Nile Basin End User Workshop

ILE ASIN APACITY UILDING ETWORK N B C B N

Nile Ecosystems Valuation for Wise-Use

(Nile-Eco-VWU)

Regional training course on “Wetlands Ecosystems

nd th services and environmental flows”, 2 -5

November, 2015 Kampala, Uganda

2015

Funded By:

Kampala - Uganda, 2nd – 5th November, 2015 Nile Eco-VWU - Kickoff Workshop 2015

Table of Contents

1. Nile-Eco-VWU Project ...... 1 1.1 Introduction ...... 1 1.2 Course Organisation ...... 1 1.3 Course Objectives ...... 2 1.4 Programme ...... 2 1.5 Participants ...... 2 2. Training Course Progress ...... 2 3. Course Evaluation...... 9 4. Conclusions ...... 13

Kickoff Workshop 2015

1. Nile-Eco-VWU Project

1.1 Introduction NBCBN in coordination with Makerere University and its regional and international partner institutes developed a research proposal on: Nile Ecosystems valuation for wise Use (Nile Eco- VWU) which was submitted to CGIAR-WLE-Nile programme for funding. The proposal was accepted for funding in early December 2014 and implementation of activities started in January 2015 for a time frame of two years. This regional collaborative project aims to develop and test integrated tools for ecosystem services, valuation, and assessment that can be applied at local and regional scales within the Nile Basin.

The Nile-ECO-VWU is a collaborative research Project of 10 international and regional consortium member institutions and partners (including: NBCBN, Makerere University, Egerton University, UNESCO-Chair for water Resources of Sudan, Ain shams university, UNESCO-IHE, Delft and ITC- University of Twente, Netherlands, Szent István University-Hungary and Water- Cap/Kenya). The project started officially in January 2015 and expected to end by December 2016.

Ecosystem services are the benefits to people from nature. These benefits include food, water purification, carbon sequestration, soil stabilization, recreation, cultural values, among others. The contribution of natural ecosystems to these benefits is often un-quantified and unmeasured, but the value of such benefits is gradually becoming more apparent as human populations grow and the demand for natural resources increases. Ecosystems can provide for many human needs now and into the future. Ecosystems services are threatened by river regulation, with diversion of water from rivers causing considerable environmental costs, particularly to floodplains and downstream wetlands. Increasing realisation that river regulation negatively affects aquatic ecosystems, compromising ecosystem services flow from these ecosystems, has led to proactive environmental flow management for ecological outcomes. The environmental flows and water allocation of each river aims to ensure that the long-term average volume of water available to the environment is maintained (Arthington and Pusey, 2003, Reid and Brooks, 2000). Environmental flows fit well into multiple levels of the hierarchy of water management, ranging from international policy to river-scale flow management. Ecosystems sustained by environmental flows underpin many aspects of human well-being. Nevertheless, ecosystems and the water needed to sustain them are often not considered in the management of water resources. Wetland environmental water allocation differs from that of rivers in several aspects. Variability of water quantity in wetlands is associated with the presence of habitats. There is generally a close connection between water quantity and the spatial extent of wetland habitat. While the determination of environmental flows for rivers generally occurs at large scales, with the examination of entire river systems, environmental water allocations for wetlands may sometimes occur at much smaller spatial scales. To provide the required support to the research team members and build the capacities of the ecosystems professionals in the Nile basin, NBCBN in collaboration with Makerere University and UNESCO-IHE organized a regional training course on “Wetlands Ecosystems services and environmental flows”.

1.2 Course Organisation The training course was organized by the (NBCBN) as the Nile-Eco-VWU project coordinator and with the support of Makerere University as the local organizer. The meeting venue was Africana Hotel, Kampala, Uganda in the period from 2nd to 5th November 2015.

Nile Eco-VWU - Kickoff Workshop 2015

Organising Team

Dr. Amel M. Azab, Manager, NBCBN Dr. Al Sayed I. Diwedar, Deputy Manager, NBCBN Mrs. Nashwa Nader, Secretary &Financial Officer, NBCBN Mrs. Namitala Diana, Workshop Secretary 1.3 Course Objectives The project is designed to be an integrated capacity development programme focusing on both research and training activities. Therefore, a training programme was designed within this project to build capacity of researchers and practitioners in the field of wetlands ecosystems services and economic valuation.

