The future of environmental management in a developing country (Nigeria)

Ibekwe Juliet Chinenye^1*, Nwanze Ogechukwu Uzoma²

¹SHELL Center for Environmental Management and Control, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Enugu, 410001, Nigeria

²Environmental Pollution and Control, Department of Environmental Management and Toxicology, Federal University of Petroleum Resources, PMB 1221, Effurun, Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria is faced with many environmental issues such as poor waste management, gas flaring and oil spillages, desertification and others. These have severely polluted the environment, increased biodiversity loss and as well impacted the health of the people negatively. Hence, the importance of environmental management becomes a topical solution. Environmental management which is a process; a trans-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary field is growing to curb and manage the environmental menace in the country. Consequently, various laws, regulations and policies have been created but the effects of remain unabated. Similarly, many institutional – state and non-state actors – have grown in the country to curb environmental menace especially as it affects human health but little or no result has been shown, thereby, the effects continue growing steadily. This is related to divergence between economic development and environmental protection, institutional incapacity, poor monitoring and enforcement of existing laws, societal behaviours and technological incapacity. Effective legislation – laws, standards and regulations – without strong institutional capacity to implement, monitor and enforce them will not produce tangible transformation. Accordingly, the need for balance between economic development and environmental preservation; improved environmental education in academic institutions, strong collaboration between various stakeholders, and development of technological capacity. Our paper supports the importance of strong institution capacity -state and non-state actors- in driving environmental actions considering that vested interest of governments in some economic activities, for example, oil production weakens their regulation and control of activities such as gas flaring; and change in administration often results to changes in policies and agenda. Community participation in the process of environmental management provides benefits. It informs state actors and institutions of the needs of the people, creating suitable policies.

Keywords

environmental management; sustainability; development; institutional capacity; environment education; behavioural change; Nigeria.

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