Bayelsa governor seeks end to ecocide, wants adequate remediation for impacted communities

 Day on Thursday, the 5th of June, 2014, the Bayelsa State government says it intends to engage other well meaning corporations to insist on adequate redress and remediation for its devastated communities, seas and mangroves through amicable means and all other lawful measures where necessary.

The governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, who spoke on the occasion of the world environmental day in Yenagoa, said the government of Bayelsa, under his administration, is determined to stand as the environmental trustee of the communities, especially those grossly affected by oil extraction and oil companies’ exploitation.

He said the Niger Delta ecosystem is under severe attack on many fronts and at an estimated annual rate of 3.3 percent, the oil rich region is witnessing one of the highest rate of deforestation in the world, fast losing the varied benefits of rich forest cover.

This, he posited, was caused by excessive logging, unrestrained and callously under priced virgin land lakes, mostly for oil exploration activities, fuel wood (fire wood) extraction, and debilitation from perennial oil pollution.

Governor Seriake, who spoke through his Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Inuiro Wills, said it was time the extractive industries begin to plough back reasonable portions of their humongous profits into protecting the environment and the communities they have perforated in the course of their operations.

According to him, “But on behalf of the environment and our communities, we also seek the strong support of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the International community, especially the UK and US Government, the United Nations system and the Justice instructions of the European Union, in holding these corporations and their parents companies to account for their environmental violations and to uphold global best practice in corporate social responsibility, equally in the mangrove of Bayelsa as the North Sea\UK, in Norway or in the US along the gulf of Mexico.”

He said the Bayelsa state government on its own is initiating a wide range of measures aimed at protecting the ecology and promoting environmental sustainable measures to protect its rich forest by the recent employment of 168 forestry officials of various cadre in order to harness it forest reserves.

He said, “We are also building a strong partnership with NOSDRA and other relevant global institutions on oil pollution control, remediation\restoration of polluted sites, and disaster risk reduction in relation to Pipeline vandalization and illegal\unregulated refining of crude oil.”

To effectively drive this agenda and ensure enforcement, the governor said, the institutional strengthening of the state ministry of environment and other reforms in the sector are top priority to him, adding that all major government projects in the state will be subjected to environmental impacted assessments.

“Bayelsa state as a responsible member of the global community is committed to restoring our environment to its fertile vegetations, lovely blue seas and crystal air quality.

This is how we can preserve our state as a treasure trove of biodiversity, this is how we can play our part in maintaining intergenerational equity; and this is how we can heed the call of the World Environmental theme of 2004 tagged “Raise your voice, and not the sea,” he submitted.

The state government also said a one-week program for the world environmental day has commenced and will be culminated with the Bayelsa Environmental Colloquium on Thursday, the 12th of June, to be preceded by a special environmental day on Tuesday.

SOURCE  ; NATIONAL MIRROW

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/bayelsa-governor-seeks-end-to-ecocide-wans-adequate-remediation-for-impacted-communities/