Conservation and management of wetland biodiversity in the Tana River Delta, Kenya. | Conservation of Biodiversity in Africa - Local Initiatives and Institutional Roles. Proceedings of the conference held at the National Museums of Kenya 30 August - 3 September, 1992 .

Biodiversity is the great variety of plant and animal life that interacts with the physical environment. Africa supports an amazingly high biodiversity; parts of southern Africa boast the highest plant species-richness in the world. Biodiversity richness in Africa is exemplified in the varied habitats of the Tana River Delta. The Tana River is the largest river in Kenya with mean annual flow of around 180 m super(3)/s. Its delta begins near Garsen where a series of old river channels fan out in a delta-like shape to reach the coast some 50 km eastward in Ungwana Bay. It is the largest delta in Kenya and covers an area of about 130,000 ha. Encompassing a number of different habitats in contiguity, the Tana River Delta is unique and has a very high biodiversity. It maintains its biodiversity and high levels of productivity in a dynamic balance that revolves around, and is strongly influenced by, the timing, extent and duration of flooding. Vertical and horizontal water circulation transports nutrients, influences a wide variety of habitat types, flushes away wastes, controls salinity, and disperses and nurtures larval stages of aquatic organisms. The Delta's habitats include: coastal waters with coral gardens and seagrass beds, sand-dune forests, mangrove forests, palm forests, riverine and floodplain forests, tidal and freshwater wetlands, and grassland and bushland associations. These diverse habitats maintain vast numbers of wild herbivores, nesting sites for endangered marine turtles and habitat for dugongs, while the riverine forests support two endemic and endangered subspecies of primates: the Tana River Red colobus and the Tana River crested mangabey. Traditional land use practices of small-scale agriculture, pastoralism and fishing have maintained the ecological balance of the Tana Delta for thousand of years. Because biodiversity is so closely intertwined with human needs, its conservation should be rightly be considered an element of national, ecological security. This is now threatened by ill-conceived and unsustainable development projects in the upper catchment and at the delta.

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