ERA/FoEN Forest and  Biodiversity thematic area was created in response to the alarming rate of deforestation and invasion of community territories through corporate capture, neoliberal policies and patriarchal systems that undermine right to life, livelihoods and a saner climate. The  program campaigns for an alternative vision of how forests should be protected for sustainable use based on respect for the rights of communities who are the best custodian of forests and its abundant resources.

We work with forest dependent communities, and vulnerable groups who are directly impacted by unsustainable environmental practices like unregulated logging, industrial tree plantations, construction of dams and super highways, oil pipeline right of way, forest fires, and the new eco-business called REDD. This invasion of community territories also have serious impacts on biological diversity. We support forest peoples’ struggles to defend their lands and livelihoods.

The Community Forest Watch (CFW) as a network was formed by the programme  to support forest peoples to build their own capacities to claim and exercise their human rights as well as monitor and challenge any unsustainable environmental  practices and forces that undermine their collective rights at the local, national and internationally level.

The  programme  has contributed to, and continues supporting, CFW- the growing community peoples’ movement whose voice is gaining influence and attention in over one hundred communities (100) across 11 states in Nigeria. We achieve our goal by countering top-down policies and projects that threaten the rights of forest peoples, promoting  community-based forest management methods, ensuring equity and promoting gender justice. We advocate that forest Forests are owned and controlled by forest peoples in ways that ensure sustainable livelihoods, equity and well-being based on respect for their rights, knowledge, cultures and identities.

We believe that Plantations are not Forests and entrusting Community forest to multinational companies by Government or putting a price tag on forest is a dangerous eco-business.