New Website: Oil & gas companies threaten three iconic African deltas

Today, Oil Change International is launching an innovative data visualization website that highlights the threat of oil drilling to three iconic African Deltas: the Niger Delta in Nigeria, Saloum in Senegal, and Okavango in Botswana.

Go to ProtectTheDeltas.org to visit the new website. 

Using maps, graphics, and photos, the website visualizes the threat to the Deltas by oil and gas development. The intention is to track the fossil fuel industry’s activities in the Deltas over time, the threats to biodiversity, and highlight communities fighting fossil fuel expansion.

Climate science is clear that the future of our planet depends on a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels. Yet it’s business as usual for the industry, pushing forward with a vision of massive oil and gas exploration around Africa that would doom communities and the ecosystems they depend on. For decades, fossil fuels have failed Africa’s development goals with empty promises of jobs, energy access, and profits for Africans. Yet, the threat is growing.

Oil exploration threatens the Okavango Delta in Botswana. In Senegal, offshore oil and gas is ramping up, threatening the Saloum Delta. And in the Niger Delta, where communities have fought the oil industry for decades, companies are abandoning onshore production to go offshore, leaving a trail of poverty and destruction in their wake.

Each of these deltas are biodiversity hotspots and have millions of people who depend on them for their food, water, and livelihood. They need protection from oil and gas development.

The new ProtectTheDeltas.org website tells these and other stories and will continue to be updated over the coming months.

In response to the website launch:

Thuli Makama, Africa Director, Oil Change International, said:
“Extraction of fossil fuels in the Deltas will repeat the cycle of burdening local communities and national governments with the costs, whilst the oil companies make profits. Significant investments have gone into conserving Deltas in Africa. Local communities practice indigenous knowledge and conservation to sustain life in the Deltas. Governments and international conservation groups have invested massive resources to protect these same deltas and other biodiversity hotspots in Africa. Allowing extraction for fossil fuels in the Deltas is a threat not only to the fauna and flora but also to all these conservation efforts. The biggest losers are local communities who risk displacement and irreparable loss of heritage. Through this website, research and lived experiences from frontline communities will find space to depict the true costs of fossil fuels.”

Salome Nduta, Coordinator of Oilwatch Africa, said: 
“Protecting the Deltas of Africa is a responsibility of all of us and not just the communities who derive benefits from them. Deltas protect our biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods for the communities living near them. Some deltas like Okavango contribute to the economy of the country and are heritage sites. Who then has the authority and power to go against peoples’ livelihood and heritage?”

Stephen Oduware, Coordinator FishNet Alliance, said: 
“The Deltas are unique environments with thriving communities of flora and fauna including cultures and human societies. They host lush green vegetations that support the carbon cycle, they are sanctuary for fish, other aquatic animals, and migratory birds. They are the very heart of biodiversity and also host estuaries, lagoons, and other sensitive ecosystems. The health and well-being of these communities depend on the health and the well-being of these Deltas.
Oil and gas activities and any form of extraction should not be allowed in these Deltas – from the Saloum Delta to the Niger Delta to the Nile Delta to the Okavango Delta! Let’s save our Deltas! Stop Drilling our Deltas!”

Note to Editors:

Protect the Deltas was developed by Oil Change International with data and mapping developed using the Fossil Fuel Atlas and with satellite imagery analysis and consultation provided by SkyTruth.

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