Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth Nigeria

Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director, ERA and Chair, Friends of the Earth International sums up the last two weeks of climate talks in Copenhagen from the backroom deals to rise of the Climate Justice movement.

Early on in the second week of COP15, the cordoned path created for long lines of NGOs seeking entry into the Bella Centre was a crowded mass of people. The cold was setting in, but the people pressed in.

The story was different for the last two days of the COP. The path was desolate and taken over by a carpet of snow. Observers had been barred from entering the venue and the few with possibilities of entry had to contend with long waits as security officials thumbed through sheets with names of those cleared to enter.

A unique court case, brought by four Nigerian victims from Goi-Ogoni, Rivers State, Ikot Ada Udo, Akwa Ibom State and Oruma, Rivers State of Shell oil leaks, in conjunction with Milieudefensie [Friends of the Earth Netherlands], begins on Thursday in the court at The Hague. This is the first time in history that a Dutch company has been brought to trial before a Dutch court for damages occurring abroad.

The Nigerian farmers and fishers, who lost their livelihoods after oil from leaking Shell pipelines streamed over their fields and fishing ponds, are claiming compensation from the Dutch multinational. They also want Shell to clean up the oil which remains in the ground, so that they can fish and farm once again.

In the midst of the global call for the end of gas flaring in Nigeria and numerous shifts of the gas flare out date by oil companis operating in Nigeria, Shell ignited a new gas flare furnace in Gbarantoru community in Bayelsa State, Nigeria at about midnight on the 25th of October, 2009. Due to the seriousness of the act by Shell, ERA made a follow up visit on November 5, 2009 to ascertain the current situation.

Location: Gbarantoru community in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Shell should not gas us to death  -Bubraye Dakolo

INTRODUCTION

Gbarantoru community is an Ijaw town in Ekpetiama Kingdom of Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. It is located on the outskirts of Yenagoa, the State capital. Shell Petroleum Development Company has been operating in the community for many years. The Gbaran/Ubie Gas Gathering Plant is located here.

HEATING THE AIR, POISONING THE LAND

Shell’s commencement of a new gas flare at a time when the routine gas flaring has received global condemnation, and with the full knowledge that gas flaring is an illegal activity in Nigeria, is seen by the locals as an act of impunity and total disregard for their health. Gas flaring is a major contributor of global warming greenhouse gases. The commence this destructive activity a few weeks from the climate negotiations in Copenhagen indicates Shell’s disregard for the welfare of humanity and our climate.

20-24 Oct. 2009
 
Member groups of Friends of the Earth Africa, representatives of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) Food Sovereignty Programme and Agrofuels Campaign, civil society groups, development experts, community representatives, farmers, government ministries and agencies, media representatives and consumer rights groups, among others, met in Abuja from 20-24 October 2009 at the conference on AGRA, Land Grabs and Non-Ecological Agriculture.
 
Participants, at the conference, hosted by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) discussed the challenge posed by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) - an initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation - and the need to build knowledge and resistance to land grabs on the continent and other non-ecological agriculture that threaten African agriculture and food sovereignty.
   

Fire has been raging at the Ojumole Oil Field, Ojumole town, Ugbo Kingdom in Ilaje local government area, Ondo State, Nigeria.

The fire is said to have started on Saturday, 3rd October, 2009, following an "explosion" and is very close to Bowoto Community. The cause is yet to be ascertained. Community folk are being displaced in panic. More details to be published as facts emerge.

Emergency help is needed.

 

- By Stephan Faris

It wasn't an oil spill that made Nnimmo Bassey an environmentalist. It was a massacre — the 1990 assault by Nigeria's armed forces on the village of Umuechem, where residents of the oil-rich Niger Delta had accused the Shell Petroleum Development Company of environmental degradation and economic neglect. In two days of violence, 80 people died and nearly 500 houses were destroyed. "We woke up from a sleep and ... everything was collapsing around us," says Bassey, 51, head of Environmental Rights Action, the Nigerian chapter of Friends of the Earth. 

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