Alaina Bur Dissertation Proposal

Fri, September 16, 2022 11:00 AM at 457 Berkey Hall

Please join us at noon Friday Sept. 16 for Alaina Bur’s Dissertation Proposal Defense. This will take place in Berkey 457 with a Zoom option.

Title: Community-Based Natural Resource Management and Strategies for Environmental Governance in West Pokot County, Kenya

Committee Members:

Jennifer Carrera (Chair)

Stephen Gasteyer

Wynne Wright

Robert Richardson (US Dept. of the Interior)

Abstract: Like many countries in the Global South, Kenya has responded to mounting water insecurity by decentralizing its water management to counties and communities. This move aligns with an international trend towards community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). CBNRM is a policy that advocates for decentralized natural resource management based on the assumption that it is in a community’s best interest to manage its own resources in the most environmentally sustainable, economical, and equitable way possible. Yet evaluations of CBNRM policies have found these assumptions to be troubled. With the mass of discourse surrounding CBNRM, it can be difficult to tease out why and how donor states, governments in the Global South, and their populations enact this policy and believe in its claims. Through qualitative analysis of 43 interviews collected with diverse water stakeholders in West Pokot County in 2018, this dissertation will explore why and how stakeholders implement CBNRM policies, and the implications for nature and local power relations.