Executive Director Operations, Tantita Securities and Technical Services, Capt. Warredi Enisuoh has said that the security firm had discovered a viable income generating venture that could end the menace of oil theft in the Niger Delta region.
According to the security expert, Niger Niger communities can use their vegetation to generate wealth through carbon capture trading, which he described as a “safer and environmentally friendly alternative livelihood than proceeds from oil theft”.
Capt Warredi who spoke to our correspondent shortly after addressing a Pan Ijaw Summit in Yenagoa at the weekend on ‘ Infrastructure Protection ‘ disclosed that the company had started sensitizing and mobilizing Niger Delta communities to jettison crude oil theft and its associated ecosystem destruction and embrace a cleaner alternative income and other energy sources.
He explained that it was time Niger Delta communities looked beyond oil and gas and embraced the carbon capture trading mechanism.
“You cannot remove social economic problems from security problems. And we are also here to market an idea on carbon emissions. And the way forward is we have a lot of trees in this area which we can generate a lot of income from.
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“There are companies around the world that are ready to partner with the Niger Delta region on carbon trading, promoting greener energy to participate in exchange for green development and to participate in industrial development that will not further create carbon emissions and increase global warming that will further affect the health of the people in the region.
“That is why we have come here to talk about how the community will not go into the breaking of the pipelines, that there are other sources of income from the environment. The communities are very very rich in mangrove trees and one tree alone can absorb about 80 kilograms of Carbon Dioxide in a year and that’s quite a lot of money.
“If you have thousands of these trees in your community that capture carbon capacity, your community can trade it for money or development instead of breaking pipelines that will further degrade the environment which you cannot use for farming, for fishing, drinking and.others.” Enisuoh said.
On the achievements of the company, he said that since they began operations in the Niger Delta, crude production had witnessed a turnaround improvement as statistics available had shown.