Land tenure, land use and sustainability in Kenya: towards innovative use of property rights in wildlife management

Examining the assumption that private property rights create incentives for the management of resources, this paper argues that private property rights and current wildlife conservation and management laws and policies in Kenya fail to provide the solution to wildlife biodiversity erosion. This is partly because of their preoccupation with a monolithic system of property ownership favouring the state and individuals and neglecting communities and/or groups.The document includes sections on:laws and policies relevant to wildlife managementproperty rights and sustainable wildlife management: a critiquerethinking property rights for wildlife management in Kenyaworking around the limits of property rights: innovative use of propert rights sustainable wildlife managementFindings from the paper include:there is a lack of sufficient incentives for sustainable wildlife managementthere is a lack of legal framework for involvement of local communities in sustainable wildlife managementconservation was conceived as a process removed from people, especially the native Kenyansthe failure of colonialists to to appreciate the nature of the natives Kenyan's traditional rights led to undue disregard for those rights and this has affected the conceptions of property by the native Kenyans to this daymost laws and policies applicable to resource conservation in Kenya are formulated along the lines of specific sectors. Laws on propert rights and land use may run counter to those on wildlife managementbesides the problem of systematic encroachment on wildlife habitats by other land-use categories, the present forms of wildlife utilisation also pose serious management problems.The document suggests that in order for sustainable wildlife management to succeed, perceived benefits have to outweigh the benefits of building up the area, using the area as pasture land or cultivating it. Some ways in which conservation imperatives can be harmonised with the aspirations of rural communtites is through the chanelling of benefits derived from wildlife to such communities.