The ongoing environment sustainability project aimed at addressing biodiversity loss and promoting sustainable traditional medicinal practices among the indigenous people of Ugbe of Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State being implemented by Eunice Spring of Life Foundation (ESLF) with sponsorship by the United Nations Development Programme’s Global Environmental Facility-Small Grant Programme (UNDP GEF-SGP) has received a further boost with the strong endorsement of the project by the leadership of Kwande Local Government Council.
The Council leadership gave the endorsement on Tuesday when the project team paid an advocacy visit to the Council Secretariat at Adikpo, headquarters of Kwande Local Government Area to further strengthen synergy, cooperation and collaboration with the local government authorities.
Speaking about the UNDP GEF-SGP Project during the visit, the Project Manager, Mr. Tine Agernor said since inception, the team had liaised with different categories of traditional leaders in Kwande in the course of implementing the project and had organised an initial training of 50 traditional medicine practitioners to improve on their processes of preparing herbs to meet global standard and make their products marketable internationally.
Mr. Agernor revealed that the project also organised another training of 100 participants to encourage transfer of herbal knowledge from the older to the younger generation to ensure sustainability of the practice beyond the present generation of practitioners.
On her part, the Programme Coordinator of ESLF, Dr. Comfort Abaa said ESLF’s humanitarian work is being implemented under the four thematic areas of Health, Education and Research, Governance and Economic Empowerment with a bias for Agriculture and Environment which the current ESLF-implemented project falls under.
Dr. Abaa who commended the inclusion of women in the council’s leadership, noted that one of the current project’s goals to boost the lives and livelihoods of beneficiaries, tallies with the ESLF’s vision to help achieve “a society without barriers to decent living” for all especially the vulnerable.
Speaking earlier, Project Officer, Erdoo Yankyaa said the project team had carried out a plethora of activities including community engagement, setting up of an inclusive 12-member Project Implementation Committee (PIC) made up of 6 male and 6 female including Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), organised a biodiversity conservation sensitisation rally, established the Ugbe Community Forest Guard to protect and preserve the community’s biodiversity and commissioned a seed bank to serve as a vault to hold seeds of plants used for traditional medicine especially rare seeds from going into extinction.
Responding, the Chairman of Kwande Local Government Area, Hon. Vitalis Terhide Neji commended ESLF and GEF-SGP for initiating and implementing such a life-saving project in the Local Government Area and promised to provide necessary support especially in the area of security for it to achieve its set goal.
Represented by the Vice Chairman, Hon. Nguungwan Rita Iortsor, the Chairman affirmed that as a council that is concerned about the welfare of its people, such an intervention that promotes the well-being of the people of Kwande is welcomed and would always get the council’s backing.
The Chairman admonished the project team to liaise more with the Council by intimating Council officials about its programmes to strengthen synergy, partnership and cooperation which are required for the success of the project.
Also present during the visit was the Supervisory Councillor for Works and Housing, Hon. Hilekaan Aondoakura who expressed joy about the project and stressed the need for stronger ties between the Project Team and the Council authorities.
The ESLF-implemented GEF Project has, since commencement last year, trained over 150 target beneficiaries, created awareness/sensitisation about biodiversity conservation, registered a Cooperative organisation to grant legal recognition to the Ugbe traditional medicine practitioners, put together by-laws on biodiversity conservation, established a forest guard to help implement the laws and safeguard the biodiversity resources as well as commissioned a seed bank to hold rare seeds and save them from going into extinction and has perfected plans to plant 1000 trees to ensure sustainable traditional medicine practice among the Ugbe indigenous people of Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria.
Source: ESLF MEDIA REPORT
JUNE 10, 2025
