Assessing Ecosystem Liabilities of Oil and Gas Activities in Southern Nigeria

Merem, Edmund C.; Twumasi, Yaw A.; Wesley, J.; Isokpehi, P.; Shenge, M.; Fageir, S.; Crisler, M.; Romorno, C.; Hines, A.; Hirse, G.; Ochai, S.; Leggett, S.; Nwagboso, E.

doi:10.5923/j.phr.20170701.02

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…This shortfall threatens the operational capacity of industries who rely on crude palm oil as key ingredient of their activities. With the risks associated with oil palm production and the potentials integral to it [33,34], very little work exists in the literature on the state of the sector in the Lower South region of Nigeria from a mix-scale perspective [35,36,37,38,39,40,41]. This study will fill that void by assessing the activities in oil palm farming in the Southern region using techniques of descriptive statistics and GIS with emphasis on the issues, trends, factors, impacts, and efforts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Appraising the Changing Trends in Oil Palm Farming in Nigeria's Lower South Region

Merem¹,

Twumasi²,

Wesley³

et al. 2020

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During the early 20th century when Nigeria was the largest producer of palm oil globally, the South Eastern region accounted for much of the output. Being the chief source of revenue responsible for the development of the zone at that time, the prosperity exuded therein from oil palm trade, spilled over to other parts of Nigeria in varying forms. Considering the large presence of palm trees and the associated plantations in the Southern region. The prominence of Nigeria in the sector was such that the exported items to destinations all over the world penetrated major markets where palm produce drew regular interests from buyers. Added to that, during the civil war in the late 1960s and the discovery of petroleum in the South East region, palm oil plantations were obliterated, and output waned as petroleum emerged as the major export of the nation. Yet, what seems forgotten is that palm oil was instrumental in the economic advancement of the nation, with market access and infrastructure essential to product delivery concentrated in riverine communities along the Delta. However, with the post war slide, no serious effort was made to revive the foundering sector amidst institutional neglect and misplacement of policy priorities. Even with the present scramble to revive it, the amenities for industrial revival and up to date studies on the state of the sector remain elusive. Compounding that, the Southern region still lacks complete georeferenced info on oil palm activities essential for planning under a mix-scale model. For that, this paper will fill that void by assessing the state of the palm oil sector in Southern Nigeria. Emphasis are on the issues, trends, impacts, factors and efforts using mix-scale tools of Geographic Information System (GIS) and descriptive statistics. The results not only reaffirmed the region's position as the frontier of oil palm with changes in output and cultivated areas from 2006-2012, but Akwa Ibom and Imo state outpaced the other states. Also, from 1961-1965, the former Eastern region stood out in all statistical categories associated with production and usage beginning with 74.08% in output and 93.48 to 59.1% in purchases and residential consumption. The ecological impacts consist of 6.6% deforestation rates nationwide and the loss of forested land in Cross River state followed by continued forest land declines (10.26 -16.24%) in 2002-2006 and 47.58% in 2007 from palm oil production activities. Aside from land grabbing incidents by oil palm companies at the expense of local communities, there are greater risk exposures from the use of agrochemicals with threats to biodiversity. While the GIS mappings revealed the firm concentration in output and cultivated areas in the core producing states, the patterns also show gradual dispersal of oil palm indicators onto the other states. Given the linkages to socio-economic, and physical elements, to remedy the problems, the paper offered some suggestions ranging from improved farm policy towards the oil palm sector, community participation, ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Appraising the Changing Trends in Oil Palm Farming in Nigeria's Lower South Region

Merem¹,

Twumasi²,

Wesley³

et al. 2020

jfe

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“…GIS systems can manipulate the relevant energy indicators such as wind and solar and others and provide estimates on the potentials for effective planning [23]. GIS as a valuable tool for understanding the region's emergent renewable energy sector and development in such setting, remains essential for prospecting the resources and to grasping the potentials [24].…”

Section: Appendixmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All in all, GIS as an analytical and methodological tool has found valuable use in the assessment of natural resource use and research design [18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. See Appendix 1 for more on GIS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Assessment of Energy Trends in West Africa Using GIS

