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Environmental Impact of the Oil Industry participation in EIA cannot be under-estimated if projects; and, especially controversial projects, are to have the best chance of success in the implementation phase. If local, governmental and non-governmental interests are considered from the beginning, then their concerns and needs can be built into the design, making political support and cooperation for the project more likely. Project design and development processes which ignore Interested Parties often lose potentially valuable knowledge and support; and, flounder on political objections.

It is important to appreciate that while the participation of local people is an essential part of good EIA, decision makers often have to make difficult decisions which are not in the interests of local people but which benefit the wider community. In these situations the participation of local people is even more important so that project design minimises the potentially adverse impacts of a project upon them.

15.1.7 THE TREND TOWARDS STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA)

Sometimes referred to as Macro-EIA, SEA takes account of the fact that the cumulative environmental impact of a number of similar individual projects in an area needs to be considered as part of a coordinated regional planning process. The numerous oil fields and their component wells, flow-lines, flow stations, pipelines and terminals in the Niger Delta obviously fall into this category.

Also SEA takes account of the cumulative environmental impact of small projects which, on their own, may not seem to justify an EIA but cumulatively may have a significant impact. The dredging programmes of the natural and man-made watercourses are a good example of this.

The extent and the intensity of the oil industry in the Niger Delta, together with the environmental complexity of the area, make it surprising that the industry as a whole has not yet concluded that SEA would be both cheaper and more efficient than individual project EIAs. More surprising that the larger companies have not coordinated their environmental assessment activities more effectively in view of the global concern about environmental conditions.

15.2 THE POTENTIAL ADVERSE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE OIL INDUSTRY

Not only does the oil industry inherently have a high potential to make an adverse environmental impact upon the Niger Delta, but also, four factors, interacting with each other, ensure that this potential is realised. These four factors are briefly discussed below, although it should be stressed that it is perfectly feasible for oil (and gas) to be mined with very little adverse impact upon the local environment.

15.2.1 THE COMPLEXITY OF THE HUMAN ECOSYSTEM OF THE NIGER DELTA

As described in this book, the environment in which the oil industry operates is a very complex human ecosystem. In the first place, the natural ecosystem, as the determining basis of all human activity, is a dynamic inter-relationship of young wetland and lowland deltaic ecosystems, which are fragile and highly valued in terms of global biodiversity. These ecosystems are important as the sources of a wide range of renewable natural 163