1. Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA)
2. Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN)
3. National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA)
4. National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA)
5. National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA)

The environmental agencies in Nigeria play significant roles in relation to environmental protection, workplace safety, and public health. As an environmentalist, you expected to work with these agencies in giving relevant information as regards the safety of the environment in general.

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Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN)

Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) is one of the most popular environmental agencies in Nigeria and was established as the Federal Department of Forestry Research in 1954. The Institute’s Decree 35 of 1973 and order establishing Research Institute of 1977 changed the status of the Department to an institute being supervised by the Federal Ministry of Environment, but the only Research Institute of the Ministry.

Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria has 7 specialized research departments (each having various specialized sections), three support departments, eleven outstations spread across all ecological zones of the country, three Centers, and four ND/HND awarding colleges.

Fred’s mission is to ensure sustainable forest resource management and production, food production/security,forest-based industrial raw material provision, utilization, Bio-diversity conservation, self-employment opportunities, and poverty alleviation.

National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA)

The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) was established by the National Biosafety Management Agency Act 2015, to provide a regulatory framework to adequately safeguard human health and the environment from potential adverse effects of modern biotechnology and genetically modified organisms, while harnessing the potentials of modern biotechnology and its derivatives, for the benefit of Nigerians.

The Act came into force in April 2015, with the appointment of a Director-General and Chief Executive Officer. The UN international agreement known as Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which Nigeria signed is an environment protocol and it requires members to domesticate the agreement through law.

The Biosafety Act is, therefore, meant to domesticate the protocol and address our national Biosafety requirements, although among the unpopular environmental agencies in Nigeria; it is still one of the most important among them.

National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) mission is to promote the basic tenets of biosafety as enunciated in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and enforce Nigeria National Biosafety Management Agency Act 2015 to ensure the safe application and use of products of modern biotechnology.

FEPA and  NESREA

Prior to the dumping of toxic waste in Koko village, in Delta State, in 1987, Nigeria was ill-equipped to manage the serious environmental crisis, as there were no institutional arrangements or mechanisms for environmental protection and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations in the country.

Arising from the Koko toxic waste episode, the Federal Government promulgated the Harmful Waste Decree 42 of 1988, which facilitated the establishment of the environmental agencies in Nigeria; the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) through Decree 58 of 1988 and 59 (amended) of 1992.

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FEPA was then charged with the overall responsibility for environmental management and protection. It is on record that by the establishment of FEPA, Nigeria became the first African country to establish a national institutional mechanism for environmental protection.

You may want to know how NESREA came about and below you have it.
In the wisdom of the Government, FEPA and other relevant Departments in other Ministries were merged to form the Federal Ministry of Environment in 1999, but without an appropriate enabling law on enforcement issues. This situation created a vacuum in the effective enforcement of environmental laws, standards, and regulations in the country.

To address this lapse, the Federal Government in line with section 20 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, established the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Environment. By the NESREA establishment Act 2007, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency Act Cap F 10 LFN 2004 has been repealed.

NESREA’s Mission is to inspire personal and collective responsibility in building an environmentally conscious society for the achievement of sustainable development in Nigeria.

National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA)

NOSDRA as one of the environmental agencies in Nigeria was established by the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Act of 2006. It was established with responsibility for preparedness, detection, and response to oil spillages in Nigeria. Its Head office is at 5th-floor NAIC House plot 590, Zone AO, Central Business District, Abuja. With its zonal offices in Lagos, Akure, Porth-court, Delta, Kaduna, Akwa-Ibom, and Bayelsa.

NOSDRA’s Mission is to restore and preserve our environment by ensuring the best Oil field, storage and transmission practices in exploration, production and use of oil in the quest to achieve sustainable development in Nigeria The Federal Government established the National Oil Spill Detection And Response Agency (NOSDRA) as an institutional framework to implement the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan.

Conclusion

This article is fully about the top 5 environmental agencies in Nigeria and the basic information one needs to know about them.

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