ABSTRACT
This chapter presents empirical findings on the impact of forest reforms on direct economic benefits to local communities and also evaluates how the reforms have influenced household labour allocation between forest-related activities and other productive activities. In essence, it provides a snapshot of the emerging post-reforms scenario in terms of community participation and benefit sharing, which can provide insights into how reforms can be shaped in the future to address local community concerns. The chapter presents a general overview of the policy, legal and institutional dimensions of forest management reforms in Kenya. However, the new legal framework led to different expectations by the local communities, and indeed, many of Kenya's CFAs were motivated by factors other than those provided for in the legislation. The new law transformed the forest department into a semi-autonomous governance authority named Kenya Forest Service (KFS), which is able to raise revenue, draw up its own budget and have more policing power.
