Mapping The Flooding Of Lake Nakuru National Park And Its Effects On Resident Wildlife

Abstract

Lake Nakuru National Park (LNNP) was established in 1961 and is a world-famous conservation area. Initially, it only encompassed Lake Nakuru and the adjacent mountainous vicinity, but was extended to include a large part of the surrounding savannahs. Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valley soda lakes at an elevation of 1,760 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l) and it lies between Bahati Escarpment in the east and the Mau Escarpment in the west as observed by (Montcoudiol, et al., 2019). Lake Nakuru National Park forms a perimeter buffer to protect the lake from intrusion by outsiders. Being the first park to be fenced all round in the country, LNNP became a closed island ecosystem as observed by (Shah, 2016). Until recently the lake had an abundance of algae which attracted a vast number of flamingos that famously lined the shore. The lake Nakuru National Park watershed has plenty of vegetation and includes gazetted forests such as Mau, Eburu and Dundori forests. The Mau Forest consists of plantations and indigenous trees and is part of the Mau complex that covers an area of 650 km2. Eburu Forest consists of indigenous tree species covering an area of 87.36 km2 to the south of the lake while Dundori Forest in the eastern covers an area of 69.56 km2 as observed by (Shah, 2016). The climate, evolutionary history and geography have influenced progressions of characteristics and features that describe Lake Nakuru National Park as observed by (Mbote, et al., 2018). The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1990 and 2002 declared the park a Ramsar site and a World Heritage park respectively. The park supports a wide ecological diversity with flamingos and other water birds being the major attractions. The ecosystem provides for over 300 plant species; 50 different species of mammals; and a variety of terrestrial birds numbering more than 450 species as observed by (Shah, 2016). The park greenery cover comprises areas of marshland and grasslands with bushy woodland in the rocky cliffs. The park has the euphorbia forest dominated by Euphorbia candelabrum on the eastern side and acacia woodland immediately around the lake shore which is dominated by Acacia 2 xanthophlea as observed by (Shah, 2016). There has been floods in LNNP since 2010 as observed by (Huho, et al., 2014).This has led to submerging in water of some important park infrastructures such as roads and buildings including the park headquarters affecting the normal park operations. 1.2 Problem Statement Lake Nakuru National Park (LNNP) is a fully enclosed ecosystem by a comprehensive perimeter fence constructed to control wildlife movements and mitigate human wildlife conflicts. The park was experiencing flooding that has changed the land cover in the Lake Nakuru ecosystem. With floods submerging critical wildlife home ranges, leading to a congregation of wildlife into smaller areas. This led to increased trampling of wildlife species, spread of invasive plant species and the likelihood of wildlife breaking the perimeter fence to search for suitable habitats, introduction of some diseases such as anthrax that killed some buffalos as observed by (Edebe, et al., 2020). The water level in the park was so high that buildings including the park headquarters and some roads were submerged and rendered unusable as observed by (Penney, 2015). The floods reduced water salinity affecting the growth of the blue-green algae which was flamingos’ main food source. The impact was that the flamingos that take the largest proportion of tourist attraction in the park flew to other parts of the continent in search of food hence reducing their population in LNNP. There was a threat to the survival of the wildlife due to vegetation decline as the flood uprooted the shallow-rooted acacia trees which the herbivorous animals in the park feed on. This led to wildlife congregating in limited areas. Further, the Nakuru town had an increase in human population and urban development around the park as was observed by (Penney, 2015). This led to water pollution as run off from Nakuru town mixes with raw sewage from the municipal treatment works facility. The effect was that some wildlife such as water fowl and fish died affecting wildlife population in the park (Waithaka, et al., 2020). Largely, the main causes of the floods, from problem analysis, included poor flood management due to lack of reference to support decision making as well as inadequate skills in watershed management; lack of adequate 3 skills in GIS and Remote Sensing; poor farming methods; lack of riverine vegetation; and deforestation in catchment areas as observed by (Penney, 2015).