About Us

Our Story

CEHRD was founded on August 15, 1999 as the Niger Delta Project for Environment, Human Rights and Development (NDPEHRD) and re-incorporated under its new name CEHRD in 2005 following its board decision.

Conservationists, environmentalists, activists, and health workers in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria founded CEHRD. The organization was formed to respond to the environmental, human rights, rural health, and underdevelopment problems plaguing the Niger Delta.
CEHRD’s scope is national. While we liaise with international groups by way of networks and coalitions, our primary focus remains improving on peoples’ traditional knowledge of biodiversity conservation, monitoring, documenting and reporting of human rights violations, and advocating for justice, particularly in the Niger Delta region.

Our works cut across all strata of society in terms of age, gender and abilities, and the ratio of women to men we serve is 55:45.     

CEHRD’s work spans through the entire Niger Delta. Our main focus is on the rural areas, its people, biodiversity conservation, rural health and population. We also monitor, document and report human rights violations across the region. In some of the cases, CEHRD provides legal advocacy to victims of human rights violations.

With an unemployment rate of over 70%, dire poverty, and dim prospects, some young men seek financial and physical security by joining armed gangs, or “cults”. Local governmental officials and/or community leaders carry out campaigns of violence designed to influence local decision-making, especially during elections, periodically sponsor many of these cult groups. Often, these gangs are also used to sway village leaders and communities’ opinions on oil-related projects. In all cases, the influx of

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