ABSTRACT
Despite the growing number of faith-based organisations practising environmental conservation, case studies documenting how faith shapes on-the-ground conservation efforts in practice are severely lacking. In Kenya, A Rocha Kenya (ARK), a Christian conservation organisation, is working to conserve the Dakatcha Woodland, a sprawling unprotected forest in Kilifi County recognised as a Key Biodiversity Area. This chapter explores how ARK’s Christian faith shapes their conservation efforts in the Dakatcha Woodland through focusing on their cornerstone community conservation effort, Farming God’s Way (FGW), a theocentric conservation agriculture technique growing in practice throughout Eastern and Southern Africa with the dual goals of soil and biodiversity conservation, and increased food security. By specifically considering the role of faith-based relationships, we elucidate how, by joining with local faith communities, ARK works to achieve these goals. Specifically, this chapter demonstrates the centrality of faith to the ways in which relationships between ARK staff and FGW participants manifest, are maintained, and subsequently mobilised for practical conservation action. Additionally, we problematise what we term contractual conservation, and, by drawing on the work of ARK, suggest that the notion of Biblical covenant may be helpful for conceptualising conservation relationships.