Merem¹,

Twumasi²,

Wesley³

et al. 2017

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In a globalizing world where development hinges on access to modern energy services, many regard renewables as catalysts for regional economic advancement. Yet, various parts of Africa lack access to modern energy services along with relevant spatial information tools to support decision making. It is also the only place in the globe where a major portion of the inhabitants stay without adequate electricity. Tracking renewable trends spatially remains the ideal way to improve access to energy services sustainably and efficiently as opposed to the other options. The matter is compounded by many limiting factors to energy security in West Africa such as poor system reliability, inadequate infrastructure and fuel import dependence. Seeing the positive linkage between energy access and growth, increasing access to renewable services through electricity and other services serves a vital purpose for the West African region. While identifying current developments in West Africa's renewable energy sector remains essential in understanding its potential, attaining it requires improvements to current approaches to energy management through new knowledge and spatial analysis of energy undertakings using GIS. In that light, the projected development of renewable energy in the region cannot be attained without complete and reliable information calibrated in a GIS environment. Accordingly, this paper focuses on regional assessment of energy in West Africa with emphasis on the issues, trends, factors, impacts and efforts. Using a mix scale method of descriptive statistics and GIS, the results show that the region has untapped renewable energy potentials spread across many nations. This is followed by changes in a set of renewable energy categories that are germane to regional development due to socio-economic factors. GIS mapping of the trends also reveals gradual dispersal of energy security predictors clustered around many localities. For future lines of action, the paper suggests the need for effective policy, continual use of GIS and the design of a regional energy information system for West Africa.

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“…However, over the years, Merem has assessed environmental degradation at different scales under a mix scale orientation of GIS and descriptive statistics with relevance to the study area. Even though some of the themes covered ranged from environmental changes, impacts, ecosystem liabilities, pollution threats, urbanization and energy use [40][41][42][43][44][45], this study will fill that void in the literature. This paper examines the growing environmental issues facing Lagos in the Southwest region of Nigeria.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing Emerging Environmental Issues in Major Areas: The Case of Lagos in South West Nigeria

Merem¹,

Twumasi²,

Wesley³

et al. 2018

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With the many glowing promises painted about Lagos State over the past decades, several environmental challenges do exist in the area. This is evident with the pace of unprecedented urban development expansion and incursions into areas deemed ecologically fragile through the conversion of wetlands to human settlements in low-lying zones prone to the threats of sea level rise hazards and intense flooding. Additionally, the metropolitan area has also seen intense environmental degradation emanating from the pressures of unprecedented influx of people into the area. As the various land use activities and land reclamation projects in the state intensify to meet rising demands for settlements, the carrying capacity of the ecosystem remains threatened. The declining quality of the ecosystem as manifested with recurrent waste generation, limited access to fresh water supply, poor drainage and power outage, translates into extra burden for a place saddled already by fatalities from the outbreak of epidemics of water contamination and building collapse, emission of atmospheric toxics, the displacement of citizens and damages from climatic variability. With the problems attributed to a host of socio-economic and physical factors, very little exists in the literature to capture these trends spatially using a mixscale approach. This study will fill that void in research by assessing emerging environmental issues in the Lagos area. Using a mix scale approach of descriptive statistics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyze the trends, the results showed a mix of gains and declines in the land use parameters with major increases in areas devoted to urban development from 1976-2008 and 1976-2015, followed by losses in agricultural land and wetlands from 1976-2015. The issues remain compounded by the surge in population and water supply demands and instances of deficits from 1963-2020. While the GIS mapping revealed the gradual dispersion of ecosystem degradation indicators spread across the state, there exists clusters of areas vulnerable to environmental hazards across Lagos. To mitigate these risks, the paper offered several recommendations ranging from the need for effective policy to green planning education for city managers and developers and risk assessment.

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Assessing Ecosystem Liabilities of Oil and Gas Activities in Southern Nigeria

Cited by 13 publications

References 11 publications

Appraising the Changing Trends in Oil Palm Farming in Nigeria's Lower South Region

Appraising the Changing Trends in Oil Palm Farming in Nigeria's Lower South Region

Regional Assessment of Energy Trends in West Africa Using GIS

Analyzing Emerging Environmental Issues in Major Areas: The Case of Lagos in South West Nigeria

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