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The environment knows no borders
Smithers-based One Sky works in Canada and abroad
As you walk down Second Ave. in Smithers, past a stuccoed A-frame building, you might not imagine that e-mails, phone calls, ideas—and people—are flying back and forth inside between this picturesque town in B.C.’s northwest and Africa. This is the home of One Sky – the Canadian Institute of Sustainable Living.
When you walk into the office, you get the sense that the people involved see themselves as part of a global village. African music is playing, people are joking in languages picked up in travels across the globe, but perhaps most importantly, words like “partnership” and “solidarity” are used frequently. It is “we” and “together” instead of “us and them”. Connections are being made between environmental challenges and solutions here at home and overseas.
In fact, “The Environment Knows no Borders” is the slogan for a One Sky project based in Cross River State, Nigeria. For most B.C. residents, Nigeria is another far-flung African nation that we may hear about on the news now and then. But for participants in this One Sky project, Cross River State in the southeast corner of Nigeria is a place of good friends and tropical rainforests worth fighting for.
One Sky became interested in working in Cross River after a tour of the country and meeting with environmental organizations. Mike Simpson, executive director of One Sky, was particularly impressed by the environmental organizations there, which have won awards for their environmental activism. Most of these organizations became active in the early ‘90s after extensive illegal logging severely impacted local communities, many of which depend on the forest for their daily living. After months of planning between One Sky and Nigerian environmental organizations, initial conversations evolved into the Cross River Environment (CRE) program, supported by the Canadian International Development Agency.
The program builds on the success of five Nigerian environmental organizations, working to improve the environment and affect environmental policy. It includes both Nigerian and Canadian partners, who—besides keeping the local travel agents busy—connect Canadians with expertise and commitment to Nigerians hard at work to protect their environment. Five Canadian environmental organizations are partnered with similar organizations in Nigeria to conduct projects, share expertise and innovation across cultures, through eco-tourism, community forestry, micro-credit and ecosystem-based planning.
Larry McCulloch, owner of a Smithers-based forest management company is partnered with Living Earth Nigeria Foundation, an organization that does community forestry, environmental education and sustainable income-generating activities. “From previous experience I had working in Africa, I knew that the people there would be seriously interested in protecting the forests upon which their livelihoods depend,” explains McCulloch. “And in going to Nigeria, it’s clear that there’s almost no natural forest left and animal life—particularly keystone species like gorillas and elephants—are extremely scarce. That’s heart-rending for a forester to see.”
After decades of extensive and uncontrolled logging of tropical rainforests, almost all of Nigeria’s remaining forests can be found in Cross River State under a system of protected areas and community forests. However many challenges remain. Currently, only 200 Cross River gorillas are left, their habitat eroded by illegal logging and unsustainable harvesting of forest resources by local communities.
Together, McCulloch and his partners in Nigeria are working to improve planning and local use of forests through a model of ecosystem-based planning that helps communities identify which areas of the forest can sustain higher levels of use and which need to be protected and nurtured.
John Kelson of Smithers-based Greenheart Conservation Company, is working with a Nigerian partner organization to promote eco-tourism in Cross River through the building of “canopy walkways”—towers and walkways of wood and aluminum that take tourists and researchers up into the canopy of the rainforest. “We live in a global village” says Kelson. “We have common interests as Nigerians and Canadians in solutions to environ-mental problems.
” Communities where the walkway is proposed are hoping that the walkway will bring sustainable ways of earning incomes for now and future generations.
One Sky is hoping to create more linkages between Canadians, the international community and Nigeria by hosting a renewable energy conference in this oil-rich nation in November 2004.
“ Deforestation and pollution are two of the most serious problems in Nigeria,” says Rebecca Rolfe, One Sky youth intern. “But the problems are on such a different scale. The challenge is to ‘leapfrog’ technologies—for example, going from no electricity for many rural villages, bypassing fossil fuels and going straight to renewable energy.”
The Cross River Environment project is one of the many projects that One Sky is involved with at home and overseas. The office is bustling with energy, with seven new international interns, one summer student, various overseas and local staff.
One Sky invites the public to drop by their office or peruse their website, to see how to get involved in environmental solutions working across borders.
one sky quick facts
One Sky—The Canadian Institute of Sustainable Living works to promote sustainable living globally. One Sky works in Canada and in partnership with organizations in Sierra Leone and Nigeria, in the field of environment, development, education and human rights.
They are located at 3768 2nd Ave. in Smithers, B.C.
Tel: (250) 877-6030
E-mail: info@onesky.ca
Website: “http://www.onesky.ca
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