Socio-economic issues in rural afforestation in Kenya
Date
1991
Authors
Cheboiwo, Joshua Kiplongei
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Abstract
Since Kenya was declared a British Colony in 1895, land use and land tenure
have undergone rapid evolution from varied traditional African communal systems
into freehold commercialised or semi-commercialised systems. Forests and trees
in private lands have also undergone a revolutionary history within the period from
being an enemy of traditional African cultivators and pastoralists into an integral
part of land use systems of modern Kenya. Agrarian development, mostly due to
external and internal demands during and after the colonial era, was at the
expense of forests and natural vegetation. The process was essential because of
the competitive nature of trees and agricultural crops and pasture. This inherently
was with the full backing of land use and labour policies and preceded mass tree
planting by almost three decades. Farm forestry and agrarian systems in the
African sector are functions of biophysical factors, population density,
infrastructural development, economic scarcity and social values within the rural
and household socio-econom ic context.
Within a short period, smallholder farm forestry has shown impressive
developments which only differ by degree across the country, mostly on the
biophysical limitations. In ASAL areas, due to the moisture deficit for favourable
tree growth and survival, mass tree growing beyond settled homesteads is
uneconomical within the existing conditions as compared to medium and high
potential zones. Rural land use changes are driven largely by demand forces often
outside the agricultural and forestry sector. Unless forestry assumes econom ic
scarcity or high social value, trees will be replaced by higher value land use
systems or use of scarce resources for trees will not be justifiable beyond
subsistence level. Depending on local demand forces and socio-economic status,
Cost-Benefit techniques indicate that farm forestry is an efficient land use within
existing resource limitations and in most areas resource mobility between various competing land use systems is shifting in a continuum. The dynamism between
trees and other land uses in general favours the high value systems in terms of
returns to the invested resources and the prevailing general economic and political
conditions.
The promotion and approach to rural tree growing by farmers has changed over
the period. It has been farmer initiated activity to serve the households' perceived
socio-econom ic needs with little or no external support. But with recent
environmental awareness and an increasing push for tree planting as a solution
to the environmental dilemma facing many rural areas, farmers have been urged to
plant more trees irrespective of their local socio-economic importance to the land
owners. The economic and social benefits from farm forestry resources have often
been exaggerated to boost the morale of rural forestry development agents which
at the same time could raise unattainable expectations among the farmers.
The individualisation of land ownership set a precedent where communal
ownership was weakened and individual property ownership has become
entrenched in Kenyan society. Group or communal activities are more appealing in
some projects such as schools, dams, health centres and roads. These facilities
are rarely provided cost-effectively by individuals and in many cases benefits are
indivisible. Large scale seedling production may not be economically feasible on
communal or group efforts due to inherent organisational inefficiencies and is
made worse in the ASAL where biophysical conditions make returns from such
investments low despite its conceptual appeal and cost-effective in provision of
extension support services.
Approaches which modify the traditional forestry systems, to benefit farmers
within the existing household socio-econom ic context through participatory
programmes and macro-reforms, to improve economic viability of forestry activities are more likely to be adopted than the current subsidised and often objectively
contradictory strategies.
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