The roles of the institution and networks and networks in the management of the Niger Delta wetlands in Nigeria

Despite widespread recognition of the importance of institutions in environmental management and suggestion that networks and institutions mutually shape each other, the theory of how activities of actors in networks generate institutions is underdeveloped. There is no framework for explaining institutional change processes in situations where formal and informal institutions of multiple actors are intertwined. To help fill this gap, a new Network Communication Framework (NCF) was developed to understand how things work in real life and analyse institutional change process in environmental management involving multiple actors.
The NCF was used to predict four institutional outcomes where two networks that vary in direction, autonomy, adaptation and scalar reach communicate. The first is unidirectional non-autonomous non-adaptive communication where a modern state network perfectly imposes communication content on a non-state network. The second is unidirectional autonomous non-adaptive communication, where a traditional network resists such impositions from modern state network. The third is multidirectional adaptive endogenous communication, in which a modern state network has poor scalar reach and a traditional network is able to assert its autonomy and adapt to the virtual absence of the state at local scale by devising its own institutions for sustainable management. The fourth is multidirectional adaptive exogenous communication in which a modern state network has moderate scalar reach and state and non-state networks can vary state institutions for mutual benefit.
In order to test the robustness of the new model, it is applied to wetland management in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The results showed that the fourth category of institution predicted by the NCF is widespread, with good awareness of, and support for it across all actors. The informality and multidirectional nature of this outcome ensures flexibility, so it can be modified in response to changes in the preferences of the actors adopting it. The results also showed that the everyday narratives of actors are heterogeneous, which provides further evidence for communication between networks.
Based on these findings it is suggested that future policies for sustainable environmental management in the Niger Delta should be based on how things work rather than on idealistic representations.