The Woman Who Helped Save a Forest — and Its Species

The Niger Delta red colobus monkey lives in a swamp so remote and difficult to reach that scientists did not formally describe the species until 1993.

By 2021, researchers estimated that only about 200 remained, down from roughly 10,000 in the 1990s.

Then the population began to recover.

Much of that work has been led by Nigerian conservationist Rachel Ikemeh.

Ikemeh founded the SW/Niger Delta Forest Project and first traveled into the region in 2013.

What she found was alarming.

The forest was heavily damaged by oil pollution, logging, expanding farms, and hunting for bushmeat.

The Niger Delta has endured thousands of oil spills over decades, with millions of barrels released since the 1950s, according to United Nations reporting cited for this account.

The red colobus, known locally as the epieni, was already considered one of the world’s most endangered primates.

Ikemeh’s approach was not to separate the animals from the people who lived around them.

Instead, she worked with local communities.

She spent years building relationships in Delta villages and helped establish a community-managed conservation area covering more than 1,000 hectares in Apoi Kingdom.

According to Rolex, the population of the Niger Delta red colobus has since doubled.

Her work has also expanded beyond a single species.

Ikemeh’s project now protects more than 5,800 hectares of forest and at least 13 threatened species, while also supporting livelihoods for more than 2,500 people.

In March, the work earned her one of five 2026 Rolex Awards.

She was the only Nigerian selected that year.

The Niger Delta red colobus is still critically endangered.

Its habitat remains under pressure, and its future is far from guaranteed.

But the species now has something it did not have before: a stronger protected habitat and local communities directly involved in keeping it alive.

For an animal that much of the world has never heard of, that may be the difference between decline and survival.