Tropical deforestation and the state: Settlement schemes in the Mau forest of Kenya (1991–2001)

Combining interpretive perspectives from political ecology and political science, the article aims to explore the connection between tropical deforestation and the state in sub-Saharan Africa, based on the case study of the Mau forest in Kenya during 1991–2001.

With a high level of detail and resorting to data from documentary analysis, interviews, archives and remote sensing, the article will explain how the loss of forest in the Mau protected area originated in a foreign environmental conservation program, which was later embedded into the political dynamics of the ruling government, through the clientelist distribution of land in settlement schemes.

Questioning the assumptions that see deforestation in the sub-Saharan African region peculiarly driven by small-scale livelihood activities (agriculture, logging), the case study explores state leadership in deforestation, as implemented in close connection with the private sector. The article shows the specific political logic of this type of deforestation, which could be immediately translated into electoral advantages for the ruling government.

The conclusions reached are relevant since the region has seen net growth of forest loss in the past decades and as they offer a contribution to the debate around the ramifications between the state and private entities in deforestation.