IPSI Collaborative Activity Proposal Form
The following form is for use when submitting proposed IPSI Collaborative Activities for consideration by the IPSISteering Committee. See the Collaborative Activity Guidelines on p. 3 for more information.
Please return the completed form to the IPSI Secretariat (isi@unu.edu).
IPSI Collaborative Activities are the activities that shall be undertaken by more than one IPSI member
and constitute an important part of IPSI activities with the purpose of fostering collaboration within theIPSI membership and implementing the IPSI Strategy and Plan of Action. The IPSI CollaborativeActivities shall be developed and implemented with the endorsement of the Steering Committee inaccordance with the Collaborative Activity Guidelines. Resource mobilization for IPSI collaborative
activities shall be the responsibility of the implementing members in principle. – IPSI Operational
Guidelines, Chapter 5.4
Date of Application:

20th April 2016

Project title:
Mobile technology for community-driven aquatic biodiversity monitoring in Ewaso Ng'iro Catchment, Kenya
Collaborating organizations (IPSI members):（*Please underline the leading organization)
Kenya Wetlands Biodiversity Research Group (KENWEB) and Conservation Solutions Afrika (CSA)
Other contributing organization(s) (including IPSI non-members):
Kenya Forest Service
Kenya Wildlife Service
Water Resource Management Authority Kenya
Strathmore University, Kenya
Expected term (e.g. 1 January 2014 – 31 December 2015):
August 2016 (minimum of 2 years)
IPSI strategic objective(s) addressed (tick all that apply; see p. 3 for more details):
1. Increase knowledge and understanding of SEPLS
2. Address direct and underlying causes responsible for the decline or loss of SEPLS
3. Enhance benefits from SEPLS
4. Enhance human, institutional and sustainable financial capacities
Continued on next page.

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Description of the activity:
Please provide as much information as possible on: Background Activities (including site locations if applicable)
 Expected outcomes Actors and task sharing
 How the activity relates to the IPSI Strategy and IPSI Plan of Action
 Resources, funding Monitoring and reporting
Brief Summary:
The Ewaso Ng’iro River is Kenya’s third largest with flowing through Arid areas, maintaining unique biodiversity
and ecosystems that support diverse natural resource-based livelihoods. This catchment has experienced a vast
amount of conflict due to diverse activities from agriculture upstream depleting water available to downstream
users (mostly pastoralists) and wildlife conservancies. The development of water resource management
associations has in the ENNCA region enhanced collection of data on hydrological, weather and biodiversity
data. These datasets however have remained isolated and decentralized and thus have not contributed todecision making in natural resource management. The project proposes the use of mobile technology toenhance the efficiency of data collection and transmission by diverse associations and enable centralization intoa web server providing data providers and users the opportunity to access entire datasets. This project has great
potential for replication in other water towers of Kenya and the east African region with similar conditions.

Project:
Water in the Ewaso Ng’iro North Cathment Area (ENNCA) is mostly abstracted for farming activities, both smallscale cash crops and large horticultural and flower farms. These activities are carried out in upstream zones
drastically reducing water available for middle- and downstream users - pastoralists and wildlife conservancies.
During extreme drought, downstream flow is completely reduced to dry riverbeds, which in the early 2000s led
to violent conflicts between pastoralists and farmers causing loss of lives, infrastructure and division in what is amixed community in ethnicity, cultures and resource utilization. Biodiversity in this river system has reduced andincreased human-wildlife conflicts observed. For instance, biodiversity studies by the National Museums ofKenya carried out between 2006 and 2008 (a period marked by uncontrolled water abstraction), recorded only
one species of fish, out of 24 known in the catchment.
Government intervention to these conflicts led to the formalization of Water Resource User Associations,Community Forest Associations and Wildlife Conservation Associations, to locally regulate water and forest use
and manage biodiversity and wildlife. These initiatives showed a recovery of freshwater biodiversity from 2010,
with data showing: seven fish species; increased freshwater crab and otter. Consequently, also reduced humanwildlife conflicts - less invasion of farms and private dams by hippo, marsh mongoose and otters. Data onspecies diversity, hydrology, forest cover, landuse is collected in ENNCA by several research and governmentorganizations. This data is useful for decision making to guide sustainable development in the main sectors of
the catchment: agriculture, pastoralism, wildlife conservancies and forest-based sectors. Communities collectdata through these associations. There's need for centralisation and consistency to enhance its utility.
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These datasets though available to diverse institutions remain scattered among data holder thus are currently
only useful for sector-based assessments (agriculture, wildlife, forest-based and other sectors) anddecisionmaking. The three of these government agencies (KFS, KWS and WRMA) are now under one
government Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, aimed at ensuring holistic management of
the Kenya’s natural capital.
In order to assess the status, trends, drivers of freshwater biodiversity and ecosystems, there is a need to collate
existing baseline data, for natural resource management scenario development and to address several
challenges including:
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increased agriculture and water abstraction;
destruction of river riparian areas through deforestation and pastoralism
feasibility of the multipurpose Crocodile Dam;
Increased urbanization and landuse change;
deterioration and encroachment of wetlands; andincreased human-wildlife conflicts.

Whereas data is available and continuously collected, another challenge is in the manner in which it istransmitted from the field to these institutions. Currently community groups share data by SMS or handwritten
datasheets. Delays and data loss are common during data transmission. There is therefore a need to find asustainable solution to ensure efficiency and accuracy.

Project Activity and partners
This project in the ENNCA proposes the utilization of i-Conserve, as a bioinformatics platform and a biodiversity
data management and monitoring solution. Thereby transforming the way data is generated, communicated,and shared. iConserve system is composed of two components which are the mobile application and the web
server. The customization of i-Conserve by Strathmore University and CSA; includes testing and training carriedout at various stages to optimize ease of data access in both mobile and web media but also it’s utility inassessment.
Researchers managing data (data providers and users):
KENWEB and CSA researchers have worked in the ENNCA region on diverse biodiversity issues for over 16 years.
These include studies on fish, invertebrates, mammals and water testing showing correlation between
freshwater management and biodiversity in the region. Three students of KENWEB are involved in Master’s andPost-doc studies in the catchment on fish diversity, effects of landuse change on aquatic biodiversity and on thesuccess of water resource user associations in resolving water conflicts.
Water, Forest and Wildlife/Biodiversity agencies (data providers and users)
The involvement of three government agencies in Water, Forest and Wildlife/Biodiversity are curial in ensuring
sustainability of data collection and management, the Project participants include:- Deputy Technical Co-ordination Manager, WRMA-ENNCA: in charge of information collection from river staff
gauges in the catchment and monitoring WRUAs. WRMA are key to the sustainability of the project as

custodians of water data.
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- Senior Warden Laikipia County, KWS is in charge of wildlife conservation; community awareness andinvolvement in conservation in the project area; management of conservancies.
- Deputy Director KFS in charge of Forest Conservation and Management, has been involved with community
associations in the management, protection and conservation of forests; existing data and ongoing collection in
the catchments of the ENNCA will be key in the project.
Bioinformatics and ITC support:
Customization of i-Conserve for the project will be carried out by i-Lab, Strathmore University, who partneredwith CSA in 2014 to develop i-Conserve. They are the ITC partner in providing support for customization of thesoftware for application and support the training and testing phases during implementation.
Funding: Proposals have been developed; funding opportunities are currently being explored.

Please attach additional pages as necessary.

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