Thousands of communities are losing forests and wildlife throughout West and Central Africa through poverty. Many communities clear large areas of forest and sell their forests to logging companies for a quick income. The results can be devastating to the forests and village livelihoods. Farmland becomes eroded, streams dry up, medicinal plants are lost and revenue from the sale of timber and rattans is also lost. This often hits the poorest people in the villages hardest.

As the deforestation accelerates, sustainable forest use is no longer a luxury but a necessity for the livelihoods of thousands of people in Africa. The Iroko Foundation was established in 1999 to assist Africa's non-government organisations (NGOs or charities) in their goal to support communities who recognise that well managed forests and wildlife are essential for their own livelihoods. All the Foundation's partners support village livelihoods activities that promote forest conservation.

Cercopan is a Nigerian NGO working together with a community who owns a large area of forest to set up a wildlife sanctuary for endangered monkeys. They are also setting up a community development fund and a research centre for rain forest conservation education. With Cercopan's support, the communities hope to benefit from tourism revenue, money from a guaranteed supply of forest products and improved infrastructure.

Few people know about this great work and the work of so many other groups because of the difficulty of communication in this part of the world. Thus many such NGOs find it difficult to raise funds for their work or to find technical expertise to implement their projects more effectively. It is also difficult for them to share their experiences with other similar groups or with the governments that make policies affecting people and forests in the areas where they work.

The Iroko Foundation is working at all levels to raise the awareness of the projects carried out by these NGOs and supports them with funding and technical skills so that they can meet the needs of the people they work with. Sharing experiences with government, donors and other NGOs is an important part of this support particularly for other organisations tackling similar conservation challenges elsewhere.

The Iroko is one of the largest trees in the African rainforest with a crown that reaches the upper canopy and is a common right across tropical Africa. It is well known internationally for its excellent durable hard timber. Locally, many villagers see the trees as sacred and believe that they are inhabited by forest spirits. Thus in spite of its economic value, it is often one of the last rainforest trees to remain in a deforested landscape.

Iroko is the European partner for a number of African grassroot NGOs. At present, we only work in Cross River State in Nigeria where we have three NGO partners. Iroko assists these partners with international networking to raise the profiles of the projects and influence environmental policies both on a national and an international level.

The Foundation also works hard to strengthen the effectiveness of its partners by giving them support with

	strategic planning
	project and organisational management
	fundraising and
	technical expertise