The Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative welcomes Ekiti State, Nigeria

The expansion of the Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative to include Ekiti State has been a source of great excitement. Nigeria at a Federal level has been a signatory to the Africa Sustainable Commodities Declaration since 2022, and while Edo State has been a member for much longer, the sheer size of Nigeria will mean that implementation of the ASCI Declaration has to happen on a state-by-state basis.

Ekiti State, which is located at the historic heart of Nigeria’s cocoa and timber industries, is looking for a way to both protect its environment and find growth opportunities on which the agricultural sector can be rebuilt. Rural development is one of the government's six core policy objectives. There is a boom in commodity crops such as cocoa and oil palm which need to be aligned with forest protection and reforestation objectives - this can be done because there are real win-wins for Ekiti’s farmers and livelihoods, while keeping its forests standing.

For Ekiti, this means careful and coordinated planning between agriculture and forestry - in the past, an ad-hoc approach had thrown up numerous contradictions, misunderstandings and compromises - and had neither delivered agricultural growth nor slowed forest loss.

ASCI and its principles can be used as a tool to coordinate this planning, and the land use/ land cover survey which has just been completed helps to carefully zone activities to the most suitable locations, and to recognise environmentally sensitive areas, as well as degraded forest land which can be reforested or released for agroforestry, according to local community needs and comparative advantage.

Ekiti is fortunate to have islands of biodiversity such as sacred forests and mountaintops to integrate into these plans – adding to the richness of its protected areas – and the crucial need to protect these sacred areas for community use.

Ekiti State also has Nigeria's only private tree growers’ association, which is helping to promote the growing of both exotic timber species and endangered indigenous trees. Joining up all of these parts in a consolidated action plan under ASCI means that Ekiti can realise its agricultural vision of secure livelihoods for its population, whilst preserving the forests and sacred groves for its population of the future, and for the benefit of the world in terms of carbon sequestration and protected biodiversity.

ASCI's facilitator in Ekiti State is Dr. Yemi Akinyugha, Technical Advisor to the Governor on Green Economy and Ecological Matters. To support the national platform please contact him on yemi.akinyugha (at) gmail.com For more information about ASCI please visit www.africasustainablecommodities.net