The first regional training course of the training programme is on: “Wetlands Ecosystems services and environmental flows”. It is one of a series of four courses that will be organised under the Nile Eco-VWU project, with a main focus to strengthen the capacities of the project young research teams and other participants and water professionals from the Nile basin in wise wetlands ecosystems management and economic valuation.

By the end of this first course the participants should be able to:  Get Better understanding of the different wetlands ecosystems services with different case studies from the Nile Basin  Get a clear introduction on to the wetlands environmental flows and understand the difference between Rivers and Wetland environmental water allocation.  Learn the different methodologies to determine the wetlands environmental water allocations.  Get knowledge on the different uses of existing conceptual and mathematical models of Environmental Flows such as Environmental Flows Decision Support System (EFDSS). 1.4 Programme The programme was designed in a way to present to all participants the concepts of ecosystems services and environmental flow interaction and relationship. A field visit to one of the ramser sites in Uganda was executed; the site is MABAMBA BAY WETLAND. The main objective of this visit was to give more insight about how to link the wetlands services to the environmental flows. Annex (1) includes the programme. 1.5 Participants The participants in this training course were selected project research team members from Kenya, Uganda, Egypt and Ethiopia in addition to selected participants from the other Nile basin countries, in total 23 water professional attended this course.

2. Training Course Progress

Day 1 - Opening The training course started by welcome word from Prof. Kenneth Irvine, UNESCO-IHE, the main facilitator of the training course. After that, the course participants were introduced.

Day 1: The training course was started by a presentation on “Linking human impacts on aquatic ecosystems to ecosystem

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health and services” by Dr. Kenneth Irvine, this was followed by another presentation focusing on the aquatic ecosystems types titled “Types of aquatic ecosystems and associated pressures and stressors”.

A plenary session took place afterwards on the above presented topics, facilitated Dr. Kenneth Irvine.

After that Dr. Rebecca Tharme give a presentation to introduce the environmental floes titled “Introduction to environmental flows”, this was followed by another presentation on “Availability of present-day and historical data”. After that Dr. Rebecca Tharme discussed the data needed and limitation in her presentation titled “Preliminary presentation of future data needs, rationale and limitations”.

Day 2: This day started by recapping for day one by Dr. Kenneth Irvine, then Dr. Rebecca Tharme give a presentation on “Environmental flow methodologies”. The social process was discussed through the presentation of Mrs. Teddy Tindamanyire on “The social process and stakeholder dimensions of environmental flows”.

Dr. Rebecca Tharme focused on the environmental flows for different water systems in the presentation titled “Environmental flow methodologies for flowing and non- flowing water systems (rivers and floodplain wetlands, lakes, other wetlands)”.

This was followed by a discussion session on “main strengths and deficiencies of environmental flow methodologies for project study sites”, Facilitated by Dr. Kenneth Irvine and Dr. Rebecca Tharme

The afternoon session was started by presentation on “Basin scale flow management and decision support”, by Dr. Rebecca Tharme, after that an interactive session on “ecosystems services and environmental flows” took place, where the participants were divided to four groups working on five case studies. The session after that was dedicated to the discussion outputs, as illustrated below:

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 Mara wetland

 Nile Delta and Dinder Park

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 Kagera River basin

 Nakivobiu wetland

Day 3: Field Visit to Mabamba Bay Wetland This day started by an introduction session to the excursion site Mabamba Bay Wetland System, it is located west of Entebbe International Airport along the Lake Victoria shores and

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south of central Uganda, 35 kms south west of Kampala the capital city of Uganda. It is part of Waiya Bay south west of Nakiwogo Bay. It is situated in Wakiso District in the sub- county of Kasanje and Mpigi district in the sub-counties of Kamengo and Mpigi.

Mabamba Bay Wetland System is an extensive marsh stretching through a narrow and long bay fringed with papyrus towards the main body of Lake Victoria. The marsh is

dominated by Cyperus papyrus and Miscanthus sp occasioned with Loudetia phragmatoides. The system supports a lucrative fisheries activity and is therefore a source of fish for home consumption and commercial use. It is a source of raw material for local crafts, building materials, water for domestic and livestock use, as well as non-wood products.

