Facilitating participation in natural resource governance in Kenya: a critical review of the extent to which Kenya’s contemporary legal framework enables indigenous community conserved areas

Abstract

The goals of conserving nature have changed over the last decades, but setting aside areas for nature protection is still a major part of environmental efforts globally. Protected areas often include indigenous and local communities' territories, and although indigenous rights have been strengthened through international policies and laws, conflicts over land entitlement are still common. A couple of notable events internationally in the context of Human Rights and nature conservation discourses have marked a significant shift in the attitudes and approaches to the role of indigenous people and local communities in natural resource governance. Contemporary approaches enable them to define themselves and to own and manage land and natural resources. Domestic policy makers are faced with the challenge of creating national laws and policies to implement this contemporary approach. This thesis looks at the concept of ICCAs as a tool for facilitating participation of indigenous and local communities in natural resource management. It begins with an analysis of the form, nature, origins and value of ICCA's- and specifically key legal elements which should ideally be included in a legal framework to give domestic effect to them. This analysis indicates that in order to recognise and protect the indigenous people and local communities and for ICCAs to be a success, their land tenures and resource rights have to be legally secured, they have to be deliberately involved in management of natural resources and they have to enjoy the benefits that arise as a result of their input and use their traditional knowledge to protect and conserve natural resources. The dissertation then turns to consider whether these elements are present in Kenya's legal framework. 2010 is used as a benchmark because of the significant reform introduced giving an edge in the way indigenous people and local communities and their contribution to natural resource management were recognised.