Sociology professor Yıldız Atasoy receives grant to study impacts of conservation policy on Indigenous farmers in Kenya

Congratulations to sociology professor Yıldız Atasoy, the recipient of a $25,000 SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant.

The project, Conservation Policy and Its Livelihood Consequences for Indigenous Kamba Farmers in the Kibwezi Region of Kenya, is a partnership between SFU and National Museums of Kenya (NMK).

Atasoy will act as the principal investigator, alongside Dr. Stan Kivai, Head of the Conservation Biology Department at NMK, and Dr. Nancy Moinde, a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Development at SFU.

Through interdisciplinary analysis, the project will investigate the implementation of conservation-orientated policy and its ensuing impact on the livelihoods of Indigenous farming communities living in protected areas. The team will explore the perspectives of Kamba farmers in the Kibwezi region of Kenya in order to better understand how conservation projects affect their traditional farming practices and other off-farm, forest-based economic activities.

By better understanding the impacts of conservation policy on Kamba farmers, the team believes the findings will point to broader trends impacting Indigenous farming communities worldwide. The project is the first of what Atasoy and her team hope will be a larger SSHRC-funded partnership between SFU and NMK in the future.