MST-Department of Environmental Science

Permanent URI for this community

https://repository.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/256

Browse

Browsing MST-Department of Environmental Science by Author "Ayub M. N."

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Utillization and Conservation of below-ground Biodiversity in Gatunduri and Kibugu Divisions of Embu District:Analysis of Policy Framework
    (Kenyatta University, 2011-10-27) Oduor, C. A.; Samuel C. J.; Ayub M. N.; Okoth P.
    Below-ground biodiversity (BGBD) in respect to soil organisms has not been given a specific schedule in the policy and legal framework of Kenya. This omission was mainly due to lack of awareness and appreciation among stakeholders. Soil organisms are useful in the broader aspect of environment and natural resources. In this regard, there is need to safeguard them with a clearly defined and comprehensive policy. Currently, there is no specific policy and legislation in the country that governs the use and conservation of BGBD. The sectoral laws that are supposed to outline the use of BGBD have no such provisions. Such laws are the Agriculture Act, the Plant protection Act, the Forest Act, the Pesticides Control Act, and even the most recently enacted umbrella environmental Act, namely, the Environmental Management and Coordination Act (EMCA).This study, therefore, reviewed these pieces of legislation in relation to BGBD. The goal of the study was to contribute to the enhancement of soil biodiversity and sustained utilization of its components in Kenya through an improved policy framework. Two main themes addressed by the study include land use change and intensities and appropriate policy framework for utilization and conservation of soil organisms. Three groups of stakeholders (120 farmers, 30 scientists and 12 research and private institutions dealing with BGBD) were issued with questionnaires to obtain information about their experiences with BGBD. The study with farmers was done in Gatunduri and Kibugu divisions in Embu District while the one with scientists and institutions was done in Nairobi and Embu. Farmers were selected through systematic random sampling so as to obtain diverse views across the two divisions. Scientists and institutions were selected through purposive sampling. Interviews with key informants on specific issues resulted in data analyzed using a Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS). Lack of awareness and appreciation of the importance of BGBD among farmers was found to be a dominant factor. It is therefore, important that such farmers are first of all educated before drawing their attention to policy implementation. Scientists and institutions dealing with soil organisms worked without strictly adhering to any guidelines especially in regard to Material Transfer Agreements and Material Acquisition Agreements. This was particularly when they felt that the numbers of BGBD involved in transfers, acquisitions and exchanges were small. BGBD was mainly valued for its use in research rather than for commercial purposes hence BGBD is not appreciated for its values in other aspects of the environment. Most institutions had various articles of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) to adhere to but were not implementing such guidelines due to lack of clear directives on how to implement the same at national and sectoral levels. This calls for the need for proper domestication of international conventions and treaties to an implementable status. It was also found that some of the relevant Acts of Parliament were formulated without policy documents hence the need to formulate policies first. In this regard, most Acts were reviewed in this study rather than policies. In a nutshell, there is limited knowledge on below-ground biodiversity and its functions among diverse stakeholders. It is therefore, important that such stakeholders are educated first for them to participate in the formulation of a policy that will guard below-ground bioversity.