A Lagos-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) has, enlightened women journalists on illegal logging activities and climate induced deforestation in Ekuri, Cross River State.
The training, themed “Women for Women to protect Ekuri forest and biodiversity”, held on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, with women from the impacted communities in attendance.
According to RDI, the training aimed to build the capacity of women journalists to confidently report on the impact of logging activities on women to engender policy response and also connect women on the frontlines of impacts of illegal logging with journalists so that their concerns are given adequate coverage in news reports and articles.
In her welcome words, RDI Project officer, Linda Amadi, said that Illegal logging activities in Ekuri forest has been in the news and that the reports are unmistaken in describing the state of the once pristine forest which unfortunately is now a shadow of what it used to be.
Amadi noted however that the challenges that the women contend with as they play the role of providers in Ekuri are hardly captured in news reports when impacts of illegal logging are reported.
She said that despite forming the largest population that suffers the socio-economic situation in Ekuri, in the decision-making processes concerning the forest the Ekuri women are hardly mentioned or consulted.
According to her, The Global Forest Watch recently alerted 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, even as she added that reports indicate that more than 200 truckloads of timber and other exotic wood leave Ekuri every day and efforts by the locals to halt the practice is met with harassment and brute force by security personnel hired by the logging merchants.
She pointed out: “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.”
Speaking on “Reporting women and illegal logging: What is the missing coverage?”, an international journalist, Vanessa Adie Offiong, said that journalists most often engage in armchair 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 recognised 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 criminalise 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 prioritisation of profits over the people.
In his intervention 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.
He listed some of the deficiencies in the laws in Cross River to include 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.
Asigbe revealed 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 to tell 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.”
The highpoint of the training was the agreement by the participants to form a network christened “Women4Women Network on Forest and Biodiversity” and a decision of the Ekuri women to petition the Cross River State House of Assembly on their plight and the way forward.