Cross River National Park is gradually becoming the ultimate experience for fun-seekers looking to have a weekend getaway from the hustle and bustle of big cities in the country.
The park, which is unarguably the ecological pride of Nigeria, has remained a major input to the protection of Nigeria’s ecological integrity. It is indeed one of the few places in the world that provides hope for an environmentally-secure world and plays a leading role in the consideration of Cross River State as an ecotourism paradise.
The park is the last remaining tropical rainforest ecological zone located in the extreme south-eastern corner of Nigerian border with the Republic of Cameroon. It exists as two non-contiguous divisions, Oban and Okwangwo, that lie within longitudes 5o 05’-6o 29’N and latitudes 8o 15’-9o 30’E. It occupies a total land area of about 4,000 sq km of tropical rainforest ecosystem which thins out progressively to Montane Savannah Vegetation at the edge of the Obudu Ranch Plateau in Okwangwo area.
The park, with its head office in Akamkpa, some 40 kilometres from Calabar, the state capital, can be accessed by a network of good tarred roads. Visitors travelling from the northern part of Nigeria and the Middle-belt can access the park through Abuja-Markurdi-Katsina Ala-Obudu-Butatong (Okwangwo segment office), while visitors from the South-east, South-south and South-west can access it through Lagos-Benin-Onitsha-Aba-Ikot Ekpene-Calabar-Akamkpa and through Abakaliki-Ikom-Butatong as well as Port Harcourt-Calabar-Akamkpa. The Calabar and Uyo airports are the closest for tourists travelling by air as there are daily flights from Calabar to Lagos and Abuja.
The Okwangwo Range, which is about 1,000 sq km, is the proud home of the celebrated Cross River gorilla (gorilla gorilla diehli) and other animal species like forest elephant (loxodonta africana cyclotis), Nigeria-Cameroun chimpanzee (pan troglodytes ellioti) and a rich birdlife, all of which are of high touristic value. The range is equally blessed with an array of hills and water bodies, making it also an ideal location for adventure seekers and other lovers of nature.
This adoring potential of Cross River National Park are complemented by an array of other tourist attractions in the state which is recognised as the tourism flagship state of Nigeria that parades a number of exciting locations under the brand name “Destination Cross River”. These include the awe-inspiring landscape of Obudu Cattle Ranch which came tops at the search for the Naija 7 wonders, Nigeria’s Camp David, the alluring Agbokim Waterfalls, the captivating dance steps of the maidens at the Leboku New Yam Festival, the majestic Tinapa Resort, and many more, which make Cross River State one of the must-visit destinations in Africa.
Since its inception, the park has played host to over 50,000 visitors (Nigerians and foreigners) who come to enjoy the amazing beauty of this great rainforest resort. With an array of rolling hills, caves, rock-bedded rivers with sandy shores, fast-flowing streams and cascading waterfalls, a pristine forest teeming with abundance of animal species, and culturally vibrant and hospitable locals, Cross River National Park has indeed become one of the most compelling ecotourism destinations in all of West Africa and commands a towering reputation the world over.
In the area of ecotourism, the Oban West Range is the hub of ecotourism activities in the park. The famous Erokut Tourist Camp serves as the gateway to the exploration of the range. The park management has recently introduced and demarcated a tourist circuit in this range to facilitate the easy accessibility of the tourist sites and afford visitors a more robust interaction with key attractions in the range. Canopy walkway is also planned for this area.
The park is blessed with an awesome assemblage of biological diversity and a compliment of illuminating and exciting cultural attributes of the local people living around the park. This has no doubt made the park a melting pot of nature and culture which explains why it was nominated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
For Ntufam Richard Effa, its conservator, the park was essentially established to conserve, protect and preserve the amazing biological, geomorphologic and cultural attributes of Cross River Basin for posterity. It is also to encourage education, scientific research in biology, medicine, agriculture, and ecotourism development.
He observed that Nigeria’s over-dependence on revenue accruing from the exploration and sale of crude oil makes the nation a mono-product economy. The obvious consequence of this is that it stunts the growth of other economic sectors, with spiral implication on national growth. Tourism is one of such critical sectors that could be explored for the country’s sustainable development. Cross River National Park is favourably disposed to achieving this task given enough political will from the political drivers.
Effa noted that globally, the tourism industry accounts for 11 percent of employment. Over $950 billion is generated in world trade from this sector (WTO, 2008). It is recognised as one of the veritable tools that can assist less-developed countries to achieve the 2015 anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
However, this reputation may be marred if stringent measures are not adopted and committed effort backed up with adequate political will. This is the only insurance that can guarantee the continuous existence of this valuable natural resource capital bank for today and posterity.
Ecotourism accounts for over 60 percent of tourist traffic the world over. It is a form of travel to fragile, pristine and natural settings where flora, fauna and cultural heritage are the primary attractions. More than 18 different species of primates occur in the park out of 23 species that are known to occur in Nigeria. This represents 78 percent of total number of primate species recorded in Nigeria, including the Cross River gorilla, which is an endemic sub-species originally thought to be extinct.
Other species of conservation interest include the endemic Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee, drill (mandrillus leucophaeus), baboon (papio leucophaeus), potty-nosed Monkey (cercopithecus nictitans), Preuss’s red colobus (cercopithecus preussi), forest elephant, forest buffalo (syncerus caffer), pangolin (manis tricuspis), Nile monitor lizard (varanus niloticus), royal python (python regius) and a wide array of bird species including the grey ibis (plegadis falcinellus), black guinea fowl (guttera pucherani), grey parrots (psittacus erithacus), and the endangered bare-headed rock fowl (picathartes oreas).
According to the conservator of the park, adequate budgetary provision for infrastructural development and acquisition of field equipment should be done by the Federal Government, recommending that the Support Zone Development component of the park must be given priority attention to dowse violent agitations and continuous conflicts between the park and the surrounding communities over resource utilisation while the resettlement of enclave villages should remain an important issue that must be given priority attention if the integrity and survival of the park is to be guaranteed.
“Accord the Park Service its paramilitary status, provide appropriate firearms and develop the necessary capacity to deliver the park’s mandate; provide motivational packages to staff in form of housing and vehicular loans as has been done for other paramilitary organisations to encourage hard work and productivity; and develop ecotourism facilities, canopy walkway, visitors’ chalets, tourism circuit, among others,” he said.
Cross River National Park beckons. A weekend experience at the park counts a lot as this will also help in promoting domestic tourism. This will also help domestic tourists to appreciate what we have in the country when they embark on this voyage of discovering the untapped awesome wonders of nature.
OBINNA EMELIKE
