This book examines the link between environmental conservation practices and agricultural productivity in a fragile ecological environment in Kajiado district, Kenya. The work was carried out against the background of growing concern that declining agricultural productivity and increasing poverty are a cause as well as a consequence of environmental degradation. The work sought to explore mechanisms for escaping from a poverty trap where poverty leads to increased resource degradation, which in turn leads to low productivity and to more poverty. Panel data is used to examine the...

to establish impact, attributing observed changes in welfare to the intervention, while identifying key factors of success. Impact evaluations are aimed at providing feedback to help improve the design of programs and policies. They also provide greater accountability and a tool for dynamic learning, allowing policymakers to improve ongoing programs and ultimately better allocate funds across programs. Such a causal analysis is essential for understanding the relative role of alternative interventions in reducing poverty. The papers in this section again adopt a variety of techniques. The rst...