Paper short abstract:

A better path: Securing community tenure enables sustainable livelihoods & forest conservation, where imposing protected areas destroys socio-ecologies

Paper long abstract:

Evicting those whose way of life depends on sustaining and being sustained by their forest lands leaves the forests in the hands of those who have no long-term care for the forests. Evicting forest peoples through imposed paramilitary conservation fails to secure indigenous forests. The Sengwer have been being evicted from our ancestral lands, and having our homes, belongings including school books and uniforms, regularly burnt in the name of ‘fortress conservation’ by a Kenya Forest Service whose violence has been being supported through supposed conservation projects by the World Bank, EU, WWF, and UNDP. The Sengwer offer a far better pathway, writing down sustainability bylaws and community governance structures so outsiders can see how the Sengwer conserve, and so we can be accountable to each other as we try to walk in the footsteps of the ancestors.