Urban Governance and Poverty Nexus - Implication on Substainable Environment Conservation in Akure, Nigeria

Abstract

The incessant spate of abuse of our common environment and its resources calls for quick attention and immediate remedy. The sustainable environmental conservation being embarked upon by government at different levels at ensuring balanced, conducive, and habitable atmosphere is receiving a halt due to high level of poverty. This is not unconnected to poor urban governance. Linkages between urban governance, poverty and environmental conservation is becoming more obvious than ever; hence, the need to curtail its attendant problems. Data used in the paper were obtained through questionnaire administration. A total of 850 questionnaires were administered using systematic random sampling technique: 450 were administered to the nine political wards at the Akure metropolis, 300 to the residents of the six  immediate community hinterlands, while the remaining 100 were administered to staff of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development as well as  Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources on 50 allotments per each ministry. Findings revealed that poor environmental conservation is directly associated with poor urban governance through misappropriation and misallocation of resources, lack of basic infrastructure, poor priority of government agenda, improper and inadequate information dissemination, and consequently poverty. This paper, thus advocates for aggressive environmental education, strict monitoring of development activities, enforcement of environmental laws, provision of basic infrastructure, and private public partnership initiatives with a view to minimizing environmental degradation and ensuring sustainable environmental conservation.

Key Words: Poor governance, poverty, conservation, sustainable