Assessment of the biodiversity in terrestrial landscapes of the Witu protected area and surroundings in Lamu County, Kenya

This paper has examined the current state of terrestrial biodiversity in Witu area and its surroundings in Lamu County, Kenya. The report covers a synthesis of threats, and current management interventions in place. Overall, the survey has found that the cross-border area of north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia are highly diverse and threatened biodiversity areas. This is illustrated by the high concentration of endemic species (approximately 550 plant, six mammal and nine bird species), not to mention more arthropod species. It is also relatively underdeveloped with high incidences of poverty and consequently significant pressure on ecosystem services from local communities. The most important single source of pressure on the ecosystem is from the extraction of wood from forests. There is a long-standing dependence on wood for construction of houses, boats, and manufacture of furniture and domestic fittings, which require harvesting of large old tree species. As a result of this, several forest specialist species, such as the wood owl, crowned eagle and straw-coloured fruit bat are threatened, despite not being directly targeted by any of the forest users. These threats to the ecosystem are exacerbated by its cross-border area of north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia. The final key challenge is the rapid development of infrastructure under Kenya’s Vision 2030 initiative. In light of these challenges, the IGAD BMP project implemented a number of interventions to create and strengthen ecosystem co-management between statutory and civil society agencies in Kenya and Somalia, respectively. Under Kenya’s Vision 2030, this area is targeted for several development initiatives in the energy, mineral and transport sectors. It is therefore expected to be a crucial component that must precede the planning process. This study recommends upscaling of the current conservation, management and education efforts, as well as improvement of the local communities’ capacity to manage natural resources and development processes for sustainable implementation and management of the same.

---

• View source

---

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5716/WP16172.PDF

---

Altmetric score:

Dimensions Citation Count: