By Dave Harcourt •
May 18, 2009
Recent reports that the international demand for crocodile skin is leading to the Nile crocodile being in danger of extinction in Nigeria need some evaluation and would in any case be easily solved through the farming of crocodiles.
There have been a number of news stories (Agence France Presse, Red Orbit) about Ismail Dauda, the crocodile and python skin tanner of Kano in northern Nigeria. He is reportedly processing up to 20,000 skins (crocodile & python) a month. His comment that crocodiles are now harder to source than ten years ago and discussions with conservationists lead to the conclusion that crocodiles “might soon face extinction in Nigeria” if the authorities do start to control this mainly illegal trade.
By Derek Markham •
April 6, 2009
Drug company giant Pfizer has agreed to settle out of court - to the tune of $75 million - in the case of its unlicensed medical trials on Nigerian children during a meningitis outbreak in 1996, which led to 11 deaths and serious injuries such as organ failure and brain damage in others.
The Nigerian Health Ministry called the experiment “an illegal trial of an unregistered drug” and a “clear case of exploitation of the ignorant.”
By Leslie Berliant •
March 8, 2009
In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8th, a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women, the World Rainforest Movement (WRM) and Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) have released three new case studies and a video on the impacts of monoculture tree plantations on women in Nigeria, Papua New Guinea and Brazil.
These tree plantations provide rubber for car and bus tires, palm oil for processed foods and pulp for toilet paper - all items being used in the west. They are also destroying local communities according to WRM and FoEI.
In the case of Nigeria, in 2007, the French tire maker Michelin came in to the Iguóbazuwa Forest Reserve, a biologically diverse region supplying food for around 20,000 people. Michelin bulldozed the forest and local farm lands to convert them into rubber plantations. Women living there lost their subsistence farms and the local forest which provided medicinal herbs and plants.
By Alex Felsinger •
December 2, 2008
A federal jury ruled yesterday that Chevron had done nothing wrong a decade ago when it called the Nigerian military to control protesters who had taken control of an oil platform, demanding better treatment and jobs.
In the end, the military killed two protesters. Accounts of the incident vary drastically: Chevron says the protesters were violent, armed, and had taken workers hostage, while the protesters and their lawyers claim they had been entirely peaceful and engaged in civil disobedience.
By Jerry James Stone •
October 30, 2008
Grassroot Groups Formed At A Chevron Gas Station In Protest Of Human Rights Violations By The Oil Giant
Organizers from Global Exchange, Justice in Nigeria Now, and West County Toxics Coalition gathered at a Chevron gas station here in San Francisco on Monday in support for the Nigerian plaintiffs in a human rights trial against the oil company. About 100 anti-Chevron protesters were staged in front of the gas station located at 9th and Howard.
At the federal court building a few blocks away jury selection was beginning for the case, “Bowoto v. Chevron.” The lawsuit results from an incident back in 1998 in which more than a hundred Nigerians occupied a Chevron drilling platform for three days. The protest resulted in Chevron unleashing Nigerian security forces to have them removed which led to three injuries and one death.
