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CERCO-NEWS
                            V O L U M E     1 ,   I S S U E   3                               D E C E M B E R    2 0 0 9




                         Please unirate here!
INSIDE THIS
ISSUE:



                                                          on a patch of pee in large
Please unirate       1                                    numbers—more than 50
here!                                                     sometimes. You may have
                                                          seen a photograph of this
                                                          spectacular display, but now
From the Direc-      2                                    you know the cause!
tor
                                                                A very common sign all
                                                          over Nigeria is ‘DO NOT
                               The forest area we pro-
Out reaching to
                                                          UNIRATE HERE’ (yes—
                     2   tect, called Rhoko, is excep-
the minds of to-                                          invariably spelt incorrectly).
                         tionally rich in wildlife. We
morrow                                                    Fortunately for me the only Graphium policenes, one of the
                         often host researchers who                                      Swordtails
                                                          sign in Rhoko’s protected
                         come especially to this part
New Arrivals at      3                                    forest is ’NO HUNTING
                         of Africa to pursue their                                        of 430 species in Rhoko,
CERCOPAN                                                  MONKEYS’.
                         studies. Following his recent                                    around 20 of great rarity.
                         trip, visiting butterfly-               Bait brings in butter-   I’ve seen 2 species for which
                         enthusiast Robert Warren         flies that we don’t normally    only 3 sightings had been
Austin attends       4
                         writes:                          see. The best baits are rot-    recorded before, ever.
PASA Veterinary
Conference                                                ting fruit, and decaying crab
                               The number of butter-                                           The growing Biodiversity
                                                          meat. The latter has an ap-
                         fly species in South-Eastern                                     database being built by re-
                                                          palling smell that lingers,
                         Nigeria is staggering – al-                                      searchers strengthens CER-
                                                          leading to banishment from
Congratulations      4   most 1,000, compared with                                        COPAN’s case for stronger
                                                          camp in the evenings, and a
Martina!!!               less than 80 in the U.K. My                                      and broader protection of
                                                          lonely life.
                         work is to try and uncover                                       Cross River’s forests, and I’m
                         how many species there are             But it works. I have so   glad to be part of that.
Welcome Edet!!       4                                    far confirmed the presence
                         in Rhoko Forest itself.
                               Consistent with the
                         popular image, I can be seen
Climate change   5       with a net in hand in hot
action in commu-
nities!
                         pursuit of my target. Less
                         commonly known is that
                         many butterfly species are
Visiting writer at   5
CERCOPAN
                         attracted to bait of various
                         kinds.
                               One excellent bait is
Want to be a part 6      urine. The large
of it?                   ‘Swallowtails’ and
                         ‘Swordtails’ will congregate
PAGE      2


                             From the Director
                                 As preparations for the      tended family grew further        species, and the next on our
                             Copenhagan International         with the birth of a baby          list for release into the
                             Conference on climate change     girl to Martina amongst           protected Rhoko forest. We’ll
                             get underway, rural              our Education staff. You          be working on that in the New
                             communities with                 can read about our extensive      Year.
                             CERCOPAN’s help have begun       on-going Outreach                 Thankfully, climate
                                                              programme in schools just
                             their own assessments and                                          Change will never alter the
                                                              below. To the right we re-
                             action plans for dealing with                                      patterns of the Festive
                                                              port the rescue of a new red-
                             the local impacts of global      capped mangabey, as a direct      Season! As we await the arri-
                             warming.                         consequence of one of our         val of the most famous red-
                                                              school visits. This animal was    capped one of all, let me wish
                                 Here at CERCOPAN HQ,                                           all our readers a very Merry
                             in response to an ever           in a particularly sorry state
                                                              and brought tears to my eyes,     Christmas and a Happy New
                             increasing number of                                               Year from everyone here at
                                                              but I know he is safe now and
                             monkey adoptees, we wel-         is becoming healthier by the      CERCOPAN!
Claire Coulson:              comed a new primate-             day.
CERCOPAN                     keeper into the CERCO-                The red-capped
Director                     PAN fold, and our ex-            managabey is an endangered



