Dynamics of land to lake transfers in the Winam Gulf : stakeholder engagement meeting, June 2024

This report describes a stakeholder engagement workshop carried out by the British Geological Survey (BGS) co-funded by a Royal Society International Collaboration Grant (ICA\R1\191077 entitled ‘Dynamics of Environmental Geochemistry and Health in a Lake-wide Basin’) and a NERC NC-International grant (NE/X006255/1, entitled ‘Geoscience to tackle global environmental challenges’) with research partners from the University of Eldoret and Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute as hosts in June 2024. This workshop was a follow-up to the first in-person stakeholder workshop in December 2023 that encompassed a broad spectrum of decision-makers, regulatory authorities, academia, government, industry and community representatives for land and lake management in the Lake Victoria catchment. This workshop developed further the goal from this group to establish a forum to coordinate multidisciplinary research that is communicable to decision makers to intervene in poor land management practices for end users both in the land and lake sectors, for which there has been little cross-over in the past. The workshop explored how an oversight framework could be established to better coordinate research to ensure impactful outcomes e.g. protect agricultural land from erosion and prevent flooding and influx of sediment to Lake Victoria that impacts the fisheries. We were also able to develop with the stakeholders partners who wish to use the research to improve, test or monitor land and lake management practices and can facilitate this process and who will be willing to participate in international funding proposals to broaden the collaborative team and scale of research from this project funded by the Royal Society and UK Natural Environment Research Council.