Description
Title: RESTORING DEGRADED RIPARIAN AND WETLAND ECOSYSTEMS IN KENYA THROUGH NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS AND COMMUNITY STEWARDSHIP
Benjamin Kinyili
Kenyatta University
Email: kinyilibm@gmail.com Telephone: +254723393737
ABSTRACT
Background: Kenya’s riparian corridors and wetlands regulate floods, filter pollutants, recharge water systems, conserve biodiversity, and sustain local livelihoods. These functions are increasingly weakened by encroachment, vegetation removal, cultivation, waste disposal, altered river flows, and climate-related droughts and floods. Restoration programmes often emphasize short-term tree planting, yet ecological recovery depends on restoring hydrology, native vegetation, and community stewardship together.
Objective: This review examines how nature-based solutions and locally anchored stewardship can improve the ecological integrity and long-term governance of degraded riparian and wetland ecosystems in Kenya.
Methods: A narrative review synthesized peer-reviewed studies, Kenyan environmental and water regulations, restoration guidance and documented community initiatives published between 2015 and August 2026. Evidence was organized around degradation pressures, restoration practices, community participation, governance, and monitoring.
Results: The synthesis indicates that effective restoration combines riparian demarcation, assisted natural regeneration, enrichment planting with indigenous species, erosion control, wetland revegetation, pollution prevention and protection of hydrological connectivity. Survival and continuity improve when communities participate in site diagnosis, species selection, nursery production, maintenance, benefit-sharing, and locally agreed enforcement. Persistent constraints include insecure boundaries, fragmented institutional mandates, inadequate post-planting care, weak ecological baselines and limited monitoring of vegetation survival, water quality and livelihood outcomes. A catchment-based model linking public agencies, landholders, community forest associations, and local institutions offers a more durable pathway than isolated planting campaigns.
Conclusion: Riparian and wetland restoration should be treated as a long-term social-ecological process. Kenya can strengthen resilience by financing maintenance, using measurable ecological indicators, securing community stewardship agreements, and integrating restored buffer zones into catchment and land-use planning.
Keywords: Assisted natural regeneration; community stewardship; Nature-based solutions; Riparian buffers; Wetlands
| Title | Title: RESTORING DEGRADED RIPARIAN AND WETLAND ECOSYSTEMS IN KENYA THROUGH NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS AND COMMUNITY STEWARDSHIP |
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