Jeju, South Korea
On my last day at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, I participated in a workshop on the ‘IUCN Facilitated Independent Advisory Panel on Remediation and Rehabilitation of Biodiversity and Habitats of Oil Spill Sites in the Niger Delta.’ It’s a long title for an ambitious initiative. As explained on the Panel’s website:
“In 2012, in response to a request from Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC), IUCN established an independent advisory panel to provide science based recommendations for the remediation and rehabilitation of biodiversity and habitats of oil spill sites in the Niger Delta. The overall objective of this project is to help improve biodiversity conservation and benefit people who are dependent on the health of Niger Delta for their livelihoods.”
The Niger Delta is the largest wetland in Africa. Its key ecological features are barrier islands, mangroves, freshwater swamps, and lowland forests. The Delta is home to more than 30 million people, most of which are poor and have limited opportunities to improve their livelihoods.
As reported on the website of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), SPDC which is also known as Shell Nigeria is a large player in the Nigerian oil sector:
“A joint venture operated by Shell accounts for more than forty percent of Nigeria’s total oil production (899,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 1997) from more than eighty oil fields. The joint venture is composed of NNPC (55 percent), Shell (30 percent), Elf (10 percent) and Agip (5 percent) and operates largely onshore on dry land or in the mangrove swamp.”
Regarding oil spills, on its website, Shell Nigeria has the following public commitment:
“The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited is committed to minimising oil spills to the environment and to cleaning up all spills in the Niger Delta when they occur, as fast as possible, no matter what their cause.”
The role of the IUCN-facilitated Panel is to provide independent advice on the biodiversity and community impacts of Shell’s oil spill clean-up efforts. In this regard, the Panel has four main objectives:
- Identify standards and good practice guidance on remediation and rehabilitation
- Encourage uptake of the guidance by SPDC
- Develop a strategy to safeguard the Delta's remaining areas of biodiversity
- Build capacity with local Nigerian organisations
The Panel of 5 scientific experts plans to work in an independent and transparent way. It will seek information and views from relevant parties, but will form its own views. It will provide advice on clean-up operations irrespective of the historical cause of the spill. In so doing, the Panel hopes to help Shell better manage the ‘social capital’ and ‘natural capital’ of the Delta along with the financial capital generated from its oil and gas operations.
Though the Panel’s work is just getting under way, it has already become clear that building trust will be a critical factor. To be effective, the Panel will need to work hard to gain the trust and respect of key stakeholder groups including local communities, state governments, the federal government, NGOs, Shell Nigeria itself, and hopefully as well the other oil and gas companies operating in the region. To build trust, the Panel will need to carefully manage when it needs to be transparent and when it needs to be discrete about its engagements and the advice it provides. The aim is to move forward in a cautious and independent way.
For its first three-year phase, the Panel expects to spending the first year consulting, observing and reviewing in order to develop a set of recommendations for biodiversity-responsible oil spill clean-up. During the next two years, the Panel will monitor the clean-up operations by Shell Nigeria against its recommendations.
At the workshop, there was a lively and interesting discussion of the numerous challenges and opportunities presented by this new initiative. This is clearly a bold move for both Shell and the IUCN community. However, if the advice of the Panel helps Shell Nigeria to clean-up oil spills in a biodiversity positive way, then other oil companies in the Delta might be encouraged to follow Shell’s leadership. In this regard a forthcoming $10 million UNDP/GEF Niger Delta Biodiversity Project could provide a platform for an industry-wide rehabilitation effort.
One workshop participant even asked when the Panel could come to her country, Sierra Leone, where new oil and gas operations are now under development. In fact, there are new oil and gas operations developing in sensitive habitats across Africa from Mauritania to Mozambique. The work of the Niger Delta Advisory Panel could have continent-wide implications.
