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Facilitating participation in natural resource governance in Kenya: a critical review of the extent to which Kenya’s contemporary legal framework enables indigenous community conserved areas

The goals of conserving nature have changed over the last decades, but setting aside areas for nature protection is still a major part of environmental efforts globally. Protected areas often include indigenous and local communities' territories, and although indigenous rights have been strengthened...

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Main Author: Birgen, Rose Jeptoo
Other Authors: Paterson, Alexander
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Institute of Marine and Environmental Law 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Birgen, Rose Jeptoo
author2 Paterson, Alexander
author_browse Birgen, Rose Jeptoo
Paterson, Alexander
author_facet Paterson, Alexander
Birgen, Rose Jeptoo
author_sort Birgen, Rose Jeptoo
collection Thesis
description The goals of conserving nature have changed over the last decades, but setting aside areas for nature protection is still a major part of environmental efforts globally. Protected areas often include indigenous and local communities' territories, and although indigenous rights have been strengthened through international policies and laws, conflicts over land entitlement are still common. A couple of notable events internationally in the context of Human Rights and nature conservation discourses have marked a significant shift in the attitudes and approaches to the role of indigenous people and local communities in natural resource governance. Contemporary approaches enable them to define themselves and to own and manage land and natural resources. Domestic policy makers are faced with the challenge of creating national laws and policies to implement this contemporary approach. This thesis looks at the concept of ICCAs as a tool for facilitating participation of indigenous and local communities in natural resource management. It begins with an analysis of the form, nature, origins and value of ICCA's- and specifically key legal elements which should ideally be included in a legal framework to give domestic effect to them. This analysis indicates that in order to recognise and protect the indigenous people and local communities and for ICCAs to be a success, their land tenures and resource rights have to be legally secured, they have to be deliberately involved in management of natural resources and they have to enjoy the benefits that arise as a result of their input and use their traditional knowledge to protect and conserve natural resources. The dissertation then turns to consider whether these elements are present in Kenya's legal framework. 2010 is used as a benchmark because of the significant reform introduced giving an edge in the way indigenous people and local communities and their contribution to natural resource management were recognised.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
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publisher Institute of Marine and Environmental Law
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/15170 Facilitating participation in natural resource governance in Kenya: a critical review of the extent to which Kenya’s contemporary legal framework enables indigenous community conserved areas Birgen, Rose Jeptoo Paterson, Alexander Marine and Environmental Law The goals of conserving nature have changed over the last decades, but setting aside areas for nature protection is still a major part of environmental efforts globally. Protected areas often include indigenous and local communities' territories, and although indigenous rights have been strengthened through international policies and laws, conflicts over land entitlement are still common. A couple of notable events internationally in the context of Human Rights and nature conservation discourses have marked a significant shift in the attitudes and approaches to the role of indigenous people and local communities in natural resource governance. Contemporary approaches enable them to define themselves and to own and manage land and natural resources. Domestic policy makers are faced with the challenge of creating national laws and policies to implement this contemporary approach. This thesis looks at the concept of ICCAs as a tool for facilitating participation of indigenous and local communities in natural resource management. It begins with an analysis of the form, nature, origins and value of ICCA's- and specifically key legal elements which should ideally be included in a legal framework to give domestic effect to them. This analysis indicates that in order to recognise and protect the indigenous people and local communities and for ICCAs to be a success, their land tenures and resource rights have to be legally secured, they have to be deliberately involved in management of natural resources and they have to enjoy the benefits that arise as a result of their input and use their traditional knowledge to protect and conserve natural resources. The dissertation then turns to consider whether these elements are present in Kenya's legal framework. 2010 is used as a benchmark because of the significant reform introduced giving an edge in the way indigenous people and local communities and their contribution to natural resource management were recognised. 2015-11-21T09:36:22Z 2015-11-21T09:36:22Z 2015 Master Thesis Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15170 eng application/pdf Institute of Marine and Environmental Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Marine and Environmental Law
Birgen, Rose Jeptoo
Facilitating participation in natural resource governance in Kenya: a critical review of the extent to which Kenya’s contemporary legal framework enables indigenous community conserved areas
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Facilitating participation in natural resource governance in Kenya: a critical review of the extent to which Kenya’s contemporary legal framework enables indigenous community conserved areas
title_full Facilitating participation in natural resource governance in Kenya: a critical review of the extent to which Kenya’s contemporary legal framework enables indigenous community conserved areas
title_fullStr Facilitating participation in natural resource governance in Kenya: a critical review of the extent to which Kenya’s contemporary legal framework enables indigenous community conserved areas
title_full_unstemmed Facilitating participation in natural resource governance in Kenya: a critical review of the extent to which Kenya’s contemporary legal framework enables indigenous community conserved areas
title_short Facilitating participation in natural resource governance in Kenya: a critical review of the extent to which Kenya’s contemporary legal framework enables indigenous community conserved areas
title_sort facilitating participation in natural resource governance in kenya a critical review of the extent to which kenyaa€™s contemporary legal framework enables indigenous community conserved areas
topic Marine and Environmental Law
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15170
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