Consequences of Land Tenure on Biodiversity in Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve in Kenya: Towards Responsible Land Management Outcomes

This chapter investigates the consequences of land tenure on biodiversity, in the context of identifying responsible land management as an intervention for development. Through a case study of Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve in Kenya, it explores how rights to land relate to and affect biodiversity exploitation and argues for employing responsible land management as an intervention to emerging tenure problems. The chapter is theoretically and empirically descriptive (and explorative) in approach. It uses ecological and sociological data collected through primary and secondary sources to infer possible interrelations between social structures and behaviour, ecological constraints and de facto land tenure choices in relation to biodiversity in the study area. The findings of the research point to the modes of land use, land access, land-related cultural practices and exercise of land-based property rights (to mention a few) as factors that influence biodiversity in qualitative and quantitative forms.