Yes,
After 5 years of wrangling and interminable revisions of the RIS, the place is at last on the Ramsar list, so we all have reasons to be proud. However, a label is just that. Not even step 1 but step 0. There are scores of waterless and birdless Ramsar sites around the planet and the Ramsar status does not preclude blatant mismanagement. What really counts is management by all the relevant stakeholders and we are nowhere near any progress on that. The key to the maintenance of the delta as we know it are the floods that are the engine behind all the biodiversity and the ecosystem functions this produces. Under Vision 2030 (supposedly Kenya’s but rather Price Waterhouse Coopers’ standard blueprint for all African countries in which the only indicator of development is the number of cubic meters of concrete poured/year even if most of this has proved to be ineffective over and over again) there is absolutely no room for these ecosystems nor for any of the traditional livelihoods depending on them. The 5 existing hydropower dams have already reduced the flood peak by 20% but this has resulted in a much more massive decrease in the area flooded and all the productivity depends exactly on that (pasture, fisheries, recession agriculture groundwater recharge, soil fertilization, tree flowering/honey production, capacity to accommodate migratory birds, waterbird breeding, etc.). Vision 2030 means the High Grand Falls dam (capable of storing 2 years of flow) and increased abstraction of water for Lamu harbour and tens of thousands of hectares of (pipedream) irrigation schemes. There is not enough water in the river for this and the feasibility study of the dam purports that there is no link between flooding in the delta and what comes off the Aberdares and Mount Kenya, ergo no need for flood releases and more money from hydropower. To keep the delta alive the dam procedures should guarantee at least 150,000 ha flooded every 3 years and at least 50,000 ha every year. In addition 120 people, mostly women and children have lost their lives in the recent clashes in the Tana Delta so any management planning process would need to start with the development of a common vision of the delta by the communities. Only of they stand united can they stop the Vision 2030 where there is no room for either of them. That will be a difficult process that would need to be accompanied by a team perceived to be an honest broker by all the local communities (and that dissolves itself during the rest of the joint management development process that should be spearheaded by the communities with inputs from technical partners). This start-up team should have the technical and scientific capacity to explain what is possible under various scenarios. That requires intimate knowledge and understanding of how the delta functions. Starting village-based management/land use plans without a visioning exercise (what is desirable) and a common understanding of what is possible will be a waste of money. We are talking river basin scale planning, managed flood releases from existing and future dams, sophisticated hydraulic modelling, socio-ecological modelling of the entire range of flood-dependent ecosystem services and user strategies, putting in place shared governance institutions that will decide on the flood release scenarios in which the ecosystem users are the core (not a power company selling electricity), etc. This also means creating a level playing field for the different stakeholders and therefore capacity building and empowerment of the most vulnerable. Quite an agenda! This probably requires a consortium of donors and their commitment to follow a very widely inclusive stakeholder process, not the usual friends of friends business.
> Message du 17/10/12 07:03
> De : TButynski@aol.com
> A : tomstruh@acpub.duke.edu, ladepewg@gmail.com, wieczkja@buffalostate.edu, dmbora@yahoo.com, yvonne@wildsolutions.nl, tanzaniabirds@yahoogroups.com, kenyabirdsnet@yahoogroups.com, jelse@rmy.emory.edu, julietking@africaonline.co.ke, ian.craig@nrt-kenya.org, mkinnaird@mpala.org, Bytebier@ukzn.ac.za, knowak02@googlemail.com, ipap@activ8.net.au, rkock@rvc.ac.uk, jonathan.Baillie@ioz.ac.uk, fandm@alfriston-churches.co.uk, mat@wananchi.com, Colin.groves@anu.edu.au, Leon.Bennun@birdlife.org, neil.burgess@wwfus.org, RAMittermeier@aol.com, a.rylands@conservation.org, Carolyn.Ehardt@utsa.edu, nrowe@primate.org
> Copie à :
> Objet : [tanzaniabirds] Tana River Delta added to the Ramsar List
>
>>
> Dear all
>
> Members of the Kenya Wetlands Forum have already received this message
> - At last everyone can now exhale!
