Information Minister, Labaran Maku, has isolated environmental degradation as one of the greatest threats to the Niger Delta region. Maku made the submission in Abuja during a visit to the Civil Defence Academy, at the continuation of 2012 National Good Governance Tour. He listed other threats to the region to include pipeline vandalisation, illegal refineries and bust pipes. According to him, illegal ...

The Federal Government has been called upon to put in place an all-encompassing law to regulate the environment and also address issues that may arise from its breach. Head of Department, Akinola Aguda Postgraduate School, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of Lagos, Professor Olanrewaju Fagbohun, made the submission at an inaugural lecture he delivered. It is titled: “Mounful ...

Large-scale land grants totalling more than 1.5 million acres1 to Sime Darby2 and Golden Veroleum3 for oil palm and rubber plantations jeopardizes land rights of local populations, threatens local livelihoods and wellbeing of communities, and puts the future viability of one of the world’s most significant biodiversity hotspots into doubt. A new report (Uncertain Futures) released, by the Liberian NGO ...

Global warming-induced sea level rise and changes in climatic conditions are posing a serious challenge to the attainment of sustainable development in coastal states in Nigeria, experts have submitted. According to them, the devastating effects of recent extreme weather events (such as storm surges) on coastal cities and settlements in the states demonstrate their extreme vulnerability with a high potential ...

As the federal and state governments make frantic efforts to tackle the adverse effects of climate change, environmentalists are of the view that regional integration will go a long way to mitigate the effects, writes Kayode Aboyeji  Citing previous achievements through regional governments particularly in the first republic, some of which are still thriving till date, environmentalists have suggested regional ...

The Small Grants Programme (SGP) of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in Nigeria has supported the conservation of over 500 indigenous plant species in the country. The GEF-SGP, which is being implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has also sustained the establishment of Community Forest Management Committees and capacity building for forest protection, which seeks to enhance indigenous ...

The NGO Coalition for Environment (NGOCE), an environmental network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) with over 45 members based in Nigeria, has been selected as the new Africa observer organisation to the UN-REDD Policy Board. The Bank Information Centre (BIC), which made the disclosure on behalf of the UN-REDD Programme and the Independent Advisory Group on Forests, Rights and Climate ...

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), civil society and community-based groups across the country have called on the Nigerian government to demonstrate commitment to reducing carbon emissions and deforestation by developing a national programme on renewable energy and promotion of non-grind energy that local communities should be integrated into. The groups made the demand at a recent ...

The Federal Government has disclosed that Taraba State has so far recorded 13,428 internally displaced people and 30 communities submerged in water. Spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Yushau Shuaib, disclosed in Abuja that the affected communities are in Ibi and Wukari Local Government Councils of the state. He said that while the agency was conducting a rapid ...

Fears and apprehension have been the order of the day in several cities along the course of major rivers nationwide, no thanks to the rampaging floods. For instance, concerns have heightened in the commercial city of Onitsha in Anambra State and the neighbouring Asaba in Delta State, which is just by the other side of the River Niger. States such ...