Self-organization and cross-scale interactions in integrated development and conservation projects: A comparative study of Honey Care Africa's beekeeping projects in Kakamega District and Kwale District, Kenya

Conservation and development have often been understood to be in direct conflict with one another. Today the paradigm has shifted from the fines and fences approach to one that views local people as an effective instrument for furthering conservation goals, especially considering the limited capacity to expand protected areas in many countries.; Honey Care Africa (HCA) is a private Kenyan corporation that has promoted beekeeping in numerous parts of Kenya and was one of the 2002 Equator Initiative finalists. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Equator Initiative (EI) is intended to reduce poverty and promote conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources at the local level through support for and strengthening of community partnerships to reduce poverty, thereby helping to protect species-rich areas from over-use and encroachment.; The purpose of this research was to examine two of the HCA projects in Kenya in an attempt to glean some of the factors contributing to the success and/or failure of the projects. Since there are a great number of factors affecting these projects it is necessary to limit the examination to a few aspects. The specific research objectives of the study were: (1) to identify the role of their leadership in the projects as relating to the initial and ongoing organization of the projects; (2) to determine how HCA is related to institutions at other scales including; vertical linkages such as to the government at state/provincial, and national levels, non-governmental organizations (NGO's), private business, and community groups and horizontal linkages such as how specific community projects interact with others across space; (3) to ascertain how if at all the HCA beekeeping project has affected local perceptions and actions regarding the environment including the conservation of species.; The research design consists of two case studies of HCA beekeeping projects in Kenya. Fieldwork was conducted during a four-month field season. The data collection methods used were derived from the Participatory Rural Appraisal approaches and included semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, and participant observation.; The research was conducted at two sites selected from amongst the larger number of sites where HCA has beekeeping operations in Kenya. Both sites have been involved with the HCA beekeeping project since 2000. The first site, Kakamega District (in western Kenya) contains the only remaining tract of equatorial rainforest in Kenya - the Kakamega Forest, a protected area with a high degree of biodiversity, which tied in well with the EI focus linking conservation and poverty alleviation. The second site, Kwale District (in eastern Kenya) provides a contrast to the first site in that it is located near the east coast of the country and has a different climate, vegetation, and is populated by a different tribal group.; The research findings include the identification of the numerous stakeholders located at different scales that are involved with the two case study projects. The interactions between the different stakeholders were examined in an effort to understand the relative importance of the different cross-scale linkages to the projects and how effectively these linkages were functioning.; In both cases the strength of local level leadership was found to be crucial to the success of the beekeeping projects in providing an economic return to the farmers. In the Kakamega case strong central leadership allowed the project to recover from difficult times that were created at least in part by weak local leadership. In the Kwale case the lack of local level leadership hurt project performance. It was also found that the management structures and styles were critical to the success of the projects.; The two case study projects are managed in different ways by the development organizations. In the Kakamega case the beehives are professionally managed by HCA and the d...