One green shoot at a time: the women restoring mangrove forests in the oil-ravaged Niger delta — SkimNews
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- Martha Agbani founded the Lokiaka Community Development Centre in 2003, training 400+ women to restore mangroves in Ogoniland, a path she chose after the 1995 execution of Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and the death of her activist mother, Theresa Terabiewaa Agbani
- Lokiaka has restored 3 million mangroves and reclaimed 190 hectares of swamp forest since 2018, with 150,000+ saplings planted at the Teenama wetland alone
- Joy Lebewi and her team of women now plant seedlings using a 2-metre spacing stick after their initial 2018 effort failed — the trees were packed too close and canopies crowded each other out
- Dr Ferdinand Giadom of the Bodo Mediation Initiative estimates more than 500,000 barrels of crude have spilled into the environment in under 20 years, with about 1,000 hectares of mangroves destroyed in the 2008 Ogoniland spill alone
- Shell was ordered to pay £55m in compensation to Bodo residents after two 2008-2009 oil spills, but Giadom says 'two decades have been lost' in livelihoods
- An invasive nipa palm from southeast Asia is now choking the wetlands as heavily as the oil pollution, with men from surrounding communities clearing the thickets so the women can plant native species on reclaimed ground
- The Niger delta mangrove ecosystem covers about 1 million hectares, making it the largest in Africa and the third-largest globally, supporting fisheries, coastline protection and carbon storage for millions
Why it matters: Agbani's 400+ women have planted 3 million mangroves across 190 hectares, reclaiming a food and income lifeline for Ogoniland communities that lost two decades of livelihoods to oil pollution. The Niger delta's 1-million-hectare mangrove forest — Africa's largest — provides habitat, carbon storage and fisheries that millions depend on, so community-led restoration is a practical counterweight to ongoing extraction damage, not just symbolic reforestation.
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