Publication: Wetland Degradation Status and Conservation Challenges in Murang’a County, Kenya
| dc.contributor.author | Benson M. Mwangi | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-09-09T08:03:24Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Unregulated human activities have resulted in massive degradation and eventual loss of wetlands despite their importance in providing various ecosystem services and habitat to important species of fauna and flora. In Murang’a County, Kenya, wetland degradation has increased at an alarming rate since the 1980s, with no data on their degradation status and challenges facing their conservation. This study aimed to examine the trend of wetland degradation and the main challenges impacting their conservation in Murang’a County between 1986 and 2018. The challenges were identified in a stakeholder workshop involving 39 key stakeholders and ranked in order of importance using the pair-wise ranking technique. Trends in wetland degradation status were assessed through analysis of land use maps obtained from Landsat images of 1986, 2001, and 2018. The most critical challenges affecting the conservation and management of wetlands in the County were inadequate legislation followed by poor planning, lack of community empowerment, scarce resources, corruption, encroachment, and pollution. Correlation analysis between wetland and water areas showed a significant but negative relationship at (P<0.01), indicating that decreasing wetland areas resulted in a significant reduction of water areas. The wetland area in the County decreased by about 48% between 2001 and 2018 and to arrest this trend of declining wetland area, the stakeholders recommended the amalgamation of all laws and policies touching on conservation and management of wetlands in the County. Further, there is a need for community involvement and empowerment to create awareness of the roles of wetlands for their well-being. | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | NRF | |
| dc.identifier.uri | DOI: 10.5923/j.ije.20211101.02 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://repository.nrf.go.ke/handle/123456789/1612 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | International Journal of Ecosystem | |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | 11(1): 8-16 | |
| dc.subject | Keywords Wetland policies | |
| dc.subject | Wetland encroachment | |
| dc.subject | Land-use changes | |
| dc.subject | Stakeholder analysis | |
| dc.title | Wetland Degradation Status and Conservation Challenges in Murang’a County, Kenya | |
| dc.type | Article | |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication |