•Wetlands loss due to anthropogenic disturbance results in loss of biodiversity and reduces potential of ecosystem services worldwide.•87% of the households around the swamp had an interest in ...sustainable management of Yala swamp.•Farming in the swamp was the leading source of livelihood.•There are opportunities for sustainable development in the wetlands such as value addition on papyrus.
Wetlands are very productive ecosystems and provide a lot of goods and services to wetland-dependant communities worldwide. Despite their importance in terms of ecological, biological and socio-economic roles, they remain constantly under threat and many continue to be degraded and sometimes even lost at an alarming rate due to anthropogenic reasons. It is crucial to comprehend the utilization of wetland resources in terms of their ecological, restorative potential, biological and socio-economic roles and thereafter suggest on their wise use. The objective of the study was to determine the management and utilization of Yala swamp, the effects of the swamp utilization on livelihoods and conservation, and explore sustainable land use strategies for the swamp. Questionnaires were administered to 490 household heads from four project sites in two counties; 8 focused group discussion and 50 key interview informants were used to get information on the utilization. About 78.1% of the household heads were categorized as poor followed by the rich (15.1%) whereas the very rich and very poor had the same proportion. About 50.8% had land of 1–2.99 ac and up to 14.9% were landless. This encouraged them to encroach on the swamp. There were conflicts on land ownership which exacerbated destruction of the swamp. However, over 87% of the household heads had an interest in sustainable management of the swamp due to the benefits got from the swamp. Farming followed by use of papyrus were the main livelihood activities across all wellbeing categories. There is an urgent need to protect the swamp against encroachment and unsustainable exploitation. Further, the community should be sensitized on the importance of wetlands not only for livelihoods but also for conservation of biological diversity. Involvement of community in management of the swamp is necessary for participatory management. Several opportunities for sustainable development of the swamp should be explored by all stakeholders.
This paper describes a study which examined national policy and institutional frameworks and mandates to determine (i) the extent to which they recognized forest conservation, (ii) their adequacy as ...bases for institutional collaboration and co-management with local communities, (iii) the nature and extent of benefit sharing with local people, (iv) the extent to which they recognized multilateral agreements. Its goal was to determine whether existing policies and institutional frameworks provided for adequate natural resource co-management and benefits flow and sharing with local communities. The study findings will help future development and implementation policy and institutional frameworks to improve collaborative forest resource management in Kenya. Adapted from the source document.
This study examines the impact of participatory forest management (PFM) on forest‑adjacent household livelihoods in the Arabuko-Sokoke forest in Kenya. It compares the impacts on households near PFM ...forests (PFM zones) with those near forests with no participatory management (non-PFM zones). The study questions were: does conservation of the Arabuko-Sokoke forest result in net household incomes?; does PFM increase net household benefits?; and are household benefits uniformly distributed within the 5 km PFM intervention zone? The hypotheses tested were: forest conservation benefits exceed forest conservation costs; PFM zones have higher household benefits than non-PFM zones; and benefits and costs reduce with distance from forest edge. In the year 2009, we collected data on household benefits and costs in PFM and non-PFM zones. Data were collected along 10 km transects at 1 km intervals, sampling 600 households up to 5 km away from the forest. The results show varied household dependence on the Arabuko-Sokoke forest. The forest benefits exceed costs in PFM zones but the forest is a cost in non-PFM zones, and costs and benefits reduce with distance from forest edge. The study concludes that, though not cheap, PFM is a tool that can help the Arabuko-Sokoke forest win the support of the adjacent local communities.
Protected areas are thus a practical tool to halt species' declines, tackling extinctions by preserving natural habitats. With many of the poorest countries lying in the biodiverse tropics, there is ...an ongoing discussion regarding the global benefits of biodiversity versus the costs incurred by local communities living in the vicinity of protected areas.
Site conservation is among the most effective means to reduce global biodiversity loss. Therefore, it is critical to identify those sites where unique biodiversity must be conserved immediately. To ...this end, the concept of key biodiversity areas (KBAs) has been developed, seeking to identify and, ultimately, ensure that networks of globally important sites are safeguarded. This methodology builds up from the identification of species conservation targets (through the IUCN Red List) and nests within larger-scale conservation approaches. Sites are selected using standardized, globally applicable, threshold-based criteria, driven by the distribution and population of species that require site-level conservation. The criteria address the two key issues for setting site conservation priorities: vulnerability and irreplaceability. We also propose quantitative thresholds for the identification of KBAs meeting each criterion, based on a review of existing approaches and ecological theory to date. However, these thresholds require extensive testing, especially in aquatic systems.
