Lake Baringo Landscape

Lake Baringo is a freshwater lake located in Kenya’s Eastern Great Rift Valley, with a basin of about 6,820 km², fed mainly by the perennial Molo and Perkerra rivers and other seasonal streams.
The lake lies at roughly 970–1,000 m above sea level and has no surface outlet, losing water primarily through high evaporation and seepage through fractured volcanic bedrock.

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Designated Ramsar Site No. 1159 in 2002, Lake Baringo’s site boundaries cover an area of 314.6 km², including both open water and riparian wetlands and floodplains.

Lake Baringo is acknowledged as an Important Bird Area and supports over 470 bird species, including flamingos, pelicans, cormorants, fish eagles, and a range of regionally threatened species such as Martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus), white‑headed vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis) and African skimmer (Rynchops flavirostris).

The lake and its wetlands provide critical habitat for freshwater fish species, including the endemic tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus baringoensis), listed as an IUCN endangered species, as well as marbled lungfish (Protopterus aethiopicus) and African catfish (Clarias gariepinus).

Large vertebrates such as the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) and the hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) are abundant, making the lake a focal point for wildlife tourism.

Three Indigenous communities are present surrounding the lake: the Ilchamus (also known as Njemps) to the south, the Pokot to the north, and the Tugen to the east. These communities depend on Lake Baringo’s wetlands for food, water, grazing, and income, but also experience recurrent insecurity related to livestock rustling, land conflicts and repeated displacement during floods.

Over the last five decades, Lake Baringo has experienced a dramatic hydrological reversal: from shrinking lake dynamics in the 1970s–2000s to a rapidly expanding water body after 2010.

Historical records show surface area declined from about 219 km² in 1976 to roughly 108 km² by the early 2000s.

However, from around 2010 onward, increasing rainfall has been leading to exceptional expansion of water lake surfaces. Satellite imagery confirmed an increased surface area of about 268 km² in 2020, corresponding to a growth of over 60% compared to 2010 and roughly 150% above the early‑2000s minimum.

This expansion has reshaped the landscape, supporting water availability in some areas, while flooding homes, farms, and infrastructure in others. Rising water has also led to an increase in human-wildlife conflict.

Another crucial environmental concern is the potential merging of freshwater Lake Baringo with the highly alkaline Lake Bogoria. In January 2010, the lakes were 23 km apart, but recent assessments confirmed that the distance has decreased to 13 km.

Furthermore, Lake Baringo’s wetlands are under pressure from intertwined drivers: rapid population growth, deforestation, expanding cropland, overgrazing, invasive species, and climate variability.

Forest cover in the catchment has fallen sharply in recent decades, while cropland, shrubland and settlements have expanded, increasing runoff, erosion and sediment loads into the lake and contributing to persistent turbidity.

The invasive species Prosopis juliflora dominates large areas of land around the lake, converting grasslands into dense shrub, replacing native species and altering water and forage availability for pastoral communities. Meanwhile, aquatic invasive plants such as the water hyacinth periodically clog bays and river mouths, hampering fishing and navigation and further degrading water quality.

Lake Baringo’s wetlands provide a variety of contributions – both positive and negative – to the people interacting with them.

Material NCPs include the tangible goods people obtain from ecosystems, in this case food and feed from fisheries, livestock grazing, and crops irrigated with lake and river water. People can also use reeds and other plants for boat construction and household materials.

Handmade boat (The Africa image library)

Regulating NCPs refer to how ecosystems influence natural processes. For example, Lake Baringo regulates water quality and availability, and it supports biodiversity by providing habitat for various species. Depending on your perspective, this could be a positive contribution – tourists happy to see hippos, for example – or a negative contribution – residents concerned about increasing human-wildlife conflict.

African Fish Eagle (Mohrale tour and travel)

Non-material NCPs encompass the cultural and experiential ways people relate and interact with an ecosystem. Here, the lake and its surrounding landscapes support local cultural identity, spiritual practices, education, recreation, and tourism.

This landscape story was developed by the WetlandHealth4UNGoals project team (United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security, and the Center for Remote Sensing at the University of Bonn). For more information on this project, please see ....