Education and Conservation and isnow also growing ecotourism destination. FOREST CONSERVATION CERCOPAN has secured the protection of over 20,000 hectares of tropical rainforest in partnership with the local community—Nigeria has lost over 90% of its rainforests and more than half of the remaining 10% is found within Cross River State. These forests, along with those in Southwest Cameroon, are collectively known as the “Cross River Rainforests”, and are regarded as one of Africa’s 5 forest biodiversity hotspots. RESCUE AND REHABILITATION OF FOREST PRIMATES
Mona monkey mottie when he arrived on 05/03/07
Mottie on 12/04/07 after only one month of care at Cercopan
CERCOPAN has over 150 primates of 6 different species in various stages of rehabilitation, most of them orphaned by the bush meat trade. Three of these (the Sclater’s guenon, Preuss’ guenon and the red-eared guenon)are endangered and only found in this region of Africa. They represent the future for /in situ /captive breeding in these highly endangered primates. These primates serve as a focus for education, and act as ambassadors for conservation. Due to the illegal bushmeat trade combined with CERCOPAN’s very successful education campaign, more and more primates enter the gates of CERCOPAN every month. Consequently the primate rehabilitation facilities at Rhoko and Calabar are full. CERCOPAN plans to expand their facilities on a new site, building more enclosures and a larger education centre in the near future to meet this demand. On the 1st November 2007 history was made by CERCOPAN. 3 Mona guenons were released (with radio tracking collars) into the core protected area at Rhoko, our forest site where biodiversity and primate research is carried out. These were the first ever primates to be released in West Africa (and our research assistants are following them and collecting data). This exciting data will help with subsequent releases CERCOPAN is planning over the next few years. EDUCATION Education is an integral and vital part of our programme, both in rural and urban environments. Each term we conduct outreach programmes in over 50 schools and 2 universities. Conservation Clubs are functioning in 4 schools and 2 universities. CERCOPAN also has a Calabar-based conservation club since 2003 comprising of over 25 members. The group consists of highly motivated and interested students from secondary schools in Calabar. CERCOPAN receives over 30,000 visitors a year at Calabar and Rhoko. Depending on the age and understanding of the visitor, the goal is for visitors to take away a few simple messages about conservation and primates.
Senior Education Officer, Jerry teaching children about the importance of conservation
COMMUNITY CONSERVATION THROUGH DEVELOPMENT We firmly believe in working closely and cooperatively with our host community and their neighbours. CERCOPAN strives to ensure excellent community relations through a regular community newsletter and the employment of several staff dedicated to community development including a Community Programme Officer, Education Assistant and Small Scale Micro-enterprise advisor. In addition, twenty one of our thirty five Nigerian staff are from Iko Esai. CERCOPAN has begun working with three main target groups in the community; women, youths and hunters, helping them to earn an alternative income. These micro-enterprises will include activities such as snail farming, bee keeping, bread making and basket weaving and will be at a very local, low cost level providing a source of food for the community. |
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