Socio-economic and Ecological Impact of Resettlement Scheme

Lake Chad is an economically very important lake inAfrica. It is seen as the life blood of the regionproviding water to more than 20 million people livingin the area. The area is ecologically fragile withunsustainable human activities. Conflict overdiminishing resources is a common occurrence betweenpeople within the same territory and people ofdifferent nationalities. The International Court ofJustice (ICJ) ruling on the boundary dispute betweenNigeria and Cameroon in 2002 led to the ceding of 33villages to Cameroon in the Lake Chad region. APresidential Resettlement Committee was constitutedto cater for those who might choose to return toNigeria after the withdrawal of the Nigerian troops.This led to the establishment of three resettlementcentres around the Lake Chad region (fragileenvironment) and the construction of infrastructuralfacilities in the affected communities. In this workthe author examines some of the impacts that theresettlement scheme has made and is still making onthe ecological resources of the affected communitiesin the Lake Chad basin of Nigeria.