Nigeria

Living Earth Foundation has been working in Nigeria since 1996, previously in partnership with Living Earth Nigeria Foundation (LENF).

Living Earth Foundation, previously alongside LENF, had  primarily worked in two key states of Nigeria: Bayelsa State and Cross River State, which are located in the heart of the Niger River Delta on the southern coast of Nigeria. The Delta region is one of Nigeria’s most biodiversity rich areas, with its mangrove forest being the largest in Africa and the third largest in the world. This area  is also Nigeria’s main oil reserves region. Since the discovery of oil here in 1956, there have been major infrastructural developments (roads and pipelines), along with an influx of migrant workers. There are now two million people living in Bayelsa State and this along with continued infrastructural developments is exerting great pressure on the Delta’s biodiversity rich ecosystem.

The natural resources of the Niger Delta are vital to the livelihoods of the communities living there; they earn their living through farming, hunting, fishing and trade in forest products. As the oil industry has grown in the area, increased immigration and access to forests and fisheries, has resulted in overexploitation and unsustainable use of the Delta’s natural resources, threatening the livelihoods of the communities that inhabit the area.

Aims in Nigeria

LENF formerly facilitated community development and environmental education, employing Living Earth’s approach of enabling communities to identify and address their own environmental problems while learning to manage their own resources.

The principal issues facing the local communities of the Delta are:

• Economic stagnation:  In spite of the mineral wealth under the Niger Delta, local people in these States are among the poorest in the country. Classic symptoms such as poor education standards and poor sanitation (leading to illness and high child mortality) are commonplace.

• Over-reliance on unsustainable natural resource use: The Delta’s renewable natural resources are being exploited in unsustainable ways (e.g. clear-felling of forest, fishing with toxic substances, poor soil husbandry), thus the communities’ potential for economic development is being threatened by their very struggle for survival.

• Conflict and mistrust among different sectors of society: The inequitable distribution of wealth and resources in the Delta region has led to mistrust and open conflict between communities and those they perceive as responsible for the exploitation of resources (government at all levels and oil companies).

• Poor organisational development at community level: The conflict and mistrust among the different sectors has also caused internal conflict within individual communities, rendering many dysfunctional. The youth have become restive as their traditional respect for elders has been undermined due to the practice of government and corporations ‘solving’ conflicts with large pay-offs to chiefs and elders.

LEF has sought to address these problems throughout all of its projects in Nigeria.

Projects  

Developing Good Governance in the Niger Delta

This DIFD funded programme unites Nigerian NGOs to work in partnership with local government, civil society and the private sector to increase the transparency and accountability of governance in the Delta and to ensure a better delivery of basic services in the the region.

Sustainable Utilisation of Nigeria’s Gas and Renewable Energy Resources

This programme aims to catalyse the development of natural gas, renewable energy markets and sustainable community-based energy facilities within the Niger Delta through policy reform and by demonstrating that alternative community-based energy facilities can provide sufficient power for meeting rural and urban community needs. Details of Living Earth’s component of the SUNGAS- Gas to Power Project, can be accessed on the link below.

Gas to Power

This project is component of the ‘Sustainable Utilisation of Nigeria’s Gas and Renewable Energy Resources’ programme and seeks to utilize flare gas for domestic and small business consumption in the Niger Delta through the installation of a micro turbine.

Waste to Wealth Nigeria

This project seeks to create a virtuous circle wherein slum dwellers in Port Harcourt take responsibility for collecting and managing household solid waste, by fostering the development of wealth creating waste processing enterprises.

Local Government Training

The programme aimed to build the capacity of government institutions to enable them to take the lead in the sustainable development of the Delta.

Niger Delta Good Practice Study

In October 2006 Living Earth Foundation received a grant from Shell International to conduct a study in the three core Niger Delta states of Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers, to identify and document good practice in community development projects and programmes in the region