This research report provides a critical assessment of environmental governance in the Niger Delta, one of the world’s most oil-polluted regions, where decades of hydrocarbon exploitation have resulted in environmental degradation, social dislocation, and institutional paralysis. Despite a framework of laws and regulatory bodies like NOSDRA and NESREA, the region remains ecologically fragile due to weak enforcement, fragmented institutional mandates, and minimal community involvement.

Using a three-pronged framework, state-centric, market-based, and civic governance, this report examines the political, legal, and civic architecture of environmental regulation in Nigeria. It reveals that although numerous laws exist, they are poorly implemented, and enforcement agencies are often under-resourced, politically constrained, or captured by industry interests.

Through case studies, stakeholder interviews, and field research, the report identifies systemic issues such as regulatory overlap, lack of transparency, and limited participation by local communities in environmental decision-making. It underscores the importance of shifting from a top-down, extractive model to a more participatory, rights-based approach rooted in environmental justice.

The report makes far-reaching recommendations: including the restructuring of HYPREP for more credible remediation, enhancing inter-agency collaboration, building civic capacity for community monitoring, and embedding environmental governance within the broader context of sustainable development and democratic accountability.

This publication is essential reading for policymakers, civil society actors, researchers, and development partners seeking to understand, and transform, the governance failures that have made the Niger Delta a global cautionary tale in environmental mismanagement.