Impact of Community Based Conservation Associations on Forest Ecosystem Services and Household Income

Evidence from Nzoia Basin in Kenya

authored by: Cosmas Kombat Lambini, Trung Thanh Nguyen
Abstract: Increasing the supply of forest ecosystem services in the tropics is on the agenda of most developing countries’ forest policies and most importantly in Kenya which is a low forest cover country. Evidence from past empirical impact assessments show numerous limitations in these assessments such as complexities within local forest communities and challenges in accessing relevant ecosystem services and household income data for impact assessments. This paper attempts to address some of these limitations by estimating joint ecosystem services and household livelihood outcomes at the same time. A survey protocol was designed, pre-tested and implemented with 370 households in two (2) out of the ten (10) forest ecological conservancies in Kenya and with secondary data on selected ecosystem services outcomes. Propensity score matching estimates of the treatment effects of the treated from participation in conservation association show a significant income loss (−57600.11) for households participating in a conservation association with a positive effect on erosion control (3.49) and biodiversity conservation outcomes (0.071) in the Nzoia catchment area. The paper concludes recommending the introduction of a payment scheme with CBCAs household members in reforestation and afforestation programs in the Basin.
Organisation(s): Institute of Environmental Economics and World Trade
External Organisation(s): University of Bayreuth
German Federal Association for Sustainability
Type: Article
Journal: Journal of sustainable forestry
Volume: 41
Pages: 440-460
No. of pages: 21
ISSN: 1054-9811
Publication date: 2022
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Forestry, Food Science, Geography, Planning and Development, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1080/10549811.2021.1944877 (Access: Closed)