The Great Lakes of Africa help to sustain the economies of several East African nations. Changes in the condition of these lakes is of great concern. The objective of this research was to examine long-term variations of precipitation in the Great Lakes region. Rainfall over the catchment was assessed for Lakes Albert, Edward, Kivu, Malawi, Tanganyika, Turkana, and Victoria, using gauge data. In most cases over 100 years of record are available. Assessments were also made for the region as a whole. TRMM satellite estimates of precipitation were also used to examine the years since 1998.

Hydrological regimes, including inter- and intra-annual water level fluctuations, are key drivers of productivity and structure in freshwater ecosystems in Africa, where inland fisheries are a vital source of income and protein. Using a synthesis of seventeen standardized food web models of thirteen African lakes and reservoirs, this study explored the relationship between inter- and intra-annual water level fluctuations and sixteen ecological attributes associated with ecosystem configuration, productivity and maturity.

This research project analyzes gender-based violence in cross-border fish trade in the GLR using a human rights perspective. A human rights perspective provides an understanding of the socio-economic conditions facing women fishers in the GLR. Expanding on established research on fishing rights of marginalized people, this analysis highlights human rights issues that have been less documented: gender-based cross-border violence and threats to personal security in the GLR.

Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing has been reported in many publications;_this_research project_provides an overview of the extent of IUU fishing on the African Great Lakes. Stock has been taken of fisheries regulations and legislations in the riparian countries to understand the diversity of the interpretation of illegal fishing operations. A summary has been presented of the regulations governing the target species of the different fisheries.

The three largest lakes of the African Great Lakes system, Victoria, Tanganyika and Malawi, have distinctive fisheries and histories of fisheries management. All three provide essential and high quality food to their riparian populations and a range of other ecosystem services. Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika have highly commercialised and lake-wide, open-water fisheries. In Lake Malawi the commercial fishery is largely confined to the southern end of the lake, mainly exploiting demersal fish. Artisanal and low-level subsistence fisheries occur throughout all three lakes.

There has been a considerable increase in the pace at which hydrocarbon reserves are being targeted in some of the most remote and pristine areas on our planet, often involving the use of controversial technologies such as hydraulic fracturing or deepwater drilling. Unnoticed by the public, initiatives for oil exploration are advanced in Africas largest freshwater reservoirs, including Lakes Tanganyika, Malawi and lately Albert, threatening their ecosystems and biota.

Indicator 6.6.1 tracks changes over time in the extent of water-related ecosystems. It uses the imminent date of 2020 in order to align with the Aichi Targets of the Convention of Biodiversity, but will continue beyond that date to align with the rest of the SDG Targets set at 2030. Whereas all ecosystems depend on water, some ecosystems play a more prominent role in the provision of water-related services to society. Consequently, one of the focuses for global monitoring of this indicator is lakes.

Well-dated sediment cores from Lake Tanganyika provide records of environmental change over timescales of centuries to millennia, giving us insights about how this complex ecosystem has responded to processes such as climate change (both before and after the onset of the industrial revolution) and watershed deforestation. They extend our knowledge of changes into the pre-observational era and the period prior to intensive land use, large-scale fishing and anthropogenic warming.