The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), Calabar office, has listed environmental education, watershed restoration, advocacy campaigns and capacity building as some of the ways it has touched lives in Cross River State so far.
According to a report released by NCF, year 2017 began with meetings and consultations between NCF and government ministries, as well as other agencies and civil society groups.
“This was in a bid to reaffirm NCF’s commitments to protecting the environment,” it noted.
Environmental education programme in schools, as an integral component of bringing up children to the consciousness of managing and caring for the environment, was one of the areas the foundation concentrated on.
The report added that 24 water points were constructed in six communities at the Becheve Nature Reserve (BNR) project site to ensure that the communities have fresh water for domestic use all year-round.
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To build and strengthen existing partnerships with relevant agencies and groups within Cross River, NCF embarked on visits to see how it could work with government and civil society groups as well as private investors to ensure a sustainable forest management through education and enlightenment programmes.
Lending its voice to the campaign to save the Cross River rainforest from the construction of a 275.344km Calabar-Ikom-Katsina-Ala superhighway, NCF facilitated press conferences and sensitised communities to stand against the project, more so as due process in terms of community consultations and compensations were ignored.
Other life-touching projects by the foundation include establishment of tree nursery at BNR in Obanliku local government area to increase carbon sink, reduce deforestation and encourage tree regeneration and adaptation to climate change within the project communities.
This exercise is also to help improve and protect community water shed.
