Nigeria has one of the worst environmental records in the world. In recent years, the country has seen the execution of a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, widespread social and environmental problems stemming from oil operations in the Niger River delta, and the world's highest deforestation rate.
In late 1995, Nigeria's execution of eight environmental activists, notably Nobel Peace Prize nominee Ken Saro-Wiwa, made international headlines and brought worldwide recognition of the serious environmental degradation of Nigeria.
The Niger River delta of Nigeria is home to coastal rainforest, mangrove forest, and rich oil deposits. Petroleum exploration in this region by Shell Oil began in 1958, and the company has since extracted tens of billions of dollars worth of oil and natural gas. While Nigeria has seen tremendous amounts of revenue from these operations, oil has had a high cost to the country. Locals, like the Ogoni tribesmen, have seen relatively little revenue from operations but plenty of problems including pollution and deforestation, and today many of these people live in miserable poverty.
In 1990, Saro-Wiwa led the Ogoni to demand that Shell turn over more oil revenue to locals and clean up oil pollution. In response to these demands and an uprising among local communities, the government—then a military dictatorship—savagely put down the rebellion. Reports suggest that Shell played a role in arming the soldiers to quash the protests. In November 1995, the government executed Saro-Wiwa, while Shell responded a few weeks later by announcing it would take part in a new gas project in the delta.
During the 1990s, locals learned that extortion pays. Villagers found that by sabotaging oil installations to collect oil-spill compensation from Shell they could earn more than by marginal subsistence farming on degraded lands. Attacks on oil facilities and pipelines became ever more relentless, and the Niger River delta was an increasingly bloody place. Environmental degradation from operations continued, and by 1999 the U.N. named the delta the most threatened in the world.
In early 2006, conditions worsened in the delta. The number of kidnappings of oil workers increased as did attacks on oil facilities. Kidnappers who usually wanted ransom payments began asking for the release of jailed militants and greater rights to the region's oil. A senior Shell security official told The Economist that Nigeria was losing control of the region and oil traders began to price the risk of Nigerian civil war into future oil projections
While billions of dollars in oil revenue poured into Nigeria, most of the country's income was squandered, stolen, or spent propping up the ruling military government during this period. Despite a stipulation in the constitution requiring that 13 percent of oil revenues be channeled back into oil communities, locals saw very little money. Most community assistance in the delta actually come from Shell—not the government. In 1997, Shell spent some $36 million on community-assistance programs.
While oil has certainly had a social impact in the delta, the direct environmental effects from oil operations are probably, in general, overstated. Oil companies are easy targets because their operations are highly visible and villagers receive few benefits while shouldering the environmental and social costs. According to Moffat and Lindén (1995) there is relatively little evidence of widespread contamination from petroleum in Nigeria, partly because its crude is very light and evaporates rapidly. Moffat and Lindén say that pollution from oil activities should probably be given only a moderate priority in light of Nigeria's other severe environmental problems, namely deforestation resulting from road projects (often sponsored by oil companies), subsistence activities, logging, mining, and dam construction. However, oil production in Nigeria does contribute to global warming because the country flares (flaring refers to the burning of excess gas that comes up with crude) more gas than any other country. The methane produced has a much higher global-warming potential than carbon dioxide (64 times as active a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide).
Deforestation is a serious problem in Nigeria, which currently has one of the highest rates of forest loss (3.3 percent) in the world. Since 1990, the country has lost some 6.1 million hectares or 35.7 percent of its forest cover. Worse, Nigeria's most biodiverse ecosystems—its old-growth forests—are disappearing at an even faster rate. Between 1990 and 2005, the country lost a staggering 79 percent of these forests and since 2000 Nigeria has been losing an average of 11 percent of its primary forests per year—double the rate of the 1990s. These figures give Nigeria the dubious distinction of having the highest deforestation rate of natural forest on the planet.
Nigeria's new and more accountable government is concerned about rising deforestation and environmental degradation—which costs the country over $6 billion a year. Nevertheless, it has failed to curb illegal logging and other forms of degradation, and only 6 percent of the country is nominally protected on paper. Timber concessions have been granted in national parks, and oil-palm plantations are replacing natural forest. Past governments have tried to stem forest loss through a ban on log exports, promoting of agroforestry and community-based conservation schemes, increasing energy and fuel efficiency, and encouraging plantations and reforestation programs to achieve a target of 25 percent forest cover. But the impact appears to be limited given Nigeria's astounding deforestation rate.
As its forests fall, Nigeria has seen wildlife populations plummet from poaching and habitat loss, increasing desertification and soil erosion. There has also been a drop in the productivity of coastal and inland fisheries, and mounting social unrest in parts of the country. It appears that Nigeria's swift economic development has exacted a high toll on its people and environment.
Despite its environmental degradation, Nigeria has striking biodiversity. Home to gorillas, chimpanzees, baboons, and elephants, the country has 899 species of birds, 274 mammals, 154 reptiles, 53 amphibians, and 4,715 species of higher plants. Recent articles | Nigeria news updates | XML
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