Over the years, the Nigerian environment, once rich in biodiversity with a healthy conservation status, has been witnessing increasing degradation. This situation broadly suggests that, among other factors, there is low public compliance with the existing state-based environmental regulatory instruments which presently dominate the environmental governance landscape in the country. However, there was, and still is, better public compliance with traditional African norms and practices on environmental governance which – especially when these norms held sway in the pre-colonial era – provided better protection for the environment. This paper provides evidence to support this assertion and ultimately seeks to unravel the qualities of traditional environmental governance – including effective public access to information, decision-making processes and justice in environmental matters – that ensured meaningful public compliance with environmental standards. It further seeks to demonstrate how those qualities of traditional environmental governance systems might be adapted and applied to improve compliance with the contemporary environmental regulatory regime in Nigeria.

中文翻译：

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改善尼日利亚公众对现代环境法律的遵守：寻求非洲的传统规范和做法

多年来，尼日利亚的环境曾经拥有丰富的生物多样性并享有健康的保护状况，但如今却日益恶化。这种情况大体上表明，除其他因素外，公众对现行以州为基础的环境监管工具的依从性较低，而现行的国家环境监管工具目前主导着该国的环境治理格局。但是，公众对非洲传统的环境治理规范和实践有更好的依从性，尤其是当这些规范在前殖民时代流行时，为公众提供了更好的环境保护。本文提供了支持这一主张的证据，并最终力图揭示传统环境治理的质量-包括有效的公众获取信息，环境事务中的决策过程和正义–确保公众切实遵守环境标准。它进一步试图证明如何适应和应用传统环​​境治理体系的这些特质，以改善对尼日利亚当代环境监管制度的遵守。