Calabar, Cross River State-
Determined to spotlight the peculiar challenges of women in Ekuri forest community in Cross River State, the Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) has organized a training on illegal logging activities and climate induced deforestation to elicit in-depth reports.
The training themed Women for Women to protect Ekuri forest and biodiversity held on Wednesday 25 March 2026 at De Grande Hotel and Rooftop in Calabar, the Cross River State.
In her welcome to the participants, RDI Project officer, Linda Amadi said that the reports of Illegal logging activities in Ekuri forest have largely missed the impacts that women experience hence the decision of RDI to engage women journalists to take up the gauntlet of reporting them.
Amadi said that a Global Forest Watch report had revealed that illegal logging activities has cost Ekuri and the environs the loss of more than 540 square miles of its tree cover as at 2024 and that more than 200 truckloads of timber and other exotic wood leave Ekuri still exit Ekuri every day despite efforts by the locals to halt the practice.
She revealed that, “women in Ekuri are mainly farmers who depend on the forest resources for food and medicine but due to illegal logging activities that have ravaged the once pristine forest they are unable to access the forest for their basic needs. When it is inevitable, the women wander far into the forest in search of fuel wood, medicinal plants and other necessities to take care of their families. These tasks that are socially imposed on them make them vulnerable to harassment”
In her presentation on Reporting women and illegal logging: What is the missing coverage? Vanessa Adie Offiong, an international journalist said that most journalists often engage in arm chair reporting on matters that concern illegal logging because they do not have the funding to visit such places.
Offiong opined that a journalist who knows his/her onions could look at stories concerning the gradual disappearance of particular fruits or foods that are indigenous to a particular community and use that as entry point to a big story.
She said that a very good story would for instance, be a day with a woman in Ekuri, which would include following the daily chores of the woman including the distance she covers in the forest trying to cater for the home.
She encouraged journalists to identify funding sources to execute such stories so as to make the desired impact of bringing change to impacted women and communities.
Dr. Chioma Okonkwo, an environmental biochemist at University of Port Harcourt in her presentation on Impacts of illegal logging on biodiversity and food sovereignty, explained the impacts of illegal logging on food sovereignty, food security, alerting that these issues are often overlooked when illegal logging is discussed.
Okonkwo re-echoed Offiong’s position that particular seeds and fruits and shrubs in places like Ekuri have become scarce or totally unavailable due to the reckless plundering of the forest. She went on to cite a recent report which showed that an estimated 91,000 tons of timber leave Cross River State annually due to illegal logging.
She also argued that the situation puts additional burdens on women who are typically farmers in affected communities like Ekuri.
Sharing similar stories on the environmental challenges women face in South Africa and how they fare, Ndivile Mokena of Gender CC-South Africa explained that due to sustained advocacy, women in South Africa are increasingly recognized as key custodians of natural resources, driving urban forestry, biodiversity conservation, and shaping policy pathways.
Mokoena said that climate change and urbanisation are the real issues in South Africa reshaping cities, and that the leadership of women is reshaping environmental management by blending community action, science, and governance.
Explaining the role of the media in advancing the role of women, she opined that the journalists must amplify women’s grassroots leadership stories and expose gaps in policy implementation and resource allocations. They must also promote solutions and drive accountability by holding policymakers to gender and climate commitments.
Another discussion on Connected Struggles – The Plight of Environmental and Land Rights Defenders was led by Javier Garate, Senior US Policy Advisor – Land and Environmental Defenders at Global Witness who explained that the media is crucial in documenting the impact of illegal logging and mining activities in Africa.
He pointed out that Global Witness documented the dire situation in Ekuri in 2025 and observed the same patterns of threats faced by women land and environment defenders in Chile, a South American country and many other Global South countries.
Some of the familiar patterns he said that the organisation noticed include cases of threats to activists, exploitative laws that criminalize agitation for environmental justice and the use of social media to bully activists.
He recommended more independent news stories of the situation in impacted communities, in view of the close collaboration of the state and extractive firms and their prioritization of profits over the people.
Speaking on Exploring Policy and Legal Options in Addressing Illegal Logging in Ekuri: The CRS Forestry Law Deficiencies, Asigbe Anakan of Cypress Global Health explained that Illegal logging is a pervasive problem, causing enormous damage to forests, local communities, and the economies of producer countries.
Anakan said some of the deficiencies in the laws in Cross River are weak enforcement of existing laws, Lack of government accountability and possible complicity, Violation of community forest rights, Poor coordination between institutions, and inadequate monitoring and surveillance. Others are policy loopholes and access problems, weak protection for forest defenders, lack of economic alternatives, absence of strong penalties and deterrence, and poor integration of community-based forest management.
He disclosed that Illegal logging is a driving force for a number of environmental issues such as deforestation, soil erosion and biodiversity loss which can drive larger-scale environmental crises such as climate change and other forms of environmental degradation.
For women in Ekuri he recommended that they ensure women participation in every decision-making stage regarding logging with focus on handling illegal logging problems within their community forest. They must also engage in political activities to ensure their voices are heard and demands driven to sustainable logical conclusions.
Because of the global nature of the Ekuri campaign against illegal logging, he recommended that the fight against illegal logging should no longer be only in the forest but also online so that they can become some of the most powerful voices in that digital space promoting #saveEkuriForest, #womenforforst or #stopillegallogging, among others.
Augustina Todo, a journalist who had visited Ekuri several times used the opportunity to recount her perception of the environment in Ekuri and the particular state of the women. She also revealed that some exotic animal species, especially the birds have started disappearing due to the activities of the loggers.
At the event, five women from Ekuri had the opportunity of telling their stories. Agatha Chris Egot explained that the training represents the first time Ekuri women would be given the opportunity to speak of their plight.
According to her, “The situation in Ekuri is serious and no government institution or even non-governmental oganisation has approached us to attend a formal meeting to air our views. This is a learning opportunity for us so that we can go back home and mobilize other women”
At the end of the training participants agreed to form a network which they named Women4Women Network on Forest and Biodiversity and also disclosed plans to petition the Cross River State House of Assembly on the illegal logging in Ekuri forest.
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