Nick Ashton-Jones, with Oronto Douglas and Susi Arnott

“ But although it had its own small farming settlements Nembe would have depended on Okoroba for most of its food just as Okoroba depended on Nembe as a market for its palm oil and agricultural production.
The fresh-water ecozone is the most influenced by mankind's exploitation because it contains more of the things that mankind wants: agricultural land, timber, bush-meat and other forest products. Thus as the local population grew and the demands of the market at Nembe grew, so the human influence on the Okoroba ecosystem became more pervasive. ”

“ The assumption that population densities are low in the brackish and fresh-water ecozones of the Niger Delta is an illusion: population densities on land that can be settled are high.
Like in many other areas of the world, the regions where oil is found in this country are very inhospitable. ”

“ In local maps of the area such as the one shown as Map 12, the Agip and Shell pipelines are always shown as being much closer than they really are. The "Oil Head" at Okoroba is shown as being as big as the village. In every community, in every conversation, oil is the dominant point as something that is destroying the environment upon which the people depend. There is never any doubt that oil is the cause of all problems. ”

“ As a result a community that was essentially viable is no longer viable and gastric diseases, the most dangerous being cholera, are on the increase.
Whilst the traditional activities of the local people in the mangrove ecozone are viable, the Nembe communities are not and may be said to be modern in the very worst sense. The dry land on both islands has been built over and most of the wetland has been sand-filled; there is no agricultural land, little fishing and Nembe is no longer a trading centre, so that the local people are largely dependant upon outside income. ”

“ The correct development of the Niger Delta may indeed solve some modern problems, but because it looks large and empty the answers are seen in terms of large-scale developments that by nature are careless of the local people and ecological viability. (A carelessness exacerbated by the corrupt nature of Nigerian government.) As Nigeria's food and timber requirements become more acute in the 21st century, the Okoroba-Nembe district is already being viewed as potential development land for large-scale forestry, fishery, oil palm and rice projects. ”

“ We believe that the company is environmentally and socially careless and tactless, having allowed itself to be seduced by the climate of low environmental standards and carelessness for human rights within which the Nigerian oil industry works. Moreover, as a major transnational company that has had a substantial impact upon the communities amongst whom it has worked, Shell has shown, to say the least, a cavalier attitude to the well-being of these communities that currently amounts to a cowardly disregard, at a time when these communities most need their help. ”

“ They pumped out water and destroyed the farmland with promised compensation like community and secondary schools, a road to Nembe and pipe-borne water. But they left and nothing has happened. It is like a dreamland. Since crops are no longer growing fine there is no money to train children and most youths have dropped out of secondary school.
Although some of the statements may be exaggerated there is little doubt that Shell promised more than it intended to give in order to facilitate the dredging and canalisation work, and water quality has deteriorated subsequent to the work. ”

“ Nonetheless, Okoroba also shows signs of having a population too great to be supported by traditional methods: many of its sons and daughters work in Port Harcourt and both men and women complain about declining agricultural yields (although there is still a surplus going to Nembe) ; this, of course, is not some peculiar modern phenomenon and is the prime reason for human movements throughout history, but moving is no longer an option today when human populations are so high. ”

“ This frustration leads to expensive attacks upon oil industry installations. The only benefit that accrues to the local people is the temporary work available to young men, mainly, it seems, from the seismic prospecting Companies; but even this is a double-edged sword, for the young men get a brief taste of a cash-rich life only to have it frustratingly snatched away.
In the fresh-water ecozone, the prime economic activity is agriculture and forest exploitation, both for subsistence and for trading. ”

“ Both communities express discontent but this symptom of modern mankind is most apparent in Nembe where it is exacerbated by the oil industry and is concentrated in the young men, especially those who at some stage have worked in the industry and have had money in their pockets. The cause of the frustration is the lack of opportunities contrasted by the obvious but unattainable wealth created for the fortunate few by the oil industry. ”

“ Interestingly, the farm-forest ecosystem of Okoroba and its neighbours may actively encourage the Chimpanzee population with extra food, in the same way as it encourages a much wider variety of birds than would have been found in the natural ecosystem of the area. Okoroba is a viable ecosystem of high biological productivity.
In the mangrove ecozone South and East of Nembe the traditional activities remain: fishing; collecting crabs, oysters (cutting the stilt roots of R. racemosa to get them) and periwinkles; cutting aerial roots to make fish drying racks ”

