| dc.description.abstract | This study sought to solve the central problem of how to involve women in
forest resource management. The study was undertaken at Nkubu Division,
Meru District, where there are many conservation agencies, development
agencies and civil society organizations which records heavy investments in
forest conservation and community development, yet forest degradation levels
continue to increase amidst high poverty levels. Current development
research confirms that degradation of the natural resource base inevitably
results in a reduction in the overall well being of people. According to UNDP
(2006, p.11), more than 58.7% of the Women population at Nkubu live below
poverty line. While several reasons could be advanced for this scenario, lack
of women participation in management of the forest resources was the single
most important limiting factor considered.
Unilateral approaches have failed at Nkubu because they fail to recognize the
multidimensional nature of forest degradation and poverty, and they only
identify the easily recognizable causes of low women participation in natural
resource management. These approaches fail to acknowledge the importance
of active participation of the resource users at all levels of decision making.
Unilateral and centralized management regimes suffer from lack of adequate
resources; they ignore local knowledge and capacity and seldom allocate the
financial resources needed for research to, public awareness, community
consultation and effective management. This has resulted into increased
resource-user conflicts at Nkubu, leading to increased forest degradation and
deterioration in the community's standards of living.
It is the argument in this study that the key to success in forest management
is to give some responsibility to women (resource users) and the community
groups that are most dependent on continued forest productivity. As such, a
shift from a regulatory, legalistic and a sectoral approach to a more integrative
and collaborative approach will require active women participation. In this
study it was hypothesized that women participation at Nkubu Division is
influenced by intrinsic (not easily recognizable) factors.
In order to explore (understand) this problematic situation, a survey research
design was adopted. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods
(questionnaires, interviews, focussed group discussions, transect surveys and
observation) were employed in data collection. The collected data was
cleaned, coded and summarized into working themes in line with the study
objectives. Because of the nature of this study (diagnostic), data analysis was
limited to qualitative, quantitative analysis.
This study found out that human factors (illiteracy, attitudes and perceptions,
women discrimination), and governance/ policy differences (land tenure and
ownership, governance structures) are the main limiting factors to women
participation in forest management at Nkubu.There are often deeply
entrenched policy and institutional barriers at local, national and international
levels that work against the interests of the women. 80% of respondents
indicated that failure by the government to communicate policies, greatly
hindered women participation in forest management, while hostile staff,
corruption and failure to uphold the law were serious hindrances to forest
conservation and women participation.
It is therefore recommended in this study that a multifaceted approach be
adopted in enhancing women participation in forest management. Such
approaches includes capacity building and empowerment, provision of
accurate and relevant information on forest management and a deliberate
adjustment of governance structures to make them explicit, lean, participatory
and responsive. | en |
