THE STATE OF THE EARTH: ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES
ABSTRACT
Environmental issues are intended to be operationalized through the development of actor-specific environmental action plans that define priority actions that will translate strategy into practice. The Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) process, which is becoming increasingly popular in solving the myriad of environmental problems in the modern world.
The study investigates the use of the Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) process as a strategy for solving environmental problems in Bonny Island, Rivers State, Nigeria, by investigating the general public’s perception of the state of the environment in the area, people’s level of participation in compliance with existing environmental strategies, the causes of ineffective environmental management in the area, and assessing community satisfaction with existing environmental
to sampled households.
Questions were asked about the socioeconomic characteristics of households, the community’s willingness to participate in the EPM process, the perceived level of environmental degradation in the area, the level of compliance of oil and gas companies with environmental laws, and the role of government environmental protection agencies in protecting the environment of the study area.
The findings confirm that the level of damage from oil exploration, gas activities, pollution, and pipeline vandalism is chronic and cumulative, resulting in environmental degradation, routine of facilities and compliancy to environmental management approaches are not regular, facilities and equipment were found to be grossly inadequate, preventing proper inspection from being carried out, and the community expressed dissatisfaction with the existing environment. They attributed the inability to fully implement the environmental approach to the community’s willingness to participate if given the opportunity. Recommendations for the effective and efficient application of the EPM process in the study area were made.