Executive Director of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Segun Awolowo, has revealed that the sum of almost N350 billion is lost to smuggling of Shea products from Nigeria every year due to the non-existence of proper structure for the Shea value chain in the country. “Nearly N345 million is lost in the smuggling of Shea products out of the ...

In the June 21, 2015 edition of EnviroNews, this writer wrote an article titled “How to tame Lagos gridlock,” wherein some of the causes responsible for the daily traffic congestion in Lagos Mega were identified. Some solutions on how to ameliorate the problem were also proffered in the article under reference. Recently, it was reported in the media that Governor ...

Nearly 40 Nigerian companies showcased their potential for offshore materials and services in the oil and gas industry at an exhibition held in Lagos by the deep-water subsidiary of Shell in Nigeria, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo.) The exhibition, the 4th in the series, aimed to raise the level of awareness in critical offshore oil and gas ...

Hundreds of families are caught in a 22-year-long legal battle with Chevron over Ecuador pollution, with no end in sight, writes Priyanka Gupta, who reported from Ecuador on a fellowship from the International Reporting Project (IRP) It is exactly 22 years since the first class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the residents of the Ecuadorian Amazon region, known as the ‘Oriente,’ ...

Ken Wiwa, the son of human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, says in this article published in The Guardian of London, that Nigeria’s Ogoniland still looks as devastated by oil pollution as when the junta executed his father 20 years ago. But, according to him, the carbon economy seems to be reaching a tipping point at last. Wiwa was a Nigerian ...

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has backed a move towards renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy as a solution to addressing the energy crisis in the developing world. Dr Godwin Ojo, head of ERA/FoEN, who made the submission on Monday in Port Harcourt, River State, at the organisation’s 8th National Environment Congress, frowned ...

A fresh five-year phase for the UN-REDD Programme has been endorsed by its three collaborating United Nations (UN) agencies – the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The UN-REDD Programme is the “United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in Developing Countries”. Support ...

The recently launched Centre for Food Technology and Research (CEFTER) at the Benue State University in Makurdi has commenced its first short course with the inauguration of a weeklong workshop on “Basic Food Hygiene and Safety” It kicked off on Monday, 9th November, 2015 at the institution’s College of Health Sciences auditorium. Inaugurating the workshop, Wife of the Benue State ...

A recent fact-finding mission by regional human rights groups in the south-western island of Palawan, the last ecological frontier of the Philippines, has revealed a pattern of land grabs and forest destruction by palm oil companies, partly owned by Malaysian and Singaporean investors. Motalib Kimel, Chairman of the local Coalition Against Land Grabbing (CALG) and himself a Taganua leader from Palawan, said: ...

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with support from the Government of Japan and in collaboration with the Director of Public Prosecution in Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Justice, has delivered a series of in-depth training workshops for 34 Nigerian prosecutors. The workshops focused on strengthening capacity to prosecute terrorism and other serious offenses, in accordance with the ...