The peacocks lazily spread their wings, enjoying the coolness that the conference building shade offered from the scotching sun.
Just a little further,Mona monkey, watched a lady sitting just about three feet away from it. She was munching biscuit. After a while, the monkey was bold enough and had a go at biscuit. But the lady was a bit faster and removed the biscuit. The sequence went on for some time until the lady became at little terrified of the monkey.
This reporter went close to take a shot at the game unfolding between man and animal. Seeing a man coming, the monkey made for the thick forest just a metre or two away.
This particular incident did not happen in an out-of-the-way forest far removed from human habitation. This scene is more of an every-day occurrence at the Lekki Conservation Centre (LCC), Lekki, Lagos.
The LCC is a 78-hectare green oasis that has been encircled by the fast developing city edifices. On its right is the site of a construction company and on the left are the residential areas. The opposite side of the centre is a Chevron office, just after the Lekki-Epe Expressway. It was opened in 1989.
The LCC was established by the National Conservation Foundation (NCF) to conserve Nigeria’s vast natural resources. The centre also houses the national secretariat of the NCF. The conservation forest was aimed at having, within the metropolis, a place that will serve as a biodiversity conservation icon and environment education centre.
The foresight of the founders of the LCC has paid off. It started when almost the whole of that area was forest, but now, it offers the opportunity to see Nigerian rain forest.
Taking a tour through the forest is an exciting experience.
This laudable concept could have come at no better time, going by the daily degradation of the city’s remaining natural environment fragments due to ceaseless urbanisation, thus making the LCC one of the few natural environment relics within the city.
Visiting the LCC, the excitement is not about the peacocks that one could see pecking at the ground in search of some unseen meal. The excitement is going on nature’s walk through the huge rain forest reserve with their multiple flora and fauna, soaking in the experience of being in a location that tends to share one of two things in common with Jurassic Park of the Hollywood film of the same name.
The nature reserve, according to the LCC brochure, traverses a mosaic of vegetation types, namely: secondary forest, swamp forest and savanna grassland. One notable impact of conserving the LCC land area over the years is the significant growth of the secondary forest.
To go on a nature’s walk, one could follow the trail walk built with wood. The walkway was constructed in 1992 to enrich the tourists’ view of the vast resources of the nature reserve which is encapsulated on a mangrove terrain. The trail stretches a length of two kilometres. Some of the side attractions along the trail are swamp outlook, bird hide, rest stops and the tree house.
The swamp outlook affords visitors and tourists, especially nature lovers, the opportunity to sit and watch aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem interaction. The bird hide enables avid bird watchers snipe at unaware avifauna that are wading through the pool overlooked by the hide or foraging within the vicinity. The tree house is one of the most fascinating features one can ever come across in an ecotourism zone.
At the end of the trail walk is the nature station. The station is a recreation island in the middle of a forest. It has a semi-enclosed block structure containing the indoor picnic facilities and conveniences. The outdoor has outdoor game facilities mostly for children.
The initial trail boardwalk was said to have been constructed in 1990 for easy access to the nature reserve designed to last a period of five years. In 1997, the trail underwent substantial maintenance. This was supported with minor maintenance from time to time. Major maintenance took place in 2002 to boost the shell life of the trail. All these maintenance activities lasted till 2006 when the trail began to fall apart.
Chevron, the sole benefactor, was later approached, and a sum of N40.8m was donated by Chevron to reconstruct the trail.
The reconstruction took a year. A new construction concept was introduced to one of the loops of the trail. Rather than using the traditional wood, the wooden boardwalk was suspended on a metal framework. This has made nature’s walk in the forest not only pleasurable, but also educative.
It is not every day that one plies through a walkway that the monkeys claim right of occupation and noisily make their dissatisfaction with your intrusion known to you. It is not every day you walk through huge trees that are probably hundreds of years old where the sunlight had to struggle to pierce through the foliage. It is not everyday that one had the opportunity to quietly sneak into the bird watching enclosure and peep at birds as they enjoy the comfort of their environment. These are things one could only experience in a few places like the LCC.
For the adventurous, towards the western axis of the walk are two 50 feet twin trees encouraging climbing adventure. On top of one of the trees, one feels like a Tarzan in his tree house.
One thing good about the conservation forest is that even children and toddlers could have a swell time with the children’s play ground that is deep in the forest.
The city of Lagos may be fast eating up the mangrove forest of the Lekki peninsula, but in the LCC, one could be rest assured there is always a place to return to nature and enjoy its solace.
Many in Lagos may not know this, experiencing a walk in the wild does not have to be embarking on a trip to Okomu of Gashaka Gumbti National Parks. It is just a bus ride away.