> Also, i think KENWEB deserves a little credit in all this so
> congratulations everyone who gave selflessly their time, information,
> maps, connections, writing skills and editing for the RIS. Whereas for
> some this is an end and a cause for celebration, i think its just a
> beginning for the Tana Delta, here comes the daunting task of a
> management plan. Lets not leave it to the hounds!
>
> Wanja
>
>
> From: Judith Nyunja [mailto:JNyunja@kws.go.ke]
> Sent: Monday, October 15, 2012 10:56 AM
> To: Catherine Yaa
> Cc: Serah Munguti
> Subject: Tana River Delta added to the Ramsar List
>
> Dear Catherine,
> I wish to take this opportunity to thank members of the Kenya Wetlands
> Forum for the support they have provided in the process of designating
> Tana Delta Ramsar Site.
> The long journey is finally over as we celebrate Kenyaâ??s 6th Ramsar site.
> We look forward to continue working together with our conservation
> partners, develop and implement management structures for the Tana
> delta as we embrace the principle of â??wise useâ? of wetlands for
> sustainable development.
>
> Please circulate this to the KWF members.
> Kind regards.
> _______________________
> Judith Nyunja, Ph D
> Senior Scientist & Wetlands Programme Coordinator
> Kenya Wildlife Service
> P.O Box 40241-00100
> Nairobi
> Email: jnyunja@kws.go.ke
>
> From: KWS
> Sent: Friday, October 12, 2012 1:21 PM
> To: Samuel Kasiki; Judith Nyunja
> Subject: FW: Tana River Delta added to the Ramsar List
>
>
>
> From: ramsar-exchange-bounces@lists.ramsar.org
> [mailto:ramsar-exchange-bounces@lists.ramsar.org] On Behalf Of PECK
> Dwight
> Sent: Friday, October 12, 2012 1:03 PM
> To: ramsar-exchange@lists.ramsar.org
> Subject: [Ramsar-Exchange] Tana River Delta added to the Ramsar List
>
> The Secretariat is very pleased to announce that Kenya has designated
> the Tana River Delta as a Wetland of International Importance. As
> summarized by Ramsarâ??s MS Ako Charlotte Eyong, from the accompanying
> RIS, the Tana River Delta Ramsar Site (163,600 hectares, 02°27â??S
> 040°17â??E), an Important Bird Area (IBA) in Coast Province, is the
> second most important estuarine and deltaic ecosystem in Eastern
> Africa, comprising a variety of freshwater, floodplain, estuarine and
> coastal habitats with extensive and diverse mangrove systems, marine
> brackish and freshwater intertidal areas, pristine beaches and shallow
> marine areas, forming productive and functionally interconnected
> ecosystems.
>
> This diversity in habitats permits diverse hydrological functions and
> a rich biodiversity including coastal and marine prawns, shrimps,
> bivalves and fish, five species of threatened marine turtles and IUCN
> red-listed African elephant (Loxodonta africana), Tana Mangabey
> (Cercocebus galeritus), Tana River Red Colobus (Procolobus
> rufomitratus rufomitratus) and White-collared Monkey (Cercopithecus
> mitis albotorquatus). Over 600 plant species have been identified,
> including the endangered Cynometra lukei and Gonatopus marattioides.
>
> As one of the only estuarine staging posts on the West Asia - Eastern
> Africa coastal flyway, it is a critical feeding and wintering ground
> for several migratory waterbirds such as waders, gulls and terns. The
> main human activities include fishing, small-scale family-oriented
> agriculture, mangrove wood exploitation, grazing, water supply,
> tourism and research (ongoing research on the protection and
> monitoring of breeding turtles and the conservation of dugongs).
>
> Kenya presently has six Ramsar Sites, covering an area of 265,449 hectares.
>
> Best regards, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.
>
> ***********
> Dwight Peck
> Documentation Officer
> Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971)
> Rue Mauverney 28
> 1196 Gland, Switzerland
> www.ramsar.org
>
>
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