Emerald Forest Reserve designated global Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) following IITA Forest Center–led scientific assessments
The Emerald Forest Reserve (EFR), located in Ikoyi-Osun, Osun State, Nigeria, has been officially designated a global Key Biodiversity Area (KBA), following years of rigorous, IITA Forest Center–led scientific research and biodiversity monitoring contribution.
The Emerald Forest Reserve (EFR), located in Ikoyi-Osun, Osun State, Nigeria, has been officially designated a global Key Biodiversity Area (KBA), following years of rigorous, IITA Forest Center–led scientific research and biodiversity monitoring contribution. The designation, endorsed in 2024 by the global KBA Partnership, coordinated by the KBA Secretariat with BirdLife International as a core partner, recognizes EFR’s exceptional ecological value and its critical role in conserving globally significant species.
The Emerald Forest Reserve is located within the Abayomi Farm Estates, owned and managed by the Abayomi family for over two decades. The Abayomi family has demonstrated unwavering commitment to biodiversity conservation safeguarding a 120 hectares indigenous forest using pragmatic, community-based conservation approaches. Working closely with local communities and conservation partners—including the IITA Forest Center—the family helped halt logging, hunting, and poaching by transforming former loggers and hunters into custodians of the forest, supporting them with alternative livelihoods such as palm oil processing, beekeeping, agroforestry, furniture making, and tree seedling production.
Central to the KBA designation is the Emerald Forest Reserve’s importance for the conservation of the endemic and endangered Ibadan Malimbe (Malimbus Ibadanensis). Through long-term ornithological monitoring, the IITA Forest Center documented repeated sightings, acoustic calls, nesting attempts, and breeding behavior of the species within the reserve. These records represent some of the most comprehensive and scientifically validated evidence of the species’ persistence in the wild.