Influence Of Socio-Economic Factors On Sustainability Of Rural Community Based Afforestration Projects, Nyatike Sub County, Migori County, Kenya

Abstract

Based on the fact that agriculture is a key driver of deforestation, there is need to examine the ramifications of socio-economic factors on sustainability of rural Community Based Afforestation (CBA) initiatives. The intent of this research is to determine the influence of socio-economic aspects on sustainability of CBA projects in Nyatike sub county, Migori County Kenya. It is projected that the conclusions of this inquiry will help influence strengthening of policies, plans or programs for sustainable community-based afforestation projects in Migori County towards attainment of 10% tree cover. The study will be conducted under four broad themes that will seek to determine how income sources, people‟s attitude, community capacity and networks and collaboration influence the sustainability of rural CBA projects. The function of government guidelines and processes will also be investigated. This inquiry will employ a mixed design to gather data at community level both from community members at household level and members from strategic organizations that support expertise to CBA projects. A representative sample size of 396 households from the 7 wards was randomly picked from population size of 40,257 in Nyatike Sub County for questionnaire response. 20 members of CBA projects and 5 partner‟s/opinion leaders were engaged in qualitative data collection. The conclusions of the regression analysis disclosed a statistically significant positive relationship between income, network & collaborations, attitude, capacity and sustainability of rural community-based afforestation projects. However, the research indicated non-statistically significant relationship between government policies and sustainability. The study also confirmed that the assumptions of the two anchoring theories; the system theory and the sustainability theory hold. The study therefore recommends that there should be an increased collaboration between the rural people and external afforestation experts and government, this collaboration is likely to lead to knowledge transfer and consequently increased community participation in afforestation projects to enhance sustainability of the initiatives. The research also recommends that there should be purposeful afforestation training and mentorship to enhance the capacity of the community as well as increasing investments on afforestation related income opportunity as this is key driver of sustainable community driven afforestation initiatives. The study proposes that further research should be done to investigate the relationship between the attitude of the local people and participation in the sustainability projects. The study also proposes that further examination should be conducted to ascertain the linkage between government policies and participation in sustainability initiatives.