Abstract:
Community-based forest management has increasingly gained
popularity in many parts of developing countries. Although the roles of
women in forest conservation, management and sustainable utilisation,
as well as livelihood improvement, are of paramount importance, it is
still scarce and unaddressed in new forest management approaches.
Structured questionnaires were administered to 248 Nyangores
community forest association members to capture the forest
conservation activities of women, determine their role in community
forest management and evaluate their socio-economic benefits. Results
indicate tree seedling propagation (87.1%), monitoring and evaluation
(M&E) (85.1%), and protection of regenerates (84.7%) as the major
forest conservation activities. Minor roles included timber harvesting
(22.9%), enrichment planting, silvicultural operations (12.9%), and
firefighting (8.5%). Accrued socio-economic benefits as a result of
women’s role in forest management and conservation were freshwater
(95.6%) and firewood (94.8%). These results suggest the incorporation
of both genders as a pre-requisite for the success of community forest
conservation programs in Mau Conservancy, Kenya.
