A LONGING FOR THE PAST
The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world's largest award for grass-roots
activism and environmental achievement. The recipients - and there have been a total of
94 of them since the prize was launched in 1989 - hail from every region of the globe.
Among the profiles of the 2003 award winners is Odigha Odigha, a Nigerian forest
activist and educator. He recalls what it was like as a child to walk to school under the
canopy of the rainforest in Cross River State in southeastern Nigeria.
"You could walk several kilometres without seeing the sun's rays," he says. "You
would only hear the sounds of animals and birds, and see wonderful butterflies, and
come in close contact with nature, run around and pluck some leaves and fruits. As an
adventurous kid, I used to enjoy it so much. And, at that time, you could get into fresh
water, which was so fresh that you could drink it."
The rainforest was a paradise in the eyes of the young boy. It had vast stands of
hardwoods and was home to the world's endangered gorillas. But 40 years later, the
rainforest in Cross River State has become a much different place.
"What we have now is a vast desert encroachment coming in from the north, coming
towards the coastal area," Mr Odigha says. "The trees have gone, trees like mahogany
and ebony. It is a pathetic situation. I am not sure that we have fully come to terms with
what we are losing, what is happening to us as a country."
A century of excessive and largely unchecked logging has had devastating
consequences, says Mr. Odigha, "and today less than ten percent of Nigeria's original
rainforest survives."
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