Q2. What was used as the unit of analysis for the survey?
The household (people wh live and eat together, and share the same kitchen and toilet facilities) was used as the unit of analysis for the survey, with the questionnaire administered to the head of each houseold.
Q3. How many plots are available to a cropping household?
Each cropping household has access to an average of three plots, of about 0.11 ha each, where the main crops grown are cassava, yam, cocoyam, maize, sugarcane, and varieties of vegetables (although over 60 crop types were identified for the delta wetlands).
Q4. What is the importance of the wetland as a source of food?
The importance of the wetland as a source of food is emphasised by the fact that half the gross value of cropping is used for subsistence purposes.
Q5. What was the derivation of the benefits of the Niger Delta?
Before oil became an important source of revenue to the Nigerian government (pre-1960), derivation was 100%, meaning that host communities had almost total control of the benefits from the resources of their area.
Q6. What is the main reason why natives do logging in the wetlands?
When natives do fell trees it is to build their own huts or canoes (which take 6-12 months to build), and the activity is small scale, but many non-resident individuals and companies log in the wetlands.
Q7. What are the main reasons why people receive little compensation from the oil sector?
Local people, who experience considerable economic hardship and lack alternative income sources, receive little compensation from the oil sector.
Q8. How much of the environmental costs of oil extraction are local communities?
local communities also bear about 75% of the environmental costs of oil extraction, equivalent to about 19% of the oil industry profit.
Q9. How much of the value of the wetland was in cash income?
About 75% of the gross monetary value of material collection was in cash income, with fishing, cropping, hunting and logging at 80%, 51%, 69% and 96% respectively (the lower value for cropping is because this is primarily for household subsistence food).
Q10. What are the main costs associated with the dredging and reclamation of wetlands?
The government is generally responsible for dredging and the reclamation of wetlands, which result in increased incidences of flooding and erosion.
Q11. How much is the value of ecosystem services in the Niger Delta?
The value of ecosystem services globally was first estimated by Costanza et al. (1997), at around $33 trillion per year, after which interest in ecosystem service valuation has grown strongly.
Q12. How much of the delta’s provisioning services is derived from oil revenue?
The oil revenue generated for the government from the delta is substantial, yet s only about a quarter of the value of the delta’s provisioning services.
Q13. Who is the largest river delta and mangrove ecosystem in Africa?
The Niger Delta is regarded as the third largest wetland in the world (Uluocha and Okeke 2004; Umoh 2008), and the largest river delta and mangrove ecosystem with the greatest extension of freshwater swamps in Africa ( jonina et al.
Q14. What are the common ways of expressing ecosystem service values?
Ecosystem service values can be expressed using sociological or ecological metrics, but are most are often expressed in monetary terms (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2003).
Q15. What is the common ground of environmental justice concerns?
Such concerns find common ground in the environmental justice movement, which in Western nations, has seen concerns expressed around disproportionate exposure to toxic risk of poor and coloured communities compared to white middle class communities (Cutter 1995) and, increasingly, with unequal access to the prerequisite environmental information and capacity to challenge environmental decisions (Fish 2011; Reed and George 2011).
Q16. What is the main reason for the high cash income?
The high cash income is explained by the size of the Niger Delta wetlands which provide numerous commercial exploitation opportunities, coupled with easy market access with buyers from major Nigerian cities in the markets on daily basis.
Q17. What is the cost of tools used for collecting wetland?
The cost of tools such as canoes, hoes, cutlass and axes used for collecting wetland provisioning services was calculated using linear depreciation; costs of tools at the time of purchase are divided by average length of use suggested during interview and focus group discussions.
Q18. What is the need to develop management institutions that recognise the value and significance of delta ecoservices?
Th s underscore the need to develop managing institutions that recognise the value and significance of delta ecoservices, and how value is socially distributed.
Q19. Why did Turpie and others focus on wetlands?
Much of the early work on ecosystem services valuation focused on wetlands primarily to demonstrate their hig value to a wider audience (Turpie et al. 2010), especially those in parts of the world where wetlands were viewed as wasteland with no economic value (Mmopelwa 2006).