A green non-governmental organisation, Eco-Citizen Ogoni Initiative (ECOI), has launched a digital platform aimed at recruiting 560,000 youth volunteers to drive an ambitious project to plant 560 million mangrove trees across deforested parts of Ogoniland, Rivers State.
The Eco-Volunteers Portal, launched in Port Harcourt on Tuesday to coincide with the 2025 International Youth Day, will serve as a hub for digital mobilisation, training and deployment of Ogoni youths as “Global Green Goal Marshalls.”
Coordinator of ECOI in Ogoni, Pastor Nature Dumale, said the project was designed to be concluded in 2035 and would not only restore degraded ecosystems but also create massive opportunities in the green economy.
“The Eco-Volunteers Portal is a groundbreaking digital platform to mobilise and equip 560,000 Ogoni youth as Global Green Marshalls,” Dumale said.
“It is a powerful symbol of youth-led transformation at the grassroots, showing how Ogoni youth are responding to the climate crisis and reimagining development through ecological restoration, digital innovation and regenerative impact.”
He explained that the trained volunteers would be deployed across 56 wards in the four local government areas of Ogoni, with the initiative projected to create more than 500,000 green-blue economy jobs in sectors such as clean energy, regenerative agriculture, aquaculture, sustainable transport, eco-enterprise and circular economy innovation.
According to Dumale, the platform integrates real-time dashboards, peer learning labs, fellowship placements and an opportunity marketplace to track progress, ensure accountability and provide youth-centred leadership in climate action.
In her remarks, Senator Ireti Heebah Kingibe, Deputy Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Ecology and Climate Change, hailed the initiative as a critical shift from remediation to regeneration. “We must move from remediation to regeneration — and that starts with empowering young people at the frontline,” she said.
Also speaking, Mr. Victor Wilkinson Agih, Global Director of the ECO2RUPPERS Africa Initiative, described the portal as “a platform for intergenerational equity and distributed leadership,” stressing that Ogoni youths were being empowered not just to participate but to lead in ecological restoration and livelihood innovation. The Eco-Citizen Ogoni Initiative said the project aligns with Nigeria’s national climate adaptation goals and the broader vision for a just energy transition, while complementing the ongoing Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) in Ogoniland. For many residents, the initiative signals hope for reversing decades of oil pollution and environmental damage, while positioning Ogoni youths at the centre of a new era of climate-smart, community-driven development.
