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Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the political force of human-forest entanglements in the Katimok forest, Baringo county, Kenya, in the contestation of a historically imposed forest reserve (dedicated to conservation and exploitation), and the negotiation of human futures.

Paper long abstract:

The Katimok forest, in the highlands of Baringo county, Kenya, overlaps with the ancestral lands of the people now living around its edges. After Katimok’s gazettement as a forest reserve under colonial rule for conservation and timber exploitation purposes, only a limited number of inhabitants were allowed to stay within the forest boundaries, until all were evicted in the late 1980s, years after independence. Yet, people in Katimok continue living and becoming with the forest. They rely on the forest for their livelihoods (for firewood, medicine, livestock grazing, etc.) and live with the trees as known and trusted companions. People relate to the forest grounds as their ancestral lands, and the forest landscape is a medium for the transmission of their histories and knowledge. Despite the historical dispossessions that forced forest dwellers to leave their lands behind and allegedly (according to local elders) weakened elders’ authority on the forest, mutual relations of care subsist that bind human local inhabitants to forest areas, trees, hills, and water streams. Not only do they continue living with the forest, people in Katimok also claim the recognition of their eviction as a historical injustice and demand compensation. In that political struggle, claimants reappropriate the forest landscape and their intimate relationship with it to negotiate new futures. This paper reflects on the political force of human-forest entanglements in the contestation of a historical forest conservation model and the negotiation of human futures and suggests taking seriously human-forest relations of care to rethink forest conservation.