"The Global Call for Restoration of Degraded and Destroyed Ecosystems : Potentials for Multinational Oil Companies within Nigeria in Harnessing the Social Values of Eco-Restorative Climate Adaptation"

The necessity for ecological restoration as a remedial measure to environmental or ecological harms cuts across national boundaries. A typical example is harm to the climatic system, which affects remote communities and traverses its global impacts. No doubt, ecological restoration aimed at enhancing ecosystem services can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation because of their ability to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it. Hence, in recognition of the urgency for a global synergy towards synchronising efforts to address the impacts of degraded and destroyed ecosystems, the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) was adopted in March 2019. As a decade-long initiative, it seeks to, amongst other things, scale up efforts to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide and raise awareness of the importance of successful ecosystem restoration. Although this initiative is sustainable and pertinent to diverting the sliding spiral of biological losses, the relevance and role of business enterprises operating in a multinational nature seem obscure given the contribution of these businesses to ecological harms globally and especially in Nigeria. While ecosystem service contributions have been categorised into 'material', 'non-material', and 'regulating', it is pertinent to underscore how business enterprises can enhance the restoration of global ecosystems since it will also benefit businesses based on the above three contributions of ecosystem functions.It is, therefore, imperative to assess how business enterprises can contribute to realising the global call for ecological restoration. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights require that where business enterprises identify that they have caused or contributed to adverse impacts, they should provide for or cooperate in their remediation through legitimate processes. On this basis, the key argument in this piece seeks to contend that among the options amenable to businesses in redressing their human rights impacts and those resulting from ecological harms, it can assume responsibility for contributing to ecological restoration as part of their business operations with a normative commitment.This piece is divided into six parts, with part I conceptualising the idea of ecological restoration and ecologism. Part II and Part III will focus on the relationship and relevance of SDGs and Ecological restoration and Ecological Restoration as a remedy to nature and human rights, respectively. Part IV discusses how businesses can harness ecological restoration's socio-economic values to enhance Nigeria's adaptive capacity as a case study. Part V will focus on the inputs of the Separate Opinion of Judge Cancado Trindade of the ICJ on eco-restoration as a remedial measure for environmental degradation. Part VI discusses the implication of the UN Decade on Ecological Restoration for businesses vis-à-vis the global call for climate action by all according to Goal 13 of the SDGs and Aichi Biodiversity Target 15. A conclusion will be drawn, streamlining the crux of the discussion and how it relates to business responsibility for remediation