A comprehensive environmental assessment of
oil-impacted sites in the Ogoni region of Nigeria's Niger Delta is to be
launched by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in
association with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The move follows a request by the Federal
Republic of Nigeria and forms part of the broader government-led peace and
reconciliation process in Ogoniland. Local communities and partners will
be supporting UNEP to undertake the evaluation.
Today senior officials from UNEP will be in
Abuja to seal the final details of the assessment, which is expected to be
completed by the end of 2008.
The UNEP team in Abuja will be holding
talks with the Minister of Environment of Nigeria; the National Oil Spill
Detection and Response Agency; the Shell Petroleum Development Company of
Nigeria (SPDC), and officials of other UN agencies in the country.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General
and UNEP Executive Director, said: "The assessment will seek to identify,
evaluate and minimize the immediate and long-term human, social, health
and economic impacts of oil contamination in Ogoniland, as well as those
related to environmentally and economically important ecosystems".
"We will be deploying several teams of
international and local experts in order to conduct field-based
assessments in over 300 sites to identify the impacts of oil on
environmental systems such as land, water, agriculture, fisheries and air
- as well as the direct and indirect effects on biodiversity and human
health," he added.
On the basis of the assessment findings,
UNEP will also make recommendations for the appropriate remediation
activities needed to rehabilitate the land to a condition that is
environmentally acceptable, according to international standards.
The project will be undertaken in a manner
that maximizes benefits to the community - through employment,
capacity-building activities, information and consultation.
The UNEP project in Ogoniland will be run
from a main field office in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, but smaller
Community Liaison offices will be opened in the communities of Eleme, Tai,
Khana and Gokana.
The Post-Conflict & Disaster Management
Branch (PCDMB) has worked in post-conflict settings such as Afghanistan,
Sudan, Iraq and Lebanon, as well as in countries affected by major
disasters such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Maldives. Because
conflicts and disasters are so closely intertwined with the environment,
proper environmental management and governance is essential for long-term
peace, stability and security in any conflict- or disaster-prone country.
The Ogoniland mission will be conducted by
the Post-Conflict and Disaster Management Branch (PCDMB), which leads
UNEP's work in areas of the world where the environment is impacted by
conflicts or disasters, or where the environment is a factor contributing
to conflict and disaster impacts.
Based in Geneva, the Branch has conducted
operations in more than twenty-five countries since its inception in 1999,
and published eighteen flagship environmental assessment reports. In 2007,
PCDMB is also carrying out assessments, capacity-building or clean-up
activities in Afghanistan, Liberia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia.
For more information and regular updates
visit the
UNEP's mission in Ogoniland
project's website
