Effects of Resource Degradation in Nigeria

Nigeria faces many resource problems. Available data indicate that she is losing renewable natural resources beyond sustainable limits. Economic and natural resource systems interact in many important ways, hence the need to understand these interactions and develop effective public policy. The dynamic interactions of resource degradation with socioeconomic factors are neither well understood in Nigeria, nor are their implications for Vision 20:2020. This study explored the inherent dynamic interactions and feedback between the nation's environment and socioeconomic spheres. The study shows that a bi-directional or feedback relationship exists between the index of resource degradation and Nigeria's socioeconomic profile with sustained effects over a ten-year horizon. This study, therefore, recommends a more comprehensive holistic and sustainable development path, and strategies and policies that integrate rural development and renewable natural resources management in order to tackle the complex, diverse and deeply rooted issues underlying the worsening resource degradation in Nigeria and improve the nation's bio-capacity.