Reasons To Be Cheerful · 19 hours ago

Former Poachers Are Protecting One of Nigeria’s Last Rainforests

For fifteen years, Sunday Abiodun read the forest the way his father taught him - a broken twig, a sudden silence - and used that knowledge to hunt. Now he uses those same instincts to find hidden snares and track the poachers who still enter Omo Forest Reserve, one of Nigeria's last rainforests. The Nigerian Conservation Foundation recognized what others might have overlooked: that the people who know a place most intimately are often the ones best positioned to save it. "It's just a change of mindset," says wildlife veterinarian Dr. Mark Ofua - "from being a killer of animals to a protector of animals." And as Abiodun works with nearby communities to explain why pangolins and vultures matter, the cycle his grandfather set in motion is quietly becoming something new: his children will inherit not a tradition of hunting, but one of stewardship.