Assessing community participation in the strategic environmental assessment and land use plan of Yala Wetland ecosystem, Lake Victoria, Kenya

Abstract

Effective community participation in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Land Use Planning (LUP) is key to wetlands’ sustainable management. Yala Wetland key challenges of land and water resource use for competing interests prompted Siaya and Busia County Governments to initiate preparation a LUP/SEA to resolve these and enable it to sustainably support local residents’ livelihoods and protect its ecological integrity. A LUP/SEA Framework with Yala Project Advisory Committee for local communities guided the planning process and implementation. Concurrently, an action research was conducted to assess community participation, identify the local communities’ key environmental issues, and incorporate them in the SEA/LUP outcomes. Research data came from 410 respondents from 60 local community groups, 34 key informant interviews; 187 students and satellite images. The study revealed that the utilization of Yala resources had been partly informed by how the wetland communities perceive its formation, communities managed the wetland ecosystem using various indigenous knowledge systems that promoted wise utilization and concern for the other users, satellite images analysis corroborated some communities’ findings, absence of community sensitive governance structures in wetland’s management. The study integrated local communities’ vast knowledge and planning information in the final LUP and facilitated formation of Yala Swamp Management Committee with communities at the centre of conservation. Therefore, improvements to sustainably manage Yala wetland ecosystem has to embed community participation in all stages from planning, implementation to evaluation. These missing pieces have since been incorporated in the final Yala LUP and Indigenous Community Conservation Area Management Plan 2019-2029.