 Governance & local environmental management in AfricaPhilip Woodhouse Review of African Political Economy, 1997, vol. 24, issue 74, 537-547 Abstract: Current policy prescriptions for environmental management in Africa emphasise devolution of resource management to local non‐government and community organisations. They challenge the long‐standing orthodoxy of environmental conservation based on land privatisation, and instead favour local institutions managing resources as common property. This challenge has been reinforced by arguements from a reappraisal of dryland ecology in Africa, and by empirical and economic theoretical research on common property management. Implicit within much of current policy is the assumption that devolution of natural resource management will be socially redistributive as well as environmentally benign. Evidence from Maasai group ranches in southern Kenya suggests this assumption may be misplaced, and that, to address equality goals, policy must take more explicit account of the social dynamics underlying local power relations, and the way these are conditioned by the non‐local political environment. Date: 1997 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:revape:v:24:y:1997:i:74:p:537-547 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/03056249708704280 Access Statistics for this article Review of African Political Economy is currently edited by Graham Harrison, Branwen Gruffydd Jones, Claire Mercer, Nicolas Pons-Vignon, Aurelia Segatti and Ray Bush More articles in Review of African Political Economy from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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