The Impact of Communal Enclosures in the Rehabilitation of Degraded Lands in the Njemps Flats Kenya
Channel: IASC COMMONS
Date: 29/07/2020

The Impact of Communal Enclosures in the Rehabilitation of Degraded Lands in the Njemps Flats Kenya

Rebecca Njoko Karaya, Egerton University, Kenya

Kenya is one of the Sub-Saharan African countries facing problems of environmental degradation in its rangelands. In particular, the problem is severe in the Njemps Flats of in the Northern rift valley where, environmental degradation is threatening agro-pastoralists livelihoods. Top-down methods and policy efforts to stem degradation while facilitating rehabilitation dates back to the colonial times and have had little success pointing to the importance of farmers participation in generation of location and context specific Sustainable Land Management Practices (SMLP). Communal enclosures is a strategy introduced by a local Charitable organization that sought community groups participation in rehabilitation of severely degraded communal lands. This study investigated the effect of participation in community groups managing communal enclosures on members livelihoods and on adoption of SLMP at household level. A comparative analysis was performed by investigating group participants and non-participants. Data was collected from a sample of 150 smallholder agro-pastoralists using questionnaires. Seventy-nine respondents belonged to community groups managing communal enclosures while 71 did not belong to the groups. Five key informants were interviewed and two focus group discussions held. Positive impacts of communal enclosures were reported as rehabilitation of degraded lands, livelihood diversification, pasture conservation and sharing of SLMP knowledge. Negative impacts of enclosing community land were reported as loss of communal grazing fields, land fragmentation, decrease in nomadism and economic stratification. Adoption of SLMP by households was influenced by participation in community groups managing communal enclosures and members whose groups partnered with development agencies like extension and NGOs had members reporting higher household adoption levels of SLMP than those without partnerships. The study recommends that the government and donor agencies work with grassroot organizations to develop context and location specific SLM practices for the rehabilitation of degraded drylands.