The GLF Africa 2026 hybrid conference on 7 May, 2026, themed ‘Stewarding Our Rangelands’, coincided with the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. The event was a global call to action for Africa’s pastoralist regions. The hybrid conference took place in Nairobi, Kenya, and online. Part of the strength of online viewings were made possible to watch parties hosted by GLF local chapters, including ours – the Biodiversity Rescue Club (BRC).
The BRC, host to GLFx Calabar, is a youth-led organization and local chapter of the Global Landscapes Forum. The BRC hosted a watch party with local stakeholders to stream the event live from Calabar, Nigeria, while aligning the discussion with a local theme: “Ecology is the Economy.” This theme was inspired by the conflict that has always existed between environmental sustainability and economic development.
Our GLF Africa watch party brought together 31 people, including people from government agencies, civil society organizations, academics, community leaders (youth and women) and university students, to discuss ways to harmonize economic and urban development with environmental sustainability.
We discussed rangelands, which have long been overlooked as land for grazing with no significant value. In reality, rangelands cover over 50 percent of the Earth’s land surface and are vital for supporting global food security, sustaining livelihoods, preserving wildlife biodiversity and mitigating the climate crisis through carbon sequestration.
We also deeply discussed our own community’s wetlands. Wetlands, too, have been overlooked as wastelands that should be cleared and filled for international markets or tourist centers for high profit. In reality, mangrove wetlands provide thousands of dollars in free services, from storm surge protection to nursery grounds for commercial fisheries and massive carbon sequestration.
During key deliberations, presenters at our watch party strongly critiqued prevailing economic systems that celebrate resource extraction, rapid land conversion and short-term gross domestic product (GDP) growth while completely neglecting long-term environmental degradation and ecological loss.
The dialogue then shifted to local ecological dependencies, highlighted by the Village Head of Esierebom, Chief (Engr.) Ededem Richard Henshaw in his keynote address.
This gathering raised an urgent alarm regarding the rapid degradation of wetlands in Calabar South, where urban sprawl is pushing housing developments into fragile swamp areas, and mangroves are being aggressively cut down for domestic firewood and building materials.
Compounding these threats, ongoing oil activities and general waste pollution are rendering local waters unsafe and destroying vital fish populations.
Underscoring the broader regional danger, Professor Francis M. Nwosu, Dean of the Faculty of Oceanography at the University of Calabar, issued a stark geographic warning, noting that Nigeria’s economy is already severely threatened by deforestation and oil pollution. He emphasized that as a coastal city surrounded by major water systems, Cross River State is among the highest-risk zones prone to devastating future flooding if these protective coastal mangrove buffers are stripped away.
This systemic risk is exacerbated by a widening policy and inclusion gap. Environmental experts and civil society representatives, including Odigha Odigha and Mr. Obongha, expressed deep concern over the declining adherence to mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures in public infrastructure projects. At the same time, youth representatives emphasized that young people remain systemically excluded from critical community decision-making circles, despite being the very generation that will inherit the environmental fallout.
In response to these insights, the watch party quickly shifted from dialogue to structural advocacy, yielding major outcomes and a direct call to action.
Dr. Patrick Akwaji, Head of the Department of Plants and Ecological Studies at the University of Calabar, led a comprehensive, data-driven advocacy proposal to the government.
Together with community stakeholders, the coalition issued a call for the immediate suspension of any development that threatens critical ecosystems, and the strict enforcement of transparent, credible EIAs before any major project implementation.
Ultimately, the watch party concluded with a call for a paradigm shift where environmental protection is no longer treated as an economic cost, but as an indispensable investment.
Organizers urged the state government and international organizations to form active, ongoing partnerships with local communities and civil societies to integrate ecological sustainability directly into future urban planning.
“Ecology is not separate from the economy,” said Akwaji. “Ecology is, in fact, the economy.”
