| dc.description.abstract | The study set out to establish the relationship between politics and Mau Forest
conservation in Kenya. An attempt has been made to justify the study both as policy and
as scholarly contribution. It is useful not only to Kenyan policy makers but to the global
community. It underlines the gaps both theoretically and in literature which the study is
likely to fill. Literature review further emphasized the need to investigate the relationship
between politics and Mau Forest conservation. The study is guided by the theory of
ecologism as espoused in political ecology and where the two hypotheses are drawn the
first being that politics play a role in destruction of the Mau Forest and two that there is
political interest in the conservation of the Mau Forest. This is strengthened by the fact
that the nature of encroachment in the Mau Forest land and the defense of the
encroachers by the political class hence the shift from forest conservation to political
duel.
In terms of methodology, the study relied on both primary and secondary data. The
respondents in the primary data were identified through non-probability sampling
technique. The secondary data on the other hand was obtained from books, journals,
magazines, newspapers, websites and government documents.
Data collected indicate that politics for a long time engineered the destruction of the Mau
Forest through exploitation of loopholes in policies and legislations. Further, the data
collected also indicate that the conservation of the Mau Forest has attracted a lot of
politics and have been used to meet political ends and punish political opponents. The
study further concluded that there is a thin line between politics and the conservation of
the Mau Forest. The policy recommendations made by the study are; one, all policies
and regulations on environmental/forest conservation are harmonized to remove ambiguity and thus safeguard the forests. And two that in order for the conservation of
the Mau Forest not to be part of political duels in the citizens should be sensitized on
importance of forests in the ecosystem and also involve both the political class and the
opinion leaders in decision making process. | en_US |
