Introduction | Methodology | Results | Conclusions | Recommendations

Eastern Mount Kenya: Introduction

Mt. Kenya is the second highest mountain in Africa and is located in central Kenya. Its well-watered slopes provide critical high potential agricultural conditions in the predominately semi-arid nation, and the mid-slopes have been intensely farmed for many years. The mountain is surrounded by a semi-arid lowland plateau.

The project’s study site consists of the eastern slopes of Mt. Kenya and encompasses a steep ecological gradient from the glaciers on the mountaintop at 5,199 metres above mean sea level (AMSL) to dryland grasslands at 600 metres AMSL elevation. The site covers 11,670 km2, or approximately one third of an ETM+ Landsat satellite image.

The heterogeneity of the landscape of the site is extreme both between and within land use and cover classes. For example, the natural vegetation ranges from sparse tundra vegetation and afro-montane rainforest, to sparse grasslands in the lower elevation, dryland area.

The human managed landscape includes irrigated paddy rice, tea and tree plantations, coffee and maize farms and scattered fields of millet and sorghum within bush. Most of the landscape is heavily influenced and closely managed by humans.

Land managers include small-scale farmers whose farms are typically less than 2 hectares each, private wheat farms and sheep ranches of up to 300 hectares in size, large agricultural parastatals and parks and reserves managed by local and national governments.

Working papers

WORKING PAPER 8:
Mbugua, Simon M. 2002. Influence of land use patterns on diversity, distribution and abundance of small mammals in Gachoka Division of Mbeere District, Kenya.
PDF 2.6 MB

WORKING PAPER 9:
Gachimbi, Louis N. . 2002. Technical report on soil survey and sampling: Embu - Mbeere Districts , Kenya .
PDF 1.04 MB

WORKING PAPER 11:
Smucker, Thomas A. . 2002. Land tenure reform and changes in land use and land management in semi-arid Tharaka , Kenya .
PDF 1.4 MB
DOC - 1.2MB

WORKING PAPER 16:
Butt, Bilal and Jennifer M. Olson . 2002. An approach to dual land use and land cover interpretation of 2001 satellite imagery of the eastern slopes of Mt. Kenya .
PDF 2.4 MB

WORKING PAPER 20:
Olson, Jennifer M. , Bilal Butt, Fred Atieno, Joseph Maitima, Thomas A. Smucker, Eric Muchugu, George Murimi and Hong Xu. 2003. Multi-scale analysis of the root causes of land use and cover change in Embu and Mbeere Districts, Kenya.
PDF 2.0 MB

WORKING PAPER 32:
Maitima, Joseph M., Simon M. Mbugua, Fred Atieno and Stephen Mathai. 2004. Impacts of Land Use on Vegetation Species Composition, Distribution, Structure and Diversity: The Case of Embu and Mbeere District, Kenya.
PDF - 630KB

WORKING PAPER 36:
Kamau, Peris. 2004. Forage Diversity and Impact of Grazing Management on Rangeland Ecosystems In Mbeere District , Kenya .
PDF 1.1 MB

WORKING PAPER 37:
Chira, Robert. M. 2004. Changes in Wildlife Numbers and Conservation in Embu and Mbeere Districts, Eastern Province , Kenya .
PDF 3.12 MB

WORKING PAPER 39:
Otuoma, John. 2004. The Effects of Wildlife-Livestock-Human Interactions on Habitat in the Meru Conservation Area , Kenya .
PDF 4.4 MB