National Policy on the Environment (Revised 2016).

The goal of the National Policy on the Environment is to ‘ensure environmental protection and the conservation of natural resources for sustainable development’. Its strategic objective is to coordinate environmental protection and natural resources conservation for sustainable development. This goal will be achieved by the following strategic objectives: securing a quality environment for good health and well being; promoting sustainable use of natural resources and the maintenance of the biological diversity; promoting an understanding of the essential linkages between the environment, social and economic development issues; encouraging individual and community participation in environmental improvement; raising public awareness and engendering a national culture of environmental preservation; and building partnership among all stakeholders on environmental matters ensuring that gender is mainstreamed at all levels and times.
The following principles are central to the attainment of the policy strategic objectives: The Public Trust Doctrine recognizes that all natural resources enjoyment is subject to a measure of control necessary to protect the strategic national interests; Environmental Right ensures that every Nigerian has a right to a clean and healthy environment; Environmental Offsetting requires general obligation to protect threatened or endangered species and natural systems are very important to sustain life, provide livelihoods, or general well-being; iv. Polluter Pays Principle prescribes that should bear the cost of preventing pollution; v. User Pays Principle must include all the environmental costs associated with its use; vi. The Precautionary Principle if threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific knowledge shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective means to prevent environmental degradation; The Subsidiarity Principle reflects the preference for making decisions at the lowest level; viii. Pollution Prevention Pays Principle encourages Industry to invest positively to prevent pollution;
The Principle of Inter-generational Equity requires that the needs of the present and future generations are met as well as requires that different groups of people have the right to benefit equally from the exploitation of resources and that they have equal right to a clean and healthy environment; The Principle of Participation requires that decisions should, as much as possible, be made by the people; International Cooperation for multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) implement for better environmental management of shared resources; Good Environmental Governance aims at effective institutions, accountability, respect for human rights and participation of citizens will be integrated in environmental management; Integrated Ecosystem Approach to conserve environmental resources is adopted and enhanced to ensure that ecosystems are managed for sustainable development and benefits of the people.
For sustainable and environment friendly livestock production, the Government will: Conserve the genetic diversity in plants and animals; Identify and use wild species and genetic diversity to improve livestock productivity and adaptability in the face of environmental change; Minimize the adverse impacts of agricultural practices on agro-ecosystems and natural ecosystems; Establish policy incentives so that farmers will retain some areas managed with traditional techniques where necessary to maintain genetic diversity. Build capacity within government, private sector, NGOs and communities on how to integrate environment into viable agricultural practices. For sustainable fishery development, the Government will: Promote a more sustainable fishing practices minimizing the risk of irreversibly harming the ecosystem. Recognize the role of traditional use rights and traditional knowledge and the importance of property rights and institutions. Encourage community participation and community-based fishing cooperatives as means of improving the livelihoods of small-scale fishermen and of strengthening local resource management. Develop more reliable scientific information and encourage better use of such information for effective management of fishery resources. 5. Develop and encourage the use of selective fish-capture methods in order to reduce the chances of capturing non-target fish. Combine the development of more effective fisheries regulations with better enforcement measures. Build capacity of aquaculture workers also to minimize the risk of accidental releases of organisms into aquatic ecosystems. Establish fish sanctuaries in selected locations all over the country. Embark on massive production of fingerlings of selected fishes for stocking reservoirs.
The conservation and sustainable development of forest ecosystems and their associated resources is essential for lasting poverty reduction and sustainable development. The tropical Forest ecosystems are important in conservation of soil, water and biodiversity. The Country will conduct a periodic country-wide total economic valuation of biodiversity, with an emphasis on goods and services that draw linkages between biodiversity, the economy and poverty alleviation. The Government will: Mainstream environment concerns into poverty reduction programmes. Develop and implement an environment-friendly job-creation initiative for poverty reduction and green growth development. Promote local food production through investments, technical capacity transfers and technological innovations Strengthen capacity of rural communities to have improved access to productive assets, including access to micro-credits and local and international market opportunities. Encourage public-private sector partnership in the sustainable management of natural resources for poverty reduction (7.6).
The country has continued to face a rising degree of vulnerability to disaster risk. The floods of 2012 demonstrated the increasing vulnerability of communities to a hazard turning into a disaster. The lives and livelihoods of the affected communities were seriously disrupted beyond their capacity to cope or withstand using their own resources, with the result that affected populations suffer serious human, material, economic or environmental losses (6.3). The Government will: Prepare comprehensive hazard maps and vulnerability analysis for the country. Implement the National Disaster Preparedness Framework and Plan at national and state levels. Develop National Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Information and Communication System. Develop capacity for undertaking risk identification, monitoring and assessment.