Cross River State REDD+ Readiness Programme (Nigeria)

Cross River State (CRS), home to roughly half of Nigeria's remaining tropical high forest, was chosen as Nigeria's demonstration state for REDD+. Governor Liyel Imoke imposed a one-year statewide logging moratorium in 2008, later extended indefinitely, and the state created a Forestry Commission in 2010. From around 2011–2012 CRS became the pilot site under Nigeria's national UN-REDD Programme, with a US$4 million readiness allocation for 2012–2015 (financed largely through Norway-backed UN-REDD/Multi-Partner Trust Fund channels) and later a Green Climate Fund readiness grant. The state's REDD+ office produced a Forest Reference Emission Level and REDD+ Strategy submitted to the UNFCCC in 2017, and the Civil Society/community REDD+ (CBR+) mechanism funded 12 community-based projects run by 12 civil-society organisations.

State forest cover fell from 7,920 km² to 6,102 km² between 1991 and 2008, a decline predating and coinciding with the moratorium's introduction. African Arguments (2023) reports Cross River State lost roughly 9% of its tree cover since 2000, with illegal logging and alleged official complicity continuing despite the ban; the chair of the state's Anti-Deforestation Task Force resigned after impounded timber was released against his objections, and the Task Force was later dissolved. A 2019 UNDP/Green Climate Fund concept note still described Cross River as 'seeking' future access to results-based carbon payments — no source confirms any such payment was ever disbursed. The state formally lifted the logging moratorium in 2023, and civil-society groups described deforestation as still 'escalating' in 2025.