An oil company once held the deed to this stretch of wetland. Today it holds a Guinness World Record instead, for the longest canopy walkway anywhere on the African continent.
Lekki Conservation Centre occupies 78 hectares of wetland on the Lekki Peninsula, a mix of swamp and savannah wedged between the Lekki Lagoon and the Atlantic, now surrounded on nearly every side by one of the fastest-developing parts of Lagos. The land wasn't always protected. It began as a mangrove swamp forest owned outright by Chevron Nigeria Limited, part of the company's broader operational footprint in the region.
From Corporate Land to Urban Nature Reserve
In 1989, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation acquired the land from Chevron and began converting it into a protected reserve, with early funding support from then-President Ibrahim Babangida. It opened to the public in 1990 as an urban nature park designed specifically to shield the Lekki Peninsula's remaining wetlands from the rapid development already reshaping the city around it. Chevron, notably, has continued providing annual funding toward the reserve's upkeep ever since relinquishing ownership.
The contrast is what makes the site genuinely notable: land that once belonged to one of Nigeria's largest oil companies now functions as one of Lagos's most biodiverse urban green spaces, home to mona monkeys, monitor lizards, crocodiles, and an unusually broad range of birdlife for a location this close to a major city centre.
Building the Longest Walkway on the Continent
The reserve's signature attraction, a 401-metre suspended canopy walkway rising 22 metres above the forest floor, opened in 2015 and holds a Guinness World Record as the longest canopy walkway in Africa. Thirteen Nigerian engineers built it under the supervision of two Canadian specialists, stringing the structure between six towers through the treetop canopy. It sways noticeably underfoot, enough that visitors with a fear of heights are warned off before they begin the crossing.
Most visitors arrive for the walkway and the wildlife, reasonably enough, since both are genuinely rare this close to a major African city. Few pause to consider what the land beneath their feet was originally zoned for, or how a corporate logo on old maps of the Lekki Peninsula quietly gave way to a forest instead.