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Assessment of Policies and Legislation that Affect Management of Wetlands in Nigeria

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Abstract

The beneficial ecosystem services provided by wetlands in Nigeria are continuously subjected to considerable stress that has consequences for human wellbeing. An understanding of the policies and legislation governing wetland can help enhance their management. Therefore, this paper reviews existing policies and legislation that affect management of wetlands in Nigeria. It draws upon the contents of the laws and policy documents acquired from government and non-governmental organizations. The paper assesses the level of attention given to wetlands and identifies some informal measures, together with 35 federal legislative acts, six international conventions, and voluntary measures relevant to wetlands management. Results indicate that the existing legislation gives little attention to wetland management. This led the authors to conclude that the reason for wetland degradation is not the lack of laws or policy documents, but weak enforcement of existing ones. In this light, the paper calls for an integration of wetland management strategies and a strict enforcement of existing laws whilst stressing that effort should target a comprehensive national wetland policy of a holistic approach.

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Acknowledgments

The first author acknowledges funding from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom. The second and third authors acknowledge funding from the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF). We thank two anonymous referees for their valuable comments that helped improve the paper. We also thank Adedamola Ogunsesan for providing us with Fig 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Sciences, Federal University of Technology, Yola, P.M.B 2076, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria

    Olalekan Adekola & Friday Ogwu

  2. School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Olalekan Adekola

  3. School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    Shittu Whanda

  4. School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle, NE1 7RU, UK

    Friday Ogwu

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  1. Olalekan Adekola
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  2. Shittu Whanda
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  3. Friday Ogwu
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Correspondence to Olalekan Adekola.

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Adekola, O., Whanda, S. & Ogwu, F. Assessment of Policies and Legislation that Affect Management of Wetlands in Nigeria. Wetlands 32, 665–677 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-012-0299-3

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