The discovery of oil in commercial quantities in the Niger Delta region in the 1950’s ushered in a new era of revenue generation and brought hope of economic and infrastructural growth in the region for not only the government but also persons living within oil producing communities. Unfortunately, with the passing of time, the activities of multinational oil corporations in the Niger Delta region seem to have done more harm than good to residents in the region, with oil producing communities experiencing varying consequences arising from oil exploitation activities. Over the years’ studies have revealed that women, suffer the most from the consequences of oil exploitation in the Niger Delta region. Despite these undue consequences women in the Niger Delta region face, they are often marginalized in the fight for the protection of their environmental rights in the region due to the patriarchal nature of their society. This article therefore seeks to critically evaluate the concept of environmental justice vis-à-vis the marginalization of the environmental rights of women in the Niger Delta region. Consequently, this research revealed the role of women in the protection of the environment, their environmental rights as well as the factors affecting the protection of their environmental rights in the Niger Delta region and Nigeria at large. This study therefore recommended amongst other suggestions, that the Government should make special efforts to ensure women are represented or given an equitable amount of representatives in decision making bodies on matters concerning the protection of the environment.
Keywords: Environment, Environmental Justice, Niger-Delta, Women, environmental rights, oil exploitation
