USFS - Greg Bevenger Photo/ Lake Manyara Watershed Assessment Progress Report December 2003 Lake Manyara Watershed Assessment: Progress Report—December 2003 1 I. LAKE MANYARA WATERSHED ASSESSMENT Overview African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) has initiated a detailed assessment of the Lake Manyara watershed, which is one of two catchment basins that sustain the Tarangire-Manyara ecosystem, in northern Tanzania. Through a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), AWF is working to protect forest, soil and water resources in important African landscapes, through its African Heartland program. To address concerns of habitat fragmentation and environmental degradation within the Lake Manyara watershed AWF has partnered with local stakeholders and the USFS to conduct an assessment of the watershed. AWF is leading the assessment, which includes development of a GIS and associated database, and compilation of relevant information related to the Lake Manyara watershed. USFS is providing technical assistance in watershed science, as well as financial support. AWF is building upon the considerable work that has already been undertaken by partners in the region1, in order to improve the conservation of natural resources in this important landscape. AWF and USFS are conducting this assessment through a process that aims to characterize ecosystem elements from a watershed perspective, identify key issues and problems in the watershed, and ultimately provide management recommendations. Masai Steppe Heartland The assessment is being implemented through AWF’s African Heartland program, which is a collaborative, landscape-level management approach to conserving Africa’s unique wildlife resources. Heartlands are large areas of exceptional natural value where AWF works with a variety of partners, including local people, governments and other resource users to ensure these landscapes are prioritized for conservation and are kept ecologically and economically viable. The Tarangire-Manyara ecosystem comprises an area AWF calls the Maasai Steppe Heartland, which is a renowned area of global biodiversity value representative of east African woodland savannah. Lake Manyara is one of the key components of this Heartland and is recognized internationally as a Biosphere Reserve. Conservation Intervention in Masai Steppe Heartland AWF is working on a series of activities to protect the critical land units that connect and sustain this conservation landscape. This includes focused attention to key remaining corridors, dispersal areas, wetlands and catchments. Habitat fragmentation and environmental degradation are rapidly decreasing habitats and corridors available for wildlife in this landscape. Watershed health has implications for wildlife and their habitats throughout the Lake Manyara watershed. Lake Manyara itself provides critical habitat for aquatic fauna and birdlife with an exceptional number of birds, estimated at well over 380 species, including: lesser flamingo, greater flamingo, white pelicans, yellow billed storks, diurnal birds of prey, and 1 Organizations working on watershed management issues in the basin include: Institute of Resources Assessment (IRA), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), and IIED Drylands Program, among others. Lake Manyara Watershed Assessment: Progress Report—December 2003 2 white-necked cormorants. Lake Manyara also provides habitat for resident and migratory wildlife including elephant, buffalo, lion, hippopotamus, impala, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, bushbuck, leopard, and baboon. (TANAPA, 2002) Lake Manyara National Park (LMNP) provides a variety of environments within its boundary. The combination and variety of landforms and vegetation types create a uniquely scenic landscape that is both diverse and ecologically complex. The principal features of the Lake Manyara area are the lake, flood plains and associated grasslands, groundwater forest, rift escarpment, acacia woodlands, Marang Forest and the hot water springs. (TANAPA, 2002) Wildlife in the Manyara basin depends on other areas and landholdings outside the national park. These areas include important wildlife habitat (Northern Highland Forest Reserve in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and the Marang and Esimingor National Forest Reserves), migration corridors (Kwakuchinja, upper Kitete, and Selela corridors), and important dispersal areas (Mto wa Mbu Game Controlled Area and the Ardai plains). Another area of importance for wildlife outside the park is the Manyara Ranch which is owned by the Tanzanian Land Conservation Trust (TLCT). Manyara Ranch represents an important piece of land in the Kwakuchinja wildlife corridor that connects Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Parks. Additional land holdings important for wildlife are community areas that surround the national park which are held by Maasai pastoralists and subsistence agriculturalists. Land use changes and human activities in the Lake Manyara watershed are having profound impacts on ecosystem health which affects wildlife conservation, National Parks, agricultural production, grazing regimes, and human livelihoods. Our watershed assessment is meant to provide a framework for guiding management of natural resources for the benefit of biodiversity and human inhabitants of the watershed. The information collected through this assessment process will assist AWF and its stakeholders in the following: land use planning and implementation; education in and adjustment to agricultural and grazing methods; adoption and enforcement of water laws where necessary; and improvement in forestry practices. Assessment Process AWF is using a watershed assessment process2 that was developed by land managers in the United States and is being adapted to our work in Africa. A watershed assessment is a tool used to characterize the human, aquatic, riparian, and terrestrial features, conditions, processes, and interactions (collectively referred to as ‘ecosystem elements’) within a watershed. It provides a systematic way to understand and organize ecosystem information. The process used for this assessment has six steps, which include: 1) characterization of the watershed; 2) identification of issues and key questions 3) description of current conditions; 4) description of reference conditions; 5) synthesis and interpretation of information; and 6) recommendations. 2 Ecosystem Analysis at the Watershed Scale: Federal Guide for Watershed Analysis. 1995. Portland, OR, USA. Lake Manyara Watershed Assessment: Progress Report—December 2003 3 Current Status of Lake Manyara Watershed Assessment Along with our local partners and with inputs from the USFS, AWF is actively working on steps 1-6 of the assessment process. AWF has made progress in gathering existing physical and biological information and in developing a GIS project file for analyses of digital spatial data. Field reconnaissance commenced in December, 2002 when a USFS technical team accompanied AWF staff on a two week field trip to acquire more detailed knowledge on characteristics of the watershed. Through observations by the USFS team and further discussions with partners, we have a better understanding of threats affecting this system. As progress has been made with partners who are working in the region, it is becoming clear that much information already exists on the current conditions and problems affecting the watershed. In fact, through previous work by partners, concrete management recommendations have emanated from various assessments of the basin. Institutions and researchers have gathered and analyzed large amounts of primary data in order to formulate these prescriptions and in some cases implementation has commenced. A prime example of these efforts is the development of an Integrated Water Resources Management Plan for the Lake Manyara basin, which is being designed by water resources specialists at the Institute of Resources Assessment (IRA) at the University of Dar es Salaam. IRA has found that the prevailing system of uncoordinated water resources management in the basin cannot sustain the ever increasing water needs of the various expanding sectors, therefore a strategy must be sought to integrate the various sectoral needs against the available water resources in order to attain both economic and ecological sustainability. (Ngana, 2002) A number of constraints have been noted by IRA which inhibit sustainable water resources management including ignorance of water policies, lack of coordination between sectors, high in-migration rates into the basin, heavy in-migration of livestock, poor land use resulting in soil erosion and sedimentation, and the lack of a comprehensive database on water resources and water needs for: domestic, tourism, livestock, irrigation, wildlife and environmental flows. (Ngana, 2002) The aim of AWF at this stage is to conclude work on this assessment through formulation of management recommendations that can be implemented with partners working in this ecosystem. AWF will look for ways to add its comparative advantage in this area and to work closely with institutions such as IRA who are already developing the means to implement management actions that have emerged from previous assessments and this one. AWF will also continue compiling and synthesizing information that already exists and to add to it where possible, specifically through increased GIS data synthesis and through setting up a potential monitoring program in a targeted area of the basin. Lastly, we are planning to conduct an