Dr Uzonu Ikenna Ugonna is an environmental and socio-economic/climate change expert with special interest in Environmental and Social Impact Assessment and Livelihood services. He is a national resettlement specialist even in areas of high conflict and insecurity. He has a track record of delivering desired results as and when due in all areas of Environmental Management and Social Risk Management and has worked on several projects supported by the World Bank, IFC, AFDB and EFO. Dr Uzonu has supervised well over 20 EIA and RAP projects for dam construction, farm settlement, waste management, quarry, mining, flood and solar power and other projects relating to climate change. He was a consultant with Nigerian Erosion Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) (Wold Bank sponsored) as a Safeguard and Livelihood Advisor and currently a Short Term Consultant (STC) with the World Bank. He is a member of the Association of Nigerian Geographers (ANG), Nigerian Environmental Society (NES), Institute of Chattered Economists of Nigeria (ICEN) and Institute of Public Administration of Nigeria (IPAN). He is currently a lecturer in the department of Environmental Management and Toxicology, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike – Nigeria.
RESSETLEMENT ACTION FOR KAGORO AND FANTSWAM CHIEFDOMS, KAFANCHAN – NIGERIA
Resettlement action (usually voluntary) is the movement of people and or removal of their assets along the corridor of a proposed project. The government of Nigeria State in a bid to improve power supply within the country decided to harvest solar energy. In doing this, a significant size of land domiciled in Kafanchan was donated by the Kaduna State government for this purpose. Incidentally, the donated land was ancestral to Kagoro and Fantswam kingdoms. The following exercises were carried out.
- Reconnaissance to the kingdoms
- Mapping of the spatial definition
- Mapping of family and personal plots within the land
- Mapping of economic and ornamental crops
- Mapping of farm crops
- Mapping of structures within the land
- Mapping of vulnerable persons (physically challenged, terminally sick and the aged)
- Establishment of Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM)
- Settlement of all grievances
- Payment of compensation due individuals and
- Livelihood restoration activities.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA) OF TARABA STATE RURAL ACCESS AND AGRICULTURAL MARKETING PROJECT (RAAMP)
The government of Nigeria mandates that EIA must be carried out before the kick- off of any large project. Sequel to this, the Taraba State government proposing to construct 22 farm roads across the 16 Local Government Area Councils had to engage my services. The key things that were done include
- Reconnaissance visit to stakeholders
- Stakeholders engagement workshop
- Ecological assessment
- Soil quality assessment
- Water quality assessment
- Air quality assessment
- Geological assessment and
- Socioeconomic and cultural assessment.
