The original route for the 160-mile superhighway, which included a six-mile-wide buffer on either side, would have been catastrophic for the Cross River rainforest, demolishing some of the last-remaining habitat of the highly endangered Cross River gorilla.

Together, we generated over 135,000 signatures, received dozens of international press hits, and had scores of public and private meetings with Nigeria's state and federal governments as well as the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, D.C. And it worked.