Wetlands are natural or man‐made areas that are seasonally or permanently flooded with water and include swamps, marshes, bogs, shallow lakes, ox‐bow lakes, dams, riverbanks, floodplains, water catchment areas, fishponds, rice paddies, lakeshores, mangroves, sea grass beds, deltas, estuaries, coral reefs and seashores. In Kenya, wetlands occupy about 3% to 4% of the land surface, which is approximately 14,000 km2 and fluctuates up to 6% during the rainy seasons.
Kenya ratified the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance in 1990. The convention obligates contracting parties to formulate and implement their planning and policies so as to promote the conservation of wetlands. The process of developing this policy started in 1997 culminating in the publication of the Draft National Wetlands Conservation and Management Policy in April 2008.The draft policy was further subjected to a series of multi‐ stakeholder consultative process in order to align it to the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and capture emerging issues such as climate change.
The Government of Kenya has made significant strides towards the formulation of this policy and supported the development of the Kenya Wetlands Atlas (2012) which maps the country’s wetland resources. A master plan for the conservation and sustainable management of water catchment areas in Kenya has also been developed to guide practical and transformative actions for the sustainable management of these complex ecosystems. Furthermore, a nationwide inventory of wetlands to take stock of the resources, challenges and opportunities for their sustainable development and management is ongoing. This policy also fulfils the aspirations of the Constitution, Kenya’s Vision 2030, the National Land Policy and the Draft Environment Policy 2013.
Wetlands contribute directly and indirectly to the national economy through provisioning, supporting, regulatory and cultural services. However, wetlands continue to face a myriad of challenges including reclamation and encroachment for agriculture, settlement and industrial development; invasive and alien species; pollution and eutrophication. Other key challenges include ownership of wetlands, overlapping institutional mandates, inadequate resources, inadequate linkage between research, planning and policy development.
The goal of this policy is to ensure wise use and sustainable management of wetlands in order to enhance sustenance of the ecological and socio‐economic functions of Kenya’s wetlands for the benefit of present and future generations. This is based on the principles and values of, among others, wise use, precautionary principle, public participation, devolution and ecosystem based management, taking cognizance of the national and international cooperation.
This policy therefore sets out policy statements on how the Government intends to address wetland conservation and management challenges with the following objectives: