In Nigeria at present the destruction of natural habitats continues apace, resulting in the depletion of the country's biodiversity. In Nigeria today a large population resides and works in rural areas. These rural dwellers are a major contributor to forest depletion. Agriculture is dominant in these areas. It has the greatest concentration of poverty, landless workers, small tenant farmers, small farm owners, the rural unemployed, and the poor of the poor in the Nation. As a result of the poverty level in these areas, biodiversity provides for 90% of their needs, a fact which plays a major role in the destruction and depletion of native flora and fauna.

This manual is aimed primarily at trainers who are or will be engaged in training human rights activists as well as development workers, members of organisations representing disadvantaged groups and others who are addressing economic, social and cultural issues. The hope and expectation is that trainers working with these various groups will be able to take the material in the manual and, if necessary, adapt and expand upon it to conduct training programs on economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights and ESC rights activism. The manual intends to contribute to the process of learning that is currently underway and to encourage an expansion of activism that has as its goal the promotion and protection of ESC rights.