NDWC is dedicated to the study, conservation and management of the natural resources of the Niger Delta and to the improvement of the quality of life of its people. Much of the Niger Delta is characterized by swamps and wetlands, which are valuable globally for their unstudied biodiversity, but constitute a remote and difficult terrain for transportation and economic activity. Human life is further challenged by the locally intense oil industry activities.

NDWC uses participatory approaches to involve local people in evaluating their resources, and in planning for their use and management in ways that focus on sustainability. Thus, NDWC increasingly encourages the adoption of selected tools of modern science and technology to energise development activities and empower people to access external resources. Renewable energy technologies, and especially solar energy are well suited for pumping water and  providing light and medical refrigeration and communication; information and communication technologies including the use of VSATs provide computers skills for youth employment, and are key to improving education, e-governance and security and give support to small enterprises in remote areas; biotechnology applied to selection and domestication of indigenous biodiversity provides for income generation and decreases forest extraction; training of civil servants in the use of remote sensing data is imperative for planning development and resource management. Governments have been conservative about adopting these new technologies, but NDWC believes that if development is to occur, things must be done differently. NGOs are in a position to demonstrate through pilot interventions, the efficacy of these technologies.