Zena enjoying her new role when she last visited the project in January 2009

January 2009

As 2009 arrived, some major management changes took place in CERCOPAN. After more than 17 years working in conservation in Nigeria, and 14 years as Director (and Founder) of CERCOPAN, Zena Tooze is making a major change – all geared towards creating a sustainable organisation which will survive for many years to come. On January 1^st she  handed over the Directorship to Claire Coulson, who joined CERCOPAN in January 2007 as Deputy Director. This has been a change that Zena and rest of the Board of Trustees of CERCOPAN have been working towards for several years. As CERCOPAN developed, Zena gradually handed over more and more responsibility to senior staff in Nigeria for day to day operations. This final move now gives Claire responsibility for networking, fundraising, and developing CERCOPAN in accordance with the recently drafted 5-year strategic plan. Claire will report directly to the board.

To assist Claire in management, Senior Education Officer Jerry Akparawa is also making an upward move, and has been promoted to Acting Operations Manager, Calabar. Jerry has been with CERCOPAN for many years, and started as a part time education assistant on 5th February 1997, having completed his diploma in Environmental Education at the University Of Calabar. At the time, Jerry was instrumental in setting up CERCOPAN’s highly successful education program, which now reaches out to over 70 schools annually. Jerry was later promoted to Education Officer in May 2002 and once again to Senior Education Officer in November 2004. In 2007 his hard work and utter dedication to conservation and environmental education was rewarded when he won the Charles Southwick Award fro Environmental Education from the International Primatological Society.

Everyone associated with CERCOPAN is very excited by these recent changes and all of us look forward to the coming year.