Safeguarding forest elephants: Rangers and communities lead conservation in Nigeria’s Omo Forest

The Omo Forest Reserve, an important biodiversity hotspot in Southwest Nigeria, is home to endangered forest elephants and diverse plants and animals. Thanks to dedicated conservation efforts, there have been no recorded cases of elephant poaching in the Reserve for over ten years.

Earlier this season, during activities related to World Ranger Day, Wild Africa, one of IITA-CGIAR’s partners, organized a reporting trip in collaboration with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF). The purpose was to highlight ongoing efforts to protect wildlife and address human-elephant conflicts. Ranger Emmanuel Olabode led climate change and environmental journalists on a visit to River Omo, Erin Camp Forest, and the surrounding core conservation areas where elephants roam.

“Encroachment is one of the problems we face,” Olabode said. “Logging and farming have reduced animal habitats, forcing elephants to migrate. Still, they are resilient animals that carry ancestral memories of their paths and tend to return to safer grounds like Itase, where human disturbance is minimal.”

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