Cercopan

Founder Canadian Zena Tooze, became passionate about the plight of primates in West Africa when arriving to work for the Cross River National Park as a volunteer. Out of this passion, and her combined background in veterinary nursing and zoology, CERCOPAN (Centre for Education, Research and Conservation of Primates and Nature) was born, which always had education and primate conservation as its primary purpose. Zena's vision was always to form a international centre where young people of Nigeria could learn from each other, in partnership with the international community, and appreciate different way of thinking about their environment. In Nigeria, there wasn't a lot of time left - but there was a love of life and welcome from the Nigerian people which made it all seem possible...

CERCOPAN is now one of the leading environmental non-profit, non-government organizations working for conservation in Cross River State, Nigeria, with excellent relationships with government at both state and federal levels, and with a support organisation in the UK (registered charity 1116955). Our primary areas of work are primate rehabilitation, environmental education, community rainforest conservation, and research. CERCOPAN has two sites, our administrative and primate rehabilitation headquarters in Calabar, and our international research and education centre at Rhoko, Iko Esai (our community partners). Partners include the Cross River State Forestry Commission, Ministry of Environment, the Cross River National Park and the University of Calabar.

The programmes of CERCOPAN focus on primate rehabilitation and conservation, environmental education, biodiversity and primate research and forest conservation which benefits local communities. As a cross cutting theme, capacity building of local staff and Nigerian young people is vital, and to this end we have developed a partnership with the University of Calabar to establish an international, top class Rain Forest Conservation Institute. We have already developed a 'living classroom' concept to complement this at our forest site. Here, at Rhoko, we have established an international research and education centre to help us work towards our overall goal of working for primate conservation and the preservation of biodiversity, as well as educate young people about the rainforest through first hand practical experience of this amazing environment located on their doorstep. Located approximately 90 km north of Calabar, this centre was established as a result of a long term agreement with Iko Esai community, in their community forest close to Rhoko River, from where it gets its name.