Is democracy detrimental for the environment in developing countries?
Micro-evidence from Kenya Water resource degradation, climate change and deforestation are part of the core environmental agenda. Sustainable management of forests lies at the intersection of these issues. Forests provide global public goods as well as contribute to the local economy, via providing water supply. In the Kenyan context, the UN rates it as having one of the lowest natural water replenishment rates in the world and it is also vulnerable to rainfall variability classifying it as a chronically water-scarce country. This has large repercussions to the economy. In this research the wave of democratization which swept Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s is studied. In particular, after Kenya introduced democracy in 1992, deforestation in its closed canopy forests intensified. Under the constitution, forests are classified as government property and may have become a resource to vote-buy. The causal effect of the rise in political competition on deforestation is investigated. The in
