Concept of Ecological Monitoring Crop Monitoring and Rangeland

Concept of Ecological Monitoring Crop Monitoring, and Rangeland Information Needs Jaspat Agatsiva Department of Resources and Remote Sensing (DRSRS), Ministry of Environment, Mineral Resources, P. O. Box 47146 - 100, Tel: 6009013/27, Fax: 6009705, Nairobi E=mail: jagatsiva@yahoo. co. uk CRAM WORKSHOP 26 TH SEPTEMBER 2011, RCMRD, NAIROBI

Principles of Inventorying and Monitoring Natural Resources Long-term environmental change and its ecological effects; • Response to a changing management factor such as drainage, grazing or agricultural intensification; • Rate of change such as decline of rare species or habitat eg rate of change of the transitional areas of the dry subhumid areas from rangelands into cultivation; • The effectiveness of a form of management eg grazing system; • Long-term environmental change in the drylands of Africa under the different national resource management regines and using various parameters, factors and indicators. •

Key Terms to note in Ecological Monitoring Ecosytems; Ecosystems services; Ecosystems dynamics Habitats; Niche; Animal Habitats; Ecological Processes; Temporal Aspects; Spatial Aspects; Spectral Aspects Land Use Conflicts; Conflict Resolution Biodiversity; Animal Numbers & distribution Vegetation Condition & Trends in animal numbers Endangered Species Threatened Species Rare Species Invasive Species Indicator Species

INSTITUTIONAL CAPABILITIES FOR RANGELAND SURVEYS

An efficient and well established Air Services Wing The Unit should cater for operations and maintenance of the Institution's aircraft services. It is essential as most of the data is collected using such planes, proper equipment and service should be maintained. Wildlife/livestock surveys - Animal population numbers - Spatial distributions - Land cover/land use - Human habitation · Aerial photography - Land cover/use mapping - Biomass production - Forest cover mapping - Land Degradation Mapping ·

METHODS n Animal Census • • 120 m (400 ft) n 2. 5 n 12 Km 2 m n n 5 Km Aerial Surveys: Systematic reconnaissance flights methodology (Norton-Griffiths, 1978) Analysis: Jolly (1969) for statistics; Geographic Information System (GIS) for spatial mapping of population distribution, statistical packages (SPSS, Systat)

Key Assets of such an Institution 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Low level light engine aircraft for aerial surveys and remote sensing. Fleet of eight (8) four-wheel drives vehicles for fieldwork. Well equipped GIS lab with modern Geo-information systems (GIS) software (Arc. View, Arc/Info, Arc. GIS, Erdas Imagine, Geo. Vis and Ilwis). The hardware include two (2) Sun Solaris (Unix) workstations, three (3) servers and 20 PC systems, AO digitizers (2), plotters (2), printers (10), scanners (2), internet and desktop publishing. Specialized library with books, journals and periodicals drawn from thematic areas covered including remote sensing, aerial photography and GIS. A wide array of cameras including aerial mapping cameras, ordinary survey cameras and digital video camera.

Key Assets Cont’d 6. 7. Rich databases of ecological, land use, forestry, vegetation, wildlife, livestock and environmental information, with relevant scientific and technical publications reports in its area of competence. Herbaria with more than 3000 specimens backed by a plant database of more than 650, 000 collections from EAH. GIS DATABANK EXAMPLES FROM KENYA 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Wildlife/livestock numbers and distribution, human settlement and related environmental parameters in the Kenya rangeland districts (1977 – 2002) Land cover map of Kenya by districts (2000) – FAO Africover database Spot 4 (1 km resolution) – 1998 - 2001 NDVI (1 km resolution) – 1993 - 98 (recent data also available) NDVI (8 km resolution) – 1981 - present Landsat TM – 1999 – present Human population distribution (1989, 1999 and 2009) Basemaps – Kenya districts boundary, wetlands, roads, rivers, parks & game reserves, agro-ecological zones, elevation, topography, 3 D among others

Must have required Personnel Strength The Institution must have optimum staff members in required areas. The Professional and Technical staff should be qualified and specialized with a bias in applied Geo-spatial Information tools for data acquisition and modeling. This involves: Remote Sensing, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to map land resources (forestry and vegetation cover, wildlife and livestock population distribution, human settlements, water resources, crop forecasting and land use, natural resources management and resource economics).

