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Report on monitoring and conservation of White Storks in Kenya

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White Storks in Kenya

White Storks are visiting Flamingos

at the Lake Nakuru

Picture: Heinz Weingärtner

It has been documented, that about 400, 000 white storks pass through East Africa. For the southward stork migration Uganda and Kenya are the most important transit countries. Through a narrow passage the birds overfly Uganda in the north-east and Kenya in the south west als well as in the eastern edge of Lake Victoria.

Nevertheless swarms of storks stay here for several weeks. In that case, the birds fly deep into the heart of the country.

The storks that settle or fly over Kenya come from East Europe and Asia  via the Sudan and Western Ethiopia They are following the Great Rift Valley.

Storks migrating southwards stopped over in Lake Victoria basin and in some parts of the Rift Valley region, especially around Mount Elgon. Similarly, southbound storks stopped over in Central Rift Valley, particularly in Nakuru, Kericho and Narok. Most of the birds found in the southern, eastern and central regions, however, were north bound.

About 41,000 White Storks are wintering in Kenya. These birds were counted in 19 sites located in different parts of the country. 75% of the storks wintering in western and Rift Valley regions while 25% wintered in eastern and central regions.

The Rift Valley region was inhabited by 27% of the storks wintering in Kenya. The birds inhabited large-scale fields grown with wheat, maize, sunflower and sown pasture. They also inhabited fields left fallow or burnt prior to ploughing, and fields with natural pasture, where they foraged with cattle and sheep.

About 40% of the storks occurred in Western Kenya, especially in Lake Victoria basin and its watershed. The storks inhabited marshy areas, ploughed sugar fields and pasture fields. Paddy rice fields had large concentrations of white storks.

In central and eastern regions, the birds inhabited fallow fields of maize and wheat but large concentrations occurred in natural pasture fields. The storks also inhabited rice paddy field in Mwea area near Mt. Kenya. In southern Kenya, white storks mainly inhabited natural grasslands, which they shared with cattle and herds of grazing wildlife.

Kenya with its Vast plateau, Savannah grasslands and the numerous wetlands play host to thousands of the birds on an annual basis. This landscape and the climatic conditions influence the type of food resources available. Since white storks prefer foraging in large-scale cultivated farms, open grasslands and shallow wetlands, these areas therefore provide good sites for the storks.

Declining Stork population

However in Kenya the populations have been drastically declining. Although there might have been poor monitoring of the stork numbers, it is no secret that the numbers over the years have been declining. The declines have been attributed to many factors including overhead electrical cables during flight.

The problem was noted in the western region where a number of birds were noted to be injured or dead. Poisons from pesticides used on farms presents a major threat to the storks on a global scale (Dallinga and Schoenmakers, 1985). Unfavorable climatic conditions and particularly rainfall distribution affects the stork population (Le Houerou, 1987). Unfavorable feeding conditions in Africa coupled with declining land sizes and lack of appreciation and conservation also affects storks (Gichuki and Rotich, 2002).

The Ramsar Research Project

In 2002 and 2003 there was a research project, that monitors wintering sites of 500 birds, that had stopped at one site and remained there for a period of 4 - 8 weeks
Five major regions were visited including western, Rift valley, Mount Kenya (Eastern) Central and southern region. In the western region six areas were visited namely; Uasin Gishu, Trans Nzoia, Bungoma, Nyamira and Homa Bay districts. This region had the highest number of birds. In the Rift Valley, counting and monitoring were done in Nakuru, Kericho and Marakwet districts. In the southern Kenya region, three districts were visited including Narok, Kajiado and Machakos.

In Mount Kenya the areas visited were Nanyuki, Timau and Mwea while in the central region the areas visited were, Thika, Mweiga, Olkalau and Rumuruti.

Another assignment was to create awareness about the white storks. Awareness about the origin, conservation and role of white storks on farmland is necessary for community participation in conservation. This activity was achieved through: production and distribution of booklets on white stork migration and local movements, development of a White Stork poster, exhibitions of children's drawings of white storks and what they think about them and exchange of information between the museum and local communities in Kitale and Eldoret areas.

Source: The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands: Report on monitoring and conservation of White Storks in Kenya

The Threatened Lake Victoria

Ecological threats encountered by Africa’s largest lake

Lake Victoria, situated within the borders of Kenya, Tanzania und Uganda and comprises a surface area of 68,800 km2. It was was the „Threatened Lake 2005" announced by Global Nature Fund (GNF). GNF intended to draw attention to the drastic reduction of fish populations, the destruction of shoreline vegetation and wetlands as well as the increasing poverty of the people living around the lake.

One of the most critical dangers is the over fishing in the lake. Only on the Kenyan side of the lake there are about 55,000 fishermen. 50 years ago the lake counted about 500 fish species. Some 200 species are said to be on the verge of extinction. Among those, about 24 formerly appeared on the local markets, whereas today only three are left. There are many reasons for this drastic decrease such as the significant eutrophication. Much of the nutrient load and other pollutants which stem from sewage and waste transported into the lake and comprise pollutants from the rapidly expanding urban areas and industries into the lake.

