Resources

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.

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.

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.

CoBRA is a participatory assessment methodology, largely qualitative, which identifies the locally-specific factors contributing to the resilience of households and communities facing different types of shocks and stresses. CoBRA aims to understand resilience from community and household perspectives. This tool does not use any preconceived components of resilience, but rather helps local populations describe and explain them on their own, based on their past experience, by:

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.

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.

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.

Population, Health, and the Environment (PHE) is a community-based development model that uses integrated approaches to improve access to health services, especially family planning and reproductive health, while helping communities manage natural resources and conserve the critical ecosystems on which they depend. PHE is a last mile approach that reaches vulnerable populations in rural areas that are typically beyond the reach of government services and large-scale development projects. For over two decades, diverse organizations around the world have carried out PHE projects.