Local Communities’ Perceptions Towards Forest Management Regimes: Case of Kakamega Forest in Kenya
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Date
2006Author
Guthiga, Paul
Mburu, John
Holm-Muller, Karin
Type
PresentationLanguage
enMetadata
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Kakamega Forest is located in western Kenya and covers approximately 240 Km2. The
forest is the only lowland tropical rainforest in Kenya and it is world famous for its diversity
of unique and numerous flora and fauna. However its survival is under immense threat
since it is located in a densely populated area where local communities depend heavily on
agriculture and forest extraction for their livelihoods. Currently, the forest is divided into
three different parts that are managed through three distinct management approaches: an
incentive-based approach of the Forest department (FD), a protectionist approach of the
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and a quasi private- approach of a local church mission,
the Quakers. A review of literature clearly indicates that forest management regimes of
public forests are important in assigning property rights to the various stakeholders and
guiding use and consequently the outcomes. On the same footing research has pointed out
the centrality of the local communities in the process of natural resource management.
The persistence of resource degradation problems and failure of technical simple technical
or economic prescription clearly indicates that there is need to consider the more complex
aspects of natural resource management. The perception of the local people towards
management regimes and the factors that condition their perception is important in designing
policies for sustainable use of natural resources. This study considers how the local
communities perceive the management regimes in terms of meeting the goal of utilising
and conserving forest biodiversity. Satisfaction ranking showed that the strictest regime
among the three was ranked highest overall. Coincidentally, the highest ranked regime
has the best performance among the three in conserving the forest in its pristine state.
An ordered logit regression was used to analyse factors influencing the overall satisfaction
ranking. The results indicate that socio-economic factors are not significant in explaining
the level of satisfaction ranking but involvement in forest conservation activities appears
important in explaining satisfaction ranking. The paper concludes by highlighting some
policy implications of the results.
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http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CFoQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tropentag.de%2F2006%2Fabstracts%2Flinks%2FGuthiga_QOppNfTT.pdf&ei=nZ7vUdXvH4fe7AbmrIHYBg&usg=AFQjCNG-1O4KMX1CQCANGpeRk0xnO1pk8g&bvm=bv.49641647,d.ZGUhttp://hdl.handle.net/11295/50625