Zonal Councillor, EPIN North-West & North-East

Mallam Nasiru Ahmed Gumel is a seasoned frontline environmental practitioner whose more than three decades of dedicated service in forestry, soil conservation, and dryland ecosystem restoration have made him one of northern Nigeria's most experienced and respected environmental management professionals. His work at the interface of government, international development, and community-based conservation embodies EPIN's mission of advancing environmental practice at every level of Nigerian society.
He holds a National Diploma in Forestry from Kano State Polytechnic (1990), a Higher National Diploma in Soil Conservation from the Federal Soil Conservation Institute, Kuru Jos (1996), a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi (2001), and a B.Sc. in Environmental Management from Stafford University, Uganda (2020) — along with certificates in NGOs Management and Projects Management also earned in 2020.

Mallam Gumel's career began in the Forestry Division of the Kano State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (1991), where he rose from Assistant Forestry Superintendent to Higher Forestry Superintendent by 1999. He subsequently transferred to the Jigawa State Ministry of Environment as Senior Forest Superintendent and has since risen to the rank of Assistant Director, where he currently serves as Chairman of the Climate Change and Landscape Restoration Initiative.

His international project engagements are remarkable in their scope and impact: training under a World Bank-assisted Afforestation Programme in Kano (1993); participation in FAO's Africa Great Green Wall initiative (2016–2019); large-scale seed collection and native species restoration programmes; and capacity-building projects on apiculture and Balanite oil extraction to support rural livelihoods across Bauchi, Jigawa, and Sokoto States. These engagements position Mallam Gumel as a practitioner whose work directly supports both biodiversity conservation and community resilience across Nigeria's most climate-vulnerable regions.