Mabamba Bay Wetland System is the only swamp close to Kampala where one can easily find the globally threatened Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) anytime of the day. Mabamba Bay is part of the wetland system which supports approximately 38% of the global population of the Blue Swallow (Hirundo atrocaerulea). The system also supports one other globally threatened bird, the Papyrus Yellow Warbler; and other birds of global conservation concern.

The site is being proposed for listing because of its importance as part of the habitat that supports the Blue Swallow, a stopover for migratory birds, support to lucrative fisheries industry and the existence of globally threatened birds.

The participants were asked to analysis the ecosystems system and its environmental flow during this visit.

Day 4: Prof. Kenneth started the day by recapping on day three which was the field visit, where he tried to capture with the participants the most important notes from the visit related to the environmental flows and ecosystems services, and this could be concluded as below:

The main ecosystems services are for the site: 1. Open water 2. Floating vegetation 3. Ferns 4. Miscanthus 5. Papyrus

After that, Dr. Rebecca Tharme give presentation on “Implementation – what is involved?”. This was followed by an interactive session on “Policy context and implications for project”. The questions and the output of this session are listed below:

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Nominate one Stakeholders? 1. Communities 2. Local communities 3. Social society 4. Ministry of agriculture 5. Ministry of water resources and irrigation 6. Water resources managing authority 7. Ministry of water and environment 8. Makerere university and other universities responsible 9. Wild life ministry 10. WWF

Why this stakeholder? 1. Resource users 2. Local communities have the tools for ecological regimes interaction to ecosystems for services since they benefit from the it and live with habitat. 3. They are affected by the state of the wetlands 4. Influence decision 5. Responsibility for managing the quality and quantity of fishery for food security’ 6. Flow controlling and operation 7. They are the responsible for water in the country 8. Responsible for initiating project and developing projects. 9. Because they could help in organizing and co-ordinating the event 10. They are the responsible for laws-protection-conservation 11. They have done this process before and they have the experience

What is the relevant policy context? 1. Water resource policy 2. National constitutions 3. Water 4. Wetlands policy 5. Environment education 6. Fishery 7. Regulation of water abstraction and allocation (water resources management policy) 8. Environmental policy and conservation 9. security 10. Economic and research department research on climate and environment uses 11. Change in the flow of the water systems and the effects on agriculture, fish, health and water supply. 12. Buffer and protection zones 13. Farming 14. conservation

After that, another interactive session took place and the focus of this session was Awareness of ecosystem services principles and concepts and environmental flows concepts and practice, facilitated by Dr. Kenneth Irvine and Dr. Rebecca Tharme. The participants were asked to think about one important question regarding the ecosystems services and the eflows, they contributed to the discussion and, the main output questions of this session are as mentioned below:  Guideline/law to implement environmental flows  The ministry of water and environment tackle a number of environmental challenges include wetlands degradation Using environment tools and concepts.

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 How can communities Be involved in more decision  At what level of environmental flow should the local communities be involved  How to develop communities without disturbing environment  How can the papyrus stakeholders and the water users collaborate to ensure sustainable use of the ecosystems  What will be the benefits from having eco-flow  How should sustainable water flow , presence be made or ensured through the system  How can flows affect ecology of our eco-system (wetalnds)  How has the change in the eflows over the years led to the ever deforesting the state of the wetland  What is the flow-ecology link in the Mara ecosystem, especially for the different times of the year  What parameters do I need to collect to easily assess the relation between eflows and community livelihoods and how do I use them? Do I put them direct into IHA tools?  How would you link eflows to ecological function of the Mara wetland to ES overtime and which methods would you use?  What is the impact of changing the inflow resulted from different resources on fishery?  Universities relate to eflows: the students and researchers try to find out what is affecting the eflows system in regards to wetlands including, climate change, El nino rains, and the unforeseen disasters and try to find solutions which can be implemented?  What would be the appropriate distance of the protection zone of wetlands ecosystems?  How to protect flora and fauna in the dinder park?

