The Institutional Canopy of Conservation: Governance and Environmentality in East Africa (I-CAN) is an ongoing research initiative with a regional emphasis on the rangelands, wetlands and forests of the East African savannah, including the extremely biodiverse borderlands between Kenya and Tanzania.
The I-CAN research team addresses the challenges of combining biodiversity protection with strengthened livelihoods, whether through: recognizing local rights over resources, livelihood diversification, or the stimulation of a new green, post-oil economy, including ecotourism. The major goal of the project is to identify the most effective designs for future community-based conservation programs by examining the impacts of ongoing conservancy experiments on community livelihoods and members’ attitudes and practices towards natural resources. The results obtained will be used to assess critical issues of public policy–at local, national and global levels–regarding the rights and obligations of communities in managing and utilizing the natural resources on which they depend. The I-CAN project promotes the inclusion of often-indigenous community members as both partners and stakeholders in the management of protected areas and in conservation enterprises.