      ‘Several showed       Out reaching to the minds of
            interest in

       beginning their
                            tomorrow
                                      CERCOPAN’s an-         communities as well as the        local rainforests within
     own conservation       nual outreach program has        schools surrounding the           Cross River State. We also
                            just been completed and          Calabar area.                     encourage schools to start
   club and now plans       this year it included over                                         ‘Conservation Clubs’, and
                                                                      The aim of our
      are underway to       50 secondary and 20 pri-         program is to create              help provide activities for
                            mary schools! Since the          awareness of primates,            them to do while advising
    begin new groups        12th of October our Cala-        rainforest, their relation-       the group’s coordinator.
                            bar education staff, Aba-        ship to one another, the                    We had a lot of
         with exciting      kum and Martina, have            effects of deforestation          positive responses by stu-
                            been very busy visiting          and how it relates to cli-        dents, with schools visited
       activities in the    several schools per day;                                           previously anticipating our
                                                             mate change, and the im-
            new term‘       reaching out to many rural       portance of conserving            return. Several showed
                                                                                               interest in beginning their
                                                                                               own conservation club and
                                                                                               now plans are underway
                                                                                               to begin new groups with
                                                                                               exciting activities in the
                                                                                               new term. CERCOPAN has
             One of the                                                                        also been invited as a
              secondary                                                                        guest speaker to the final
          schools visited
                                                                                               Christmas meeting of sev-
                                                                                               eral conservation clubs.
           on this year’s
                                                                                                        We are really
               Outreach                                                                        pleased with how our out-
            programme                                                                          reach program is expanding
                                                                                               and we hope next year to
                                                                                               incorporate several more
                                                                                               schools!
VOLUME         1,    ISSUE        3
                                                                                                                           PAGE        3




  New Arrivals at CERCOPAN
           CERCOPAN has always            were able to confiscate the indi-
 taken a multi-dimensional ap-            vidual.
 proach when it comes to the con-                    Upon arrival we exam-
 servation of wildlife; incorporating     ined the mangabey who turned
 rescue and rehabilitation, commu-        out to be a male. It has been very
 nity development, environmental          hard to determine his age; he is
 education, research, and ecotour-        the size of a juvenile but he is
 ism. It can often be difficult to        extremely malnourished and this
 assess which of these aspects is         seems to have severely stunted
 making a difference to the overall       his growth.
 cause, but we are pleased to say                                                                                         It hasn’t just
                                                     Now at CERCOPAN we
 we have just had a success story
                                          hope to greatly improve his health                                              been the
 with our environmental education
                                          and nutrition. After a few months
 program.                                                                                                                 monkey variety
                                          in quarantine we look forward to
            The program is currently      being able to begin socializing him    Monkey business gone bird-
                                                                                                                          we have rescued
 undertaking its annual school                                                   brained; a baby owl arrival
                                          with other mangabeys. It is nice
 outreach aspect, and recently                                                                                            this month
                                          to think that on this occasion our     broken wing is not available at our
 visited a new rural school from a        environmental education program        rainforest camp) he made a fan-          though…..it’s
 neighboring village close to our         certainly made a difference for        tastic bandage and set to work
 forest site. The lesson taught and       this monkey.                                                                    also been
                                                                                 finding appropriate food.
 discussed environmental issues,
                                                    It hasn’t just been the                 A search amongst our          feathered
 including why primates should not
                                          monkey variety we have rescued         spartan food supplies revealed
 be kept as pets. We encourage                                                                                            friends we’ve
                                          this month though…..it’s also been     only a tin of corned beef as a
 the children to report any
                                          feathered friends we’ve gained!        potential food item; hardly ideal,       gained!
 incidents they may see in the
                                          This month one of the research         but more palatable to an owl than
 future to CERCOPAN , so we can
                                          assistants at our forest site, Usor,   potatoes or instant noodles. Varia-
 make a rescue attempt.
                                          found a baby owl on the trails of      tions were attempted and hours
             It wasn’t long after this    our protected forest. It seemed        were spent attempting to con-
 visit that our Education Officer         the owl had fallen from a height       vince this fussy little eater that,
 received a call from one of the          and badly broken it’s wing.            really, a mix of tinned meat, fish,
 students who knew of a family
                                                    Our camp manager,            raw egg and maggots was very
 keeping a pet mangabey. After
                                          Richard, immediately took him in       tasty.
 several attempts at rescuing the
                                          and called Calabar HQ to gather as                Now the owl is at Cala-
 mangabey, every time finding the
                                          much information as possible on        bar HQ being fed on meaty steak
 family absent from the village, we
                                          the best course of action. We          and egg shells. With steak every-
 eventually met with them and
                                          searched online for tips on mend-      day it’s eating better than the
                                                           ing broken wings      volunteers! The bandage is now
                                                           as well as the        off and the wing has been checked
                                                           food we should        by a vet who thinks that Orville (as
                                            Our newest
                                                           be feeding this       he is now known) will still be able
                                                 monkey
                                                           specialized bird.     to fly after adjusting to the slightly
                                         arrival at CER-
                                                                      With       differently shaped wings. We look
                                               COPAN,
                                                           the help of some      forward to seeing how that goes,
                                           rescued after
                                                           handy websites        although it may still be a while
                                                       an                        before this fledging gets overly
                                                           and      Richard’s
                                         environmental                           ambitious again and leaves its
                                                           innovation
                                              education                          Calabar nest.
                                                           (bearing in mind
                                                   lesson all the equip-
                                                           ment       re-
                                                           quired to mend a
PAGE        4

