Socio-cultural factors influencing women’s participation in tree growing in Siaya County, Kenya

Abstract

Climate change resulting from global warming is currently one of the global environmental issues of concern. Trees play a very important role in mitigating this problem through sequestrating carbon dioxide which is one of the major green house gases. The importance of trees is incontestable as they have many environmental, social and economic benefits. Effective community participation plays an important strategy for ensuring adequate tree cover but in some communities, some socio-cultural factors hamper participation of women. In Kenya, environmental degradation occasioned by low tree cover is evident. The current tree cover in the study area is approximately 3% which is far below the recommended national level of 10%. However, those socio-cultural factors that might influence women‟s participation in tree growing in the study area has not been fully studied and documented. Therefore, the broad objective of this study was “to identify and document the socio-cultural factors which influence women‟s participation in tree growing in Siaya County, Kenya”. This study employed a cross-sectional survey research design. The instruments used were; questionnaire, discussion guide and interview schedule. Reliability of 0.710 was realized when pilot tested. A sample size of 280 respondents i.e. 190 women and 90 men were interviewed. Data analysis used Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software i.e. Coefficient for determination (R2) for quantitative data at 0.05 confidence level, and for descriptive data, pie-charts, tables, percentages generated. On land title deeds, 95% had men names only, 50% agreed traditions influence participation, andabout 40% agreed beliefs influence while for gender, 54% agreed that it does not. On triangulation, traditions, beliefs, and land tenure were confirmed as influencing women‟s participation in tree growing. The R2 values realised were: 3.6%, 3.6% and 4.0% with p-values significant at 0.037, 0.037 and 0.280 respectively. Three tree species women are forbidden from growing are Euphorbia triculli, Albizia coriaria and Tamarindus indica. In conclusion, the three socio-cultural factors influencing participation of women are: traditions, beliefs and land tenure. To increase tree cover, women should be involved in tree growing and Luo Council of elders should sensitize community members to discard traditions and beliefs which discriminate against women, and include names of women in land title deeds.