The Green in the Black Market: How Informal Extractors Reimagine Environmental Responsibility

Dengiyefa Angalapu, Niger Delta University (Nigeria)

In many African extractive sites, legal and illegal operations coexist within the same landscape. While most studies focus on the environmental harm caused by illegal extraction, few explore how informal extractors themselves respond to ecological challenges. This paper examines artisanal oil refining in Nigeria’s Niger Delta to investigate whether technological adaptations within illegal operations reflect emerging forms of environmental responsibility. Existing literature often portrays informal refiners as reckless polluters driven solely by poverty or exclusion. However, evidence suggests that many now experiment with refining methods that reduce emissions and waste, producing oil nearly indistinguishable from industrial outputs. Using a political ecology framework, the study analyzes how these practices reveal local innovation and agency within contexts of criminalization and neglect. It argues for a more nuanced understanding of illegality, where informal actors are not merely sources of degradation but participants in reimagining environmental care under constraint.