                                 Austin attends PASA Veterinary Conference
                                           We were very happy     number of seminars and           with lots of enthusiasm to try
                                 when our Vet Nurse, Austin,      talking to other                 new methods in many
                                 was invited to attend a PASA     representatives from             different aspects of veterinary
                                 (Pan African Sanctuary Alli-     sanctuaries located around       care and has already
                                 ance) veterinary conference      Africa.                          organized meetings with
                                 held in Kenya this month.                   Seminar discussions   keepers to discuss new
                                            Austin had just       included disease transmis-       routines. He additionally
                                 been promoted to senior staff    sion, tuberculosis outbreaks,    returned with various
                                 in October and so we were        parasitic problems, behavior,    veterinary consumables given
                                 really pleased that he could     enrichment, and a number of      out by PASA that will be
                                 be additionally rewarded with    other related topics. These      particularly helpful in the
  Austin carrying out            this trip.                       conferences allow different      coming months. We look
  veterinary work at                                              sanctuaries to compare           forward to seeing all the
                                           Traveling with vet-
  CERCOPAN                                                        problems and discuss             improvements Austin hopes
                                 erinary staff from a neighbor-
                                                                  different solutions each have    to make here at CERCOPAN!
                                 ing primate organization,
                                 Pandrillus, Austin spent a       tried and their effectiveness.
                                 week in Kenya attending a                  Austin has returned




             ~Austin has
                                 Congratulations Martina!!!
          returned with                    CERCOPAN is very       anticipating the birth as it
                  lots of        excited to congratulate          had been imminent a
                                 Martina on her new               month ago, and we were
      enthusiasm to try          arrival! After doing a fan-      starting to get very
                                 tastic job of still visiting     worried that it might even
        new methods in           schools despite her heavy        occur while at work!
         many different          bundle, she has finally                    As Martina begins
                                 given birth to her first in-     her maternity leave we
              aspects of         fant, a baby girl, on Friday     wish her and her husband         hood. We especially look
                                 27th Nov.                        well as they enjoy their         forward to meeting the
       veterinary care ~                                                                           new arrival in the not-to-
                                           We had long been       first months of parent-
                                                                                                   distant future!




                                 Welcome Edet!!
                                           We are delighted to    quired to do additional tasks    to our forest site, we are very
                                 welcome Edet, who began          to their usual duties.           pleased to employ another
                                 working as a primate keeper                 Edet had been in-     Agoi resident, already having
                                 in Calabar at the start of       terviewed on a previous re-      a Research Assistant at our
                                 November, to the CERCOPAN        cruiting period and had made     forest site from the village.
Edet feeding our infant putty-   family.                          a very good impression, being               We hope he will
nosed guenons                               Edet arrived to       remembered when this new         enjoy his time at CERCOPAN
                                 assist our keepers now that      position became available.       and are all very pleased with
                                 several of them have had                    Coming from one of    the progress he is making.
                                 promotions and will be re-       the rural communities close      Keep up the good work!