Types of Imagery Used for Monitoring Crops and Rangelands

Mau Forest Kenya in years 2002 & 2003 n n DRSRS - Kenya 2002 n 2003 11

NDVI variation within the same period in Isiolo District (1995 – 1998) 1 – 10 Mar 1995 (normal) 1 – 10 Mar 1996 (drought) 1 – 10 Mar 1997 (high rainfall) 1 – 10 Mar 1998 (El-Nino)

Land cover/use systems The categories of land cover/use systems are used to illustrate the expected potential for carbon sequestration from a change in system management (e. g. intensification or extensification) or upon conversion from one category to another. Table 1: Land-use categories recognized in FAO's world census of agriculture (FAO, 1986, 1995 a; FAO/UNEP, 1999). Sequence of increasing intensity of use 1. Deserts (barren land waste land) 2. Non-forest wooded lands (scrubland; may include national parks and wilderness recreational areas) 3. Wetlands, non-forest (marshes) 4. Land under forest (natural forests and most nonmanaged woodlands) Equivalents – – Wetlands Forest land

Land cover/use systems 4. Land under forestry/silviculture 5. Land under shifting cultivation (temporarily abandoned land that is not part of a holding) 6. Land under agroforestry (permanent use of land at holding level, but with mixed crop growing, animal herding, and tree utilization) 7. Land with temporary fallow (resting for a period of time, less than 5 years, before it is planted again with annual crops) 8. Land under permanent meadows and pastures [used for herbaceous forage crops that are either managed/cultivated (pastures) or growing wild (grazing land); trees and shrubs may be present or grown purposely, but foraging is the most important use of the area; grazed woodlands] 9. Land under temporary meadows and pastures (cultivated temporarily, for less than 5 years, for herbaceous forage crops, mowing, or pasturing, in alternation with arable cropping) Forest land Agroforestry land Cropland Rangeland/Grasslands

Land cover/use systems 10. Land under permanent crops (perennials; cultivated with longterm crops that do not have to be replanted for several years after each harvest; harvested components are not timber but fruits, fibre and other products that do not significantly harm the growth of the planted trees or shrubs: grapes, avocado, mango, oranges, vineyards, coffee, tea, sisal, etc. ) 11. Land under temporary crops (annuals; cultivated with crops with growing cycle of under 1 year, which must be newly sown or planted for further production after harvesting; not only small grain crops such as beets, wheat, and soy bean but also bi-annuals that are destroyed at harvesting as cassava, yams and sugarcane; bananas are transitional to permanent crops category) Agroforestry land Cropland 12. Land under temporary crops requiring wetland conditions [wet foot crops such as irrigated rice and jute (dry-foot crops with intermittent irrigation included in other categories)] Wetlands 13. Land under protective cover (greenhouses and other urban or peri-urban intensive use, formal or informal; vegetable growing, home gardening, residential parks, golf courses, etc. ) Peri-urban land 14. Land under residential/industrial/transportation facilities Peri-urban land

AGRO-ECOLOGICAL ZONES Kenya can be divided into seven ago-ecological zone based on the vegetation cover characteristics, amount and reliability of rainfall, and land ecological potential (Sombroek et al. , 1982). High to medium potential areas comprise eco-climatic zones I, II, III and IV, which receives an annual rainfall of over 800 mm. - Marginal or low potential areas comprise eco-climatic zones V, VI and VII, which constitute the arid and semi-arid lands or rangelands. They are generally hot and dry with erratic rainfall, often below 600 mm annually. -

The diversity of climatic condition and landform in East Africa lead to diversity of the vegetation cover and land use. Rainfall is the most important form of precipitation, whose occurrence determines the distinct wet and dry seasons characterized by most climatic patterns in the country. Land cover/land use is generally influenced by many factors including climate and soils modified by time and physiographic changes. Extraneous environmental factors such as fires, grazing intensity and agricultural activities, etc may also have profound effects in the site potential, evolution of many species and land cover types (Pratt and Gwynne 1977).

The semi-arid and arid lands in Kenya or rangelands cover almost 85% of the country but accommodates around 28% of the total human population (mainly the pastoral and seminomadic communities). It also supports more than 50% of the livestock population (GOK 1994) and between 80 -90% of large wildlife population. In contrast to the rangelands, the high to medium potential areas occupies the remaining 15% of the land surface and supports 72% of the human population.

Wildlife and livestock distribution in the Kenya rangelands

Land cover of Kenya Fig 3. Land cover of Kenya based on the Africover Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) from Land. Sat TM (2000) images. The dominant cover classes are: open low shrubs (65 -40% crown cover) occupies 32% and shrub savannah (17%) of the total surface area.

Narok District

Narok District Code Land cover type CHV Closed herbaceous veg. on permanently flooded land CSH Closed shrubs COTS Closed to open trees & shrubs on temporarily flood land COW Closed to open woody vegetation (thicket) CT Closed trees FP Forest plantation - undifferentiated IRHC Isolated (natural veg or other) Rainfed herbaceous crop NW Natural waterbodies OLS Open low shrubs (65 -40% crown cover) OS Open shrubs (45 -40% crown cover) OCHV Open to closed herbaceous vegetation OCHT Open to closed herbaceous veg. on temporarily flooded OT Open trees (65 -40% crown cover) RHC Rainfed herbaceous crop RSC Rainfed shrub crop SRHC Scattered (natural veg / other) Rainfed herbaceous crop SRSC Scattered (in natural veg / other) Rainfed shrub crop SS Shrub savannah SPS Sparse shrubs TSS Trees and shrubs savannah UA Urban and associated areas, rural settlements VOT Very open trees (40 -15% crown cover)

Are these land use activities sustainable with the ever growing population?

Land degradation

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n 31 st August 2010 32

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