“ Despite the many problems society is self-organised and disciplined to a high degree, but less so in Nembe where young people are able to act more independently than in the rural areas.
The frustration already mentioned has brought together fairly well organised youth groups in Nembe that are held together and given direction by a common detestation of Shell. The frustration in Okoroba is less intense but appears to be more widely spread through the community and has yet to generate any political activity. ”

“ Yet the island is not modern in any other terms: sanitation conditions are basic so that the river water, particularly in the creek between the two islands is full of human refuse, and parts of the town are inundated with sewage at high tide; clean water is dependant on the one generator and if it fails the only drinking water comes from filthy and poorly maintained wells; electricity is sporadic, often for only one hour a day, in order to pump up water, and then at a low voltage that serves less that half the houses. ”

“ At Okoroba, the local water system has been severely damaged by the dredging of the Okoroba River and the construction of a wellhead slot just beside the village. This has created three problems: spoil has been dumped on levee farm-lands disrupting the surface drainage system; the slot has created a large volume of stagnant water beside the village so that locally, the river no longer flushes out or has enough oxygen to support fish; and, the upper reaches of the Okoroba River which used to supply clean washing and drinking water, has been drained. ”

“ The natural mangrove forest ecosystems form on water-logged alluvial deposits where the water regime is brackish, between the high and low tide marks, in areas protected from the battering of the Atlantic waves. They are pioneer ecosystems because alluvium and organic matter caught by the mangrove roots, in addition to the biomass created by the mangrove trees themselves, creates their own medium and they literally push out the land into the lagoons, creeks and rivers. ”

“ Especially when these demands are not only perceived to be, but which are also sometimes genuinely unfair and unreasonable. A realistic environmental policy: because Shell does not have a proper environmental policy which it can translate into action, it has to treat all
environmental problems which come to public attention, as public relations problems. That is, until something has to be done, as at Okoroba, when it is too late, and when unnecessary damage has been done to the environment and, of course, to Shell's precious image. ”

“ Later, isolated exploiting settlements may have encouraged the local predominance of useful species such as the raffia and oil palms.
However the overall impact of early mankind would have been small and easily absorbed by the ecosystem. The inhospitable nature of the mangroves may have discouraged the early infiltration of the area by groups of people moving through the numerous protected and interlinked creeks and lagoons inland that stretch from the Volta Delta to the Bonny Estuary. ”

“ To a limited extent Nembe is involved in the economic activities described above but they are not enough to support everyone. With the exception of periwinkles (and there are mountains of shell - the old towns are built on Periwinkle foundations) , all food stuffs are imported and the community is dependant upon cash incomes from four sources. From Nembe people who work in Port Harcourt; from insecure, albeit well paid, work in the oil industry ”

“ Shell's lack of a pro-active environmental policy which can be easily implemented in the field as part of its operational practice, means that the company has a fire-fighting approach to environmental issues, which is of no use to either itself or to the local people amongst whom it works. ”

“ Thus typically, mangroves give way suddenly to freshwater plant species which tolerate only very low salt concentrations; plants such as pandanus palms, raffia palms and bamboo are common. Mangrove trees are very poor competitors with the fresh-water plants and very rarely does one see a mixture of mangrove and fresh-water plant species. Similar conditions are found beside rivers in the predominantly fresh-water ecozone where the water becomes brackish during the driest months of the year. ”

“ As a result, regardless of with whom Shell thinks it has done a deal, and of how much compensation it thinks it has paid, the ordinary citizens of Okoroba, like the majority of ordinary people in the Niger Delta, have lost resources to an oil company and have nothing in exchange. ”

“ Just outside Okoroba Shell have built a new cottage hospital which is promoted as a philanthropically minded Shell development project, whilst in fact, it only replaces the building destroyed by the slot construction. One of many statements made at a meeting in Okoroba in November 1993 sums up the situation:
agriculture is the basis of our wealth. ”

“ This leads to anger with the industry, for not paying adequate compensation for taking away "their oil", and a belief that the elders have sold out to the oil industry without considering the future. In addition to all this angst is the infuriating knowledge that a few well placed members of the community have been paid substantial sums to keep the community "sweet".
Human population growth in the Okoroba-Nembe district is unlikely to be lower than other areas in the Niger Delta as a whole. ”

“ The levee soils develop where the fine sand and silt deposited by floods create land that is high enough to be largely free of floods. They are fine sandy loams and silty loams with a low permeability so that if they are not flooded in the wet season there may be standing water at times. ”

“ They are mainly in swamps and creeks.........I believe there is a long way to go to meet the claims of the oil-producing areas which see themselves losing non-replaceable resources while replaceable and permanent resources of agriculture and industry are being developed elsewhere largely with oil revenue. ”