Conservation and Management of Biodiversity for Rural Livelihoods: Developing Sustainable Strategies for Reconciling Stakeholders' Interests in Kakamega Forest

Keywords

Biodiversity, market based conservation, multi agent modelling, auction, payments for environmental services, payments for ecosystem services, environmental services, participatory research, participatory forest management, economic valuation, sustainable management systems, cost-benefit analysis, incentive mechanisms

Countries

Kenya, Uganda

Objectives

1) Determine applicability and design implications of a participatory forest management approach in which ecosystem service user rights are assigned to individuals via auction mechanisms.

2) Identify, the regulations and thresholds in a participatory forest management approach that lead to the sustainable use of common property forest resources.

3) Analyse the applicability and effectiveness of reverse auction systems for the determination of conservation costs on privately owned land using economic experiments.

4) Analyse the challenges of a market for carbon offsets from reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation as a vehicle for biodiversity conservation.

5) Capacity building of local scholars and experts in conservation management and innovative conservation instruments.

Methodology

Field pilots (1), multi agent simulation (2), economic experiments (2;3), field surveys (4), workshops and academic training (5)

Team Members

Leader:
  Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hiemenz
Coordinator:
  Tobias Wünscher
Team Members:
  Julius Mumo Maithya
  Mercelyne Luxen Khalumba
  Stephen Mutie Wambua
  Renata Saizaki
  Levi Ouma
  George Kariuki
Assistant:
  Lucie Andeltova

Partner Institutions / Funding Organizations

Funded by BMBF
Partner Institutions:
See www.biota-africa.org

Publications

In progress

Workshops / Conferences

Capacity Building Workshop, Nairobi, Kenya, August 2005

Duration of the Project

January 2005 - May 2007
June 2007 - May 2010

Contact

Tobias Wünscher