A New Avenue to fight unsustainable development at the Lake Naivasha Wetland of Nakuru County in Kenya: The Role of Trade Associations

Abstract

Wetlands sustainability can be pursued through stakeholders where business enterprises are confronted with social, economic and environmental claims. This paper looks at how the concept of sustainable development (SD) can be looped with the stakeholder relations management (SRM) theory to come up with a framework for wetlands sustainability. The main objective was to establish the main stakeholders in the Lake Naivasha wetland with specific objectives being to identify the main business activities around the wetland; the stakeholders that influence business sustainability; and to establish if wetlands sustainability can be achieved through SRM. The paper argues that stakeholders need to recognize the need for a common path to achieving improved wetland resource management economic and environmental sustainability. A survey was conducted in September and October 2013to establishes what the business community considered to be the greatest influence over their sustainability strategy in the next five years. Respondents were asked to rate on a Likert scale what they thought would influence their business/organization’s sustainability. Discriminant analysis with the chi-square and degrees of freedom was used as inferential statistics. The study recommends the development of a Sustainability Assessment Model signature for each of the trade associations.