Earthprints: Lake Nakuru

Nakuru is one of three shallow lakes - the others are Bogoria and Elementaita - lying in the part of Africa's Great Rift Valley that cuts a fertile gash through Kenya's highlands. The scenery is stunning, from forests of gentle green acacia trees to animals grazing on the grassy plain or congregating at the shores to drink.

The three lakes together are on UNESCO's World Heritage list of natural sites, especially prized for their bird life. That includes, the U.N. body says, "the single most important foraging site for the lesser flamingo anywhere" with hundreds of thousands of lesser flamingos moving between the three lakes.

Lake Nakuru, which lies about 170 km northwest of the capital Nairobi, is a fragile ecosystem, vulnerable among other things to the effects of rapid urbanization in the nearby city of Nakuru. The city is one of the largest in a country whose population more than doubled in the last 30 years, to around 45 million.

The population growth in Nakuru and in Kenya as a whole has also led to deforestation in the area in recent decades. The contrast in the landscape around the lake is clearly visible in NASA images taken from space in 1972 and this year, with many more homes and fewer trees now.

"These threats include siltation from soil erosion, increased abstraction of water in the catchment, degradation of land, deforestation, growth in human settlements, overgrazing, wildlife management, tourism and pollution coming from Nakuru town," the U.N. body says.

The main entrance to the park was flooded and had to be moved up to an entrance on a hill. A trail that used to run around the lake shore was flooded and is no longer in use.