Promotion of Environmental Education Through Environmental Committees: a Case of Korr Location, Marsabit County, Kenya.
Loading...
Date
2014-03-06
Authors
Mamo, Boru Mamo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This study was carried out in Korr Location of Marsabit County in Northern Kenya from
April, 2009 to December, 2010. Marsabit County is a land of diverse ecological, biogeographical
and cultural importance but is currently faced with myriad ecological
challenges ranging from land degradation, desertification, increased demands for fuelwood,
pasture/fodder for the livestock and scarce water resources, all of which impact on
the local environment. Moreover, recent literature indicates that there has been little
understanding of the human impact connected with resource degradation in Korr
Location of Marsabit County. To address these challenges, environmental actors in
Marsabit County established Environmental Committee to educate local communities on
the importance of environmental conservation. Korr Location was initially one of the
highly degraded locations of Marsabit County. A decade after the formation and activities
of these committees in Korr location, there was a marked transformation of Korr location
in terms of environmental rehabilitation of the area. This study was carried out to find out
if these transformations were attributable to the committees or other factors at the
community level and also whether the concept of the environmental committee can be
replicated in other arid and semi arid areas as a potentially best practice for adoption.
Therefore, the first objective of the study was to explore the influence of the household
environmental awareness on the biophysical environmental rehabilitation of Korr
location, as influenced by the locally established Environmental Management
Committees (EMC). The second objective was to establish the relationship between the
type of domestic energy used by the households and the degree of biophysical
environmental rehabilitation, and the third objective was to determine the influence of
household participation in afforestation activities on the degree of biophysical
environmental rehabilitation. In carrying out this study, a descriptive survey research
design was adapted. This was carried out using a structured questionnaire that was
administered to a sample of 193 randomly selected households. Four (4) focused group
discussions and 10 key informants'interviews were conducted to provide information to
support the survey results and their findings documented. Quantitative data from the field
was entered into an appropriate computer programme, the Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) to aid in data analysis. Appropriate descriptive statistics of measures of
central tendency, variability and correlations were also generated using the spss package
while the Chi-square test (X2) and correlation were employed to test the three hypotheses.
The results of the study established a significant relationships between adoption of energy
saving stoves (0.034), household involvement in afforestation activities «0.05) and the
status of environmental rehabilitation «0.05). Positive correlations were also established
between environmental awareness and the EMC efforts with the status of environmental
rehabilitation (0.093). Major finding was that the creation of environmental awareness is
essential especially at the grassroots' levels for a sound environmental management.
Tree-planting activities (79.6%,) coupled with active community participation in
environmental matters is seen as a means to stop environmental degradation and improve
the livelihood of the 'local communities. Based on these findings, the study recommends
that the EMC structure be recognised under the EMCA, 1999 and strengthened through
policy and legislative framework to develop local capacity to fully participate in
environmental management initiatives.
Description
Department of Environmental Education, 2013, GF 26 .M32