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PDF
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Type:
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Conference Paper |
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Author:
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Mwangi, Esther; Ongugo, Paul; Njuguna, Jane |
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Conference:
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Constituting the Commons: Crafting Sustainable Commons in the New Millennium, the Eighth Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property |
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Location:
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Bloomington, Indiana, USA |
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Conf. Date:
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May 31-June 4 |
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Date:
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2000 |
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URI:
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https://hdl.handle.net/10535/293
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Sector:
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Forestry |
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Region:
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Africa |
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Subject(s):
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IASC
common pool resources
forest management
mountain regions
regulation
forests--comparative analysis
Mt. Elgon
decentralization
community participation
IFRI
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Abstract:
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"This study views decentralization of forest management as a continuum in which property rights to forest resources are transferred away from central governments or forest departments to local communities (Agrawal and Ostrom, 1999). We compare the rights user groups have to forest resources in the Mt. Elgon National Park with those of users in the Mt. Elgon Forest Reserve, and the incentives that each type of rights engenders towards forest resource conservation. We find that in the Forest Reserve, which in our construction represents a decentralized management, local community involvement in decision-making and in rule crafting and enforcement resulted in positive incentives for forest conservation. Forest condition in the Forest Reserve was found to be better than in the National Park. The National Park's policy of forbidding local consumptive use of resources and excluding local populations from making resource-related decisions, engendered animosity and considerable conflicts with the local populations. This created disincentives to local communities that are reflected in the condition of the forest. Decentralized decision-making, in this case, appears to be associated with better forest conservation outcomes."
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