Wetlands Conservation Organisation: Planet One

Work Areas

Main CEPA work area

Wetlands Conservation Organisation empowers youth initiatives engaged in wetlands on importance of protecting peatlands, rivers and coastal wetlands through education and communication techniques like use of Art in Wetlands (Artivism) and organizing Science Forums.
We publish monthly newsletters for volunteers, corporates that subscribe to receive our publications.
We conduct community engagements by organizing local water forums and wetland forums.

Top three successes

1. USE OF ART IN WETLANDS
We conducted an education and mentorship program project to empower the youth and local community on importance of conserving and restoring wetlands and we were able to reach out to more than 500 youth and local community.

2. INTEGRATION OF WETLANDS INTO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
We organized a wetland forum where we involved various stakeholders including government agencies, private sector, local communities and youth led organizations and developed a policy brief that was feed into National Government and County Assembly to ensure that wetlands are integrated into Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and County Integrated Development Plan

3. CONSERVATION OF WETLANDS IN ROYSAMBU
Engaged the local communities in Roysambu Ward through assessment of local water quality of River Gatharaini to enable and empower them to understand the quality aspect of water they use in their daily basis. This created awareness on importance of conserving their local wetland ecosystems.

Top three challenges

1. CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate Change has impacted our local studied wetland ecosystem through change in temperature, timing and amount of precipitation.

2. FUNDING
Kenya being a developing country, there is a challenge of finance mobilization to cater for projects related to wetland restoration and conservation. There are a few opportunities to apply for internal funding and grants worsened by poverty level.

3. LACK OF AWARENESS BY COMMUNITY
Most of the local communities in Kenya don’t understand the importance of conserving wetland ecosystems. This lack of awareness among community members often generates negative tendencies that put the wetlands at risk; for instance, dumping of wastes, draining and land clearing for grazing and agriculture, burning and overexploitation of wetland resources.