Strategic Environmental Management Planning for State-Level Governments in the North East Zone

This study develops a strategic environmental management planning framework tailored for state-level governments in Nigeria's North East geopolitical zone, addressing the compound environmental challenges of desertification, water scarcity, conflict-related land degradation, and post-insurgency environmental recovery that characterise this region. Strategic environmental management planning in the North East must integrate emergency response to ongoing environmental crisis with long-term sustainable land and water management development, a combination that conventional environmental planning frameworks do not adequately address. The framework development involved a systematic review of existing environmental policy documents from Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Bauchi, and Taraba States, assessment of available environmental baseline data through engagement with state environmental agencies and academic institutions, and structured interviews with twenty environmental managers across the six states and ten federal environmental agency representatives. The resulting framework proposes an eight-element strategic planning structure covering environmental baseline characterisation, priority issue identification, cross-sectoral integration of environmental considerations, institutional capacity building, environmental financing mechanisms, stakeholder engagement processes, monitoring and evaluation systems, and review cycles. The framework emphasises context-specific adaptations for post-conflict recovery environments, including environmental security dimensions and the integration of internally displaced person resettlement into land use planning. Case application of the framework to Gombe State provides a worked example of strategic plan development. Recommendations include a North East Governors' Forum environmental management committee to coordinate cross-boundary programme implementation. Keywords: strategic environmental management, North East Nigeria, state government, desertification, post-conflict recovery.