The Influence of Social Cultural Practices of Host Community on the Sustainable Conservation of Maasai Mau Forest in Kenya

Ecotourism remains one of the newest opportunities for income generation and livelihood to rural and marginalised communities from natural resources without destroying the environment. This was achieved owing to cultural practices of host communities that restricted logging and viewed forests as a source of livelihood. The dependence of the Maasai Mau community on Maasai Mau Forest for ecotourism benefits, medicinal plants, sacred groves, and livestock graving and watering has become threatened in the recent past due to human activities. The purpose of the study was to assess the influence of socio-cultural practices of host community on the conservation of the Maasai Mau Forest in Kenya. The specific objectives were; to establish the influence of cultural practices, to assess the influence of community participation, and to determine the influence of gender participation on the conservation of Maasai Mau Forest. Target population comprised of 15 Government agencies; 71 community-based tourism organizations (CBTOs); 847 hotels and restaurant service providers, and 29 tour and travels operators (N=962). Bartlett, Kotrlik and Higgins' (2001) formula was adopted to obtain a sample size of 384 stakeholders: six Government agencies; 28 CBTOs; 338 hotels and restaurant service providers; and 29 travel and tour operators. Structured questionnaires were administered on the sampled CBTOs and hotels and restaurant service providers; interviews were done with the government agencies, while Focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with 12 travel and tour operators in the area. The supervisors and peers counter-checked the instruments to enhance validity, whereas test-retest was used for achieving instrument reliability during a pilot study on randomly selected 34 hotels and restaurant providers and two CBTOs. Reliability coefficient of 0.859 was obtained for all the variables. Qualitative data was analysed through thematic analysis, while descriptive statistics was used to analysed quantitative data. Regressions were used for data analysis. Findings revealed that cultural practices (B=0.001, p=0.000), community participation (B=0.003, p=0.000), and gender participation (B=0.002, p=0.000) all have significant influence on forest conservation of the Masaai Mau Forest. This implies that for every unit improvement in socio-cultural practices, there is unit improvement in the conservation of Masaai Mau Forest. It is recommended that gender roles should be enhanced to rope in women and youths in ecotourism and forest conservation. Findings of the study might inform policy formulation to aid upkeep of cultural practices, enhancement of social networks, and improved decision making among host communities of Maasai Mau Forest.