Rachel Ikemeh, a conservationist, has spent years trying to prevent the Niger Delta red colobus monkey species Known locally as epieni from disappearing altogether.
The critically endangered primate had once been estimated to number about 10,000 when it was first scientifically described in 1993. Two decades later, only hundreds were believed to remain.
Her work has now earned her international recognition. Ikemeh has been named a 2026 Rolex Awards for Enterprise laureate for her efforts to protect the Niger Delta’s ecology and conserve the red colobus through partnerships with communities living within its shrinking habitat.
The award comes with a CHF100,000 grant, worth about $123,000, which Ikemeh plans to use to expand the community-based conservation model she and her colleagues have developed in the Niger Delta.
Decline of Red Colobus Monkeys
The Niger Delta red colobus (Piliocolobus epieni) has one of the most restricted ranges of any primate in Nigeria.
When the species was described scientifically in 1993, researchers estimated that roughly 10,000 individuals inhabited its range in the Niger Delta.By 2013, that population had collapsed to only hundreds.
The monkey is now regarded as critically endangered and is among the world’s 25 most endangered primates identified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
For Ikemeh, protecting the animal therefore means protecting the landscape in which it lives — and the communities that also depend on that landscape.
Turning Apoi Into a Conservation Model
One of the most significant achievements of Ikemeh and her colleagues came in 2021, when they helped establish a 1,010-hectare community-protected area in Apoi, a town within the red colobus’s remaining range.
The results have offered some evidence that community-led conservation can work.
The population of red colobus within the protected forest increased from an estimated 180–200 animals in 2021 to roughly twice that number by 2024, according to Ikemeh.
The conservation team has since helped establish community conservation areas in neighbouring Garnaut and Kokoloama.
The approach has also begun spreading through local networks.
Members of the Apoi community have hosted representatives from six other communities to demonstrate how their conservation model works.
For Ikemeh, that shift in local attitudes may ultimately be more important than the creation of protected boundaries on a map.
The community that initially suspected conservationists were trying to take their forest for the government now sees the epieni as a source of pride and something that has put the village on the map.
That change, she has said, is the real conservation infrastructure.
Community Ownership Model
Creating a protected area without addressing the economic realities facing people who live around it can make conservation difficult to sustain.
Ikemeh’s model attempts to make local communities participants in conservation rather than outsiders to it.
However, outside the protected areas, the Niger Delta continues to face oil pollution, logging, overfishing and indiscriminate hunting. Ikemeh also highlighted the emergence of black-sand mining along parts of the coast.
The small size and restricted geographical range of the red colobus population create additional risks.
A disease outbreak or a period of serious unrest could rapidly reverse conservation gains made over several years.
Funding is another challenge. Much of the work remains dependent on short-term grants tied to individual projects, while the underlying problems of poverty and limited employment opportunities remain unresolved.
What the Rolex Award Will Fund
She plans to establish four additional community conservation areas around Apoi.
One of these will be particularly significant: the first locally managed marine community conservation area in the region.
The funding will also support a mobile environmental education programme designed to reach communities that conservation teams have previously struggled to visit.
The objective is to build a broader conservation network around the red colobus and the ecosystems on which it depends.
Ikemeh has described the Rolex recognition not simply as a personal achievement but as validation of the community model itself.
