New Report Puts Colonial Ecological Damage at Hundreds of Trillions of Dollars
- A new report launched at the University of Lagos argues that British colonial ecological damage should form a separate reparations category
- Lead author Prof. J. G. Nkem Onyekpe cited a 2022 estimate that valued resources taken from the Global South at over $10 trillion in 2015 alone
- An international law expert pointed to the Nauru ICJ case as a legal precedent supporting African states' claims over colonial environmental destruction
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A report launched at the University of Lagos has proposed that the environmental destruction caused by British colonial rule in Africa could justify a separate reparations claim worth hundreds of trillions of dollars, adding a new dimension to a debate that has long focused on economic and cultural harm.
The report, titled CO2lonialism, Ecocide and Reparations examines how colonial policies of land appropriation, natural resource extraction and energy exploitation left lasting ecological damage across former African colonies.
A statement sighted by Legit.ng on Saturday, August 29, its central argument is that this environmental harm deserves the same rigorous historical, scientific and financial scrutiny as other recognised categories of colonial injury.
What the report found
Lead author Professor J. G. Nkem Onyekpe told the launch audience that current reparations frameworks have largely overlooked the environmental dimension of colonial extraction.
He pointed to a peer-reviewed 2022 study that placed the value of resources taken from the Global South through structurally unequal trade at more than $10 trillion for the year 2015 alone.
Source: Original
Applying a comparable methodology across the full span of colonial rule and all affected African states, he said, could produce a total running into the hundreds of trillions of dollars.
Professor Nnagugwu Oscar Uluocha, Professor of Geography at the University of Lagos, described the ecological damage inflicted on Nigeria during British colonial rule as "colossal," and called for scientific evidence and environmental analysis to be used in examining the consequences of colonial land-use, agricultural and resource-extraction policies.
The legal case for ecological reparations
On the legal front, Dr Asikia Karibi-Whyte, a jurisprudence and international law expert who also spoke at the launch, challenged the widely held view that current governments bear no responsibility for wrongdoing committed by their predecessors. She argued that the United Kingdom is recognised in law as a continuing state entity, meaning changes in government or political leadership do not sever its legal continuity.
Dr Karibi-Whyte drew attention to the case Nauru brought before the International Court of Justice against its former colonial administrator over environmental devastation caused by colonial-era phosphate mining, describing it as a significant precedent for African states considering similar claims.
The report also highlights the growing international conversation around ecocide as a crime, alongside the African Union's move to examine whether the mass destruction of ecosystems should be classified as a criminal offence.
The authors argue that these developments create an opening for an African-led framework on ecological reparations, one that places environmental repair at the centre of the broader campaign for colonial accountability.
Nigeria’s Ibadan faces Biodiversity strain as population surges
Previously, Legit.ng reported that Ayobami Lekan works as a filling station manager in a Lagos suburb, but he travels every weekend to visit his family in his own home at Ajia, Ibadan, Oyo State, South West Nigeria.
About five years ago, being a property owner never crossed this Nigerian youth’s mind. In the same area in Ibadan many years ago, trees seethed with life, with beautiful birds, squirrels, and humming bees clinging to them.
Source: Legit.ng
