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Nigeria: Stakeholders Tasked on Preservation of Mangrove Forest
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Vanguard (Lagos)
25 March 2008
Posted to the web 25 March 2008
Samuel Oyadongha
Lagos
Participants at the just concluded international conference on "The Nigerian State, Oil Industry and the Niger Delta," in Yenagoa have warned that the Niger Delta region, the third largest wetland in the world stood the risk of being lost unless all stakeholders in the region rally together to stop further destruction of the mangrove forest as well as embarking on joint implementation of environmental accounting on regular basis.
The forum was organised by the Department of Political Science, Niger Delta University, in collaboration with the centre for Applied Environmental Research (CAER), Department of Geosciences, University of Missouri-Kansas, the United States.
Participants at the forum were from the United States of America, United Kingdom, development agencies including the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), research institutes, National Space Research Development Agency (NARSDA), National University Commissions (NUC), Alliance for Earth Science, Engineering and Development in Africa (AESEDA) Pennsylvania State University, U. S.A; Center for Applied Environmental Research (CAER) University of Missouri-Kansas, U.S.A, Traditional Rulers, Civil Society Organisations, Community Based Organisations (CBOs), Non Governmental Organisations, and the Bayelsa State government, as well as scholars from over forty five universities in Nigeria.
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The conference, which noted with sadness that the Niger Delta Region, the mainstay of the country's economy cannot boost of commensurate benefits from the activities of the oil multinationals while its mangrove forest which provides life support system is on the throes of extinction.
The participants however blamed the leaders of the region over what they described as dereliction of duty, as well as, the lack of political will by the Nigerian state to develop the Niger Delta stressing that corruption at all tiers of government was partly responsible for the escalating crisis in the Niger Delta.
The conference warned that if the fragile region is to be preserved for generation yet unborn then the oil multinationals, federal and state governments should Niger stop further destruction of the mangrove forest in the Delta as well as calling on stakeholders to embark on joint implementation of environmental accounting on regular basis.
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