Over centuries, African pastoralist societies have crafted institutions that enable them to survive in their harsh, semi-arid environment. Effectively managing communally held land has been one key to their success and a cornerstone of their social organization. Carolyn K. Lesorogol investigates the puzzling change over the last two decades as a number of pastoralist communities have sought to transform their land tenure system from communal to private ownership. She considers this change through an empirical, multi-method study of the process of land privatization and the economic and social outcomes of privatization at the household and community level. Index, bib, notes, tables, 250pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS.

Ethno-botanical knowledge is a major component of indigenous knowledge systems which refers to a cumulative body of traditional knowledge about the interaction between human societies and the plant kingdom, and more specifically, how local people perceive, manage, and utilize the plant resources around them. This study examines the utilization of indigenous botanical plant resources in the former Kakamega District, Kenya. It focuses on creating an inventory of indigenous botanical plant resources, their use, gender dynamics, impact of new technology, conservation measures and the quest for sustainable development. 154pp, ETHIOPIA. OSSREA.

Appraisal of the extent to which the provisions of the 2000 Environment Management and Co-ordination Act (EMCA), which have enacted framework environmental laws, has been implemented. Examines environmental law in Kenya with a view to identifying the convergences and divergences between select sectoral laws and EMCA. 578pp, KENYA. EAST AFRICAN EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHERS.

The longevity of colonial interventions in Baringo, in the Rift Valley of Kenya is used as a focus for the study of the broader evolution of colonial ideologies and practices of development. 336pp, bib, index, charts, maps. UK. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS, 0852554680

Using participatory research techniques, household surveys, and in depth person to person interviews, this study explores the relationship between HIV/AIDS and land rights in Kenya, focusing in particular on women as a socially vulnerable group. Case studies are drawn from three districts in Kenya, Embu, Thika and Bondo. Refs, apps, map, notes, tables, graphs, x, 214pp, SOUTH AFRICA. HUMAN SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL, 0796920540

For most of 2009 Kenya suffered severe problems caused by flooding which took many lives and destroyed homes and important infrastructures. It highlighted the issues of water management and water conflicts, not only in Kenya but in other parts of East Africa, as it was made abundantly clear that not only scarcity of water, but excess water, incorrectly managed, can be disastrous. This timely, scholarly book presents discussions of the issues which underlie the major water crises in the region. They open the debate into the water problems of Kenya and East Africa in an effort to join the global campaign to find solutions to these difficulties. 294pp, TANZANIA. MKUKI NA NYOTA PUBLISHERS.

Investigates how and why a group of ranch members in Kajiado District, Kenya, supported the subdivision of their collective landholdings into individual, titled units, and what outcomes resulted in this transition to individual rights. Viewed over a longer time scale, the author finds that politics is at the core of institutional change: land-owners seek increasingly exclusive rights in an effort to defend their land claims against threats of appropriation by the state, by Massai elite, and by non-Massai. 240pp, UK. PALGRAVE.

Autobiography of Kenya's wildlife saviour, who battled the President, poachers and serious injuries in his quest to stop the slaughter of elephants. . B/w photos, map, index. xi, 319pp. USA. ST MARTIN'S PRESS.