Browsing by Author "Osebe, D. A."

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    Mapping Resource Demand and Extraction Patterns Around Chyulu National Park: Implications for Sustainable Conservation
    (Journal of African Interdisciplinary Studies (JAIS), 2025-08) Muendo, Nicholas Mwongela; Mahiri, I. O.; Osebe, D. A.
    Effective participatory conservation, a cornerstone of modern biodiversity management, requires a clear and granular understanding of the complex resource pressures that protected areas (PAs) face from adjacent local communities. This study provides a data-driven analysis that maps the demand for and the actual extraction of vegetative resources around Chyulu National Park (CNP), Kenya, with the aim of generating actionable insights for sustainable and equitable co-management. Employing a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, the research surveyed 210 households to quantify resource demand and utilized systematic boundary transects to spatially map and measure actual extraction activities, including tree cutting, livestock grazing, and charcoal production. The results reveal a significant and deeply problematic disconnect between official conservation policy and local reality. The communities expressed high and non-negotiable demand for essential resources, including firewood (63%), construction poles (59%), and, most critically, grazing land (77%), which directly translated into observable and spatially concentrated extraction hotspots. On average, 5 trees were found to be illegally harvested and 6 active charcoal kilns were identified per kilometer of the surveyed park boundary. Extraction patterns were spatially concentrated in areas with low ranger patrol frequency and proximity to market access points, indicating a rational, risk-averse pattern of exploitation. Critically, the study identified a major institutional failure: an astonishing 70% of respondents were entirely unaware of the existence of any formal conservation agreements with the park, such as Resource Access Agreements, rendering the existing participatory structures largely ineffective and irrelevant to the community. The study concludes that the sustainable management of protected areas requires a fundamental shift away from the mere existence of formal agreements towards a data-driven, adaptive management approach that maps resource hotspots and directly addresses the specific livelihood needs that drive demand. The profound lack of community awareness highlights an urgent and critical need for improved institutional outreach and genuine communication to transform communities from passive subjects into genuine partners in conservation. Ultimately, conservation interventions must be spatially targeted, socially nuanced, and economically aligned with the realities of park-adjacent populations to have any chance of success.
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    Socio-Economic Determinants of Public Participation in Protected Area Management: A Case Study of Chyulu National Park, Kenya
    (Journal of African Interdisciplinary Studies (JAIS), 2025-08) Muendo, Nicholas Mwongela; Mahiri, I. O.; Osebe, D. A.
    The global shift towards participatory conservation assumes that meaningful community involvement enhances the management and sustainability of protected areas (PAs). However, the success of such initiatives is often constrained by the complex socio-economic contexts of adjacent local communities. This study investigates these determinants at Chyulu National Park (CNP), Kenya, establishing a critical link between community characteristics, their engagement in formal participatory structures, and their actual, measured patterns of resource extraction. Employing a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, the research surveyed 210 households using structured questionnaires and integrated this quantitative data with qualitative insights from in-depth interviews and direct, systematic observation of resource use along a 30 km stretch of the park boundary. The findings reveal a critical and deeply rooted paradox. While key socio-economic indicators such as household income and level of education showed no statistically significant relationship with formal participation in conservation programs like Resource Access Agreements, these same factors were identified as the primary drivers of informal and often illegal resource use. High levels of poverty and dependence on subsistence agriculture directly correlated with significant extraction of fuelwood, construction poles, and grazing resources from the park. Furthermore, the patterns of resource extraction were found to be socially differentiated, with gender significantly influencing the types of resources collected, reflecting traditional divisions of labor. The study concludes that formal participatory structures are rendered largely ineffective when they fail to provide tangible, household-level economic benefits that address the root causes of resource dependency. For conservation to be sustainable, management strategies must urgently move beyond tokenistic forms of participation and create direct livelihood incentives that transform communities from mere stakeholders into genuine partners in protecting PAs. Consequently, conservation policies must be socially nuanced, recognizing and responding to the fact that different segments of the community interact with, and depend upon, the park in fundamentally different ways.