KU Koech – IAIA-27 THE 27 TH IAIA CONFERENCE- 2007, SEOUL, KOREA IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF KENYA’S BIODIVERSITY AND AGRICULTURE: CONTRIBUTIONS OF METEOROLOGICAL SERVICES By: Prof. Michael K.Koech Department of Environmental Sciences, Kenyatta University P. O. Box 43844, Nairobi Kenya, Tel: 254 (020) ; Fax: 254 (020) P. O. Box 43844, Nairobi Kenya, Tel: 254 (020) ; Fax: 254 (020) ‘Prof 1

KU Koech – IAIA-27 Contents  Kenya’s Biodiversity and Agriculture  Linkages between Climate, Biodiversity and Agriculture  Impacts of Climate on Biodiversity and Agriculture  Contributions of Meteorology to Impact Assessment of Biodiversity and Agriculture  Recommendations 2

KU Koech – IAIA-27 Kenya’s Biodiversity and Agriculture Biodiversity  Kenya has an estimated 35,000 known species of plants, animals and micro- organisms.  Plays important role in the present and future development - Tourism is a key foreign exchange earner.  Kenya has five most important forests ecosystems referred to as “water towers”, namely Mau Forest Mt. Elgon, Mt. Kenya, Aberdares and Cherangani forests 3

KU Koech – IAIA-27 Kenya’s Biodiversity and Agriculture Biodiversity (Cont’)  Under threat from human activities - habitat loss, over-exploitation, local air and water pollution; and the introduction of exotic species 4

KU Koech – IAIA-27 Kenya’s Biodiversity and Agriculture Agriculture  Like tourism, agricultural sector is key to Kenya’s economy. it is currently the leading foreign exchange earner.  Agricultural biodiversity provide ecological services such as nutrient cycling, decomposition of organic matter, maintenance of soil fertility, pollination, pest and disease regulation. 5

KU Koech – IAIA-27 Linkages between Climate, Biodiversity and Agriculture  There exists complex inter-relationship between climate, biodiversity and agriculture/ human activities.  Climatic condition in a given locality determines its biodiversity and the kind of agricultural activity to be undertaken. eg. Arid and Semi arid fauna and flora, temperate fuana and flora, rainfed agriculture, irrigation agriculture.  Alteration to biodiversity which can be through agriculture or any other human activity affect the climatic conditions of a locality. 6

KU Koech – IAIA-27 Impacts of Climate on Biodiversity and Agriculture  A cyclic pattern of drought episodes with return periods of 6-10 years emerges in most districts in Kenya. In recent years, critical drought experienced throughout the country were in 1984, 1994 and  The vegetation indices (VI) data from NOAA AVHRR and other meteorology satellites provide conditions, intensities and duration of droughts in different ecological regions. 7

KU Koech – IAIA-27 Impacts of Climate on Biodiversity and Agriculture 8

KU Koech – IAIA-27 Contributions of Meteorology to Impact Assessment of Biodiversity and Agriculture  The description of the baseline information for most proposed projects constitutes climatic data such as; rainfall, temperature, humidity and sunshine.  Meteorological data are also utilized in the prediction of anticipated impacts of a proposed projects. 9

KU Koech – IAIA-27 Contributions of Meteorology to Impact Assessment of Biodiversity and Agriculture (Cont’)  Meteorological services can provide relevant information such as location, size, wind speeds, temperature for monitoring phenomena such as fire and locust invasion that threatens both biodiversity and agriculture  Using multiple satellite sensors, active fires are identified, displayed through web based GIS and combined with additional ancillary datasets for rapid management of fires. 10

KU Koech – IAIA-27 Contributions of Meteorology to Impact Assessment of Biodiversity and Agriculture (Cont’) ACTIVE FIRES (2001) 1km Resolution MODIS active fire detections (red spots) super- imposed on MODIS 16 day NDVI MODIS 11

KU Koech – IAIA-27 Recommendations  The Government of Kenya needs to provide meteorological data/information to the public at affordable cost  There is need for Kenya Meteorological Department to resume weather forecasting through electronic media (TV, KBC) news as it was done in the past.  KMD to utilize current techniques and technologies of data recording and processing so that they can provide reliable and accurate information for use in Impact Assessment studies and other uses. 12

KU Koech – IAIA-27 END OF PRESENTATION THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION !!! 13