Project Overview
The project operates at the catchment scale of the Ankerkeha River Sub-basin to address the root causes of the lake's degradation, such as soil erosion and land use. | The Ankerkeha River is the main feeder to Lake Hayq, and interventions like riverbank restoration with bamboo are implemented to reduce sediment load. | The core site is Lake Hayq, a highland freshwater lake suffering from sedimentation and habitat loss, targeted for restoration using Ecohydrology principles. | The project enhances erosion prevention and habitats for species through landscape restoration. It maintains food (fishery, horticulture) and fresh water provision, alongside cultural and tourism services.
Ecosystem Services
Provisioning
- Provisioning Services are ecosystem services that describe the material or energy outputs from ecosystems. They include food, water and other resources.
- Food: Ecosystems provide the conditions for growing food. Food comes principally from managed agro-ecosystems but marine and freshwater systems or forests also provide food for human consumption. Wild foods from forests are often underestimated.
- Fresh water: Ecosystems play a vital role in the global hydrological cycle, as they regulate the flow and purification of water. Vegetation and forests influence the quantity of water available locally.
Regulating
- Regulating Services are the services that ecosystems provide by acting as regulators eg. regulating the quality of air and soil or by providing flood and disease control.
- Waste-water treatment: Ecosystems such as wetlands filter both human and animal waste and act as a natural buffer to the surrounding environment. Through the biological activity of microorganisms in the soil, most waste is broken down. Thereby pathogens (disease causing microbes) are eliminated, and the level of nutrients and pollution is reduced.
- Erosion prevention and maintenance of soil fertility: Soil erosion is a key factor in the process of land degradation and desertification. Vegetation cover provides a vital regulating service by preventing soil erosion. Soil fertility is essential for plant growth and agriculture and well functioning ecosystems supply the soil with nutrients required to support plant growth.
Habitat / Supporting
- Ecosystem services "that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services". These include services such as nutrient recycling, primary production and soil formation.
- Habitats for species: Habitats provide everything that an individual plant or animal needs to survive: food; water; and shelter. Each ecosystem provides different habitats that can be essential for a species’ lifecycle. Migratory species including birds, fish, mammals and insects all depend upon different ecosystems during their movements.
- Maintenance of genetic diversity: Genetic diversity is the variety of genes between and within species populations. Genetic diversity distinguishes different breeds or races from each other thus providing the basis for locally well-adapted cultivars and a gene pool for further developing commercial crops and livestock. Some habitats have an exceptionally high number of species which makes them more genetically diverse than others and are known as ‘biodiversity hotspots’.
Cultural
- Cultural Services corresponds nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences.
- Tourism: Ecosystems and biodiversity play an important role for many kinds of tourism which in turn provides considerable economic benefits and is a vital source of income for many countries. In 2008 global earnings from tourism summed up to US$ 944 billion. Cultural and eco-tourism can also educate people about the importance of biological diversity.
- Aesthetic appreciation and inspiration for culture, art and design: Language, knowledge and the natural environment have been intimately related throughout human history. Biodiversity, ecosystems and natural landscapes have been the source of inspiration for much of our art, culture and increasingly for science.
Major Issues
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No issues provided.
EH Engineering Solutions
we are establishing fish ponds, and geotextile
we are establishing fish ponds, and geotextile to improve soil fertility and support the growth of plants along the selected sites of Ankerkeha River bank
Bamboo plant species is used as technology
Bamboo plant species is used as technology to restore the degraded and landslide areas since it has high capacity to improve soil and water capacity of the soil
Project Activities
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The main activities include slope stabilization, intercropping, and gully rehabilitation to reduce erosion. Riverbank and lake buffer zones are restored using bamboo and macrophytes. Fish ponds are established, and fishing pressure is managed. Educational programs raise community awareness, while promoting horticultural crops like banana and avocado provides alternative income and reduces land pressure on the catchment.
Expected Outcomes
The main expected outcomes are reduced siltation and pollution in Lake Hayq, increased biodiversity and ecosystem services, improved local livelihoods through sustainable income sources, and enhanced resilience to climate change and land use pressures.