Pressure is mounting to stop construction of a proposed six-lane highway through a Nigerian rainforest that is home to hundreds of thousands of people and vulnerable wildlife.

The road, locally referred to as a superhighway, is planned in southeastern Nigeria’s Cross River state, and would be 162 miles long with six miles of cleared land on either side.

Conservationists say the construction would displace at least 180 indigenous communities and slice through a national park and adjoining forest reserves that provide habitats for some of the country’s most beleaguered species, including the endangered Cross River gorilla, chimpanzees, forest elephants and pangolins – the world’s most poached mammal.

The project pits advocates for environmental and cultural habitat preservation against those who believe the region could benefit from much-needed infrastructure improvement, and spotlights the often-contentious global development issue of conservation versus growth.

The so-called Cross River Superhighway, the brainchild of the state’s governor, Ben Ayade, would stretch from northern Nigeria to a proposed deep seaport in the south. It is expected to include modern facilities such as Wi-Fi access.

GREEN LIGHT GIVEN

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari gave the project the green light more than a year ago, praising it as a significant milestone toward transforming the economic agenda of the state.

The road would cut through protected areas that are home to threatened species, including Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees, drills, Preuss’s red colobus monkeys, slender-snouted crocodiles and African gray parrots. Survival of the world’s rarest great ape, the Cross River gorilla, which numbers fewer than 300, is also at risk if its habitat is impaired, wildlife officials said.

“It is very troubling and worrisome for us that the great work that Nigeria has done to create these areas and protect them could be undermined by this (highway) development,” said John Calvelli, executive vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s public affairs division.

Seeking to persuade Nigerian authorities to halt or the project, the Wildlife Conservation Society has launched an international campaign. As of Dec. 13, it had generated 100,081 signed petitions, the organization said.

The process of clearing a corridor had already begun but was temporarily stopped after protests from communities and groups including the Ekuri Initiative, a forest stewardship run by one of the indigenous communities in the path.

A public notice issued by the Cross River state government stated that there would be a 656-foot offset on either side of the roadway and a further six miles of buffer. The land was being “revoked for overriding public purpose,” the notice said.

Conservationists ask why the buffer needed to be so wide, when the buffer on federal highways is typically 165 feet.

Many of the activists have accused the government of a land grab. They have helped to initiate an environmental impact assessment and have delivered 253,000 signatures urging President Buhari to protect their ancestral forests, according Calvelli.

“We’re particularly concerned about the communities,” Calvelli said. “Without those communities we are not going to have good stewards of our natural world.”

There is also concern that the road would provide easy access to wildlife traffickers.

“Building a highway of that size through a natural park will only bring poachers closer to the wildlife,” Calvelli said.

Backers of the project cite the benefits of being able to easily transport goods to and from the proposed seaport, and the jobs that construction would create.

Ayade, the region’s governor, dubbed opposition to the project “a campaign of lies” concocted by a few disgruntled officials.

Despite the public notice to the contrary, the governor has insisted that only a corridor of about 115 feet to 280 feet would be cleared to accommodate the highway. And communities affected by the road would be compensated, he has said.

“All you need to construct a road of this nature is balancing between the development and environment,” the website Cross River Watch quoted Ayade as saying. “Environment does not forbid development. And that is what we teach students in the university, development must come.”

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