In this detailed and readable ethnography, Lesorogol, an anthropologist specializing in social change, examines and evaluates the interaction of community-based wildlife conservancies (CBCs) with traditional and contemporary institutions governing land management in three communities in the pastoral Samburu region of northern Kenya. Lesorogol proposes a more general application of "institutional layering" as a viable framework for acknowledging the needs of multiple social structures within pastoral cultures engaged with land management and promoting effective planning among them for wildlife resources. A useful addition to the literatures of economic anthropology, the anthropology of development, and the evolving issues associated with the implementation of community-based wildlife conservation projects in Africa. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Choice Reviews

Carolyn K. Lesorogol convincingly argues that the hope of successful community-based conservation lies not just in encouraging greater disbursement of funding but also the nurturing of the value of wildlife protection and pride in a conservation enterprise that is felt as ‘owned’ by the communities. Her work reflects two elements of scholarship: a systematic study using explicit methods, and an ethnographic study resting on her own background knowledge and her ear-to-the-ground exploration of what is actually happening below the surface. The result is a rich and valuable contribution to the literature on an important and globally significant experiment in trying to reconcile environmental protection and community livelihoods through the creation of community-based wildlife conservancies.

John Galaty, McGill University

Conservation and Community in Kenya: Milking the Elephant is an important work in the context of community-based conservation, which is becoming a progressively relevant land use option in East Africa.

Nomadic Peoples