Regulating Property Rights to Ensure Sustainable Management of Wetlands in Kenya

Abstract

This study explores the linkages between property rights and the conservation and wise use of wetlands in Kenya. The aim is to demonstrate that existing property rights regimes and rules for their regulation do not engender conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands. The study argues that even at the international level, laws developed for wetlands management, although urging for conservation and wise use, do not appreciate andaddress the property and conservation nexus. Wetlands are one of the most important yet threatened ecosystems in the world currently. Despite progress from the early positions when they were viewed as useless, mosquito infested and breeding grounds, whose utility could only arise from their conversion to more productive uses like agriculture to current appreciation that wetlands have unique attributes and perform varied important services to the ecosystem and are source of unique goods, they continue to be degraded and lost at alarming rates. The problem that the study responds to is how property rights can be regulated to ensure conservation and wise use of wetlands in Kenya. This is done against the background that despite the existence of an international legal framework, The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as regards Waterfowl Habitat, coupled by an array of laws and policies at the national level, wetlands destruction in Kenya continues unabated. The study argues that land owners will only comply with conservation imperatives, in the case of wetlands, if either compelled by law or given appropriate incentives. The critical question, therefore, is what the appropriate linkage should be, in the Kenyan context, between property rights protection and wise and sustainable use of wetlands. What juridical tools and frameworks can be applied to regulate property rights in land so as to guarantee the conservation and wise use of wetlands in Kenya while protecting rights of holders of the property? The thesis was largely based on library research, relying on books, articles and journals.................