Preserving Wetlands in Kenya • Eva Ntara
(Global Change Ecology Master’s Student, University of Bayreuth || Germany)
“I remember, long ago, looking at a map of the world in an atlas, and thinking: I want to visit all those places. I was six years old then. Geography was my favorite subject and the processes of the earth’s formation fascinated me. My elder brother and sister inspired me to go as far as I could in my studies. My brother was studying to be an engineer, while my sister was an economist. I therefore charted my path to be a scientist.
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I grew up in Nakuru, Kenya, near Lake Nakuru National Park, a wildlife haven and a designated conservation site. The scenery has breathtaking views of sprawling grasslands, fenced in by rising escarpments and ridges demarcating the edge of the Great Rift Valley. Growing up in such surroundings, I was intrinsically drawn to work and preserve the beautiful places around me.
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In college, I was selected to study a Bachelor course in Land Resource Planning and Management in Nairobi. However, I always felt there was more for me to accomplish. Immediately after completion of my undergraduate course, I began a Master’s in Global Change Ecology at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. My family was very supportive of this, and I am quite grateful to them. In my extended studies, I hoped to gain a global perspective on the sustainability trilemma: food, water, and energy. Recently, I travelled to collect field data for my Master’s thesis on mapping peatlands at the Lake Victoria South Basin and studying their role in climate protection. Peatlands are a type of wetlands that release a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when they are drained. During my field work, I interacted with the local people who were draining and burning the peat to create land for agricultural production, oblivious to the fate to which their actions were sentencing their future environment. Being in the field gave me firsthand experience on how political dynamics, local communities, and natural resources are interlinked. I am now more motivated to help protect sensitive ecosystems, streamline policy changes, and empower local communities.’’
