Rural-urban Diversity In The Implementation Of Participatory Forest Management: The Case Of Ngong’ Road And Kiptuget Forests, Kenya

Abstract

Studies that have considered PFM have suggested that effectiveness in the conservation and management of forest under PFM is a subject of various factors which influence the capacity of the community to effectively engage in PFM. One of the areas that has received focus in the study of socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors that influence community‘s environmental concern is the rural urban settlements. This study aims to explore how the rural and urban social structures influence forest management system under PFM. A comparative study design was employed to analyze how socio-demographic and socio economic factors as presented in urban and rural areas influence implementation and performance of PFM. Ngong‘ Road Forest in Nairobi City County and Kiptuget forest in Baringo County were purposively selected to represent urban and rural forests respectively. Primary data was collected using questionnaires, key informant interviews and participants‘ observation while secondary data was collected from review of PFM technical reports, peer reviewed articles, publications, books and journals. Quantitative data was coded in SPSS and analyzed using measures of central tendency frequencies, percentages and cross tabulation. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis and summaries. In order to compare data from the two sites, T test was used. The study found out that membership of the forest associations in Ngong Road and Kiptuget forests were constituted differently. Ngong Road forest association was constituted by individual community members, corporate organizations and NGOs while Kiptuget forest association was constituted by individuals from forest adjacent community. The difference in membership influenced how the leadership of the forest association was formed whereby Ngong road had a dual system where CFA leadership was made of representative of the community members and representatives of NGOs and corporate bodies while Kiptuget association had a homogenous systems made up of xii community members elected from the grassroots and at the CFA level. The study further found out that members of Ngong road forest were involved at a higher level of decision making of consultation level compared to Kiptuget forest station members involved at an information level. In all the three areas of decision making, connectivity and knowledge use, Ngong Road forest association was found to have a higher performance capacity with an average score of 10.6 compared to Kiptuget forest association with an average of 4.6 points out of 15.0. It was also found out that there was a significant difference in the factors motivating members of Ngong Road and Kiptuget forest to join CFAs. Consequently there was a difference in the activities undertaken by the two forests whereby Ngong Road forests was found to have diverse active and operational user groups while members of Kiptuget were predominantly engaged in PELIS. The survey further revealed that Ngong‘ Road Forest performed better in the implementation of forest activities in the forest management plan at 3.7 points compared to Kiptuget forest which scored 1.8 points out of 5. The study concludes urban and rural divides presents factors that influences the implementation and performance of PFM in these areas and points to the need for KFS to consider diverse socioeconomic and sociodemographic settings in implementation of PFM; operationalization of dormant user groups, enhancing decision making power of CFAs and government intervention in building the capacity of CFAs particularly in rural areas in an effort to ensure the success of PFM.