The Nigerian Government has in recent years introduced initiatives to develop its oil palm industry as part of its diversification efforts. In 2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) excluded 41 items from being procured with foreign exchange from the Nigerian foreign exchange markets including palm kernel, palm oil products and vegetable oils. In a 2015 speech, the CBN Governor during a meeting with oil palm value chain stakeholders stated that the local industry was in a crisis situation as the country was only the fifth largest producer in the world compared to its status as the largest producer in the 1960s. He explained that the CBN policy was geared towards resuscitating the sector and that more estate plantations would need to be developed.
The CBN in 2019 also began partnerships with governors of oil palm producing states in the country to stimulate investments in oil palm plantations. The states agreed to provide about 100,000 hectares for the initiative.
Nigeria’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Country Profile indicates that the introduction of cash crops, including palm oil have led to “massive deforestation” of natural ecosystems and in a speech reported in 2019, the Director-General of the Nigerian Conservation Forum stated that Nigeria had lost 96 per cent of its forests due to deforestation.
While seeking to grow investment and production in the sector, Nigeria has not introduced specific measures regarding sustainability (for instance as used in the Indonesian context) but has a patchwork of environmental and land regulations that apply.
The nation’s approach to sustainability is guided by its National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan (NBSAP) which was developed in compliance with its commitment under the CBD as well as its National Policy on Environment and National Forest Policy.
In 2015, Nigeria revised its NBSAP in compliance with Article 6 of the CBD. The revised NBSAP incorporates the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and has been adopted as a policy instrument. One of Nigeria’s goals under the NBSAP is to promote sustainable practices of land use including from agriculture. The implementation of the NBSAP includes a review of all biodiversity-related laws.
The Nigerian National Policy on Environment prescribes approaches that ensure that an Environmental Impact Assessment is mandatorily carried out before any major development project. The goal of the policy is to achieve sustainable development in Nigeria. One of the policy initiatives is to enact necessary legal instruments to strengthen the activities and strategies recommended by the policy. Some of the strategies the policy pursues which are relevant to oil palm production include promoting sustainable agro-ecosystems without compromising natural eco systems; ensuring implementation of Nigeria’s NBSAP; strengthening guidelines for sustainable land use; and promotion of ecologically sound farming systems. Action is to be taken under the policy to streamline all environmental legislation and regulations with a view to putting them into a cohesive arrangement that takes cross-sectoral linkages of the environment into account. The policy also contemplates the use of economic instruments and incentives such as duties, tax relief and a compensation framework for damage.
The National Forest Policy 2006 of Nigeria has strategies for the protection of forests which could impact on the way oil palm plantations are developed. It includes the use of forestry legislation, classification of forests, measures to prevent forest fires and strategies on agro-forestry. The policy however needs hard law to give it effect and allow for proper implementation by relevant agencies. A National Forestry Act was proposed but a report by the Federal Ministry of Environment shows that it was still in progress in November 2019 and expected to be completed in 2020.
They are a myriad of laws and regulations that an oil palm concession owner may be required to comply with. These include the Land Use Act 1978; Forest Laws of different states; the Environmental Impact Assessment Act 1992, National Environmental Standards And Regulations Enforcement Agency (Establishment) Act (NESREA) 2007; National Park Service Act 1999 (amended in 2006) and Endangered Species (Control Of International Trade And Traffic) Act 1985 (amended in 2016). Several NESREA regulations are also relevant such as the National Environmental (Control of Bush, Forest Fires and Open Burning ) Regulations, 2011; National Environmental (Surface and Groundwater Quality Control) Regulations, 2011; National Environmental (Watershed, Mountainous, Hilly and Catchment Areas) Regulations, 2009; National Environmental (Sanitation and Wastes Control) Regulations 2009; and the National Environmental (Watershed, Hilly, Mountainous and Catchment Areas) Regulations, 2009.
As the National Policy on Environment provides, environmental related laws need to be integrated and this rings true in the case of sustainable production in the oil palm industry in Nigeria. Integration involves harmonizing applicable laws, regulations and related systems to avoid conflict. Under the Land Use Act 1978, control of land is vested in the State. A person may be granted use of land under a certificate of occupancy for a number of years. The system under the Land Use Act may conflict with community land tenure practices. For instance, some communities made allegations of land grabbing against Wilmar International Company after the corporation acquired land for oil palm plantations in Cross River State of Nigeria. The communities complained that the estate had been handed over to the government for conservation as a forest reserve in 1992 under an arrangement where the government would provide rural development programs to the communities. The state government later transferred the estate to Obasanjo Farms in 2002 and it was subsequently sold to Wilmar in 2011. The communities insisted that the land should be returned to them for agricultural and other activities since it is not being used for conservation purposes. Nigeria’s revised NBSAP recognizes that tenure systems should support policy frameworks that can promote sustainable use of resources.
A holistic approach also helps to avoid the conflict that could occur between government policy and private self-governance such as potential conflict between RSPO standards and land use laws in Indonesia. Under RSPO requirements, areas having high conservation value must be conserved. Conversely, under the land system a company needs to develop land before receiving a final land use rights lease. Land may be considered abandoned by regulatory authorities if it has been conserved in compliance with RSPO requirements or a company’s zero-deforestation commitments. Companies may lose the rights to such land by failing to develop plantations on them. (Journal of Cleaner Production 183 (2018) 544-554)
Beyond harmonization, another level of enforcement which ties the laws directly to the oil palm industry can be introduced. Nigeria could benefit from a national certification standard that requires compliance with the applicable laws and regulations. This allows for a specific and direct requirement for sustainable production of oil palm in the country. The Nigerian National Interpretation for the RSPO was successfully completed in 2018 and revised in 2019. While it is possible to adopt the RSPO, a national standard can be more adaptive to the policy direction of the nation and peculiarities of its different types of producers while taking into account sustainability goals.
Aside from policies targeted at producers, taking a cue from the European Union (EU) approach, large consumers could be required to trace their supply to ensure that its responsibly sourced (i.e. has met certain prescribed standards). There could be a threshold which separates companies that must mandatorily comply with these requirements and those (smaller users) for whom compliance is encouraged.
Targeted policy and standard setting by the public sector will guide industry self-regulation to improve effectiveness. Hybrid strategies such as public-private efforts where national policy endorses industry developed standards can be utilized. Private sector strategies can also fill gaps by providing detailed guidelines for existing government policy. Government support for private sector should go a step further than declarations such as the Amsterdam Declaration or the New York Declaration on Forests which fall short of requiring regulation but mostly declare support for private structures.
Agriculture practised unsustainably results in negative impacts such as land degradation, soil depletion, water scarcity and pollution, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and climate change (FAO). Considering the impacts of unsustainable production, public sector policies for key industries like oil palm production are a step in the right direction for achieving sustainability. Private self-regulation and government endorsement of private sector efforts have their role, but widespread and uniform compliance can more realistically be achieved through specific regulation developed in the context of the circumstances of the nation.
