A Political Ecology of Kenya’s Mau Forest: The Land, the Trees, and the People: 58 (Eastern Africa Series)

A timely and important examination of the forest's environmental crises, investigating their biophysical, political, economic, and socio-cultural aspects, that reveals why previous conservation efforts failed. The eastern part of the Mau Forest, the most important closed-canopy forest in East Africa, has come under severe threat since the 1990s.In this political ecology Lisa Fuchs exploring the failure of the government-led forest restoration and rehabilitation initiative to 'Save the Mau', launched in 2009, the author examines two of the most contentious issues in Kenya since colonial times: land and the environment.She sheds light on the structural factors and the role of individuals in the forest's destruction and of non-protection and traces the colonial legacy of post-independent environmental conservation policies and practices.In doing so, Fuchs demonstrates that the Mau crisis is more than an environmental crisis: it is also a political, an economic, and a socio-cultural crisis