The ‘Lake Tanganyika Water Management’ project aims to sustainably improve the management and control of the cross-border waters of Lake Tanganyika. This 4-year project is entrusted to Enabel and is financed by the European Union as part of a regional program.
Cage aquaculture is spreading rapidly on AGLs without lake-specific best management practices (BMPs) to ensure long-term socio-economic and environmental sustainability. PESCA project is developing a decision support tool (DST) and BMPs to guide development or improvement of policies and regulations to improve fish production and profitability from cage aquaculture with minimal impacts on the aquatic environment of the AGLs.
e-CAS is a software developed to manage fish catch and related statistics. The software provides an opportunity for fisheries authorities to engage Beach Management Units in collecting fisheries and related statistics which are then sent by use of mobile phones to a central computer system for processing and utilization. The system increases the frequency of data collection as per the LTA and LVFO standard operating procedure.
Members of this project will host an applied, collaborative workshop which creates lake committees on each of the African Great Lakes. Each lake committee will consist of relevant freshwater experts to harmonize and prioritize research, guide regional research efforts, and facilitate communications between partner countries to positively affect freshwater policy and management using regular in-person meetings, the African Great Lakes Inform, and other relevant means.
The 2017 African Great Lakes Conference, Entebbe, Uganda resolved to advance the African Great Lakes Information Platform (AGLI) (this platform) established by The Nature Conservancy. AGLI was created to promote research and collaboration and support decision-making to ensure the inter-generational sustainability of the lakes and their basins. AGLI will be hosted at the University of Nairobi and managed jointly with the African Center for Aquatic Research and Education.
African Great Lakes (AGLs) contribute 2.7 million tonnes (~25%) to global inland fisheries production (11.9 mt) annually. This is composed of large species (> 20 cm total length, TL) and small pelagic species (< 20 cm, TL). At the turn of the 20th century, fisheries of the AGLs were dominated by large species (tilapine cichlids, Lates spp, cat fishes, Mormyrids, etc.) and management concentrated on these species.
Tanzania's Northern Lake Nyasa basin contains montane forests that are renowned for their endemic plants and critically endangered fauna (e.g., Kipunji). The region's wetlands are rich in species diversity and among the world's most biologically productive ecosystems. The significant ecosystem services linkages between these areas with downstream aquatic biodiversity, fisheries production, and human well-being, however, receive little attention. The basin's rural human population is expected to grow rapidly, further straining the natural resource base.
Thirty-six countries in sub-Saharan Africa have severe shortages of health workers. At least 2.3 trained health care providers are needed per 1,000 people to provide 80 percent of the population with skilled care at birth and child immunisation coverage. Nurses and midwives are on the frontline of health services in Africa. Ensuring that they are provided with the necessary competencies to work and function properly is key in reducing the alarmingly high maternal and mortality rates in Africa.
There has been a lot of discourse throughout the sustainable development goals (SDGs) process on the need for integrated policies that consider the synergies and trade-off across SDGs thematic areas and how that is critical for the achievement of sustainable development. However, most of the discussions have remained in the global policy arena, with less focus on how the integration would be achieved at national policy and program levels.
The Mara River basin covers a surface of 13,325 km2, of which approximately 65 percent is located in Kenya and 35 percent in Tanzania. From its sources in the Mau Escarpment, the river flows for about 400 km and drains into Lake Victoria. The basin is among the most important river basins in East Africa as it traverses the world-famous Maasai Mara Serengeti ecosystem recently declared one of the new seven natural wonders of the world.
This project contributed to poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation by training communities around the Malagarazi Wetland complex in Burundi on sustainable fisheries and agriculture pratices. Some development activities, such as good fishing practices, can be undertaken without a negative impact. However, many fishermen in the region use inappropriate equipment such as mosquito nets and toxic products. Such practices kill all of the young fish, eventually leading to widespread decline in fish stocks.
Protected areas are often designed around terrestrial conservation priorities, raising questions about their value in conserving aquatic habitats and species. Tanzania's Mahale Mountains National Park represents a unique approach by creating a no-fishing zone along the shore of the largest reserve in the Lake Tanganyika catchment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the benefits of these protections for aquatic habitats, water quality, and littoral fauna.
This project was completed as part of the Conservation Leadership Programme's (CLP) internship program. CLP supports projects that develop the skills of early career conservationists working to conserve the planet's most threatened species and habitats. This project allowed an intern to acquire the skills and knowledge required to be well-positioned to take a lead role in developing the capacities of local communities to sustainably manage and benefit from their natural resources.
Lake Chilwa Basin in Southern Malawi has experienced environmental degradation, climate variability and change that have manifested negative impacts on people's livelihoods, food security and health, particularly among the most vulnerable groups such as women and children. However, what has not been established has been the linkages of climate variability and change, and population dynamics particularly migration and public and reproductive health.
Lake Victoria Basin covers an area of 250,000 km2 with the lake taking 68,000 km2. The basin has a population of 35 - 40 million people, with rapidly growing secondary towns, which has resulted in unplanned, sponteneous and unsustainable growth, run-down and non-existent basic infrastructure and services and significant negative impacts on the environment and fragile ecosystem of the lake.
Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake and the world's second largest. It is also a key resource for the people of East Africa. It has the largest freshwater fisheries producing 700,000 to 800,000 tonnes of fish annually, worth between US$350 and 400 million at the landings and US$250 million in export. Additionally there is an important untapped potential to expand both the tourism and transportation industries across the lake. Approximately 30 million people live along its shores and the lake currently provides employment for three to four million people.
The Kagera Basin, which lies within the four countries of Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, is characterized by low-production subsistence agriculture and widespread poverty. Severe land degradation in the area is linked to loss of soil fertility caused by population pressure and primitive farming methods. The basin countries rank among the world's poorest countries. Land cover depletion including deforestation is wide-spread with almost total absence of reforestation activities.
Fisheries biodiversity and production in Lake Malawi has undergone major changes including the collapse of the chambo and Labeo fishery, the exploitation of the ecologically diverse but specialized mbuna fish for food and the surge in Usipa fish production.
This project will facilitate APRN/BEPB staff to organize a meeting with local authorities and organization members at Mutumba Commune for discussing new implementation of the organization plan. It will also facilitate identification and purchase of one hectare of land of for the center's site research. This land will host an agropastoral experimentation, the core of sustainable development for the community.
Integrating women smallholder farmers into the mainstream economy is key in order to increase their productivity, improve the quality of their commodities, gain a voice in decision-making around all aspects of the agriculture value chain and build adaptive capacity to mitigate climate change. NEPAD recognises the impact that climate change will have on African agriculture, especially African women farmers, and designed the five-year Gender, Climate Change and Agriculture Support Project (GCCASP) with support from the Norwegian government.