Project Abstract

Abstract
Rivers State, located in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, faces significant environmental challenges that threaten the state of the earth in the area. The region's natural resources, including its rivers, forests, and diverse ecosystems, are under threat due to various anthropogenic activities. The exploration and exploitation of oil and gas have led to widespread environmental degradation, pollution, and loss of biodiversity in Rivers State. One of the primary environmental challenges in Rivers State is oil pollution. Spills from oil pipelines, illegal oil refining activities, and operational discharges from oil facilities have contaminated the rivers, creeks, and farmlands in the region. The impacts of oil pollution are far-reaching, affecting water quality, aquatic life, and the health of communities that depend on these resources for their livelihoods. The degradation of the ecosystem also hampers the state's ability to support biodiversity and provide essential ecosystem services. Deforestation is another pressing environmental issue in Rivers State. The clearing of forests for agriculture, logging, and urban development has reduced the region's forest cover, leading to habitat loss and fragmentation. This loss of forest ecosystems threatens the survival of plant and animal species, disrupts local climates, and contributes to soil erosion and flooding in the area. The destruction of forests also diminishes the state's capacity to sequester carbon and mitigate climate change. Furthermore, the state of the earth in Rivers State is impacted by pollution from urban and industrial activities. The discharge of untreated wastewater, solid waste mismanagement, and air pollution from industries and transportation sources degrade environmental quality and pose risks to public health. Urbanization and industrialization in the region have also increased pressure on natural resources and ecosystems, exacerbating environmental challenges in Rivers State. Addressing the environmental challenges in Rivers State requires a multi-faceted approach that integrates environmental protection, sustainable resource management, and community engagement. Effective policies, enforcement mechanisms, and stakeholder collaboration are essential to mitigate the impacts of oil pollution, deforestation, and pollution in the region. Promoting sustainable practices, conservation efforts, and environmental education can help safeguard the state's natural heritage and promote a healthy environment for current and future generations in Rivers State.

Project Overview

Environmental issues are meant to be operationalized through the formulation of actor-specific environmental actions plans, which define priority action that will convert strategy into practice. The Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) process which is an increasingly popularized cans of solving the myriads of problems afflicting the environmental in contemporary world.

The study examines the use of Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) process as a strategy of solving environmental problems in Bonny Island, Rivers State, Nigeria by investigating the perception of the general public on the state of the environment in the area, level of participation of people in compliance to existing environmental strategies, causes of ineffective environmental management in the area and assessing community satisfaction with existing environmental management approach using well structured questionnaires administered to sampled households

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Questions were related to socio-economic characteristics of households, willingness to participate by the community in the EPM process, perceived level of environmental degradation in the area, level of compliance of oil and gas companies to environmental laws and the role of Government environment protection agencies in protecting the environment of the study area.

The results confirm that the level of damage from oil exploration, gas activities, pollution and pipeline vandalizations is chronic and cumulative, which has resulted to the degradation of the environment, routine of facilities and compliancy to environmental management approaches are not regular, facilities and equipment were found be grossly inadequate therefore proper inspection can not be well carried out, the community expressed dissatisfaction with the existing environment approach which they attributed to the inability of fully implementing the environmental approach, the community indicated that given the opportunity they are willing to particimendations were made for the effective and efficient application of the EPM process in the study area.