Biodiversity Resources Law and Policy for Sustainable Development in Nigeria

In recent times, particularly over the last two and half decades, the African continent, where Nigeria is located, has experienced serious food insecurity and other manifestations of poverty which are partly due to environmental degradation. Loss of biodiversity is one of the forms of such degradation, and it has been due to various causes that are linked to excess demand for biological resources, as compared to the supply of these resources. There is only a limited supply of biological resources to meet the needs of growing populations of urbanizing communities and of global trade. In some cases the demands made of species and ecosystems far exceed their natural rates of regeneration. Over exploitation thus results, leading to the collapse of certain biological systems. There are many threats to Africa’s biological diversity, and the following are now well recognized. i. Population and migration pressure; ii. Inappropriate agricultural method; iii. Commercial land use practices; iv. Over-harvesting of natural resources; v. Climate changes; vi. Introduction of invasive, alien species. Further, land-based marine pollution, as well as pollution from vessels, leads to the degradation of waters that support marine life, and this poses a serious threat to marine biodiversity. Africa’s economic and social welfare is thus integrally linked to the prevailing state of its biological diversity. Its countries, like Nigeria, therefore, have a profound interest in the good management and sustainable utilization of biological diversity. International concern for the sustainability of human development activities has led to the adaptation of hundreds of environmental conventions. The objective of these conventions deals, to a greater or lesser degree, with the subject of biodiversity conservation. It is considered that the existing international biodiversity law, meritorious as it may be, has to be lodged within the sovereign legal machinery of states parties, in order to have an effective application. So long as the biodiversity conservation principles rest only at the level of international law, national legislatures, executives and Judiciaries may not consider themselves obliged to apply all of them. The principles must be domesticated in the individual African countries, if they are to be assured of implementation. It is against this background this paper aims at realizing the following objectives: 1. To ascertain biodiversity components, the status of biodiversity conservation and issues of threats to Nigeria’s biodiversity; 2. To appraise the existing legal and regulatory frameworks regarding biodiversity conservation in Nigeria. 3. To examine the problems associated with conservation and utilization of biodiversity resources and of the inadequacies of the existing legal and regulatory frameworks; 4. To identify the challenges of sustainable human development in the context of biodiversity conservation, and of the implementation of Biodiversity conventions in Nigeria; and 5. To conclude with some viable options for Nigeria in particular and Africa in general.