KENYA: Lake Baringo is one of the freshwater jewels of Kenya's Great Rift Valley. Its glittering waters have long attracted migrating species of birds and drawn birdwatchers from around the world.
Now however, scientists have issued a warning that deforestation has been responsible for declining water levels and the disappearance of several native plants.
The warning came during last Monday's meeting of 191 countries who are signatories to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification where they have agreed to set up a coalition to fight land degradation in Africa.
Charles Lugo, a researcher at Kenya's Egerton University, said the problem had already had a marked effect on Baringo. "The lake is slowly turning into a swamp due to soil deposits caused by erosion," he said.
The result, according to Dr Lugo, is that the lake has reduced in depth from 12m (39ft) to 7m (23ft). He added that fish stocks were disappearing and the remaining tilapia - the target of fishing communities that live along the shore - were smaller than in previous years.
Dr Lugo said overgrazing and logging were to blame, often by families who relied on charcoal production for their income.
"When it rains, the water washes away the topsoil, leaving gullies. The soil is then washed into the lake. The wine calabash, honey quiver and medicinal plants are extinct and these are desertification warning signals."
Land degradation is an increasingly serious problem in sub-Saharan Africa, with about 65 per cent of the continent's population affected, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
More than 3 per cent of agricultural GDP is being lost each year to soil and nutrient destruction.
The UN estimates 135 million people are at risk of being displaced due to desertification worldwide, triggering conflicts over scarce resources.
If left unchecked, the situation is expected to generate a flow of some 25 million environmental refugees from sub-Saharan Africa in the next 20 years.
Speaking before the launch of TerrAfrica, a new alliance, Arba Diallo, the executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, said support for rural areas was vital in a continent, where up to three- quarters of the poor lived outside urban areas.
On a brighter note, he said there were already examples where land degradation had been reversed.
"In Niger, Benin and Mozambique, reforestation activities involving the youth have shown that if you can stop land from being degraded, you can create jobs, you can create income in those specific areas. By so doing, you protect biodiversity."