Riparian forests
Across the whole Rift Valley, riparian forests provide highly valuable ecosystem services in resource-scarce landscapes. No wonder that riparian biotopes are siege of a permanent conflict between livelihood supporting activities and the preservation of natural ecosystem features.
In the Lake Naivasha Basin, the health of riparian forests is closely tied to processes that také place in continguous terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This property of riparian biotopes recalls what ecologists call an „ecotone“: a distinctive biotope representing a boundary between two different ecosystem types. Ecotones, such as riparian forests, are distinct from both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, however they can only persist in the close proximity of both. Animals and plants found in riparian ecotones are a mixture of species found in the adjacent ecosystems and a number of species that can be considered ecotone specialists. Defined as a meeting ground of different species, ecotones often have higher biodiversity than each of the adjacent ecosystems.
In the Naivasha Basin, the status of stream corridors and of lake riparian forests is closely tied to important regulatory services, such as water quality, mitigation of climatic extremes and biodiversity preservation. These properties derive from the permanent proximity to water in a landscape that is subject to high average temperature and solar irradiance which, at the same time, has to withstand highly seasonal rainfall.
The protection and restoration of vegetated stream corridors and of the lake riparian forest are key priorities of livelihood support and nature conservation initiatives combined.
