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Oil palm in the wider landscape and threats to Nigeria’s forests

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Authors: Godwin Uyi Ojo

Nigeria - 2017

Language: English

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Large scale land acquisition is increasing dramatically in Nigeria. Although the act of expanding areas for cultivating food crops and fuels presents development opportunities, Godwin Uyi Ojo, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth Nigeria, argued that the negative impacts far outweigh any advantages as ‘land grabbing’ is causing serious environmental and social impacts to the land and the people living on it. The issue is deeply controversial due to the fact that it is driven by monetary benefits and conducted without obtaining prior and informed consent from local communities.

The worsening economic downturn and the food deficit have helped to make to Nigeria more dependent on external investment in large scale agribusiness. But the products produced eventually end up in international markets and therefore “enrich not Africans predominantly, but groups and individuals who operate to Africa’s impoverishment” (Nkrumah, 1965). The situation is further exacerbated due to unexpected repercussions of the EU biofuel policy, which unintentionally promotes the cultivation of palm oil and other biofuels, taking away communal land rights.

European-owned plantation companies are expanding their businesses tremendously in Nigeria without caring much about the consequences. Wilmar PZ in Cross River state and Okomu Oil Palm Company in Edo state both failed to conduct mandatory environmental impact assessment before expansion, required for community consent and to fulfil corporate social responsibility commitments as promised. Also, the potential for economic gains, weak governance structure and poor land tenure system have pushed federal and state governments to be non-compliant of current environmental laws and to collude with large-scale plantation companies in shady negotiations. As a result, land grabbing expansion appears unstoppable and the threats that it is posing to the Nigerian environment and people are becoming ever more severe.

In this context, it is crucial to recognize local communities as important partners in the development process, who have the rights to be involved, to be consulted, and to make decisions. There is also a strong need to put in place transparency and accountability measures so that the local people are not excluded and that corporate social responsibility is not a hoax. After all, “the best form of development is to place development parameters in the hands of the target beneficiaries”, said Ojo. 

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