The final session of the day was on the Challenges, opportunities, and next steps, the participants were divided to four groups and each group worked on developing the challenges and next steps for their case studies, the results are shown below:

 Kagera River basin  Scoping and mapping of the Kagera basin ecosystems; geographic data, stakeholder identification and policy review for the member countries.  Data collection and documentation of programs; economic activities, institutional setup, policy on ecosystem evaluation of services, potential for implementation (human, professionals and financial), environmental flow and hydrographic curve for the basin in each country; Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.  Developing strategic research programs and capacity building, influencing policy advocacy on environmental flows management and ecosystem services valuation, and stakeholder engagement for the kagera basin. o Design indicator tools for the sector o Training of Trainers o Awareness raising and dialogue platforms for integrating best practices to methodological management of environmental flows for the basin o Setting standards for regulations, management and provisioning of ecosystem services

 Mara wetland  Carry out stakeholder assessment and engagement in e-flow determination (2 months)  Better understand the seasonal flow changes within the system (4 months) o Collection and analysis of historic hydrologic data from the 70s

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o Hydrologic Modelling using the data o Determine the e-flow components i.e. the flow pulses  Better understand the ecological functioning of the system (4 months) o Determine composition change overtime o Understand the wetland growth rate  Establish the flow-ecology link within the system (4 months)  Implementation of e-flows requirements through policy briefs and Dissemination of results (2 months)

 Nakivobiu wetland  Awareness creation to the stakeholders on importance of e’flows within the system, install meters  Assessment of e’flows with Nakivubo wetland system.  Purchase and install water hydrological meters  Integration of e’flows into the system mgt plan, EIA project process

 Nile Delta and Dinder Park  Filling the data gaps related to studying hydrological data, climate, socioeconomic data & different species. (one month)  Linking the collected hydrological data and the water quality with the alterations of different ecosystem services. (three months)  Linking the pressures and stressors with the hydrological flow (rich picture).  Selection the appropriate method to build up the environmental flow model. (one week)  Understanding the concept then identifying the main benefits that resulted from implementing the e-flows.  Involving the relevant stakeholders and integrating environmental flow with different

decision support system. (two months)  Clarifying the main obstacles that might face the implementation . (one week)

3. Course Evaluation

A course evaluation was carried out to define the advantages and disadvantages of this training course, a course evaluation form was distributed to the participants. The evaluation was divided into four categories, objectives, subjects and lectures, facilitation and training and General. The following are the analysis of the evaluation results.

A. Learning Objectives

More than 65% are found to be well informed on the Nile Eco-VWU research project. All participants were selected as a permanent research member of the research team.

43%of the participants have good background in Ecosystems services and environmental flows, while19%of the participants have excellent background.

All participants agrees that the training enable them to achieve their needs and learning objectives and that the given knowledge will help in accomplish their research taks. About 52% of the participants very agree that the guide to the data needs and collection were useful in conducting their future research.

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B. Field visit and practical exercise

More than 65% of the participants see the field visit to MABAMBA bay was very useful, where about 67%of the participants agree that the interviews with communities representatives useful to add to the knowledge on communities awareness engagement. More than 90% of the participants see the field visit was very relevant in supporting future field work.

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C. Facilitation and Lecturing

71% of the participants see that the trainers and facilitators ability for activation was excellent; more than 60% of the participants see that the trainers and facilitators ability to give specific examples is excellent.

More than 40% of the participants very agree that the level of interaction among participants was satisfactory and 70% see that interaction with the lecturers was satisfactory.

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D. General

All the participants would be interested to participate in the capacity building program provided by the Nile -Eco -VWU project, and more than 85% of them would like to nominate one of their professional colleagues to participate in this capacity building program.

About 38%of the participants recommend needed tools to support their research tasks in the Nile-Eco-VWU project. 57%of the participants see that level of overall organization of this hands-on training is excellent.

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4. Conclusions

The training course was appreciated by the participants and they indicated that they are willing to participate in the future capacity development activities of the project, and below are the main conclusions of the course:

 The course is very important and supported the participants future activities  Field visit was very important to get more knowledge about communities  Link between ecosystems services and environmental flows is very important and it will be included in the project when applicable

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Annex 1 Workshop Programme

Nile Ecosystems Valuation for Wise-Use Project (Nile-Eco-VWU)

Regional Training Course on

REGIONAL TRAINING COURSE ON WETLANDS ECOSYSTEMS SERVICES AND ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWS

Programme

2nd - 5th November 2015 Kampala – Uganda