Case Study about Participatory forest management system in urban forests in Kenya, Published by JBES- An Environmental Sciences Journal

 

JBES – An Environmental Sciences Journal published a case study about Participatory forest management, entitle “Participatory forest management system in urban forests in Kenya- A case of Ngong Road Forest, Nairobi, Kenya” Victor K Boiyo, Dr Jane Mutune, and Dr Kiemo Karatu from Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies, University of Nairobi, and Department of Sociology, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya, are the authors of the case study.

Source| Jane Karanja

Abstract

Participatory forest management is a system where community is involved in management of forest. Studies on participatory forest management have majorly focused on forests in rural areas. Since its adoption in Kenya in 2007, it has been scantily documented how the system has been implemented in the urban forests. This study aims to explore how the system has been implemented in the urban forests in regards to institutional arrangement, roles and activities of the community. The study was done in Ngong Road forest in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Collection of data was done through questionnaires; review of forest reports and interviews and analyzed using frequencies and cross tabulation. It was found out that the membership Ngong Road forest association was constituted by heterogeneous membership of individual members from the community, NGOs and corporate organization. It was further found out that the community members come from two economic extremes of affluence and less affluence resulting to diverse forest conservation and activities. It was further noted that forest association plays a key role in implementing forest conservation activities. The study recommends that state should put mechanism to fund forest association. It is further recommended that in planning for forest management, the uniqueness of the forest and the surrounding community should be take into consideration.

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Introduction

This involvement of local community in forest management is aimed at fostering sustainable forest management (Polansky, 2003). Although its’ effective and meaningful adoption was first made in Asia Pacific particularly Philippines, China and Nepal, different countries have adopted and operationalized it indifferent ways (Mutimukuru-Maravanyika, 2010;Tesfaye et al., 2017). In this system of forest governance there is collaboration between government forest agencies, forest adjacent community and other stakeholders (Petheram et al., 2004). Adoption of community involvement in forest governance in the Sub-Saharan African was premise don the argument that community involvement in forest management did not only have positive impact on forest resource but was also critical in alleviating poverty (Arnold, 2001). In Ethiopia for instance,introduction of PFM was founded on three complementary beliefs held by forest authorities anddonors. These beliefs were failure of centralized forest management system, effectivity of communityparticipation and the role of forest as source oflivelihood to the community (Temesgen et al., 2012).These are among the reasons that lead to adoption ofCommunity forestry in most African countriesincluding but not limited to Tanzania, Burkina Fasoand Kenya.Legal framework that led to community involvement inforest management in Kenya came with the enactmentof Forest Act 2005 which has since then been revised toForest Conservation and Management Act, 2016. TheAct provides for Participatory forest management (PFM)which is modeled on provision of incentives to localcommunities in terms of forest use rights who in returntake collective responsibilities in forest management.Operationalization of participatory forest managementrequires that the forest adjacent community forms forestassociation which enters into agreement with Kenyaforest service for the purposes of forest management.The forest associations enters and agreement with theKenya forest service and signs a management agreementthat stipulates which user rights they are given as theyengage in forest conservation and management(Government of Kenya, 2016).Studies on community involvement in forestmanagement in Kenya and other developing countrieshave provide useful insights on this forestmanagement system (Mutune et al., 2016, Couli-Lingani, 2016, Chomba et al., 2015 and Ongugo et al.,2008). It is however observed that these studies havehugely focused on forests in rural areas and rurallivelihoods. Consequently, it has been scantilydocumented how the system has been implementedin urban forests and how urban social, economic andgeolocation factors have shaped participatory forestmanagement system.Urban areas are characterized by socio-economic andsocio-demographic features that are different fromwhat is in rural areas. These factors are of potentialinfluence to how community is involved communitybased natural resource management. As a results,findings on the institutional establishment, practicesand outcomes of participatory forest management inrural areas may not be the same as the context in urbanareas. With the rapid urbanization in developingnations, there is need to establish the influence ofurban dynamics with the aim of ensuring that theresource management system is successful. This studywas aimed at examining how participatory forestmanagement system has been implemented in urbanforest in Kenya with a view of establishing the influenceof urban set up on the system of forest governance.

Download full pdf articles by following the link J. Bio. Env. Sci. 15(6), 101-109, December 2019.

 

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