Conservation and Rehabilitation of Lake Kanyaboli Wetland, Kenya

Abstract

The Kenya national wetlands standing committee of the interministerial committee on environment defines wetlands as “Areas of land that are permanently, seasonally, or occasionally waterlogged with fresh, saline, brackish or marine waters, including both natural and man-made areas that support characteristic biota” (NWSC 1994). Although the Ramsar definition is broad enough, the national definition was deemed necessary to minimize confusion that often arose while using definitions developed in temperate countries. The three East African countries (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) have come up with the region’ s wetland classification system (RWBG 1996). The classification identifies five broad wetland types that occur in East Africa as marine, estuarine, sodic and/or saline waters, freshwater, and man-made wetlands. Each of these broad types has several classes. In this classification system, Lake Kanyaboli is classified as a freshwater lacustrine/palustrine wetland. This is because it is a shallow lake adjoined to a wide palustrine wetland, the Yala swamp.