Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in Nigeria

Nigeria is a country with abundant resources and the potential to be a very powerful nation, but it is hampered by many problems. These problems are caused by Nigeria’s colonization by England. Because of this intrusion on their way of life, their future was altered dramatically. The nation of Nigeria as a whole has suffered greatly as a country because of this colonization, its problem is rooted in the way it was colonized and ruled.

For example, Shell Oil, an MNC (Multi National Corporation), extracted 50% of Nigeria’s yearly crude output, and 14% of its own output from the Niger delta region (The Changing Nature of Third World Exploitation, 1995). Though a large number of the local populace was recruited by Shell to serve as the basic labor force, there has been no change in the deplorable conditions the locals were living in. Over a period of 15 years, due to massive and widespread oil spills, heavy land degradation of the alluvial soil has taken place. The locals, who come from an agriculture based society, have in effect, been deprived of their ancestral way of life, their heritage, all due to the greed driven actions of the partly

There is no doubt in claiming that human beings have immensely contributed to the causes of deforestation in Nigeria. It can be argued that if it were not for human activities, forests would have been more intact than the current situation of the country’s forest loss rate. Demand for agricultural land, timber, and other forest products significantly affects the rate and mode of transformation of forested areas.

1. A resource is a substance in the environment that is useful to people, is economically and technologically feasible to access, and is socially acceptable to use.

There are about 16.6 million people living in Nigeria. Nigeria has the world’s highest fertility rate but the life expectancy is about fifty years. It is estimated that in about thirty years, the population would grow to about fifty million people living in the country of Nigeria alone. This will cause water irrigation and food supply issues because there are more mouths to feed. Another issue facing Nigeria is the spread of HIV. As men travel, women would supply men with condoms to pass around to other men they may encounter to counter HIV. Drought also is an environmental disaster facing Nigeria and its plant life. People would chop trees down for a living and soon, there were not enough trees to supply the number of people demanding them. Droughts are becoming more common in the area. Before they would come every ten years but now, droughts are coming every three years if not

The amount of a natural resource that a region or deposit has is classified either as a reserve or as a resource. Reserves of natural resources are the volume of natural resource that is economically and commercially exploitable with available technology. Resources are the total volume of natural resources present in the system or region, but may not be exploitable with current technology or economic evaluations. Resources may turn into reserves and reserves may turn into resources, dependent upon current market prices. (Owen, Inderwildi & King, 2010).

The three factors/ approaches that best explain the current patterns of forest decline and recovery are population/markets, political economy, and ethics. The population/markets approach introduces the concept of forest transition theory which talks about how the economic growth that destroys forests is also necessary for its restoration and return. The initial expansion in population and economic activity puts pressure on forest resources, resulting in rampant deforestation that clears land for agricultural use. The intensification of agriculture then allows more crops to be grown on less land, in turn freeing up unneeded land for forest recovery. From a political economy standpoint however, a decrease in forest cover is viewed as an expansion

Nigeria has become the fastest growing country in Africa, its coastal ports are the heart and soul of its economy. Since its creation by the British Empire, there has been a civil breakdown and conflict among its tribal leaders. However, their religious understanding between Islam and Christianity has kept them at peace amidst themselves throughout time. The last few years, the government has developed itself into a functioning federation, the people are able to notice how outside influence has improved their daily lives.

Nigeria is an Agricultural and oil rich nation but characterised by Political instability, corruption, poor

Resources are non-human things within an organization; they show how well an organization makes decisions in the short and long term. They are the financials and balance sheet with ratios. Resources are tangible and intangible.

Nigeria, with a population of 190,584,690 people is the most populous country in West Africa. Marked with huge reserves of oil and natural gas, oil exploration in Nigeria first began in the year 1908, with long breaks during the first and Second World War. After the further discovery of commercial oil fields in Oloibiri in 1956, crude oil has since being produced in large quantities. Today, the country produces a maximum capacity of 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day, and is the world’s sixth largest producer of crude oil. Crude oil export, accounts for 90% of Nigeria’s earnings. Oil exploration occurs onshore, on land and swamps, while off-shore operations occur mainly in water depths reaching 2500m. Currently, crude oil is

Another factor precipitating deforestation appears to be poverty. Commonly held views argue that “high discount rates” received by poor countries are a cause of deforestation (The World Bank Forestry Policy 1991, Pearce and Watford 1993.). Because forests imply long gestation; private agents, particularly from the poorest countries, value what they can get immediately from forests more than what they can get in the future. But in 1999, Ekbom and Bojo challenged those views in a World Bank examination by showing that poverty does not necessarily lead to shorter time horizons and an increased rate of environmental degradation. They show how in fact the rural poor have used resources in a conservationist manner over a long period spanning centuries. Ostrom (1990), one of the various analysts they quoted, established a number of conditions that would lead to long term use of common resources despite their short-time

The economic condition of Nigeria has been damaged due to conflict among several competing ethnic, tribal and religious group has limited political stability and led to political strife. As per United Nations, Nigeria has low human development because of the high number of illiteracy among adult population and also due to low life expectancy rate.

     Nigeria has been a country in political turmoil for a long time. The country was created in 1914 under British colonial rule and at that time it was considered a protectorate. It was not until 1960 that Nigeria received independence from the United Kingdom. One of Nigeria's problems politically is that it has over three hundred different ethnic groups. The three largest of these are the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, and Yoruba. At the time of the independence of Nigeria it was split up into three states with each state being under the control of one of the major ethnic groups. The natural resources of the other 297 ethnic groups were exploited for the major three groups,

Natural resources are things we depend in our everyday lives. Food, water, and clean air are three natural resources that we depend on constantly. We have a responsibility towards these resources and that’s to not deplete them. We have to stand up and take responsibility and save the resource before they are all gone. If we deplete these resources the human species will die out.