Food Security, Water and Local Knowledge in Marakwet, Kenya

The IGP is working with the UCL Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew to explore the social and ecological nexus of concerns relating to agricultural production, water management and biodiversity loss in Marakwet.

Situated in a semi-arid climate in a branch of the Great Rift Valley, the Marakwet community have long managed their complex social and physical ecology using sophisticated techniques of land and water management.

More recently, mono- and cash-cropping have intensified, eroding indigenous knowledge of natural resource management.

Our multi-disciplinary team are working with the Tot-Sibou community to explore how changing land management systems and loss of biodiversity interrelate with ongoing processes of social change.

This research is funded by a UCL Catalyst Grant 2015–2016.