Incentivizing Private Landowners for the Sustainable Management of Wetlands in Kenya: a Case of Nyando Wetland

Abstract

The private land tenure system empowers landowners to exercise autonomy over their land, a situation that has somehow promoted the dominant belief that the utility of wetlands can only be realized by converting them to more productive uses like agricultural production. Private landowners perceive laws and tools meant to promote conservation needs as an infringement on their property rights. Despite the existence of the doctrines of eminent domain and police power as tools for regulating property rights, wetlands in private lands and those adjacent to such lands are continuously degraded as people convert them for agriculture, industrial uses, and human habitation. Nyando wetland is a classic example of the wetlands in Kenya that face serious degradation from private landowners who encroach and convert parts of it for agricultural purposes. The private tenure system has therefore encouraged activities that continue to jeopardize the ecological characteristics of the wetland an indication that there is a need to explore incentives to ensure its sustainable utilization and exploitation. This research investigated how private landowners can be incentivized to ensure that wetlands in Kenya are sustainably managed. The study’s objectives were to analyze the extent to which Kenya’s legal framework advocates for the use of incentives in the conservation of wetlands; examine challenges that private landowners in Nyando have faced with the current tools for regulating private property rights; analyze the incentives that can be used to encourage private landowners in Nyando to conserve Nyando Wetland and draw experiences and lessons from other jurisdictions on approaches that can be used to incentivize private landowners to ensure the sustainable management of wetlands. The study was conducted in the villages of Kakola-Ombaka location in the Nyando sub-county. Through purposive sampling, a total of 48 villagers and 8 key informants were selected for the study. Data was collected through key informant interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). The data was then analyzed through content analysis. The findings presented in this study show that private landowners in Kakola-Ombaka engage in unsustainable activities among them overfishing, overharvesting of papyrus reeds, cultivating on the river banks leading to soil erosion and loss of biodiversity. The landowners revealed that they engage in these unsustainable activities due to the deepening poverty that characterizes the Nyando area as well as debilitating floods that destroy their property. As a result, they felt that conservation was too expensive and thus they exploited the wetland resources. Building from the reinforcement theory of motivation, the findings affirmed that private landowners can be pulled towards sustainably managing wetlands by providing them with financial incentives such as loans, stipends, and bursaries for children from child-led families and by providing them with alternative sources of income. This study recommends that to successfully adopt the incentives such as financial incentives in wetland management, there is a need to entrench them into the existing wetland laws, regulations, and policy for successful implementation. The government through its lead agencies should also ensure that private landowners appreciate the value of wetlands through education and awareness programs so that they can willingly take part in conservation.