CERCOPAN

Chief Assam E. Assam, a distinguished and respected Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has been a legal adviser and trustee of CERCOPAN in Nigeria for many years. Executive Director of the successful law firm, Lex-Fori Partners in Calabar, Chief Assam Assam has been practicing law for over 30 years. Chief Assam belongs to Nigerian Bar Association and International Bar Association (oil, energy and environmental sections). With professional interest in Maritime and Constitutional Law he has general interest in international politics and environmental conservation, and is passionate about concerning Nigeria's environment.  He was made Chairman of the Meteorological Board of Nigeria in 2005 and is the Editor-in-Chief & Publisher of the Supreme Court of Nigeria monthly reports (one of Nigeria authoritative Law reports). He enjoys spending his leisure time playing squash, watching football and reading. Married with 5 children, his permanent home address is Ede Urua Village, Eket, Akwa Ibom State.

'Chief' Bobby Baxter has a 13 year Electrical Engineering back ground, followed by a history of  management positions in different service industries- shopping malls, outdoor markets, restaurants, pubs, coffee bars - Bobby (50 years old in 2008!) was our 3rd Volunteer Manager at CERCOPAN from July 97 to July 98. Despite plenty of voluntary work experience behind him, including mobile food and clothing runs in London for the "street people", taking calls as a Samaritan, he still refers to his time at CERCOPAN as the most "influential and life changing year of my life". Bobby is one of the original board members, joining in 1998. He has since been able to make almost yearly visit to CERCOPAN, to see first hand the many achievements made due to the hard work and dedication of both our volunteers and our Nigerian Staff, often bring with him his friends or family. His commitment to CERCOPAN has been further galvanised when his life long mentor, Lenny Phelps, joined the Board of Trustees. His voluntary work is balanced with his "other life" with long suffering partner Chrissy (23 years), their 2 married daughters and the foster children who share their home. Bobby was made an officially Certified Chief with our host community in Jan 2007, which he found " both humbling and an honour".

Tunde Morakinyo (MSc Environmental Forestry) met Zena in 1991 when he worked  alongside her as a community forester for World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in the Cross River National Park villages. He and Zena have worked closely ever since. After working on WWF conservation  projects for several years all over Africa, he moved to the Living Earth Foundation where he developed community forestry programmes in  Nigeria (Cross River State and the Niger Delta) and Cameroon funded by  the oil industry, the EU and DFID.

He currently works for  Environmental Resources Management (ERM) developing environmental and  social programmes for the private sector (mostly oil/gas companies).  He also develops international donor funded community development  programmes focusing on capacity building of village level  institutions. Tunde plays a major role in fund raising for CERCOPAN  drawing on his extensive range of contacts in the private, public and  NGO sector.

Len Phelps worked in the construction, media and maintenance industries throughout his working life. He was originally trained in electrical installation engineering. In his 30s he went on to retrain in human resource management and training. He is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. He also has extensive experience of and qualifications in Health and Safety Management. He spent the last 10 years of his career as a member of a change management/business development team that undertook the design, construction and ongoing maintenance of multi-million pound NHS hospital contracts throughout the UK. Len is married with one son. He has lived in Blackheath in southeast London since 1981.

Len joined CERCOPAN as a trustee after his retirement. He freely admits that his knowledge of primates is limited to put it mildly. However Len feels that his experience in business provides an opportunity for him to make a meaningful contribution to this worthwhile and vital undertaking. Len spent some time in Nigeria in January/February 07 and was impressed with the achievements of CERCOPAN so far and 'simply knocked out' by the warmth, hospitality and optimism of the Nigerian people.

Nicky Pulman  Nicky was raised in South Wales, and has a strong identity the Welsh culture. She went to University in Sunderland and Strathclyde, gaining degrees in Environmental Studies and Energy Systems and the Environment. Since leaving university in 1994, Nicky has worked in wildlife conservation. She started by olunteering with the Scottish Wildlife Trust as an Assistant Reserves Manager, learning Phase 2 habitat surveying and writing management plans for Scottish wildlife reserves. Nicky then worked with the Bolton Wildlife Project and Kent County as a Senior Countryside Officer, where her duties included managing 14 wildlife reserves, running countryside events and school programmes. In 1998 Nicky started international work with VSO as the Coordinator for Ghana Association for the Conservation of Nature, where she worked with communities to develop management plans for protected sacred groves. She then worked with Fauna and Flora International on Africa programmes, followed by the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers as Programme Manager on a new project in Wales. In 2003, Nicky became the Coordinator for CERCOPAN and was promoted to Deputy Director in February 2005 through to November 2006. Nicky is now a Programmes Manager (UK) for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and was elected as a trustee of CERCOPAN in November 2007. She enjoys long distance running and has combined this interest with her UK fundraising activities for CERCOPAN.

Chris Ransom also started as a volunteer for CERCOPAN in 2000. Prior to CERCOPAN, Chris volunteered for the Orang utan Foundation in Indonesia. Following his volunteer contract with CERCOPAN, he joined the Wildlife Conservation Society for further field work in Cross River State, conducting wildlife surveys and supervising field teams. Chris is now based in London, working for the Zoological Society of London. Chris joined the Board of Trustees of CERCOPAN UK in September 2007.

Sarah Seymour has been a friend and colleague of Zena's since they met in 1992 when she left zoo work in the UK to become a year long volunteer for Pandrillus (another primate conservation project based in Calabar). Since then she has been a regular visitor back to Nigeria working on different aspects of conservation activities of CERCOPAN and other projects. In 2000 she investigated the situation for primates on the Obudu plateau in Nigeria following a suggestion from another NGO that the forest patches might be a possible release site. In 2001 she was the in-country coordinator for a 3 year Darwin Initiative funded research project for Durrell Wildlife Trust and WildCru, Oxford, which investigated the bushmeat trade in Nigeria and Cameroon. Sarah has long had a passion for primates and has also worked with orangutans in Asia. Sarah has just recently moved back to mainland UK after working for Durrell Wildlife Trust in Jersey as Conservation manager for their overseas programme for 3 years. She joined the board of trustees in 1998 and advises on primate and research issues and looks after the Adopt-a-Monkey donation programme.
 

Zena Tooze arrived in Nigeria in 1991 and founded CERCOPAN in 1995. With an BSc (Hon) in Zoology, an MSc in Biology and Animal Behaviour and veterinary nursing all listed amongst her qualifications, Zena has been passionate about wildlife and animals all her life. Together with her twin and elder brothers, Zena grew up in Canada and worked as a veterinary technician for 3 years after qualifying, then moved to British Columbia to do her zoology degree. Travelling for 6 months around southeast Asia followed this, before buckling down to do her masters degree at Dalhousie University in Halifax. The travelling bug bit again, but this time Africa. Like many people, ever since travelling in Africa she wanted to return, which brought her to Nigeria as a CUSO volunteer. Very soon after arriving in Nigeria, the plight of primates grabbed her interest, and the more she got to know about them the more committed she became. After studying many different types of wildlife, from hummingbirds to red squirrels and wolves, primates are the ones which really won her over! That and Nigeria - its people, its rainforests. Married to David Reid (CERCOPAN's UK secretary) since 2001, she now divides her time between Cross River State and Norfolk.