Social Forestry and land ownership in Kenya; paper presented at the Social Forestr Refresher course 11 at Muguga.

Abstract

Social lforestry, as a term and as a type ot project, has now been with us for about thirteen years. As a type of activity, on the other hand, it probably has a genealogy of two thousand years or rrore in sane parts of the world, e.g. India. The terminology of Social forestry or community forestry has been contested. At one extreme, community forestry has been restricted to those rare cases of village - initiated, self help schemes where the benefits will equitably shared. Others have held that social forestry gives a false impression that there will be a distribution of social benefits. Thus social forestry entered forest policy internationally, as a major component and a subject of substantial funding by Govenmrent and international aid agencies during the 1970's. It has four major manifestations:- Village woodlots, run by forest departments or self help comunities on government and community lands. - Strip plantations on road, rail and dam sidesrun by Forest Department. As a whole, taken in a nutshell, social forestry is a forestry practice. Where rural based farmers are encouraged to plant trees either on their private farms and/or land communally owned so as to meet their felt needs of wood and wood products at the time and place where such a need is felt. It thus enables families and communities to decide their own priorities, and grow the types and numbers of trees they choose in the locations they feel are roost relevant to their needs.