Illusions of empowerment? Questioning policy and practice of community forestry in Kenya

Chomba, Susan; Nathan, Iben; Minang, Peter A.; Sinclair, F.L.

doi:10.5751/es-07741-200302

Cited by 64 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Empowerment is a multidimensional and multi-scalar concept and transition studies [49,73] as well as sustainable resource management and development studies (e.g., [74][75][76][77][78][79]) outline various aspects of it, based on different disciplinary traditions, such as psychology, management studies, social as well as political studies, and critical theory. Issues of power and politics in transition management have generated growing interest among scholars [25,73,80].…”

Section: Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Transitions to Sustainability: A Study of the Societal Effects of Transition Management

et al. 2017

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Sustainability transitions as processes of fundamental change in societal systems are open-ended, nonlinear and uncertain. Respective research and governance approaches, e.g., transition management, propose a reflexive way of governing, aiming for a number of societal effects to help facilitating a transition. Effects include empowerment, social learning and social capital development. Jointly mentioned effects shall allow for reflexivity and innovation in developing socially robust and contextualized solutions to sustainability challenges that work in practice. But, understanding the mentioned societal effects and their interplay in more depth is necessary to design and assess transition management processes. While such understanding and related assessment framework is under development in the transition management literature, transdisciplinary sustainability research can provide a rich body of tools and experiences. Building on a review of the literature, this article develops an evaluation framework focusing on social learning, empowerment and social capital as important and hitherto under-conceptualised aspects of the sustainability transition literature. This framework is used to empirically investigate the effects of two specific transition management processes at the local scale. In doing so, the article provides a conceptual and empirical understanding of how social learning, empowerment and social capital contribute to a transition towards sustainability. The three effects are shown to be interrelated, mutually supportive and bridging different scale levels from individuals to groups, niches and beyond. Results highlight possibilities to facilitate and assess societal effects, addressing sustainability as their inherent quality.

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Section: Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Transitions to Sustainability: A Study of the Societal Effects of Transition Management

et al. 2017

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“…Reconciling these multiple objectives of conservation, livelihoods, and governance expected from SF can be daunting. In many cases, conservation goals were attained at the expense of local empowerment, showing that the three objectives might not necessarily mutually reinforce one another (Kellert et al, 2000;Arnold, 2001;Ribot et al, 2010;Chomba et al, 2015).…”

Section: Social Forestry Discourse and Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social or Community Forestry was seen as an alternative to solving forest management problems (Gilmour, 2016), and forest conflicts (Purnomo and Anand, 2014). Over time, ideas of democracy and justice (Brosius et al 1998;Larson, 2005), coupled with neo-liberal ideas (McCarthy, 2005) and increasing evidence that traditional practices can achieve positive outcomes for conservation (Chomba et al, 2015) shaped how community forestry and social forestry programs developed in different countries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As part of the CIFOR project ASEAN-Swiss Partnership on Social Forestry and Climate Change (ASFCC), the two countries provide an interesting comparison given their rather different histories of democracy and levels of forest abundance and pressures. Implementation and outcomes, however, have been disappointing in the sense that devolution has not included the full suite of rights to accompany the responsibilities of forest management (Maryudi, 2012;Maryudi et al, 2012;RECOFTC 2014;Chomba et al, 2014;Chomba et al, 2015;Gilmour, 2016;Schusser et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social Forestry - why and for whom? A comparison of policies in Vietnam and Indonesia

Moeliono¹,

Pham²,

Bong

et al. 2017

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Abstract:Community forestry or social forestry (henceforth referred collectively as SF) programs have become new modes of forest management empowering local managers and hence, allowing integration of diverse local practices and support of local livelihoods. Implementation of these initiatives, however, face multiple challenges. State-prescribed community programs, for example, will remain isolated efforts if changes in the overall economic and social governance frameworks, including the devolution of rights to local users is lacking. Financial sustainability of these measures remains often uncertain and equity issues inherent to groups and communities formed for SF, can be exacerbated. In this article, we pose the question: Whose interests do SF policies serve? The effectiveness of SF would depend on the motivations and aims for a decentralization of forest governance to the community. In order to understand the underlying motivations behind the governments' push for SF, we examine national policies in Vietnam and Indonesia, changes in their policies over time and the shift in discourses influencing how SF has evolved. Vietnam and Indonesia are at different sides of the spectrum in democratic ambitions and forest abundance, and present an intriguing comparison in the recent regional push towards SF in Southeast Asia. We discuss the different interpretations of SF in these two countries and how SF programs are implemented. Our results show that governments, influenced by global discourse, are attempting to regulate SF through formal definitions and regulations. Communities on the other hand, might resist by adopting, adapting or rejecting formal schemes. In this tension, SF, adopted to serve the interest of local people, in practice has not fulfilled its promise.

