The economy and livelihoods of communities in the Tana Delta largely depend on natural resources derived from wetlands, rangelands, forests and farmland. Restoration and sustainable management of these resources are therefore critical, given their crucial role in sustaining life-support systems and powering the economy.
Since 2022, the TRI Tana Delta project has supported communities in making notable progress in integrated natural resource management and restoring degraded landscapes. A significant achievement is local communities’ enhanced resilience to climate change’s adverse effects, partly due to their access to restoration and green value chain development benefits.
Overgrazing caused by overstocking is one of the drivers of degradation in the Tana Delta. The establishment of pasture seedbanks supports the local community in growing and managing their pasture to ensure sufficient supply during drought. Pasture seedbanks have multiple benefits: the restored grass sequesters carbon, besides supporting livestock production. It also helps bind soil, enhancing water infiltration and soil organic matter. Biodiversity, such as grassland birds, has increased on lands where pasture has been re-established. The pasture seedbanks contributed to reducing drought severity in 2022 in the Tana Delta Region of Kenya.
Between July 2023 and May 2024, an additional 106.5 ha of pasture seed bank was established by 275 beneficiaries, bringing the cumulative figure of land under pasture seedbanks to 561.48 ha.
Management of the planted pastures is done by beneficiaries who treat them as a crop and make efforts to secure them from free-ranging livestock. The county government and local administration played a key role in community sensitisation and peacebuilding, contributing to social fencing and safeguarding planted pasture seedbanks. On this front, the TRI Tana project has facilitated several meetings convened by the county commissioner’s office to address grazing control issues. At the policy level, the project has supported the Tana River County government in preparing and endorsing the Livestock Grazing Control Act, which provides a basis for regulating grazing.
The TRI Tana Delta project promotes a community-driven approach to restoration. Over the period of one year (2022 – 2023) the project built the community’s indigenous tree seed collection capacity. The project also facilitated community groups to collect 2,940 Kg of seeds that were dried and sown on degraded lands totalling 1,500 ha. Restoration through seeding was guided by the Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology (ROAM) and aligned to restoration action plans of the respective local resource user groups. During the same period, the TRI Tana project supported communities in producing 159,000 tree seedlings (86,000 in 2022 and 73,000 in 2023) planted on 226 ha of degraded forest land, cropland, wetlands and rangelands.
Another notable achievement was the Shakako Community Conservancy, measuring approximately 1,800 ha, registered with the Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association.
This is a critical step towards realising the project’s target of having 116,867 ha of multiple-use Indigenous community conservation areas (ICCAs) in the Tana Delta to benefit globally important biodiversity. Establishing and registering conservancies, as stipulated by the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act of 2013, provides a stronger legal framework for restoration work in Tana than the informal ICCA framework. The Tana ICCA was established within the framework of ‘other effective area-based conservation measures’ (OECMs), which are areas that are achieving the longterm and effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas.
Significant progress was also made towards the development of green value chains and the establishment of market linkages. This helped to deliver economic benefits to households and promoted biodiversity conservation by encouraging sustainable land management and restoration in production processes. Eleven functional cooperatives were established focusing on nature-based enterprises (fish farming, beekeeping, crop production, galla goat rearing, dairy production, and agroforestry). A suite of seven biodiversity-linked/nature-based income-generating activities (IGAs) was implemented, directly benefiting 5,045 (2369M, 2674F) households from nature-based livelihoods, earning USD 280,223, and products valued at USD 460,077 were consumed at household level. The capacity of 17,152 (8,370 males, 8,782 females) individuals drawn from four Community Forest Associations, five Water Resource Users Associations and 11 cooperatives was enhanced on FLR.
Equator Kenya Ltd, a private company, is already engaged in the chilli value chain. Discussions are ongoing with four potential companies (Afritec Seeds Limited, Burton & Bamber Co Ltd, Kilifi Moringa, OLVEASimsim) to invest in other value chains. Accessibility to benefits associated with green value chains strengthened community resilience, enhancing their adaptive capacity to cope with the negative impacts of climate change.
During 2023, 101,971 Ha was put under participatory forest management with the completion of four Participatory Forest Management Plans for Chara, Kipini, Kilelengwani, and Ozi forests. In addition, Community Forest Associations (CFAs) negotiated and signed forest management agreements with the Kenya Forest Service for four forests.
Developing green value chains has fostered an environment conducive to restoration and biodiversity conservation in production systems, significantly contributing to the project’s objectives.