                 CERCO-NEWS
VOLUME            1,    ISSUE      3                                                                                         PAGE       5


Climate change action in communities!
           As part of the CIDA         result of the impacts of cli-       in the communities to assist in
funded ‘Building Nigeria’s             mate change.                        overcoming the hardships
Response to Climate Change’                       This stage of the        around the corner. Weather
program (BNRCC) we have                project also allows them to         extremes and a drastic depar-
been visiting our target com-          identify those sectors of their     ture from the usual patterns of
munities Iko Esai and Agoi             society who will feel the cur-      seasonality in recent years have
Ibami to begin participatory           rent and future effects most        already had a major impact on
assessments and awareness              keenly.                             crop yields and traditional farm-
campaigns.                                                                 ing methods. To cope with this,
                                                  The visits were a
           The men and                                                     people increasingly resort to
                                       resounding success and, de-
women of the villages are                                                  harvesting forest products to
                                       spite the long hours put in by
                                                                           supplement their income. One
encouraged to carry out a              the participants, enthusiasti-                                          Richard carrying out a
series of analysis activities in                                           of the aims of the project is to    ‘needs assessment’ in
                                       cally received. The results
building up a greater under-                                               reduce this over reliance and           local vilaages
                                       gathered from the visits will
standing of the challenges                                                 exploitation by offering alterna-
                                       be used to inform and direct
they are likely to face as a                                               tive solutions to the problems.
                                       what measures are adopted




                                                                                                                          “Weather

                                                                                                                     extremes and a

                                                                                                                   drastic departure

                                                                                                                     from the usual

                                                                                                                         patterns of

                                                                                                                      seasonality in

                                                                                                                  recent years have

                                                                                                                      already had a

                                                                                                                    major impact on

                                                                                                                     crop yields and

                                                                                                                 traditional farming

                                                                                                                          methods”

Visiting writer at CERCOPAN
          CERCOPAN was very            information for her third book      ing months while she works
excited this month when                based in the rainforest.            hard to get her creativity on
writer, Lucy Christopher, came                    Having spent 2           paper.
as a short-term volunteer to           weeks at our forest site she                  Our short-term vol-
gather inspiration and infor-          has now experienced life in the     unteer program is now proving
mation for her new book.               rainforest first hand and will be   very successful, with 3 volun-
           Lucy, having already        able to give detailed descrip-      teers staying this month.
published ‘Stolen’, now nomi-          tions of the surroundings of        Places are still available for
nated for several book awards,         her characters. We all wait in      February, March and April             Lucys first novel
and with a second book in              anticipation for this new novel     2010 - check out our website             “Stolen”
press, is currently gathering          and wish her well in the com-       for further details!
WANT TO BE A PART OF IT?
                                                  •   Make a cash donation to CERCOPAN via our
                                                      website...every little helps!
•   Stay in touch with our on-going programme
    by bookmarking our home page               •      Buy a gift for friends or family from the
    http://www.cercopan.org/ and our Blog site        Good Gifts Catalogue (www.goodgifts.org).
    http://cercopan.wildlifedirect.org/               You can buy a month's supply of fruit for
                                                      growing CERCOPAN orphan monkeys -
•   Volunteer for CERCOPAN in either Nigeria or       called in the catalogue 'A-peeling Monkeys'
    the UK. We offer a range of different             for only £20! The price of the gift is passed
    programmes so there is something for              on to CERCOPAN. So, it is an excellent way
    everyone! Visit our website volunteer             of solving your gift problems, and support-
    section for further details.                      ing our work! Alternatively visit the CERCO-
                                                      PAN gift shop on our website today.
•   Help CERCOPAN attain corporate funding. If
    you work for a corporate sponsor who may •        Donate useful goods and equipment such as
    be interested in funding CERCOPAN please          building and fencing materials, veterinary
    contact claire.coulson@cercopan.org               medicines, old laptop computers etc. or
                                                      services such as printing, blood testing and
•   Undertaken a sponsored event to raise             architectural design.
    funds for CERCOPAN.



           www.cercopan.org
    http://cercopan.wildlifedirect.org




                     All photos in this newsletter were taken at CERCOPAN or Iko Esai
                                       by staff, volunteers and visitors.
        Photo Credits: Amy Baxter, Richard Carroll, Chris Wright, Oskar Brattström, Sylvain Lemoine,
                                         Etan Agborim, Abakum Owai
                                        © Copyright CERCOPAN 2009
         Design & Layout by Claire Coulson; Written by Claire Coulson, Amy Baxter, Richard Carroll,
                                                 Robert Warren
                                  Edited by Claire Coulson, Richard Carroll

