A 2 day workshop was organized by New Initiative for Social Development (NISD) in collaboration with Ekiti state Forestry Commission with the support of Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) on the 11th and 12th of August, 2022 at Kototel Ado-Ekiti to deliberate on the development of the Ekiti State Forest Roadmap implementation action plan tagged the forest we want. The workshop was to draw out an implementation action plan for the roadmap for sustainable management of Ekiti forest which was developed in 2021.

The objective of the workshop is to help the Ekiti State Forestry Commission to develop the Ekiti State forestry roadmap implementation action plan, which will be a guide for the commission from 2021 to 2035.
Stakeholders present includes officers from forestry commission, tree crops, NUJ, academia, Gadef as well as TGED Foundation ably represented by Omojola Odunayo.

In his welcome remark, the Director, Mr Adekunle David representing the Executive Secretary advised all stakeholders present to participate actively in the workshop so as to have a robust action plan. He said that there is a need to nurture the forest because of the symbiotic association that ought to exist between humans and the forest, but such association has been turned to a parasitic association which is one of the reasons for climate change and global warming.
In his presentation of implementation action plan template, the Consultant, Mr Tolu Osakuade said the responsibility that has been identified in the roadmap cut across many stakeholders and there is need for all MDAs to be carried along and be aware of their responsibility and commitment during the implementation stage.
The purpose is to align all activities in Ekiti state to be tailored towards the identified goal with reference to the document on Ekiti State Agenda. He explained that forestry is listed on the Ekiti State economy budget and development priority and strategy of the roadmap is to incorporate the Sustainable Forest management (SFM) to forest management in Ekiti state.
Eight (8) goals and thirty eight (38) associated objectives has been developed for the forest we want with three (3) major outcomes to include;

–Ecologically sound forest,
–Socially just forest and
–Economically viable forest.

Key priorities for implementation include promoting public awareness for the roadmap, collaborating with other stakeholders such as schools, forestry clubs, conservation clubs, NGOs and related institutions with the need to teach students in the higher institutions what is needed on the field. Mr Osakuade expressed the need for publicity and research of Ekiti Forest, especially the Otun herbal heritage, Otun-Ekiti. The survival of the heritage was said to be based on the interest of the host communities and the traditional rulers to protect the forest. The Otun herbal heritage is recognized by UNESCO with many features preserved within the forest and there is a need for more of such places to be established in the state. Stakeholders at the workshop retreated from the need to collaborate with traditional rulers to protect the forest in their domain and to always get across to the commission through the toll free number that has been put in place by the commission.
The stakeholders present were thus grouped into 3 clusters for consideration and deliberation of goals allotted to each cluster.

The presentation of the costing/ Budgeting of each of the goals was done by each group leader while the collation of the document was done by the NISD team.
In his closing remark made by the Director, Mr Adekunle, tendered his appreciation to all stakeholders present and requested for collaboration in the future to make Ekiti forest sustainable.