Sustainable management of the natural vegetation
cover and fish breeding grounds in the western
shores of Lake Turkana
Accepted 21st
May 2020
Jesse Owino1, Fredrick
Lomekuya1, Jackline Kemboi1, John Malala2,
Andrew Orina3, Ikal Ang’elei3, Moses Njeru4,
Alex Lukwendah5, Robert Nyambati1, Jared Amwatta1,
Joshua Cheboiwo1, Gabriel M. Muturi1 and Ben Chikamai1
1Kenya Forestry Research Institute, P. O. Box 20412, Nairobi, Kenya. 2Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, P.O. Box 81651,
Mombasa, Kenya 3Friends of Lake Turkana, P. O. Box 565, Lodwar, Kenya. 4Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Pastoral Economy
and Fisheries, Turkana County Government, Kenya. 5Kenya Fisheries Service, P.O. Box 58187, Nairobi, Kenya.
The arid and semi-arid areas (ASAL) require enhanced management of the scarce
environmental natural resources and this is well documented. This study shows
that training through demonstration site creation enhances the management of the
natural forest cover and fish breeding grounds.
Prosopis juliflora
had also been introduced to the area to mitigate the aridity and help in
conservation of soil. However,
Prosopis juliflora
became an invasive weed, colonising most of the areas and thus, outcompeting
indigenous tree species. The study areas were along the western shores of Lake
Turkana and thus cover the impact of the invasive
P. juliflora
to the fisher folk community. Intervention techniques on invasive species
management were introduced to the study area, as well as activities on
sustainable management of the natural vegetation cover, and fish breeding
grounds were carried out in consultation with two host community groups that had
formed beach Management Units (BMU). The aim of the study was to demonstrate how
sustainable management of the available forest cover in the area coupled with
protection of fish breeding grounds was beneficial to ASAL communities. The
communities were able to show attitude change and also realise income from an
area that was previously filled with negative attitude towards the invasive
prosopis.
This is an open access article
published under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
Cite this article as:
Owino J, Lomekuya F, Kemboi J, Malala J, Orina A, Ang’elei I, Njeru M, Lukwendah
A, Nyambati R, Amwatta J, Cheboiwo J, Muturi GM, Chikamai B (2020). Sustainable
management of the natural vegetation cover and fish breeding grounds in the
western shores of Lake Turkana. Acad. J. Environ. Sci.
8(6): 096-102.