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CERCONEWS December 2009

  • 1. CERCO-NEWS V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 3 D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9 Please unirate here! INSIDE THIS ISSUE: on a patch of pee in large Please unirate 1 numbers—more than 50 here! sometimes. You may have seen a photograph of this spectacular display, but now From the Direc- 2 you know the cause! tor A very common sign all over Nigeria is ‘DO NOT The forest area we pro- Out reaching to UNIRATE HERE’ (yes— 2 tect, called Rhoko, is excep- the minds of to- invariably spelt incorrectly). tionally rich in wildlife. We morrow Fortunately for me the only Graphium policenes, one of the often host researchers who Swordtails sign in Rhoko’s protected come especially to this part New Arrivals at 3 forest is ’NO HUNTING of Africa to pursue their of 430 species in Rhoko, CERCOPAN MONKEYS’. studies. Following his recent around 20 of great rarity. trip, visiting butterfly- Bait brings in butter- I’ve seen 2 species for which enthusiast Robert Warren flies that we don’t normally only 3 sightings had been Austin attends 4 writes: see. The best baits are rot- recorded before, ever. PASA Veterinary Conference ting fruit, and decaying crab The number of butter- The growing Biodiversity meat. The latter has an ap- fly species in South-Eastern database being built by re- palling smell that lingers, Nigeria is staggering – al- searchers strengthens CER- leading to banishment from Congratulations 4 most 1,000, compared with COPAN’s case for stronger camp in the evenings, and a Martina!!! less than 80 in the U.K. My and broader protection of lonely life. work is to try and uncover Cross River’s forests, and I’m how many species there are But it works. I have so glad to be part of that. Welcome Edet!! 4 far confirmed the presence in Rhoko Forest itself. Consistent with the popular image, I can be seen Climate change 5 with a net in hand in hot action in commu- nities! pursuit of my target. Less commonly known is that many butterfly species are Visiting writer at 5 CERCOPAN attracted to bait of various kinds. One excellent bait is Want to be a part 6 urine. The large of it? ‘Swallowtails’ and ‘Swordtails’ will congregate
  • 2. PAGE 2 From the Director As preparations for the tended family grew further species, and the next on our Copenhagan International with the birth of a baby list for release into the Conference on climate change girl to Martina amongst protected Rhoko forest. We’ll get underway, rural our Education staff. You be working on that in the New communities with can read about our extensive Year. CERCOPAN’s help have begun on-going Outreach Thankfully, climate programme in schools just their own assessments and Change will never alter the below. To the right we re- action plans for dealing with patterns of the Festive port the rescue of a new red- the local impacts of global capped mangabey, as a direct Season! As we await the arri- warming. consequence of one of our val of the most famous red- school visits. This animal was capped one of all, let me wish Here at CERCOPAN HQ, all our readers a very Merry in response to an ever in a particularly sorry state and brought tears to my eyes, Christmas and a Happy New increasing number of Year from everyone here at but I know he is safe now and monkey adoptees, we wel- is becoming healthier by the CERCOPAN! Claire Coulson: comed a new primate- day. CERCOPAN keeper into the CERCO- The red-capped Director PAN fold, and our ex- managabey is an endangered ‘Several showed Out reaching to the minds of interest in beginning their tomorrow CERCOPAN’s an- communities as well as the local rainforests within own conservation nual outreach program has schools surrounding the Cross River State. We also just been completed and Calabar area. encourage schools to start club and now plans this year it included over ‘Conservation Clubs’, and The aim of our are underway to 50 secondary and 20 pri- program is to create help provide activities for mary schools! Since the awareness of primates, them to do while advising begin new groups 12th of October our Cala- rainforest, their relation- the group’s coordinator. bar education staff, Aba- ship to one another, the We had a lot of with exciting kum and Martina, have effects of deforestation positive responses by stu- been very busy visiting and how it relates to cli- dents, with schools visited activities in the several schools per day; previously anticipating our mate change, and the im- new term‘ reaching out to many rural portance of conserving return. Several showed interest in beginning their own conservation club and now plans are underway to begin new groups with exciting activities in the new term. CERCOPAN has One of the also been invited as a secondary guest speaker to the final schools visited Christmas meeting of sev- eral conservation clubs. on this year’s We are really Outreach pleased with how our out- programme reach program is expanding and we hope next year to incorporate several more schools!
  • 3. VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3 PAGE 3 New Arrivals at CERCOPAN CERCOPAN has always were able to confiscate the indi- taken a multi-dimensional ap- vidual. proach when it comes to the con- Upon arrival we exam- servation of wildlife; incorporating ined the mangabey who turned rescue and rehabilitation, commu- out to be a male. It has been very nity development, environmental hard to determine his age; he is education, research, and ecotour- the size of a juvenile but he is ism. It can often be difficult to extremely malnourished and this assess which of these aspects is seems to have severely stunted making a difference to the overall his growth. cause, but we are pleased to say It hasn’t just Now at CERCOPAN we we have just had a success story hope to greatly improve his health been the with our environmental education and nutrition. After a few months program. monkey variety in quarantine we look forward to The program is currently being able to begin socializing him Monkey business gone bird- we have rescued undertaking its annual school brained; a baby owl arrival with other mangabeys. It is nice outreach aspect, and recently this month to think that on this occasion our broken wing is not available at our visited a new rural school from a environmental education program rainforest camp) he made a fan- though…..it’s neighboring village close to our certainly made a difference for tastic bandage and set to work forest site. The lesson taught and this monkey. also been finding appropriate food. discussed environmental issues, It hasn’t just been the A search amongst our feathered including why primates should not monkey variety we have rescued spartan food supplies revealed be kept as pets. We encourage friends we’ve this month though…..it’s also been only a tin of corned beef as a the children to report any feathered friends we’ve gained! potential food item; hardly ideal, gained! incidents they may see in the This month one of the research but more palatable to an owl than future to CERCOPAN , so we can assistants at our forest site, Usor, potatoes or instant noodles. Varia- make a rescue attempt. found a baby owl on the trails of tions were attempted and hours It wasn’t long after this our protected forest. It seemed were spent attempting to con- visit that our Education Officer the owl had fallen from a height vince this fussy little eater that, received a call from one of the and badly broken it’s wing. really, a mix of tinned meat, fish, students who knew of a family Our camp manager, raw egg and maggots was very keeping a pet mangabey. After Richard, immediately took him in tasty. several attempts at rescuing the and called Calabar HQ to gather as Now the owl is at Cala- mangabey, every time finding the much information as possible on bar HQ being fed on meaty steak family absent from the village, we the best course of action. We and egg shells. With steak every- eventually met with them and searched online for tips on mend- day it’s eating better than the ing broken wings volunteers! The bandage is now as well as the off and the wing has been checked food we should by a vet who thinks that Orville (as Our newest be feeding this he is now known) will still be able monkey specialized bird. to fly after adjusting to the slightly arrival at CER- With differently shaped wings. We look COPAN, the help of some forward to seeing how that goes, rescued after handy websites although it may still be a while an before this fledging gets overly and Richard’s environmental ambitious again and leaves its innovation education Calabar nest. (bearing in mind lesson all the equip- ment re- quired to mend a
  • 4. PAGE 4 Austin attends PASA Veterinary Conference We were very happy number of seminars and with lots of enthusiasm to try when our Vet Nurse, Austin, talking to other new methods in many was invited to attend a PASA representatives from different aspects of veterinary (Pan African Sanctuary Alli- sanctuaries located around care and has already ance) veterinary conference Africa. organized meetings with held in Kenya this month. Seminar discussions keepers to discuss new Austin had just included disease transmis- routines. He additionally been promoted to senior staff sion, tuberculosis outbreaks, returned with various in October and so we were parasitic problems, behavior, veterinary consumables given really pleased that he could enrichment, and a number of out by PASA that will be be additionally rewarded with other related topics. These particularly helpful in the Austin carrying out this trip. conferences allow different coming months. We look veterinary work at sanctuaries to compare forward to seeing all the Traveling with vet- CERCOPAN problems and discuss improvements Austin hopes erinary staff from a neighbor- different solutions each have to make here at CERCOPAN! ing primate organization, Pandrillus, Austin spent a tried and their effectiveness. week in Kenya attending a Austin has returned ~Austin has Congratulations Martina!!! returned with CERCOPAN is very anticipating the birth as it lots of excited to congratulate had been imminent a Martina on her new month ago, and we were enthusiasm to try arrival! After doing a fan- starting to get very tastic job of still visiting worried that it might even new methods in schools despite her heavy occur while at work! many different bundle, she has finally As Martina begins given birth to her first in- her maternity leave we aspects of fant, a baby girl, on Friday wish her and her husband hood. We especially look 27th Nov. well as they enjoy their forward to meeting the veterinary care ~ new arrival in the not-to- We had long been first months of parent- distant future! Welcome Edet!! We are delighted to quired to do additional tasks to our forest site, we are very welcome Edet, who began to their usual duties. pleased to employ another working as a primate keeper Edet had been in- Agoi resident, already having in Calabar at the start of terviewed on a previous re- a Research Assistant at our November, to the CERCOPAN cruiting period and had made forest site from the village. Edet feeding our infant putty- family. a very good impression, being We hope he will nosed guenons Edet arrived to remembered when this new enjoy his time at CERCOPAN assist our keepers now that position became available. and are all very pleased with several of them have had Coming from one of the progress he is making. promotions and will be re- the rural communities close Keep up the good work! CERCO-NEWS
  • 5. VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3 PAGE 5 Climate change action in communities! As part of the CIDA result of the impacts of cli- in the communities to assist in funded ‘Building Nigeria’s mate change. overcoming the hardships Response to Climate Change’ This stage of the around the corner. Weather program (BNRCC) we have project also allows them to extremes and a drastic depar- been visiting our target com- identify those sectors of their ture from the usual patterns of munities Iko Esai and Agoi society who will feel the cur- seasonality in recent years have Ibami to begin participatory rent and future effects most already had a major impact on assessments and awareness keenly. crop yields and traditional farm- campaigns. ing methods. To cope with this, The visits were a The men and people increasingly resort to resounding success and, de- women of the villages are harvesting forest products to spite the long hours put in by supplement their income. One encouraged to carry out a the participants, enthusiasti- Richard carrying out a series of analysis activities in of the aims of the project is to ‘needs assessment’ in cally received. The results building up a greater under- reduce this over reliance and local vilaages gathered from the visits will standing of the challenges exploitation by offering alterna- be used to inform and direct they are likely to face as a tive solutions to the problems. what measures are adopted “Weather extremes and a drastic departure from the usual patterns of seasonality in recent years have already had a major impact on crop yields and traditional farming methods” Visiting writer at CERCOPAN CERCOPAN was very information for her third book ing months while she works excited this month when based in the rainforest. hard to get her creativity on writer, Lucy Christopher, came Having spent 2 paper. as a short-term volunteer to weeks at our forest site she Our short-term vol- gather inspiration and infor- has now experienced life in the unteer program is now proving mation for her new book. rainforest first hand and will be very successful, with 3 volun- Lucy, having already able to give detailed descrip- teers staying this month. published ‘Stolen’, now nomi- tions of the surroundings of Places are still available for nated for several book awards, her characters. We all wait in February, March and April Lucys first novel and with a second book in anticipation for this new novel 2010 - check out our website “Stolen” press, is currently gathering and wish her well in the com- for further details!
  • 6. WANT TO BE A PART OF IT? • Make a cash donation to CERCOPAN via our website...every little helps! • Stay in touch with our on-going programme by bookmarking our home page • Buy a gift for friends or family from the http://www.cercopan.org/ and our Blog site Good Gifts Catalogue (www.goodgifts.org). http://cercopan.wildlifedirect.org/ You can buy a month's supply of fruit for growing CERCOPAN orphan monkeys - • Volunteer for CERCOPAN in either Nigeria or called in the catalogue 'A-peeling Monkeys' the UK. We offer a range of different for only £20! The price of the gift is passed programmes so there is something for on to CERCOPAN. So, it is an excellent way everyone! Visit our website volunteer of solving your gift problems, and support- section for further details. ing our work! Alternatively visit the CERCO- PAN gift shop on our website today. • Help CERCOPAN attain corporate funding. If you work for a corporate sponsor who may • Donate useful goods and equipment such as be interested in funding CERCOPAN please building and fencing materials, veterinary contact claire.coulson@cercopan.org medicines, old laptop computers etc. or services such as printing, blood testing and • Undertaken a sponsored event to raise architectural design. funds for CERCOPAN. www.cercopan.org http://cercopan.wildlifedirect.org All photos in this newsletter were taken at CERCOPAN or Iko Esai by staff, volunteers and visitors. Photo Credits: Amy Baxter, Richard Carroll, Chris Wright, Oskar Brattström, Sylvain Lemoine, Etan Agborim, Abakum Owai © Copyright CERCOPAN 2009 Design & Layout by Claire Coulson; Written by Claire Coulson, Amy Baxter, Richard Carroll, Robert Warren Edited by Claire Coulson, Richard Carroll