Projekt

Forests play essential economic, social and cultural roles, yet are being degraded at a rate higher than other natural ecosystems. The need to address forest-cover decline has over the last two decades led governments to pursue policies that transfer management and responsibility of forests to local forest dependent populations. Consequently, Participatory Forest Management (PFM) policies have been promoted on the dual expectation of enhanced livelihood and conservation outcomes from community involvement. PFM involves provision of incentives in order to enhance community support, conserve forest and offer positive welfare benefits among the forest dependent communities. Incentive-based conservation has therefore been considered as a remedy to failures associated with state control of natural resources such as information asymmetry, incentive incompatibility or high monitoring and enforcement costs among others. While proponents argue that incentive-based conservation can simultaneously achieve global conservation gains, foster greener economic growth, and alleviate poverty, critics point out that such approaches to conservation could harm or protect the environment, present opportunities or restrictions to local communities, depending on a larger set of prevailing conditions. The proposed extension project will continue to work in the Mt Elgon ecosystem in Western Kenya. It aims to assess the complex relationships between social and ecological outcomes of PFM in terms of joint wins, losses, and trade-offs. Lessons on conditions under which incentive-based schemes (e.g. PFM) deliver win-win situations for livelihoods and forest conservation will provide insights to policy makers and development agencies on the development of sustainable livelihood strategies for forest dependent households.

• Prof. Dr. Eva Schlecht

  Universität Göttingen
  Fakultät für Agrarwissenschaften
  Department für Nutztierwissenschaften
  Abteilung Tierhaltung in den Tropen und Subtropen
  Göttingen
  

• Dr. Robert Mbeche

  Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture
  and Technology
  Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
  Technology Building, Main Campus
  Nairobi
  Kenia
  

• Prof. Dr. Andreas Bürkert

  Universität Kassel
  FB 11: Ökologische Agrarwissenschaften
  Fachgebiet Ökologischer Pflanzenbau und Agraröko-
  systemforschung in den Tropen und Subtropen
  Witzenhausen
  

• Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Schareika

  Universität Göttingen
  Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät
  Institut für Ethnologie
  Göttingen
  

• Understanding the nexus between forest dependence and willingness to pay for forest conservation: case of forest dependent households in Kenya

• Transparency and Community Participation in Forest Resource Governance in Mt. Elgon Region, Kenya.