At the wider ecosystem level, the
programme’s fourth objective focuses on the threats to
the Mara River, whose catchment forests are coming
under increasing pressure from human activities, especially in the
Mau Escarpment. While addressing these issues is outside the direct
mandate of MMNR managers, in view of their potentially devastating
consequences for the Reserve’s ecology, the Programme
includes management actions for the managers to collaborate in and
support wider efforts to address these issues.
The trans-boundary Mara River Basin covers 13,834
km2 (65 percent of which is in Kenya). The 395 km-long Mara River
is the principal perennial river in the Mara-Serengeti Ecosystem,
and rises in the Mau Escarpment at around 2,932 m, from where it
flows through the MMNR and the Serengeti National Park to an
altitude of 1,134 m where it enters Lake Victoria. The
river’s main perennial tributaries are the Amala and the
Nyangore Rivers, which drain from the western Mau escarpment, and
the Sand and Talek Rivers, which rise in the Siana and Loita Hills
respectively. The Mara River is the primary, and occasionally the
only, dry-season source of water in the MMNR and Serengeti National
Park, and the survival of the large mammal migrations in their
current form, and the vast majority of wildlife within the MMNR,
depend on seasonal access to the river, especially during periodic
droughts.
However, over recent years the river’s flow
has become increasingly seasonal and unpredictable, primarily due
to deforestation in its forest catchments and intensifying water
extraction along its course. Digital analysis of remote sensing
images has showed that between 1973 and 2000, forests and shrubland
in the Mara River Basin have reduced by 32 percent and 34 percent
respectively. In addition, simulation results have shown that 2000
land cover data produces higher flood peaks and faster travel times
compared to the 1973 land cover data26. It appears likely that
increased effluent discharge from a variety of sources is also
seriously impacting on the quality of the water the river contains.
The importance of the Mara River has been recognised by a number of
organisations that have initiated projects in the catchment area.
These include the recently initiated COMIFORM project focused on
improving management of the Mau Forest, and the ongoing USAID and
WWF supported projects aimed at improving water management in the
catchment area.
In order to address these issues, and help
maintain sufficient provision of unpolluted water to the MMNR, four
management actions have been developed. These are elaborated in
detail in the following sections.