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“…15(5)), mandated to develop and implement Sub-Catchment Management Plans compliant with the needs of catchment conservation (Water Resource Management Authority 2012). In both sectors, however, the communities lack real capacities to participate in management and allegedly, the ultimate decision-making has remained centralized in government ministry offices (Chomba et al 2015;Mumma 2007;Ogendi and Ong'oa 2009;Thygesen et al 2016).…”

Section: Transformation Of Forests Knowledge and Management In The Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political ecology of asymmetric ecological knowledges: diverging views on the eucalyptus-water nexus in the Taita Hills, Kenya

Hohenthal

Räsänen

Minoia

2018

Journal of Political Ecology

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Environmental resource management policies worldwide have long insisted on the need to involve local communities and their diverse ecological knowledges in management planning and decision-making. In SubSaharan post-colonial countries, however, formal resource management is still largely dominated by bureaucratic governance regimes that date back to colonial power structures and that rely mainly on professional or formal knowledge. In this study, we use a political ecology approach to analyze disputes over eucalyptus plantations in the Taita Hills, Kenya. The approach recognizes the plurality of socially constructed and powerladen perceptions of environmental resources. We found that local people regard eucalyptus plantations not only as a threat to local water resources but they also highlight historical injustices and the loss of control over, and cultural relationships to their land. Bureaucratic resource management institutions, however, support the planting of eucalyptus to meet national demands for commercial forestry. Management officials also plead a lack of "valid" evidence for the negative impacts of eucalyptus on local water resources, diverting attention away from the formal environmental governance system which has unequal sharing of benefits, unclear policies, and internal incoherence. Recognition of historically rooted asymmetries of knowledge and power provides a step towards social transformation, ending a long-standing reproduction of subalternity, and promoting environmental justice and pluralism in decision-making. Keywords: bureaucratic knowledge; environmental justice; eucalyptus; Kenya; knowledge asymmetries; local ecological knowledge; political ecology; resource management RésuméLes politiques de gestion des ressources environnementales dans le monde insistent depuis longtemps sur la nécessité d'impliquer les communautés locales et leurs diverses connaissances écologiques dans la planification, l'aménagement et la prise de décisions. Dans les pays post-coloniaux subsahariens, cependant, la gestion formelle des ressources est encore largement dominée par des régimes de gouvernance bureaucratique qui remontent aux structures de pouvoir coloniales et qui reposent principalement sur des connaissances professionnelles ou formelles. Dans cette étude, on propose une approche d'écologie politique pour l'analyse des disputes sur les plantations d'eucalyptus dans les collines de Taita au Kenya. L'approche reconnaît la pluralité des perceptions sur les ressources environnementales en tant que socialement construites et chargées des relations de pouvoir. On a constaté que pas seulement les populations locales considèrent les plantations 1 Johanna Hohenthal, PhD student, Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland. Email: johanna.hohenthal "at" helsinki.fi. Marinka Räsänen, MSc. Email: marinka.rasa "at" gmail.com. Dr. Paola Minoia, Adjunct Professor, Development Studies, Department of Political and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland. Email: paola.mi...

show abstract

Illusions of empowerment? Questioning policy and practice of community forestry in Kenya

Cited by 64 publications

References 36 publications

Linking Transitions to Sustainability: A Study of the Societal Effects of Transition Management

Linking Transitions to Sustainability: A Study of the Societal Effects of Transition Management

Social Forestry - why and for whom? A comparison of policies in Vietnam and Indonesia

Political ecology of asymmetric ecological knowledges: diverging views on the eucalyptus-water nexus in the Taita Hills, Kenya

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