PRESS STATEMENT

Community Town Hall Meetings Amplify Grassroots Voices on Climate Action and Environmental Governance in Bayelsa and Delta States

As climate change continues to intensify environmental degradation and threaten livelihoods in the Niger Delta, Academic Associates PeaceWorks (AAPW), with support from the Embassy of Denmark in Nigeria, has taken a bold step to bridge the gap between policy and people by facilitating a series of town hall meetings across project communities in Bayelsa and Delta States.

The meetings were convened as part of the ongoing project titled “Advancing Community Capacity to Mitigate Climate Change Impact and Develop Green and Blue Economy in the Niger Delta”. They form a strategic component of AAPW’s Policy Advocacy and Awareness Campaigns, aimed at empowering local communities to take ownership of environmental policies while amplifying their voices in climate governance.

At the heart of these dialogues was the urgent need to translate environmental laws from paper to practice. Participants shared a common frustration over the continued pollution of their waterways by oil spills, the health impacts of gas flaring, the destruction of marine life by unregulated trawlers, and the visible absence of environmental sanitation infrastructure. Weak enforcement of existing policies, limited access to climate-resilient livelihoods, and inadequate inclusion in planning processes have compounded local vulnerability, particularly among youth, women, farmers, and fishers.

Yet, these challenges were not met with silence. Communities proposed bold, actionable solutions rooted in local knowledge and lived experience. They called for the establishment of functional waste management systems, improved access to agricultural inputs and credit, enforcement of conservation laws, and the localisation of environmental policies to reflect community realities.

The outcomes from the town hall engagements will inform further advocacy at both the state and federal levels. AAPW will continue to work with community stakeholders, traditional institutions, and policymakers to turn dialogue into action, strengthening local bylaws, building technical capacity, and deepening environmental accountability across the region.

Signed,