Beyond Valdez, Part 4: Cameroon's Ecocide

The relatively unknown nation of Cameroon which borders Chad carries oil along the pipeline part of the much touted Exxon-Mobil Oil Consortium into the Bight of Biafra for processing. The pipeline according to the website for the consortium has been carefully assessed on all levels including environment. The website (pdf) says:

"Over 100 biologists, economists, wild life specialists, sociologists, and other independent worked over a course of seven years to produce a 19-volume environment assessment"

However it does not go into saying how many of those 100 were actually biologists and wild life experts. Despite the 19-volume assessment over seven years, we as humans should always learn one thing... You just can't predict mother nature. Whether it comes down to things like hurricanes (evoking the tragedy and miscalculation of Katrina), earthquakes, down to the convergence of mankind with nature... things will change, an abberation will take place affecting the natural habitat when something new is introduced. Disturbing nature, is expected.

A press release from the Environmental Defense says:

"In Cameroon, the construction of the pipeline has not brought benefits to the population. Instead, it has caused destruction of the environment and of important resources such as fisheries." says Samuel Nguiffo, director of the Center for Environment and Development in Cameroon, and adds: "October 10 will be a public celebration of the broken promises of the pipeline construction in Chad and Cameroon, and of human and worker's rights abuses. The World Bank should not be proud. We are joining our neighbours in Chad in the day of mourning, because we ourselves have no reason to celebrate this day."

Where it was government in Chad, in Cameroon it is the environment. Cameroon's economy is actually one of the brighter spots in Africa. Wikipedia reveals that:

"Yet because of its oil resources and favorable agricultural conditions, Cameroon still has one of the best-endowed primary commodity economies in sub-Saharan Africa...The single largest economic activity in Cameroon is still subsistence agriculture."

With an "endowed" economy and the fact that a large percentage of Cameroon's economy is agricultural... it becomes necessary that the environment is not damaged by the existence of other structures. According to Friend of the Earth International:

"The pipeline cuts across sensitive and valuable ecosystems, particularly in Cameroon's coastal rainforest. Project-related upgrading of existing seasonal roads has led to logging and illegal poaching in otherwise inaccessible areas. The pipeline traverses several major rivers, and construction has already caused oil spills and polluted the water system."

The accidents and miscalculations based on human error is something that a pre-assessed environmental assessment cannot account for. You cannot predict the ecological destruction that will come about from human action beforehand (Exxon-Valdez perhaps?). It is something when it happens, nature will either adjust to or end up victim to.