Please take action: Stop the destruction of the Ekuri people’s ancestral rainforest in Nigeria

Dear friends,

We need your urgent support. The Ekuri People’s ancestral land in Nigeria is under threat.

The people of Ekuri live in Cross River State in the southeast corner of Nigeria almost on the border with Cameroon, deep in the heart of one of Nigeria’s last surviving rainforests.

The Ekuri people rely on their ancestral lands and forests for everything.  It provides not only fruits, vegetables and other forest products but also their medicines and shapes their unique culture, language and identity. The Ekuri Initiative NGO was established to protect their forests and successfully brought development benefits to their villages. The Ekuri community has a unique experience of community-based forest management, by which they achieved that the forest on which they depend survived several threats like logging interests. But now this forest and with it the entire Ekuri way of life, is threatened with destruction.

The Governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade has announced the construction of a 260 km superhighway from the coast of the state to a small town called Katsina-ala in Benue State to the north. There is no obvious economic benefit to this project.  Furthermore, the existing Federal Highway from Calabar through Ikom to Obudu already serves all the purposes that the government wants the super highway to achieve and should be upgraded instead.   The superhighway will rip through the heart of the Ekuri rainforest, opening it up to farming, logging and hunting on a massive scale.  In an unprecedented massive land grab, the Governor has seized all the ancestral land of thousands more forest dependent villagers, for 10 km either side of the 6-lane 260 km superhighway!

Proposed_Super_HighwayThis superhighway will obliterate the entire 33,600 ha Ekuri forests, destroying the way of life of these forest communities forever and leaving them homeless. The Ekuri people have already written to the Governor and President Buhari, making it clear they will protect their forests through determined non-violent protests. However, as we write bulldozers are heading to Ekuri to start the process of forest clearing.

THERE IS NO TIME TO WASTE!

Please find below a sample letter to be send to relevant authorities in Nigeria.

We thank you in advance for your support.

Learn more here: www.saveekuriforest.com

 

SAMPLE LETTER & ADDRESSES TO WHICH SEND THE LETTER

Mr. Muhammadu Buhari
President of Nigeria

Mr. Ben Ayade
Cross State Governor

Ms. Amina Mohammed
Federal Minister for Environment 

Dear Sir/Madam,

The people of Ekuri of Cross River State, Nigeria are about to lose their ancestral forests and their entire way of life forever due to the construction of the 260 km 6 lane superhighway.

The superhighway will rip through the heart of the Ekuri rainforest opening it up to farming, logging and hunting on a massive scale.  Worse still, in an unprecedented massive land grab, the Governor has seized all the ancestral land of thousands more forest dependent peoples, for 10 km either side of the superhighway.

As concerned citizens from across the globe, we join the Ekuri people in calling on the Federal Government of Nigeria to:

- Suspend immediately all forest logging and clearance already commenced without an EIA permit from the Federal Ministry of Environment of Nigeria and rescind the related revocation of community land along the superhighway Right of Way.

- Examine all alternative routes for the “super-highway” that avoids destruction of the Ekuri community forests and other forested parts of Cross River State.

- Carry out a thoroughly participatory and transparent review of the ecological, socio-cultural, economic, financial and reputational impacts of the “super-highway” before it precipitates a man-made disaster for Cross River State and Nigeria.

Yours respectfully,

NAME / ORGANIZATION IF RELEVANT/ COUNTRY