Governance of Aquatic Biodiversity Conservation in the Cross River System: Institutions, Power, and Outcomes

This research critically examined the governance of aquatic biodiversity conservation in the Cross River system, Cross River State, South South Nigeria, analysing how institutional arrangements, power relations, and actor interests shape conservation outcomes for critically threatened fish species and freshwater ecosystems. The Cross River is recognised as Nigeria's most biodiverse freshwater system, harboring endemic species and unique ecological communities, yet its fisheries and aquatic biodiversity are under severe and accelerating anthropogenic pressure. The study applied a political ecology and institutional analysis framework, combining elite interviews, stakeholder mapping, discourse analysis of policy documents, and ecological field assessments at 10 river stations. Thirty-eight institutional actors across federal, state, local government, civil society, community, and international levels were mapped and their governance roles, interests, and influence assessed using power-interest matrix analysis. Ecological assessments documented fish species presence, habitat condition, and threats across the sampling network. Results revealed a fragmented governance landscape characterised by institutional mandate overlap, weak inter-agency coordination, and the marginalisation of fishing community voices in biodiversity management decisions. Conservation discourse was dominated by international NGO framings of biodiversity value that misaligned with local resource-dependent community priorities. Enforcement of biodiversity protection regulations was virtually absent, with no prosecutions under the Endangered Species Act for aquatic species recorded in the state in the preceding five years. The research contributes an original critical governance analysis to the Nigerian freshwater conservation literature and recommends transformative governance reform centred on community rights recognition, inter-agency coordination platforms, and locally anchored conservation financing mechanisms. Keywords: biodiversity governance, Cross River, political ecology, institutional analysis, freshwater conservation