Shrinking land priority : Kenya’s implementation of conservation areas

Abstract

While the world witnesses the overall warming of the globe and environmental destruction, due to human activity, conservation areas have become a popular model for environmental preservation and regeneration. This thesis takes an in-depth look at the empirical case of Kenya and how the Government has implemented conservation areas as a model of environmental protection. The Kenyan Government has both made environmental conservation a priority as well as prioritized the participation of local communities, in these conservation areas. However, private land encroachment and human-animal conflict threaten the success of these conservation projects. In particular, the stagnation of nomadic pastoralist groups and the lack of prioritization of conserved land can be accused as successors to the aforementioned issues. This thesis attempts to address these issues and how they can be modified through governmental legislation.