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Good practice Imported

Lake Naivasha Payments for Watershed Services — Flower Farms Fund Upstream Conservation (Kenya)

Kenya · Naivasha · See the Kenya profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 64% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

WWF and CARE brokered payments from Lake Naivasha's flower-export farms to c.785 upstream smallholders (of 5,000) who terrace and reforest the Aberdare hills; farmers report near-tripled potato yields, though lake-level water-quality gains are unconfirmed.

785 households
Participating households (mid-2010s)
5,000 households
Households in target watershed
4 to 10 bags/plot
Potato yield per plot (participating farmers)
17 USD/year
Annual per-farmer payment
70 %
Kenya flower exports grown at Lake Naivasha
50,000 jobs
Jobs supported by Lake Naivasha flower industry
Lake Naivasha Payments for Watershed Services — Flower Farms Fund Upstream Conservation (Kenya)

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
WWF-Kenya / CARE International / Flower Business Park Management Ltd.
Period
2007-present
Keywords
watershed conservation, payments for ecosystem services, horticulture industry, agroforestry, East Africa

Context

Lake Naivasha, 90 km northwest of Nairobi, anchors Kenya's cut-flower export industry — around 70% of Kenya's flower exports are grown on its shores, supporting an estimated 50,000 jobs. From the mid-2000s, sediment washing down from smallholder farms roughly 40 km upstream in the Aberdare hills clogged flower-farm irrigation intakes and fuelled water-hyacinth blooms that killed fish in the lake.

Objectives

Reduce upstream sediment loading into the Malewa river and Lake Naivasha by paying smallholder farmers to adopt erosion-control land-use practices, while raising upstream farmer incomes and building a durable payments-for-watershed-services relationship between downstream flower growers and upstream communities.

Activities

WWF-Kenya and CARE International brokered a payment-for-watershed-services scheme in which downstream flower growers — coordinated in part through Flower Business Park Management Ltd and other horticulture associations — pay smallholder farmers upstream to adopt terracing, contour Napier-grass strips and agroforestry with rosewood and other trees. The pilot began with 565 farmers and grew to roughly 785 participating households (of about 5,000 in the target watershed) by the mid-2010s, with individual annual payments/vouchers of around US$17 per farmer plus in-kind training and materials.

Results

Ecosystem Marketplace field reporting documented potato yields rising from about 4 to 10 bags per plot for participating farmers and described "dramatic reductions" in suspended sediment measured in upstream tributary samples. A 2016 peer-reviewed study in Ecological Processes provided independent academic scrutiny of the scheme's design and farmer equity. However, those upstream improvements had not been traced through to verified water-quality or sedimentation change in Lake Naivasha itself.

Conclusions

The scheme demonstrates a workable corporate-funded payments-for-watershed-services model with credible farmer-level income and yield gains, but per-farmer payments remain small relative to farm incomes, only a minority of the target watershed's households participate, lake-level water-quality outcomes are unconfirmed, and long-term financing beyond donor-funded pilots is not yet fully secured.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Per-farmer payments/vouchers of around US$17/year plus in-kind training and materials for roughly 785 participating households; broader WWF/CARE staffing and EU-funded follow-on project costs are not itemised in public sources.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Piloted from the mid-2000s with 565 farmers, growing to roughly 785 participating households by the mid-2010s and continuing to the present; long-term financing beyond donor-funded pilots is not yet fully secured.
Staffing & skills
WWF-Kenya field officers, CARE International community facilitators, Flower Business Park Management Ltd. and other horticulture associations coordinating downstream payments

Conditions for success

  • downstream buyers (flower export farms) willing to fund upstream conservation payments
  • farmer uptake of terracing, contour grass strips and agroforestry techniques
  • in-kind training and materials alongside cash payments/vouchers

Common failure modes

  • per-farmer payments (~US$17/year) are small relative to farm income, limiting the incentive to sustain participation
  • financing remains dependent on donor/NGO pilots rather than a durable institutional trust
  • lake-level water-quality and sedimentation gains remain unconfirmed despite upstream, catchment-level improvements

Where it fits

Governance type
NGO-brokered public-private payments-for-ecosystem-services scheme
Scale
sub-national watershed (785 of roughly 5,000 households)
Income level
lower-middle-income (Kenya)

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

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Data sources

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