Kenya pushing for three of its lakes to join the World Heritage Site list

Kenya has submitted Lakes Nakuru, Bogoria and Elementaita for inclusion in the prestigious Unesco World Heritage List, meaning that the country is likely to benefit from global conservation funds.

Being in the World Heritage List means that a cultural site or landscape has been recognised for its unique universal value to humankind.

Once listed, sites cease to be the property of the host country and become a global property.

Thus, if listed, the three lakes will receive funds from Unesco for conservation and protection of the Kenya Lakes System.

Kenya already has four sites in the World Heritage List: Lamu Stone Town, the Kaya Forests, Mt Kenya National Park and Lake Turkana National Park.

The three lakes provide unique biodiversity and sustain 75 per cent of the globally threatened population of the Lesser Flamingos, Lesser Kestrel and White-headed Vulture among others.

This exceeds the one per cent global threshold for congregations making the Kenya Lakes System a critical site for the conservation of Lesser Flamingos in the world.

Besides, the three lakes form an important stopover site for the migratory birds flying in from other sites in Europe, Asia and South Africa.

Thus, the system is part of global network of Important Bird Areas, migratory flyway and wetlands of global significance.

Besides, the zone supports significant populations of threatened mammal species like the black and white rhino, the African wild dog, lion, cheetah, and leopard.

However, a round trip of the three lakes reveals that human activities such as farming, destruction of forests, poaching and excessive exposure to tourists threaten these fragile ecosystems and call for elaborate conservation efforts.

Secondly, the local community around Lake Bogoria, the Endorois, are apprehensive that listing is tantamount to auctioning their natural resources.

As a result, they want evidence that they are likely to benefit from the listing.

The nomination is the first phase of a serial national and transnational nomination of sites within the Great Rift Valley covering several countries in the region.

Officially known as the Kenya Lakes System in the Great Rift Valley, they can be compared with the St. Lucia World Heritage site of South Africa.

The three are part of a system of lakes in the Eastern Rift Valley system that have a unique volcanic landscape, and share a common geological history, and associated ecological features.

Their heated geothermal waters contribute to the lake waters and result in unique aquatic habitats that supports unique assemblages of flora and fauna.

The current nomination of the Kenya Lakes System within the Great Rift Valley comprises three lakes that are ecologically, geologically and hydrologically inter-linked, and have a combined total core area of 32,034 hectares.

This includes the area covered by the water bodies of the three lakes, the riparian area of Lake Elementaita and the area covered by Lake Nakuru National Park and Lake Bogoria National Reserve.

Except for Bogoria, which has a maximum water depth of 13 metres, both Elementaita and Nakuru are shallow lakes with the deepest parts being 1.5 and three metres respectively; thus, environmentally-degrading human activities could lead to their drying up.

The Kenya Lakes System is not only geologically and hydrologically connected, but shares similar ecological zones, is an international bird area and is a key area of waterfowl of global importance, as well as Ramsar sites.

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance is an inter-governmental treaty that provides the framework for national and international co-operation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

The treaty was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971.

The museum and other stakeholders are confident that the three lakes will make it to the World Heritage List and earn the prestige and global significance they deserve, because the Kenya Lakes System combines geological and biological processes of exceptional natural beauty that is unmatched globally.

The three lakes are outstanding examples representing ongoing ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of saline lake ecosystems and communities of plants and animals.

Bird migration is a historical, biological and ecological process that represents adaptation of birds to seasonal changes in the environment as well as breeding cycles.

Breeding attempts by the Lesser Flamingos have been recorded in the three lakes although they are known to breed in Lake Natron in Tanzania.

The systematic annual and seasonal migration processes provide scientists with an evolutionary window to understand the evolution of adaptations by species for survival under extreme and variable environments.

The East African flamingo populations fly within the Rift Valley lakes in Kenya and Tanzania, breeding and feeding.

Lake Elementaita is a key breeding site of the Great White Pelican population.

Up to 8,000 pairs of Great White Pelican breed there when the water levels are high and the rocky outcrops in the eastern sector are flooded to form islets on which the birds can safely nest.

The presence of diverse aquatic communities of micro flora provide a stable food base for the Lesser Flamingo population.

They are an important component of the food chain and the overall ecology of the East African alkaline lakes system.

The extremophile bacteria found within the Kenya Lakes System has immense potential for the development of pharmaceutical products as well.

The three lakes have been internationally recognised as wetlands of international importance under the Convention on Wetlands 1971.

This recognition emphasises the importance of the proposed property as a priority area for conservation of unique and threatened species and habitats.

Under national law, Lake Elementaita is protected as a National Wildlife Sanctuary while Lake Nakuru is a National Park and Lake Bogoria is a National Reserve.

The three sites have additional protection as Ramsar sites.

The listing of the three sites as World Heritage Property would significantly enhance their ecological integrity and improve conservation status.