The Nil Perch

The introduction of the Nile perch led to a disruption of the ecology of the lake and resulted in loss of biodiversity as the fish devour the other fish species that otherwise were useful for stabilizing the nutrient balance of the lake. However, the fish has improved the economic status of the region as it is exported to Europe, Asia and North America. This fish, which weights up to 70 kg, was introduced in the 1960s` and became an export bestseller.

Nowadays, even the Nile perch population itself decreases rapidly – the amount of catches dropped from 175,000 tons to 110,000 tons in 2001. Therefor the GNF advocacy, that only a sustainable fishing and the support of traditional fishing techniques will prevent Lake Victoria from loosing his unique wealth.

Population growth

Population growth, which is considerably higher in urban areas, is another factor that has led to changes of the lake. Extended lakeshore areas have been deforested to provide burning material and agricultural land. This destruction correlates with enhanced erosion and pollution processes around the lake and, in turn, destroys the habitats of numerous animals such as the rare papyrus feeding rhinoceros.

GNF is committed to counteract this development by supporting the use of solar energy for fishing and fish smoking. Additionally, GNF aims at preserving the remaining shoreline vegetation as protected areas.

OSIENALA Focuses on the Sustainable Management of the Lake

The GNF partner organisation OSIENALA (Friends of Lake Victoria) focuses on the sustainable management of the lake which includes e. g. trainings in waste management for industries and Municipalities as well as micro financing efforts for the fishermen and their families.

The major aim is to promote the use of energy efficient techniques and solar technologies in order to improve the standard of living for rural communities and to contribute to the conservation of the Lake Victoria environment. Therefore OSIENALA and GNF have identified five priorities for interventions:

Solar lighting for night fishing

Fishing of the Lake Victoria Sardine is usually carried out in groups of friends or kinsmen using several kerosene pressure lamps. Kerosene is usually stored in the fishing canoes. Sardines are attracted by light and therefore fishermen use these kerosene lamps at night to attract the fish to the location of the lamps where they cast their nets and draw the fish into the boats. Several hundreds of these lamps are used in the lake at night for this purpose. This practice is prone to kerosene spillage, which further pollutes the lake. In addition to problems of transporting large numbers of lamps in a boat, the lamps themselves occasionally fail to function due to technical problems or are extinguished by strong winds.

Solar lanterns will greatly improve this fishing conditions and cut operational costs and is definitely the best alternative since they are environmentally clean.

Water purification facilities at landing beaches

The fish landing beaches at Lake Victoria very often lack clean water. Therefore, water purification facilities will be installed at beaches, which are often crowded by both fishermen and fish mongers / traders. PV systems will be used to pump water into a 2,000 l filter tanks from where water flows by the force of gravity into the collection points.

For any intervention to succeed, it must fundamentally consider rural energy and development from a policy perspective that seeks to improve the quality of life of rural households and facilitate rural income generation. It is necessary to promote sustainable supply and efficient use of traditional fuels while encouraging gradual transition to modern fuels in rural areas. This process needs to include the expansion of the share of renewable energy. This project therefore proposes an integrated approach that would embrace not just energy per se but also the right blend of policies, awareness, reforms and markets based on the circumstances of the region.

Charcoal Coolers for fish preservation

Lack of fish storage facilities at the landing beaches is a major bottleneck to local fishing industry. Fisher folks are unable to bargain for the right price for their fish due to high perishableness of this product, which forces them to sell it as soon as it comes out of water.

A possible and simple fish preservation alternative will be implemented. This is a small storage hut whose wall is constructed with charcoal. During the day when it is hot, water is sprayed onto the wall using PV pumps and the process of evaporation removes the heat from inside the hut and so the temperature inside the hut remains low enough to preserve the fish for at least three days.

Currently people use traditional fish smoking kilns that are very inefficient in terms of wood fuel consumption. During the project suitable kilns are constructed to reduce wood consumption. These kilns will be improved versions of traditional kilns and will be constructed by trained artisans on an income-generation basis.

Introduction of fuel briquette machines

Hand-operated fuel briquette machines to compact sawdust and other biomass wastes into convenient shapes that can be used as fuel in existing popular stoves will be introduced.
 

Training

At the OSIENALA training center at Dunga beach within greater Kisumu City 100 people from the fisher communities will be trained in installing and maintaining of PV systems and in briquetting and kiln techniques during the project period.

Kenya has to a large extent succeeded in establishing commercial development photo voltaic to supply household energy systems. Initial investment in these systems is normally too high for ordinary rural households and so it is important to introduce a marketing and management system that would encourage people to acquire and pay for them.

The financial institutions have neglected the fisher folk around the Lake Victoria region. Cooperative societies were at one time the main provider of banking and credit facilities to the fisher folk beside Post bank, which offers saving facilities only. Members of the cooperative societies riddle this sector with corruption and mismanagement, which have lent it to collapse in some parts of the country. At best, nearest formal banking facility to the beaches is approximately 30 to 40 km of rough and poorly maintained road network.

Therefore, OSIENALA decided to initiate a micro-finance program that is committed to changing the economic status of the fisher folk in the Lake Victoria basin. The result is the launch of the Beach bank. So called beach clerks will inform fishermen about financing models for PV-Systems.

Source: Global Nature Fund