Environmental Rights Action (ERA) is a Nigerian advocacy non-governmental organisation founded on January 11, 1993 to deal with environmental human rights issues in Nigeria. ERA is the Nigerian chapter of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI). ERA is the co-ordinating NGO in Africa for Oilwatch International, the global South network of groups concerned about the effects of oil on the environment of people who live in oil-bearing regions. Oilwatch was founded in 1995 (in Ecuador), in the aftermath of local struggles against oil companies such as Shell (in Nigeria) and Texaco (now Chevron) in Ecuador. Both cases have given rise to well-known court cases where damages in the billions of euros are being claimed at present. ERA has been the winner of the Sophie Prize. The organisation is dedicated to the defence of human ecosystems in terms of human rights, and to the promotion of environmentally responsible governmental, commercial, community and individual practice in Nigeria through the empowerment of local people. ERA will mainly provide its great knowledge of oil extraction conflicts and gas flaring to Work Package 2 on the database of environmenal conflicts and to Work Package 4 on oil and gas extraction and climate justice, as well as giving input in many other parts of the EJOLT project.
Nnimmo Bassey. Nigerian human/environmental rights activist who is the Executive Director of the Environmental Rights Action (ERA). He is also chair of the Friends of the Earth International – the world’s largest federation of grassroots organisations fighting for environmental and social justice. Friends of the Earth groups are found in 77 countries. Mr. Bassey is also a member of the international steering committee of Oilwatch International. Nnimmo Bassey is also a published writer and poet. He is one of Time magazine’s Heroes of the Environment 2009.
Godwin Ojo. Co-founder and currently Programmes Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria. For close to two decades he has been involved in the establishment of community resource centres (CRCs) as a model development in the Niger Delta communities, Nigeria. As a Chevening scholar, he received his MSc in Environment and Development studies in 2000 from the University of East Anglia, (UK), and recently obtained his PhD from King’s College, London.
