In May 2017, the African Great Lakes Conference: Conservation and Development in a Changing Climate was held in Entebbe, Uganda. This conference sought to increase coordination, strengthen capacity, inform policy with science, and promote basin-scale ecosystem management in the region. Because all of the African Great Lakes cross borders, the benefits they offer and the challenges they face are best managed at a basin-wide level.
Africa's continental fisheries and development strategy, The Policy Framework and Reform Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa (PFRS), advocates for the sustainable management of aquatic resources for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture development. The ecosystem approach to aquaculture (EAA) is a strategy for the integration of aquaculture within the wider ecosystem to ensure sustainable development, equity and resilience of interlinked social-ecological systems.
The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is a partnership of the riparian states that has been active since 1999. It seeks to develop the river in a cooperative manner, share substantial socioeconomic benefits, and promote regional peace and security through its shared vision of sustainable socioeconomic development through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resources. The NBI is based in Entebbe, Uganda and includes Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Creating welfare and jobs in rural areas is a development policy priority for Africa. Seventy percent of Africa 's rural populations derive their livelihoods from agriculture, and the number of young people living in rural areas is continuously growing and will continue to do so over the next decades.
NEPAD's Food and Nutrition Security Programme strives to reduce hunger and malnutrition of the vulnerable populations using evidence-based policies and programmes. The programme undertakes research, builds capacity for policy makers and programme experts across sectors and supports implementation. This programmes exists within NEPAD's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which is concerned with reducing poverty and hunger through agriculture-led growth.
Fish is one of the leading export commodities for Africa, with an annual export value of 14 billion USD. However, many African nations lack the capacity to utilize their aquatic assets while simultaneously protecting them from degradation and overuse. The full economic and social benefits of the fish trade have yet to reach its full potential. Without an adequate governance structure, fisheries and the fish trade will not be adequately safeguarded for the benefit of future generations.
The NEPAD Climate Change Fund aims to strengthen the resilience of African countries to climate change by building national, sub-regional and continental capacity. Established in 2014 by the NEPAD Agency with support from the Government of Germany, the Fund offers technical and financial assistance to AU Member States, Regional Economic Communities and institutions that meet the eligibility criteria and clearly defined targeted areas of support of the fund.
NatureUganda's Important Bird Areas (IBAs) Programme works to ensure the survival of bird populations in Uganda using the concept of IBAs. IBAs are sites of global conservation importance identified using birds to locate key sites for conservation across the globe. They are practical tools for conservation. IBAs are identified using standard internationally agreed criteria, which are objective, quantitative and scientifically defensible. IBAs vary in size; however, they must be large enough to support self-sustaining populations of those species for which they are important.
The Bird Population Monitoring scheme, coordinated by NatureUganda, works with local and regional partner organizations to build local and regional capacity for Bird Population Monitoring and engagement with local/regional policy forums. The scheme aims for long-term sustainability by engaging volunteer observers in simple and rewarding bird monitoring with clear objectives and conservation value, and with high quality support for participants (e.g., good training, educational materials and appropriate reporting of results and feedback).
The National Geographic Society awards grants for research, conservation, education, and storytelling through its Committee for Research and Exploration. All proposed projects must be novel and exploratory and be of broad interest.
The foundation's overall goal for the Great Lakes region is to prevent or reduce biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, and to sustain ecosystem benefits for human well-being. MacArthur focuses on funding projects in the Lake Victoria, Upper Nile, Tanganyika, Malawi/Nyasa, and Turkana/Omo Basins. Grant making is informed by extensive consultations with a range of stakeholders. MacArthur believes that understanding ecosystem benefits is necessary, but insufficient to spur effective conservation responses at the appropriate scales.
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.
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.
Despite the efforts conservationists trying to protect and conserve indigenous plant and animal life in Eastern Africa, the destruction of natural habitats is continuing. In many cases this destruction leaves behind degraded sites which require replacement of lost elements of the original ecosystem. Habitat restoration techniques can now be employed to repair damage to the diversity and dynamics of original ecosystem processes that sustain life on earth. The need for habitats restoration is one of the key areas of activities recommended in the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Water has long been ignored by international climate conferences. However, COP21 (Paris, 2015) and COP22 (Marrakech, 2016) saw the organization of official high-level events on water and climate and the launch of a Global Climate Action Agenda (GCAA) dedicated to water, with four Alliances created to implement it: the Global Alliances for Water and Climate (GAWC), gathering the Basin Alliance ( Paris Pact ), the Business Alliance, the Alliance of Megacities and the Desalination Alliance. The International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO) is in charge of the Secretariat of the GAWC.
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.
The Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) Initiative focuses on the economic benefits of land and land-based ecosystems. The initiative highlights the value of sustainable land management and provides a global approach for analysis of the economics of land degradation. It aims to make economics of land degradation an integral part of policy strategies and decision making by increasing the political and public awareness of the costs and benefits of land and land-based ecosystems.
The Disney Conservation Fund supports the study of wildlife, the protection of habitats, the development of community conservation and education programs in critical ecosystems and experiences that connect kids to nature across the globe. Since it was founded in 1995, the Disney Conservation Fund has helped protect more than 400 million species and has given more than $45 million to conserve wildlife and wild places through its annual conservation grants program.
Cage fish farming is growing fish in net enclosures suspended in water at high density in low volume (LVHD) or low density in high volume (HVLD) cages while maintaining free water exchange between the enclosure and the water body. Cage fish farming has increased in the African Great Lakes (AGL) region, since the beginning of the 21st century and has in less than 20 years, demonstrated capacity to increase fish production to more than 40 kg m-3 compared to ~5 kg m-3 from ponds which started more than 60 years ago.
The Crowder-Messersmith Conservation Fund helps small, local conservation and/or education projects in developing countries. Its grants provide seed money to communities and individuals whose projects have not attracted major support from other sources. The Fund honors Orville Crowder and Don Messersmith, two leaders in nature tourism, as a means to further global nature conservation.