A Struggle Between Livelihoods and Forest Conservation: a Case of Mau Forest in Kenya

Abstract

There is an increasing understanding that forests have played a crucial role in sustaining livelihoods among the rural communities and has been key element in poverty reduction strategies. Contrary to this major contribution, the dilemma encountered by the forest dependent communities is to ensure that the source of their livehoods is sustained while the government and other conservation stakeholders interest is to protect and conserve forest. Therefore, this paper presents an analysis of household surveyed to determine their access and utilization of resources and to determine the struggle and synergies that have emerged on forest utilization for livelihoods and forest conservation. The findings showed that access to forest products is associated with household’s characteristics. This include Age, position of household, level of education and distance to the forest all indicated significant relationship with forest access and utilization of forest resources. Households' dependence on forests and activities they engage in have had a significant impact on forest, and thus hindering the effort to conserve and sustain forest resources. Furthermore, the efforts to protect and conserve forest resources through conventional approaches used by the government like formal forest laws and regulations are shown to be serious constraints that hinder forest access and thus their livelihoods. Overall, the study contends that there is a struggle between accessing forest for livelihoods by the local users and efforts to enhance forest conservations. These study findings have implications in determining ways to which to create a balance between forest livelihoods and forest conservation. It will call for actions that enhance equity and thus form the basis for developing and enforcing policies that will aim at recognising the different roles that forest resources play in the livelihoods of local forest users and how it can be integrated in the sustainable systems that will also support the protection and conservation of forest