CONNECT: JOIN WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING
The second pillar is Connect, which is a way of finding out what organisations in your community are already doing, and adding your energy and capacity.
The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), which is the oldest conservation NGO in Nigeria, runs programmes across the country, from sea turtle monitoring on Bayelsa beaches to community conservation programmes in Cross River State. The Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) maintains the Forest Herbarium Ibadan, one of West Africa's most important botanical collections. BirdLife Nigeria coordinates bird surveys and advocates for protected areas.
As part of Dataphyte Foundation commitment to strengthen the data journalism ecosystem and nurture the next generation of aspiring journalists in Nigeria’s media landscape, we have organised a series of workshops for journalists on how to report climate issues. The most recent was the capacity building organised for investigative journalists who were trained on how to report and investigate biodiversity issues from a data lens. Beyond that, they also recently published a media monitoring report where they analyse how some media houses have reported on biodiversity issues for ten years and policy brief on Nigeria’s Biodiversity loss and the path to community-led recovery which has been shared with Nigerians Youth Biodiversity Network. Also, we have designed and developed a compelling biodiversity reporting toolkit for journalists and researchers.
Civil society organisations, universities, and research institutions across Nigeria are also doing important biodiversity work that is often done with limited resources and minimal public recognition. IDB 2026 is an opportunity to amplify their work, share their data, and strengthen their case for more support.
ACT: TAKE CONCRETE, SPECIFIC STEPS
The third pillar is Act, and this is where specificity matters. "Supporting biodiversity" as an abstraction achieves nothing. This is why specific actors need to take concrete actions to ensure it counts.
Nigeria's environmental journalism is thin, and the public cannot advocate for what they cannot see. To make this a reality, media organisations need to commission biodiversity data stories to amplify how biodiversity we are as a country and to know how we are faring with our commitment in the global space. In 2025, Dataphyte commissioned ten investigative journalists to write data-driven investigative stories on biodiversity issues in Nigeria. These are freely available for republication and adaptation.
Also, it is glaring that most states in Nigeria do not have current data on what biodiversity they hold, so how do we expect them to protect what they have not counted or have an idea that ever existed? Each state government needs to conduct ecological inventories of its state's forests, wetlands, and waterways.
Although Nigeria’s Environmental Impact Assessment Act already requires both public and private projects with potential environmental consequences to conduct comprehensive environmental assessments before implementation, compliance among many oil companies operating in the Niger Delta remains weak. Independent biodiversity baseline surveys are often neglected before drilling begins, while post-spill restoration monitoring is either inadequate or nonexistent. Strengthening enforcement and establishing a more effective compliance framework that compels companies to transparently fund independent ecological assessments and long-term restoration monitoring is not a matter of charity, but environmental accountability.
Researchers and universities should also be encouraged, through stronger data-sharing policies and collaborative conservation frameworks, to make biodiversity data including Herbarium specimens, field survey results, and ecological studies stored in institutional databases more accessible to policymakers, conservation groups, and local communities. Too often, valuable ecological research remains locked within academic repositories with limited public access, reducing its potential to inform conservation planning, environmental accountability, and evidence-based decision-making.
Though Nigeria still lacks a robust, centralised biodiversity database capable of supporting conservation planning, research collaboration, and environmental accountability, through its interactive biodiversity map, Dataphyte Foundation has taken an important step toward bridging this gap by making biodiversity information more accessible and understandable to the public. However, building a truly effective national biodiversity database will require stronger collaboration among researchers, government institutions, media organisations, conservation groups, and local communities to pool data, standardise reporting, and improve public access to ecological information.
SHARE: SPREAD THE WORD
The campaign asks everyone to share stories, observations, knowledge, and data. Use #BiodiversityDay and #ActingLocallyForGlobalImpact on social media. Share your biodiversity observations on iNaturalist. Tell the story of a species in your community that matters to you.
Nigeria has a responsibility to the world's biodiversity that is proportional to its extraordinary wealth of species. The country is home to some of the rarest and most threatened mammals on Earth, including the Cross River Gorilla, the Niger Delta red colobus, and the African Forest Elephant. Their survival depends on decisions made in Abuja, in state capitals, in local government councils, and in the individual choices of millions of Nigerians.
