A Review on Ecosystem Services and their Threats in the Conservation of Nyando Wetland, Kisumu County, Kenya

Abstract

Wetlands are vital ecosystems as they are essential to human health, wellbeing, ecological integrity
and national development as well as in the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.
However, despite their contributions to human wellbeing, they have been destroyed and degraded
over years. The aim of this paper is to review literature on the ecosystem services in Nyando
wetland ecosystem and how they have been helpful to the well-being of its residents and also to
determine the threats to the Nyando ecosystem services. A total of 88 documents were reviewed
out of 20,400 documents from the Google engine search. It is concluded in this paper that
ecosystem services in the Nyando wetland contribute significantly to the sustenance of the
livelihood of the local communities and that the over dependency on the Nyando wetland by the
local communities has resulted to over-exploitation of its resources leading to the degradation of
the ecosystem. It is recommended that since the Nyando ecosystem is of high value to the
communities living there, sustainable utilization of its resources is important for its sustenance and
also in the reduction of the degradation of its resources.

Keywords: Wetlands; ecosystem services; livelihoods; sustainability; conservation