The Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), says it is collaborating with the School of Wildlife Conservation in Rwanda for the restoration of oil polluted mangroves in Ogoniland.
This is even as it says it is currently training over 2,000 Ogoni youths on shoreline clean-up in Kpor, headquarters of Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Prof Nenibarini Zabbey, who dropped the hint while speaking with newsmen during a town hall meeting in Bomu Community in Gokana Local Government Area last Wednesday said the agency is collaborating with the school for the mangrove restoration project, which he noted is starting with Bomu Community.
He noted that the mangroves are destroyed in most areas in Ogoniland, while there are still a few areas with pockets of community reserved mangroves, stressing that there are three such communities where HYPREP would quantify the carbon stock both above and below the ground.
According to him, the collaboration with the Rwandan school is a win-win collaboration as the institution would send its interns to Nigeria for HYPREP to mentor them while the agency would in turn send some of its staff to Rwanda to learn how to quantify carbon.
Zabbey further indicated that when such staff return, they would start the quantification process for the agency.
He said HYPREP is expected to interface with critical stakeholders from seven shoreline communities in Ogoniland before embarking on the mangrove restoration proper; stressing that it was part of the reason for the town hall meeting in Bomu Community.
The Project Coordinator explained that the mangrove restoration project would cover over 450 hectares of the land across Ogoniland, adding that the importance of the mangrove resources to the wellbeing of people can never be over-emphasised.
According to him, mangroves are very important in terms of detecting climate change, as they act as sink of carbon.
Zabbey further revealed that HYPREP’s management efforts in Ogoniland are anchored on two major pillars which include the restoration pillar and the conservation pillar.
He said mangroves have both environmental and economic values whose benefits can not be quantified, saying, they are to the local communities what reclamation of lands to check erosion is to government for development purposes.
The Project Coordinator noted that the mangroves are places where the local community people get their livelihoods, as they depend on them for food, energy and protection of their shorelines.
Zabbey also used the opportunity to visit Government Secondary School, Kpor where over 2,000 young men and women are undergoing training on shoreline clean-up.
While addressing them, he explained that the training is intended to equip them for the task ahead, and urged them to take it seriously by actively participating in it.
He said the Ogoni clean-up project adheres to international best practices and global standards as those being trained would at the end of the day be awarded International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) certificates 1 and 2.
According to him, the certificates would empower the beneficiaries for life in keeping with HYPREP’s sustainable livelihood policy.
He disclosed that another training was going on concurrently and that another batch of trainees would come on board for similar training at the end of the current exercise, and hinted that over 20,000 community workers would be provided the necessary tools to participate in the clean-up of the polluted environment in Ogoniland.

By: Donatus Ebi