Determining the Influence of Participatory Evaluation on Conservation of Mau Forest Programme in Bomet County, Kenya

Forests are considered the second most important natural resource after water throughout the world. There is need to undertake review of policies and legislation on forestry to incorporate aspects of Participatory Forest Management to conserve and manage resources in a sustainable way. The paper sought to determine the extent to which Participatory evaluation influences conservation of Mau Forest programme. This study was guided by descriptive survey and correlational research designs. A sample size of 364 respondents was drawn from a target population of 4100 people using Yamane (1967) Formula.From the findings, r = -0.048 indicated that there was a weak negative linear correlation between Participatory evaluation and Conservation of Mau Forest programme. With a p-value=0.43), the null hypothesis was not rejected and recommended that there is need to do a holistic analysis of local people, their livelihood assets and strategies, resource-use patterns and power relations before the implementation of conservation programs.