The government and environmentalists have been challenged to step up efforts to address increasing human encroachment on wetlands in Kenya.
This follows concerns that the encroachment of wetlands was negatively affecting breeding of Cranes, one of the endangered birds specifies in Africa.
According to International Crane Foundation (ICF) East Africa Researcher and Specialist Maurice Ogoma, Cranes breed in wetlands, but with increasing agricultural activities in the areas, it puts their existence at a risk.
“People have encouraged those areas and they are doing agriculture in the wetlands affecting the Cranes breeding sites,” notes Ogoma.
He further reveals that some of the chemicals used in the agricultural practices in the wetlands end up poisoning the Cranes.
“There is a general lack of awareness on the Cranes which leads to people chasing them away. Many believe cranes feed on their grains as well as maize shoots and this creates human conflict,” adds the ICF researcher.
Ogoma further points out that for the last 10 years, there has been a significant drop in the number of Cranes in the country.
A last census of the cranes was done in 2019 which put the number of the unique birds that have been one of the tourist attractions at a paltry 7,000.
“It is almost an 80 percent drop of numbers compared to what was recorded 10 to 30 years back,” said the Crane’s specialist.
Bird ringing
But in an effort to ensure the existing Cranes do not disappear for good, ICF has been conducting periodical bird rigging in areas the bird are usually found.
One of those areas is Uasin Gishu County.
Currently, the foundation in partnership with Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) is conducting the bird ringing exercise in the county.
The exercise that sees the 10 to 14 weeks old Cranes placed with a metallic or plastic rings started in May 2022, and is expected to come to an end in April 2023.
“Rigging helps reduce movement of cranes, discovers if the cranes are threatened and also helps in research activities,” Ogoma said.
“We collect biometrics of the chicks which are used over time to understand dynamics of the biometrics on the cranes,” he adds.
