Facing Kirinyaga

Forest resources are an integral part of livelihoods throughout Sub-Saharan Africa (and many other parts of the world) supplying timber, fuel, food, fodder and other vital products, as well as contributing to the environmental stability of local production systems. Trees often possess spiritual, folkloric, or other cultural significance for communities; and the use and management of forest resources are embedded in a complex array of micro- and macro-level institutions ranging from individual households to global markets. This book, by studying the issues concerning the management and use of common-property forests, groves and trees in Kirinyaga, on the southern slopes of Mount Kenya, demonstrates the long-standing relationships between Kenyans and their forest resources – and illustrates the connections between anthropology and forestry. Facing Kirinyaga is published as part of the IT Studies in Indigenous Knowledge series, which will highlight the contributions to local, national and international development made by indigenous knowledge systems – and the tensions which ignoring that knowledge can create.
The series will constitute an important and growing contribution to the tools available to both the development and the academic communities in understanding these processes.

Author Biography

Professor Castro is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, USA.