Participatory forest management in Kenya: Is there anything for the poor?

This paper seeks to capture and explore the experiences of implementing Participatory Forest Management (PFM) in Kenya; how this may have changed the relationship between forest resources and local communities who live adjacent the forests; the extent to which local communities consider themselves part of the forest governance process; how this may have contributed to poverty alleviation; and the challenges that still need to be tackled by the forestry sector to contribute fully to poverty alleviation. One of the issues that the paper highlights is the inequitable manner in which forests are used to benefit only a few citizens and how this is expected to change with the introduction of the new forest policy and Forests Act 2005.