Indigenous Data Governance and Environmental Sustainability Initiatives in Nigeria

Indigenous knowledge has been recognized as a veritable tool in promoting environmental sustainability globally. However, some countries are more successful than others in harnessing the power of indigenous knowledge in the fight against climate change and environmental sustainability. One of the factors behind this disparity is effective data management practices. While efforts have been made to document indigenous knowledge, a lack of indigenous data sovereignty and indigenous data governance framework often means that the right data are not collected, or the collected data are not properly utilized in a way that benefits both the local community and the larger society. This often results in poor approach to indigenous data collection, development of culturally insensitive policies, and failure to secure the buy-in of local people in environmental sustainability projects. This article, therefore, explores the role of indigenous data management in environmental sustainability efforts in Nigeria. Specifically, the study examines the role of data governance practices in enhancing the preservation of indigenous knowledge relating to environmental sustainability and fostering community-led initiatives for environmental conservation. The article aims to propose an indigenous data governance structure for Nigeria to facilitate indigenous data sovereignty, which ensures that indigenous people in Nigeria are fully involved in making decisions about what data is collected and how such data is used. It is expected that promoting effective indigenous data governance and data sovereignty will lead to the development of policies and initiatives that will enjoy the support of local people and ensure the success of environmental sustainability efforts in Nigeria.

Keywords: Environmental sustainability, data management, Indigenous data governance, Indigenous data sovereignty, Indigenous knowledge