Environment
Environmental resources and challenges of Nigeria
The Niger Delta, the historic oil-producing region, is one of the most polluted areas in the world: several tens of millions of litres of hydrocarbons were spilled in Ogoniland alone between 2006 and 2019 according to local records, not counting massive gas flaring. This pollution fuelled the demands of the non-violent MOSOP movement, whose spokesman Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by the military regime in 1995, and then the armed militancy of MEND until the 2009 amnesty. Elsewhere, the desert is advancing in the north and erosion threatens the coastline, especially around Lagos.
80.3%
Renewables share
0.6 t
CO₂ emissions per capita
23.4 %
Forest cover
61.2 % of the population
Access to electricity
Main natural hazards
Oil pollution and environmental degradation of the Niger DeltaDesertification and the advance of the Sahara in the north, worsened by droughtsCoastal erosion and seasonal flooding, especially around Lagos and the deltaDeforestation driven by demand for firewood and agricultural expansion