The African Research Association (ARA) has been tackling forest degradation and environmental degradation in the tropical forests and savannah grassland areas of Cross River State, Nigeria since 1996.  The ARA works through its rural based community action project, Development in Nigeria (DIN). Research by DIN in rural communities over the years has repeatedly highlighted a correlation between poverty and forest degradation where rural based households battle poverty through forest-dependent livelihoods.

DIN works with over 30 different community groups including tropical forest hunter-gatherers, forest-edge farmers and grassland pastoralists. Activities with the Christian farmers and the Muslim Fulani pastoralists are focused on sustainable natural resource management through reducing poverty, promoting sustainable alternative livelihoods and capacity building through activities such as providing adult literacy services.

DIN's close living and working relationship with communities informs and deepens our research capacity and complements other research carried out by DIN's Research, Documentation and Policy Unit (RDPU). Our main research objectives are three-fold: to facilitate participatory learning and action leading to sustained community benefits, to record and preserve indigenous knowledge through ethno-botanical inventories and to monitor and document deforestation in Cross River State.