This paper presents the history of Kenyan law and policy on participatory natural resource management and the manner in which they address current concerns. It is divided across two issues of the ...EPL. Part I describes the concepts and components of natural resource management in Kenya, while Part II, to be presented in EPL 41/6, will describe international developments, and analyse the entire body of policy and its institutional framework in terms of current concerns and political approaches. Adapted from the source document.
The coastal forests of Kenya are global biodiversity hotspots known for rich plant diversity and endemism. They exist as fragmented forest islands, and their current conservation status and ...quantitative trends in plant diversity are understudied. We investigated these knowledge gaps by providing a comprehensive literature review and comparing to field data collected using standardized sampling protocol. Our goals were to build a robust basis for future analyses, biodiversity monitoring, and to understand the role of fragment area in determining species richness. We recorded a total of 937 woody species belonging to 88 families in 30 forest patches from reviewed and sampled data. Species richness per site from literature review was affected by biases in data scarcity, forest size and variation in sampling methods. In general, large forests reserves of Shimba hills and Arabuko exhibited a high number of cumulative species compared to smaller forest patches. Species-area relationship showed a significant proportion of species richness per forest was determined by forest area, according to Arrhenius model. This study is the first to review forest patch woody plant species diversity knowledge gaps in the coastal forests of Kenya, and the resulting comparison provides the first quantitative overview and foundation of these forests.
Bird communities composed of habitat specialists suffer considerable loss of species following disturbance (Ecol. Monogr. 41, 1971, 207–233). Participatory forest management (PFM) aims to ensure ...local ownership and support for forest conservation. This study determined if forest birds and forest quality in places under PFM is significantly higher than areas without PFM in Arabuko‐Sokoke forest. Forest quality data were collected in the PFM and no PFM zones in the Mixed forest (MF) and Cynometra Woodland (CW). Plot‐based approach was used to collect vegetation data along 1 km transects at intervals of 1 km sampling twenty transects and 200 plots in each of the study zones. Birds’ data were collected using 10‐min point‐counts along 88, 1 km long transects placed 1‐km apart sampling in 30 m radius‐plots at intervals of 100 m. Data were collected in 2008 and 2009. The results showed higher measures of forest quality in PFM zones than no PFM zones which showed higher measures of forest disturbance. The results did not show statistical differences in birds’ diversity indexes between PFM and no PFM zones indicating that the human‐induced disturbance has not reached critical ecological thresholds to affect birds’ species diversity. It can be deduced that PFM investment is leading to improved forest management.
Résumé
Les communautés aviaires composées d'espèces spécialistes d'habitats particuliers soufrent de pertes considérables d'espèces en raison de perturbations (Ecol. Monogr. 41, 1971, 207–233). La Gestion participative des forêts (GPF) vise à garantir l'appropriation et le soutien locaux de la conservation des forêts. Menée dans la forêt d’Arabuko‐Sokoke, cette étude a voulu déterminer si les oiseaux forestiers et la qualité de la forêt dans des endroits concernés par une GPF étaient significativement mieux que dans des zones qui ne le sont pas. Les données sur la qualité de la forêt ont été collectées dans des zones avec et sans GPF de la forêt mixte (FM) et de la forêt à Cynometra (FC). On a utilisé une approche par parcelles pour récolter des données sur la végétation le long de transects d'un kilomètre espacés entre eux d'un kilomètre, ce qui représentait au total 20 transects et 200 parcelles dans chaque zone étudiée. Les données sur les oiseaux ont été collectées sur des points de comptage de 10 min situés le long de 88 transects d'un kilomètre de long espacés d'un kilomètre, en échantillonnant des parcelles de 30 m de rayon tous les 100 m. Les données furent collectées en 2008 et 2009. Les résultats montrent que les mesures de qualité forestière faites en zones GPF sont supérieures à celles de zones non GPF qui présentaient des chiffres supérieurs de perturbation forestière. Les résultats ne montrent pas de différences statistiques des indices de diversité des oiseaux entre zones GPF et non GPF, ce qui indique que la perturbation n'a pas atteint les seuils critiques qui pourraient affecter la diversité des espèces d'oiseaux. On peut en déduire que l'investissement dans une GPF conduit à une amélioration de la gestion forestière.
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