Abimbola Abikoye is the founder of Revamp Rave Network and the National Consultant on Environment for Wildlife Crime with the UNODC Nigeria. Her work focuses on grassroots environmental governance, youth inclusion, and the rights of coastal communities.
Interviewer: In February 2024, Revamp Rave Network held what many are calling a landmark Coastal Community Conference in Lagos. What inspired this project?
Abimbola: For me, it wasn’t just inspiration, it was urgency. Nigeria’s coastal communities are experiencing the climate crisis in real time. As a founder and climate advocate, I’ve always believed that the people who are closest to the problem often hold the deepest insight. But what we’ve seen repeatedly is that they’re excluded from formal climate policy discussions. This conference was our response to that gap. It was about going beyond the usual rhetoric and saying, “You matter. Let’s hear from you directly.”
Interviewer: Who did you bring to the table, and what were the outcomes?
Abimbola: We brought together over 300 participants across five fishing communities—Badagry, Epe, Ikorodu, Makoko, and Mosafejo, with a deliberate focus on women and persons with disabilities. We also engaged civil society leaders, policymakers, media, and academics. What came out was a deeply moving, honest, and at times painful picture of what life looks like at the intersection of ocean degradation, poverty, and exclusion.
Interviewer: Why was the focus on women and vulnerable groups so central?
Abimbola: Because they carry the weight of climate impact, silently and disproportionately. In every community we visited before the conference, we found women who process, sell, and store fish with little to no support. We met persons with disabilities who are cut off from livelihood opportunities because adaptation tools don’t consider them. So, centring their voices wasn’t charity, it was justice. It was also a way to design more relevant and inclusive solutions.
Interviewer: What did these communities tell you about their current reality?
Abimbola: Many things, and all of them sobering. They told us how fish catches are shrinking, how fish now die quicker post-harvest, and how storms at sea are claiming lives. Some described the pain of throwing away unsold, spoiled fish—simply because there’s no cold storage or processing facility. They talked about the erosion of mangroves, polluted waters, the collapse of local knowledge systems. One woman said to me, “The sea is changing. It doesn’t love us like it used to.” That hit me hard.
Interviewer: Were there any unexpected discoveries?
Abimbola: Yes. One was the level of indigenous knowledge that still exists. These communities aren’t just victims; they’re thinkers, innovators. They know how to read tides, forecast rain, and adapt to small shocks. But their methods are being overwhelmed by the pace of climate change. They need more than tradition now, they need support, tools, and partnerships that respect their wisdom.
Interviewer: What was the biggest challenge in organising the conference?
Abimbola: Honestly, a lot. Currency fluctuations made procurement tough. A few agency partners pulled out at the last minute. Even within the communities, some men resisted the idea of women being the primary participants. But we stood firm because if we want to build resilience, we have to challenge patriarchy, economic exclusion, and state indifference all at once. That’s the work.
Interviewer: What are you most proud of?
Abimbola: That we didn’t just extract data, we restored dignity. People left that room with more than knowledge; they left with validation. Some said it was the first time they’d been invited to speak on climate issues. That matters. Also, seeing our youth volunteers, 30 of them, lead the research and mobilisations across the five communities was a proud founder moment. It affirmed that this generation is not waiting for permission to lead.
Interviewer: Abimbola, reflecting on the 2022 Community Conference on Climate Change for Coastal Rural Women, what were the key takeaways that influenced the 2024 conference?
Abimbola: The 2022 conference was our inaugural attempt to bring coastal women and persons with disabilities into the climate conversation. We engaged 200 participants from communities like Kadara, Araromi, Market, and Coates in Agoro. The discussions revealed deep-seated issues: lack of waste disposal systems, poor hygiene, blocked drainage, and insufficient access to clean water and healthcare as well as loss of fishing capacities. These insights underscored the need for sustained engagement and informed the structure of our 2024 conference.
Interviewer: The 2024 Coastal Community Conference was significantly larger than your 2022 engagement. What made that possible?
Abimbola: A lot of groundwork, honestly. The 2022 event taught us that coastal engagement isn’t a one-off. It has to be sustained. That year, we brought 200 women together for the first time to talk about climate and ocean literacy. It was powerful, but also humbling.
So, in 2024, we knew we needed to go deeper, wider, and more intentional. This time, we secured an endorsement from the Federal Department of Fisheries, which gave the conference an extra layer of credibility. It validated our approach and helped us engage local leaders and policy actors more effectively. Their support sent a strong message: that grassroots voices, especially those of women and fisherfolk, deserve a seat at the table.
Interviewer: What’s next for Revamp Rave Network after this?
Abimbola: We’re not done. We’re currently preparing a policy brief based on the findings, and we’ll be presenting it to state and federal authorities. We also have a dicumentary in our pipeline to tell these stories and showcase indigenous climate knowledge and we still seek lots of financial and human capital support. We’re also working on distributing fish drying equipment and cold storage units to women-led cooperatives through organisations who already give these sorts of capacity. Long-term, we want to scale this conference model to every coastal state in Nigeria, and build a national conversation around climate resilience that starts from the shoreline, not just from government offices.
Interviewer: If you could send one message to the world from this conference, what would it be?
Abimbola: That climate action doesn’t have to come from above. Some of the most powerful solutions are already in motion, in wooden boats, drying racks, oral stories, and the hands of women carrying buckets of fish at dawn. If we truly want a climate-just world, we need to listen better. And we need to act—now.
