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Economic analysis of participatory forest management in Kenya

The failure of the centralized top down approach to management of common pool resources such as forests led policy makers and donors to conclude that devolution of forest management to local communities can be the only solution to such failures. Developing countries have thus resorted to devolution...

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Main Author: Okumu, Boscow
Other Authors: Muchapondwa, Edwin
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: School of Economics 2018
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access_status_str Open Access
author Okumu, Boscow
author2 Muchapondwa, Edwin
author_browse Muchapondwa, Edwin
Okumu, Boscow
author_facet Muchapondwa, Edwin
Okumu, Boscow
author_sort Okumu, Boscow
collection Thesis
description The failure of the centralized top down approach to management of common pool resources such as forests led policy makers and donors to conclude that devolution of forest management to local communities can be the only solution to such failures. Developing countries have thus resorted to devolution of forest management to forest adjacent communities through approaches such as joint forest management (JFM) and participatory forest management (PFM). PFM is part of the initiative towards devolution of power of management and decision making from government to local communities. Communities therefore self-organize into community forest associations (CFAs) or forest user groups to manage forest resources. In Kenya for instance, the recent and ongoing forest sector reforms as envisaged in the Forest Act (2005) and the Forest Act (2016) led to devolution of forest management through CFAs and provision of incentives such as plantation establishment and livelihood improvement scheme (PELIS), eco-tourism, harvesting of forest products among others. These efforts were aimed at deepening community participation in forest management and improving welfare of forest adjacent communities. However, despite the numerous efforts aimed at empowering communities to sustainably manage forest resources through PFM and provision of various incentives, the success of PFM in terms of efficiency, equity, accountability and environmental outcomes have been mixed. In this thesis, we contribute empirically to the understanding of how PFM can be successfully implemented and make suggestion for more inclusive, equitable and sustainable forest management in Kenya from a micro perspective using household and community level data collected from 22 CFAs in the Mau forest conservancy. We take into account the values and preferences attached to salient forest ecosystem services by local communities and how this can be used to design incentive schemes like PES to incentivize local communities and also influence devolution of forest management. We also assess the impact of existing incentives specifically PELIS on welfare of forest adjacent communities as well as the environment and the heterogeneous impact of the scheme on household welfare. We then look at the context specific factors influencing the varying levels of success among the CFAs. The thesis therefore, comprises of three separate, but related analysis chapters.
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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 2018
publishDateRange 2018
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/27022 Economic analysis of participatory forest management in Kenya Okumu, Boscow Muchapondwa, Edwin Forest Management Participatory Management The failure of the centralized top down approach to management of common pool resources such as forests led policy makers and donors to conclude that devolution of forest management to local communities can be the only solution to such failures. Developing countries have thus resorted to devolution of forest management to forest adjacent communities through approaches such as joint forest management (JFM) and participatory forest management (PFM). PFM is part of the initiative towards devolution of power of management and decision making from government to local communities. Communities therefore self-organize into community forest associations (CFAs) or forest user groups to manage forest resources. In Kenya for instance, the recent and ongoing forest sector reforms as envisaged in the Forest Act (2005) and the Forest Act (2016) led to devolution of forest management through CFAs and provision of incentives such as plantation establishment and livelihood improvement scheme (PELIS), eco-tourism, harvesting of forest products among others. These efforts were aimed at deepening community participation in forest management and improving welfare of forest adjacent communities. However, despite the numerous efforts aimed at empowering communities to sustainably manage forest resources through PFM and provision of various incentives, the success of PFM in terms of efficiency, equity, accountability and environmental outcomes have been mixed. In this thesis, we contribute empirically to the understanding of how PFM can be successfully implemented and make suggestion for more inclusive, equitable and sustainable forest management in Kenya from a micro perspective using household and community level data collected from 22 CFAs in the Mau forest conservancy. We take into account the values and preferences attached to salient forest ecosystem services by local communities and how this can be used to design incentive schemes like PES to incentivize local communities and also influence devolution of forest management. We also assess the impact of existing incentives specifically PELIS on welfare of forest adjacent communities as well as the environment and the heterogeneous impact of the scheme on household welfare. We then look at the context specific factors influencing the varying levels of success among the CFAs. The thesis therefore, comprises of three separate, but related analysis chapters. 2018-01-25T14:09:17Z 2018-01-25T14:09:17Z 2017 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27022 eng application/pdf application/pdf School of Economics Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Forest Management
Participatory Management
Okumu, Boscow
Economic analysis of participatory forest management in Kenya
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Economic analysis of participatory forest management in Kenya
title_full Economic analysis of participatory forest management in Kenya
title_fullStr Economic analysis of participatory forest management in Kenya
title_full_unstemmed Economic analysis of participatory forest management in Kenya
title_short Economic analysis of participatory forest management in Kenya
title_sort economic analysis of participatory forest management in kenya
topic Forest Management
Participatory Management
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27022
work_keys_str_mv AT okumuboscow economicanalysisofparticipatoryforestmanagementinkenya