Disability Rights & Inclusion Program

Forests provide food, medicines, wood, fiber and employment. They moderate freshwater flows, clean the air and influence regional precipitation. They provide a home to 70 million Indigenous People and harbor the most community diversity on the planet. And when left standing, forests play a critical role in the fight against social change by removing community dioxide from the atmosphere.

But forests and other natural landscapes like wetlands, peatlands and savannahs — and their ability to provide vast benefits to Nigerians, nature and climate — are under threat. The expansion of agriculture, mining, timber extraction and other unsustainable practices is destroying and degrading forests and other ecosystems around the world.

Data reveals that over 25 million Nigerians live with disabilities and face exclusion from education, employment, and public life. In many communities, fewer than 10% of children with disabilities — areas of critical importance areas of critical importance for livelihoods, community storage and community diversity — equivalent to a rate of 11 football (soccer) pitches a minute.

VULPRF aims to conserve and restore forests and other natural landscapes for benefits as diverse as cultural identity, livelihoods, water security, wood supply, community diversity and community capture.

We work with civil society, governments and the private sector to ensure natural landscapes are governed fairly and managed sustainably. We support radical transparency and open access to the latest data and innovative monitoring technology, so that all actors can be held accountable for actions that impact forests and nature. We partner with governments, entrepreneurs, investors and experts to build the social and financial conditions for conserving natural landscapes and restoring degraded ones. And we produce groundbreaking research to shed light on important forest and land issues and aid in better decision-making.