Tompolo’s maritime security company, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited says it has recently ordered five fixed-wing hybrid VTOL drones from China to improve mapping and surveillance of oil communities in the Niger Delta area.
Tantita’s Executive Director, Operations and Technical Services, Capt Warredi Enisuoh disclosed this while giving a keynote address at the African Maritime Environment Sustainability Initiative (AFMESI) 4th annual symposium and workshop held in Lagos on Tuesday.
Fixed-wing hybrid VTOL drones are the latest drone technology to be introduced, modified to take off and land vertically. They combine the long-range and flight time of fixed-wing UAVs (up to three hours) with the vertical takeoff capability of rotary-wing devices, eliminating the drawbacks of fixed-wing UAVs that require large spaces for takeoff and landing. They are designed for mapping, pipeline inspection, surveillance, agriculture, and rescue operations.
Speaking on the theme of the event, “Achieving Blue Growth in a Changing Climate: Integrating the Coastal Communities,” Capt Enisuoh said with proper mapping of forests and data capture of trees in them, oil communities have the opportunity to transform their mangrove forests into socio-economic projects that can bring development to the communities.
While cautioning that the negative realities of greenhouse effects are already with us, and leading to flooding even in deserts and severe ocean surges across the world, trees remain the cheapest means to check climate change.
Although, Tantita was originally engaged by the Federal Government to protect oil and gas pipelines from vandalism, Enisuoh said the security firm was soon to discover that helping the communities to map out and capture their forest resources properly would enable them to benefit from the biological capture of carbon from their environment. He explained that communities could now explore the economic potential of their forests, since trees have been found to be the cheapest means to capture carbondioxide from the atmosphere, a process he called “biological capture of carbondioxide” from the environment.
He said: “A lot is going on in the world on the issue of greenhouse emission. Biological carbon capture system, which involves the process of photosynthesis has been identified as the cheapest means for ridding the environment of carbondioxide. One mature tree can capture 80kg of Carbondioxide in a year. A tree captures this large amount of carbon and store it in the ground.
L-R: Managing Director, NIWA, Bola Oyebamiji; Founder and President, AFMESI, Felicia Mogo; representative of the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Prof Stephen Fakinlede…and Executive Director, Operations and Technical Services, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, Warredi Enisuoh, during the AFMESI symposium in Lagos on Tuesday.
“Now, with the help of a developer, comminities can have their forest resources mapped and evaluated for carbon credit streaming firms and receive development projects in return for their forest resources capacity of carbon captured over a period of time.
“Africa needs to move fast. We have missed out in the industrial age and the advanced economies are now creating mechanical trees which do well to capture carbon, but trees remain the cheapest means to do this. All villages with forests are potentially rich. If they can calculate their carbon credit, they can potentially exchange it for community projects.”
The Tantita top official explained that since realising this new opportunity for oil communities to earn fund for development, the company had carried out quite a number of researches to find how to help the communities. Part of these efforts was what led the company to acquire the drones.
He continued: “All trees don’t have same capacity to capture carbondioxide. For instance, bamboos capture more carbon than some other trees. Mangroves are also very good at capturing carbon from the atmosphere. This is why we acquired these drones to capture proper images for data purposes, to map the communities and we are able to get aerial images. This is the type of images the carbon credit streaming companies want to see. They also need the geo-tally data behind the images and these drones are able to generate these data
“There really can be a lot of money from forests carbon credit. For instance, if a forest has 50,000 trees, and each tree captures 80kg of carbondioxide, this amounts to 4 million kilograms of carbon taken out of the atmosphere in a year. One carbon credit equals one ton of carbodioxide and this is valued between $40 and $80. If we take the average price at $50, 4 million kg of carbon would be valued at $200,000 per year. This is good fund for a community project. Carbon credits are now valued at some stock exchanges in the world, but it is always tied to a development project and not to fiat money.”
