Nigeria’s press recently reported that the Eco-Citizen Ogoni Initiative (ECOI) – a coalition of environmental NGOs – has launched a major reforestation campaign in Ogoniland, Rivers State. As The Guardian notes, ECOI “launched an Eco Volunteer Portal to register 560,000 youth volunteers” for “its ambitious project of planting 560 million mangrove trees in the deforested Ogoniland”.

This portal (Https://www.ecocitizenogoni.org), unveiled on International Youth Day 2025, will mobilize young people as “Global Green Marshalls” to restore local ecosystems by 2035. Nigerian media (Punch, Vanguard, Guardian, Daily Trust, etc.) confirm these goals and report that the campaign also aims to create hundreds of thousands of green jobs in clean energy, agriculture, aquaculture and transport.

Rows of saplings ready for planting. Mangrove reforestation can sequester vast carbon and protect coasts. The Niger Delta mangroves are a critically important ecosystem. In fact, this region hosts Africa’s largest mangrove forest (covering over 100,000 km²). Mangroves store enormous amounts of carbon – on the order of 1.1 gigatonnes of CO₂ in Nigeria alone – and act as natural buffers against storms and erosion. They sustain fisheries and rich biodiversity, underpinning local food security and livelihoods. Unfortunately, decades of oil pollution, logging and invasive plants have severely degraded the Ogoni mangroves. Environmental reports note that “thousands of hectares of mangroves in the Niger Delta are destroyed,” harming aquatic life and local communities. These losses have deprived Ogoni people of traditional livelihoods (fishing, crustacean harvesting, etc.), and left entire coastlines denuded. Restoring the mangroves is therefore seen as crucial for climate mitigation, coastal protection and community well-being.

Objectives of the Eco-Citizen Ogoni Initiative

Eco-Citizen Ogoni has laid out an ambitious, multi-faceted plan that links ecological restoration with economic empowerment. Key goals and features include:

• Planting target: 560 million mangrove trees in Ogoni by 2035. This mirrors the 2035 timeline of Nigeria’s UNEP-mandated cleanup plan.
• Youth engagement: Recruit and train 560,000 local youths (“eco-citizens”) across Ogoni’s four LGAs (56 wards) to lead the reforestation effort. About 56,000 of these eco-volunteers will be directly employed to drive the project.
• Green jobs creation: Generate on the order of 500,000 new “green-blue economy” jobs linked to the campaign. These span sectors like renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, aquaculture, sustainable transport and eco-friendly enterprises. (ECOI projects $5.6 billion in catalytic investment via public-private partnerships.)
• Digital platform: A mobile-friendly “Eco Volunteer Portal” for real-time coordination – featuring online onboarding of 560K volunteers, climate-smart training and micro-credentials, SDG mission dashboards, and links to enterprise funding. The portal effectively localizes several UN Sustainable Development Goals (clean water, clean energy, decent work, climate action, life below water/land) into community projects.
• Strategic alignment: The initiative is explicitly designed to complement Nigeria’s existing environmental efforts. ECOI leaders say the project “is aligned with the programme of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) in Ogoniland” (the federal cleanup agency). It also ties into Nigeria’s climate and biodiversity strategies (e.g. National Biodiversity Action Plan, Climate Change Act) and the SDGs. In this way, Ogoni’s mangrove revival can reinforce wider goals of ecological justice and sustainable development.