Keywords: Nigeria, environmental conflict, Niger Delta, oil production, corporate responsibility In the modern scientific literature, there are two main approaches to understanding the essence of the crisis in the Niger Delta , an oil-rich region of southern Nigeria, where since the early 2000s, non-governmental armed groups (IAFs) have regularly attacked oil companies ' facilities, blown up pipelines, pumped oil, taken hostages, and participated in armed clashes with federal army units 1. According to the first approach, the instability in the Niger Delta is caused by disagreements between the main ethno-political elites of the country, which have been manifested in one form or another since the formation of the British colony of Nigeria in 1914. It is believed that in the most populous state of West Africa, there are five groups of political elites, each of which is localized in a specific region. In the north of the country, it is a group representing the Hausa people, in the west-the Yoruba political elite, in the east-the Igbo; two multi-ethnic groups formed in the so - called Middle Belt (in the central part of the country) and in the south-in the Niger Delta. Nigerian researchers point out many reasons that prompted ethnopolitical groups to oppose each other. Among them are the political transformations that Nigeria went through during the colonial period (O. Adeyeri, E. Azar, P. Eke, etc.); the residence of a large number of ethnic groups in the country (more than 250 - Approx. ed.) (O. Nnoli, I. Okonta, U. Ukiwo); struggle for the distribution of material resources (J. Adalikwu, V. Akpan, etc.)2. In this approach, the current crisis in the Niger Delta can be compared with the tribal clashes in the Middle Belt in the 1990s and with the recent radical Islamist attacks in northern Nigeria.3 According to another approach (in the works of L. O. Amadou, O. S. Enemaku)4, which seems more legitimate, the Niger Delta crisis is a conflict between the center and the p ... Read more