IN a victory for environmentalists, a Dutch appeals court on Friday said that the Nigerian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell was responsible for multiple oil pipeline leaks in the Niger Delta and ordered it to pay unspecified damages to farmers. The case was brought in 2008 by four farmers and environmental group Friends of the Earth, seeking reparations for lost income from contaminated land and waterways in the region, the heart of Nigeria's oil industry. Friday's decision went a step further than a 2013 ruling by a lower court, saying that Shell's Nigerian subsidiary was responsible for multiple cases of…