Access Africa for Rights and Development Initiative

As part of ongoing efforts to strengthen environmental awareness and community participation, Access Africa featured in an interactive radio session on Super FM 93.3 FM on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. The discussion focused on the theme: “Roles of Communities in Environmental Governance.”

The session was anchored by Comrade Uche Uche and Mr. Nmesoma Michael Okeke, who highlighted the critical role communities play in protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development.

During the interactive engagement, the speakers emphasized that environmental governance is not limited to governments and corporations alone, but also depends heavily on active community participation. They explained that communities are often the first to detect environmental changes such as pollution, water contamination, deforestation, and biodiversity loss because they interact with their environment daily.

The discussion further explored how local knowledge and traditional ecological understanding can help shape effective environmental policies and prevent harmful practices. The speakers stressed the importance of community participation in decision-making processes, environmental monitoring, advocacy, and accountability.

Listeners were also enlightened on how communities can support compliance and enforcement by reporting environmental violations, documenting evidence, and promoting responsible environmental practices through local structures and community-based initiatives.

A key highlight of the session was the emphasis on recognizing communities not merely as stakeholders, but as rights-holders, data producers, and co-managers in environmental governance. The speakers noted that effective environmental governance depends on access to information, legal recognition, and safe spaces for community participation without fear of retaliation.

The radio talk created an important platform for public engagement, awareness creation, and dialogue on the need for collective action in addressing environmental challenges affecting communities.

This engagement forms part of the project “Mitigating Negative Impact of Indorama Chemicals on Aleto, Eleme, Rivers State,” implemented by Access Africa and funded by the GEF Small Grants Programme, United Nations Development Programme - UNDP.







UNDP in Nigeria
Ronke Olubamise

In a continued push for environmental safety of Eleme communities, Access Africa carried out an advocacy visit to the Rivers State Ministry of Environment on April 29, 2026. The essence of the advocacy was to present the findings of the baseline study, which Access Africa conducted in Aleto, Akpajo and Ogale.

The meeting took place at the Ministry’s temporal office at the Rivers State Civic Centre Moscow Road, Port Harcourt and brought together Access Africa, Directors and Heads of Departments of the Rivers State Ministry of Environment, and the Community Vanguard for Anti-Pollution (COVAP), who are representatives of COVAP of the three communities.

Dr. David Vareba, Executive Director of Access Africa, opened the session by thanking the Permanent Secretary for hosting the team and highlighted the positive impacts of project activities in the communities.

The session’s high point was the presentation of the baseline report by Mr. Kingsley Ozegbe, M&E Consultant for Access Africa. The report exposed the severe environmental and health imapct of chemical waste and outlined actionable recommendations to address the the environmental squalor in the area.

The Ministry officials expressed deep concern and praised the research efforts. They committed to long-term and short-term measures, collaborating with relevant Ministries and COVAP to ensure sustainable solutions and to constructively engage Indorama, emphasizing that harm to one community affects all.

At the close, COVAP members were formally introduced to the Ministry to strengthen ongoing collaboration and to ensure sustainability. Access Africa and COVAP now have a reinforced commitment with the Ministry to drive change.

This engagement is part of the project “Mitigating Negative Impact of Indorama Chemicals on Aleto, Eleme, Rivers State”, implemented by Access Africa and funded by the GEF Small Grants Programme, United Nations Development Programme - UNDP







UNDP in Nigeria
Ronke Olubamise