Webinar | The Nigerian Montane Forest Project: Combining science, education, and the community for the conservation of Nigeria's montane forests

October 29th, 2025, 8:00 (CET) / 20.00 (NZDT) / 8:00 (WAT)

Summary for Webinar

Prof. Hazel Chapman from the Nigerian Montane Forest Project gave an inspiring and informative talk about her journey and involvement in the project. She is the Founder and Director of the Nigerian Montane Forest Project (NMFP) in Taraba State, Nigeria. She has an active lab group with postgraduate students working in both Nigeria and New Zealand. 

Prof. Chapman has a background in ecology, with particular interests in tropical forest conservation and restoration, plant-animal interactions, and the ecology of plant invasions. She´s based at the University of Canterbury (UC) Christchurch, NZ, where she teaches evolutionary biology, evolutionary ecology, invasion ecology, and conservation biology.

In her introduction, Hazel recounted how she first became involved in the area, which was through joining her father, forest botanist Prof. Jim Chapman, on his work trips to the Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve in the 1970s for the Nigerian Government. Three decades later, they collaborated and wrote a book titled The Forest Flora of Taraba and Adamawa States, Nigeria: An Ecological Account and Plant Species Checklist (2001).

Hazel shared rich details and information about the local and rare flora and fauna, and the local populations that live and subsist off the area, as well as the various research activities she conducts with postgraduate students and researchers from the area. Aside from the research activities, the project is also heavily involved in education and collaboration with the local communities, and are actively supporting reforestation efforts to restore and expand the forest reserve.

You can watch the full presentation here. 

To learn more about the project, please visit the University of Canterbury website: https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/research/about-uc-research/research-groups-and-centres/afromontane, the NMFP website https://nigerianmontaneforestproject.org/, For weekly updates on the NMFP as well as related environmental topics, follow us on our social media channels on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.