Synthetic aperture radar image of the Niger Delta captured by Sentinel-1 in January 2024. Pollution-induced deforestation is visible in the dark burnt-orange regions. Image: Jemima O'Farrell
Around 28 GAA pitches worth of mangrove land is lost every day in the Niger Delta due to oil pollution.
Nearly 6,000 hectares of mangrove forests in the Niger Delta are lost to oil spills annually. That is according to an international study led by researchers from the Ryan Institute at the University of Galway in collaboration with the University of Ilorin in Nigeria.
The delta of the Niger River is a vast estuarine environment that hosts Africa’s largest mangrove forest and is the world’s third-largest wetland. These forests have enormous ecological and biodiverse significance and actively sequester huge amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
It is home to almost 30m people from more than 40 ethnic groups – a vast majority of whom depend on farming and fishing for their livelihoods and food security, as well as for their cultural identity and wellbeing.
However, the Delta also hosts the second largest petroleum reserve on the continent, an industry the Nigerian economy is heavily dependent upon. Since oil extraction and processing in the region began in the 1950s, more than 13m crude oil barrels worth of pollution has been inflicted on the delta, posing severe health issues to the millions people who live in the region.
Mangroves are dying
The team of scientists deployed a combination of innovative techniques to analyse the impact of this pollution on a 9,000 sq km area of the mangrove, including artificial intelligence (AI) and imaging analysis which is more commonly used for cardiovascular health, to gain insights from data recorded by the European Commission’s Sentinel-1 earth observation satellites.
The satellite, which has recorded data every week since 2016, showed that the region lost 5,644 hectares of mangrove forests annually to oil spills. This roughly translates to about 28 GAA pitches worth of mangrove forest dying each day.
The research published in the Remote Sensing journal highlights specific locations in the oil pipeline network which are in need of immediate intervention and restoration.
“This project demonstrates the phenomenal power of interdisciplinary research to overcome the hardest of societal challenges,” said Dr Aaron Golden from the Ryan Institute, an associate professor at the School of Natural Sciences in the University of Galway and the project’s principal investigator.
“Taking ideas in radiomics and cardiovascular imaging and refactoring them for an utterly different biophysical context such as the Niger Delta basically revolutionises our ability to map and fully monitor both oil pipeline integrity but also the mangrove ecosystem.
“We’re going from science fiction to science fact here, which is incredible. We’re grateful for having had the opportunity to do this work.”
Monitoring the oil pipeline network and the health of the surrounding Delta across such a vast region was extremely difficult, the team noted, with under-reporting and after-the-fact assessments being the norm. Also, according to the researchers, the focus of existing reporting about oil pollution is more in relation to total oil lost rather than the damage to the ecosystem.
Co-author of the study, Dr Abosede Omowumi Babatunde, a professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Ilorin said: “The findings of our work will help affected local communities to better understand the magnitude of oil spills and have comprehensive insights into the oil-induced damage to the mangroves.
“This delicate ecosystem sustains their traditional farming and fishing activities. Our research will also empower them to independently hold the authorities and petroleum producers to account.
“It can also help those communities to reflect on the adverse consequences of their own actions such as pipeline vandalism, and illegal and artisanal bunkering, in terms of their own health, the environment, its resources and sustainability. This knowledge will also help local NGOs to design relevant intervention programmes that can address the impacts and mitigate rising oil spill incidents.”
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