Volume 6, 1-15, June 2003
ISSN 1438-7890 |
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African
Journal of Environmental Assessment and Management
Revue africaine de gestion et d’évaluation environnementales |
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Rural
Poverty, Property Rights and Environmental Resource Management: Some
Insights from Kenya
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Jane Kabubo-Mariara
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| This paper examines the link between rural poverty,
property rights, and environmental resource management using survey data collected from a semi-arid region in Kenya. We
test the hypothesis that well specified property rights and
participation in environmental conservation are not important
determinants of household poverty.
We employ the statistical probit framework to explain participation
in environmental conservation, and the ordinary least squares
regression methods to explain poverty. Our results show that well
specified property rights and increased participation in
environmental conservation would increase per capita expenditure,
and therefore lower the level of poverty. Important policy lessons
for poverty reduction include privatization of common property
resources and improvements in education both formal and informal,
which would facilitate changes in perceptions concerning
conservation and thus encourage environmental conservation.
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