Rivers and Bayelsa States Capacity Building Trainings for Community Oil Spill Monitors Phase One

CEHRD organised training of community monitors in Bori, Khana Local Government Area in Rivers state on the 4th of May 2016, while the training of community monitors in Bayelsa state was held on the 26th of March 2016 in the state capital, Yenagoa. The Bayelsa zonal office director and other officials from NOSDRA were in attendance and also anchored the JIV trainings and interactive sessions. The training focused on developing the capacity of the participants to use audiovisual techniques to qualitatively monitor oil spill activities and understanding Joint Investigation (JIV) processes in impacted communities.

CEHRD built the capacity of 20 community monitors comprising 15 men and 5 women from 14 communities in Rivers State and 21 community monitors comprising 13 men and 8 women from 14 communities in Bayelsa State and developed one (1) environmental incident Data sheet for Rivers and Bayelsa States; explored possible ways to incorporate the community monitors into the implementation plan of the UNEP report, which was flagged off by President, Muhammadu Buhari in June 2016. This is with the aim of carrying out independent monitoring and documentation of the process.