Biodiversity Governance and the Politics of Scale in Nigerian Conservation Policy: A Multi-Site Ethnography

Biodiversity governance in Nigeria operates simultaneously at multiple scales, from village-level customary resource management to national biodiversity legislation and international conservation treaty obligations, generating scale mismatches, institutional contradictions, and political tensions that undermine conservation effectiveness. The politics of scale in Nigerian conservation policy, specifically how actors at different levels define, contest, and rescale governance authority over wildlife and habitats, has not been theorized or empirically examined in the existing literature. This dissertation applies a multi-site ethnographic methodology informed by political geography and governance theory to examine biodiversity governance and the politics of scale across six field sites in three geopolitical zones: Cross River State (South South), Taraba State (North East), and Kwara State (North Central). Over 20 months of ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation, elite interviews with 95 governance actors, and community participatory research with 140 households, the study documents how scale politics shape governance outcomes in each site. Results demonstrate that international conservation organizations consistently rescale governance authority toward national and international levels, while community actors and some state officials mobilize customary and constitutional claims to rescale authority downward to local governance institutions. These scalar conflicts are a primary driver of persistent governance dysfunction in all study sites. Original contributions include a politics of scale analytical framework for African conservation governance and a scalar negotiation typology. Policy recommendations target the development of scalar bridging mechanisms within Nigerian biodiversity legislation. Keywords: biodiversity governance, politics of scale, ethnography, Nigeria, multi-site research