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2012 Annual Report Inner Annual Report & Accounts 2012 Y ear of Great the Flood ENVIRONMENT FRIENDS OF THE EAR Pr otecting the En AL RIGHTS ACTION/ vir onment, Democratising Dev TH, NIGERIA elopment annual report year of the great flood & accounts 2012 advisory board Nnimmo Bassey Oronto Douglas Godwin Uyi Ojo Nicholas Ashton-Jones Uche Onyeagucha Ike Okonta Folake Okediran Marie Bystrom M.T Fubara-Okorodudu Akinbode Oluwafemi 02 annual report year of the great flood & accounts 2012 contents Advisory Board Who We Are Acknowledgment From the Executive Director The Year of the Great Flood Building National Movement for Corporate Accountability Pollution, Spills, Blow outs and More spills The UNEP Report: One Year After Unending Wait for an Effective PIB Seeking Justice in Polluter’s Homelands Gender Light Shines Brighter Training More Environmental Watchdogs Rally For Food Security and Economic Justice Grassroots on Alert for Forest Protection Financial Report 02 annual report year of the great flood & accounts 2012 who we are Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) is a Nigerian non-governmental organisation founded on January 11, 1993 to deal with environmental human rights issues in Nigeria. ERA/FoEN is the Nigerian chapter of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), the world environmental justice federation campaigning to protect the environment and to create sustainable societies. ERA/FoEN is the co-coordinating NGO in Africa for Oilwatch International, the global South network of groups concerned about the effects of oil on the environment of the people who live in oil-bearing regions. ERA/FoEN is a member of the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT), and the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA). It is also the co-coordinating organisation for the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) and host of the Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI). In recognition of its commitment to struggles for environmental human rights, ERA/FoEN was named premier winner of the Sophie Prize, the international award in environment and development (1998), the Bloomberg Award for Global Tobacco Control (2009) and recipient of the Ford Foundation Jubilee Transparency Awards (2011). 02 annual report year of the great flood & accounts 2012 acknowledgement We sincerely thank our partners for their support: OxfamNovib Netherlands Hivos Biodiversity Fund Friends of the Earth International Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund America Cancer Society Global Green Grants Fund National Endowment for Democracy (NED) Cordaid Gaia Foundation Pact Nigeria New World Foundation (NWF) Third World Network (TWN) World Rainforest Movement (WRM) Oxfam Novib Kairos Miliudefesie, Friends of the Earth Netherlands Friends of the Earth Norway We also recognise those who may not have been mentioned but have contributed in various ways to the success of our campaigns 02 annual report year of the great flood & accounts 2012 from the executive director Twenty Years of Fighting Environmental Crimes Environmental Rights Action (ERA) began life around 1990. The environment out of which it was born gave the organisation the unique platform and character that forcefully pushed the fact that environmental rights are even more holistic than human rights because humans are merely a part of the environment and even though their rights are considered predominant T h a t t h e p r o m o t i o n o f this does not mean that theirs are environmentally responsible necessarily superior to other beings governmental, commercial, or to nature herself. community and individual practices is best attained through For twenty years, ERA has been the empowerment of local powered by key principles among people. which are the following: That local people have the right and knowledge to control local That every African has a right to a resources s a f e a n d s a t i s f a c t o r y Pro-environment policy changes environment favourable to are best worked for though non- his/her development as captured violent resistance. in Article 24 of the African Charter of Peoples and Human Rights. We stayed on course over the years That human rights are also well and especially during the difficult defended when ecosystems are days when Nigeria was under respected. military dictatorship because we had 02 annual report year of the great flood & accounts 2012 dedicated ERA people and because against individual criminals and w e h a d a n u n a m b i g u o u s those who hide behind corporate philosophical compass that ensured shields. Ecocide would be an we did not drift. Today I look back appropriate umbrella law to with satisfaction that ERA people, confront the massive lawlessness whether in or outside ERA, have that run rampant across Nigeria and stayed the course. many nations of the world today. Over these years, we have suffered I look back across twenty short years persecution, faced afflictions and of momentous changes. I am happy enjoyed triumphs. Our triumph has that the four persons (Oronto b e e n t h a t o u r w o r k w i t h Douglas, Nick Ashton Jones, Godwin c o m m u n i t i e s i m p a c t e d b y Ojo and I) who brought this group to deforestation, land grabs, oil spills, be are still engaged in the defence of gas flares and pollutions of all types Mother Earth in one way or the way. I has succeeded because the people remember our days of challenging have resolutely stood against the harmful big dams in Northern pushers of these harmful practices. Nigeria, massive logging in forests in many of our Southern States. I We have stayed the course because remember our struggles against oil w e v i e w e v e r y s c e n e o f spills and gas flares. I remember our environmental harm inflicted by the b a t t l e s a g a i n s t w h o l e s a l e agency of man as a crime scene. destruction of communities by Although we sometimes resort to government to pave the way for civil actions as a measure of corporate claws to sink deeper into resistance we note that these are not sufficient to stem environmental our lands. crimes. To stop those who reap profits from environmental damage We have fought steadily against the laws governing those activities wasting of our environment and ought to be urgently upgraded to livelihoods by the petroleum sector. make it possible for criminal charges The world's addiction to carbon- with long jail terms to be pressed high life has elevated dirty oil 02 annual report year of the great flood & accounts 2012 companies to the level of the gods. Shutting down oil production in Easy oil has now given way to tough order to tackle the gas flaring oil. The scraping of the bottom of the problem makes economic sense if barrel has thrown up dangerous we consider the implications of catastrophic global warming. And of extractive methods and spewing course the government must halt oil ever more greenhouse gases into t h e f t , h a l t t h e r e g i m e o f the atmosphere and sentencing the unaccounted for oil through lack of world to climate catastrophe. And metering. Do I need to add that while global leaders would not delays in cleaning up Ogoni land and commit to provide funds for other polluted parts of Nigeria is an adaptation and resilience building, unacceptable disregard for the right multiples of what is needed is being to life and to a safe environment of expended on wars fought for profit the peoples. at the expense of disposable lives sometimes in the name of exporting Today, while celebrating our 20 years democracy. In the era of peak oil it of marching on for environmental appears we have passed over peak rights, I remember individuals and democracy without attaining communities who have greatly democracy in the first place. inspired me as a person. Ken Saro- Wiwa, executed by the State on false charges on 10 November 1995. I Today I call upon all of us to tell the r e m e m b e r t h e p e o p l e s o f emperor that he is naked, to tell the Umeuchem, Bakalori, Odi, Odioma, promoters of neoliberalism that they Ilaje, Gbaramatu and others. I salute are running (at one spot) on empty the mentoring I continue to receive tanks! Let us shout it out loud: it is from our foremost community time to leave the oil in the soil; from activist, Comrade Che Ibegwura Yasuni to Ogoni, to Kaiso in the Rift who, at over 80 years, keeps Valley to Lofoten in Norway. And if t r u d g i n g o n t h e p a t h o f Nigeria is serious about fighting environmental justice. I salute Sister global warming gas flaring must be Majella Macarron, a Catholic nun stopped immediately. from Ireland whose gift of books in 02 annual report year of the great flood & accounts 2012 those early days helped to frame our Twenty years have passed. Twenty work. more will come. And much more still. The road is long and the runners will I salute my colleagues in ERA. I salute be many. The baton must be passed my wife and family for unstinting on. And so, while remaining in the support over the years. I salute all trench with the foot soldiers, it gives our comrades across Africa and me great pleasure to hand that across the continents of the world.
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