Education
Environmentalist calls for forest reserve preservation in Bayelsa – EnviroNews
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Project Manager, Fossil Politics, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Mr. Cadmus Otake-Ende, has called for preservation of forests in Bayelsa State to protect the environment for generations yet unborn.
He stated this at a Community Dialogue and Engagement on accelerating nature and climate action to advance Nigeria’s net zero and ’30×30′ targets with the people of Opume on Friday, October 9, 2026, in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa.
According to him, HOMEF aims to engage the community people of Obumanum forest reserve, adding that the project is made up of all the communities around the forest reserve area.
“Our focus is to enlighten the people about the importance and benefit of their forest.
“This project is accelerating climate actions and nature positive response to net zero 30×30 project target in Nigeria, so the focus of the meeting is just to educate and engage the community to have their acceptance.
“It is also to educate them on why they should have their communities involved, the importance of them conserving and protecting their forest against the impact of climate change on their environment.
‘As we know, forest is one of the mitigating factors against climate change issues, and it has been observed that the people of this area have kept their forest over a long period of time.
“They were selected to be educated, to get their consent in handling reserving, and afterwards operate the forest in accordance with national standard.
“The project is not just involving only HOMEF alone, it involves other partners and we have partners, who will handle the issues of skill acquisition and accelerating business concepts that are rooted in communities,” he said.
He said that the group also planned to restore the forest, which would be done by the National Conservation Foundation (NCF) as another aspect of the project.
On his part, King Douglas Onungu of Igbika Ogbema Community, in Nembe local government areas, said the forest, which had been upgraded to national park status, is very far from the state capital.
Douglas, Chairman of Obumanum Forest Reserve Environmental Protection and Management Committee in Nembe and Ogbia local government areas, said the Bayelsa government had not made any effort to show that the place is a park.
“When people come in there, they say they can go and kill wild animals because there is no signpost showing that it is a reserved forest.
“We have been saying that this is a reserved forest but they insist it is not.
“Nobody has shown any concern in Bayelsa State, that this place is a forest reserve, by significantly putting up a signpost for people not to destroy it,” he said.
He urged the Bayelsa government and the federal government to provide access roads to ensure that people kept off the area as a government approved reserved area.
In his remarks, Mr. Ayarite Ibika, the Vice Chairman of Okoroba Community Development Committee, commended HOMEF for finding time to sensitise the people on use of environment and ecosystem for the benefit of individuals.
In her speech, Mrs Susan Kilete, a community leader said that because of the predatory nature of man, and how they have treated the environment, the wild animals have left the forest.
According to her, they played with the animals in the communities in their teens but today, they are nowhere to be found because of activities of individuals.
By Frank Shadrack
