The Health of People and the Environment in the Lake Victoria Basin (HoPE-LVB) project seeks to reduce threats to biodiversity conservation and ecosystem degradation while simultaneously increasing access to family planning and reproductive health services to improve maternal and child health in project communities in Uganda and Kenya.
Lake Victoria is the world's largest tropical lake and the largest lake in the African Great Lakes region. The lake supports the largest freshwater fishery in the world, producing 1 million tons of fish per year and employing 200,000 people in supporting the livelihoods of 4 million people. The major threats to the lake are deforestation, land use change, wetland degradation and discharge from urban areas, industries and farmlands.
Adaptive management is an ongoing natural resources management process of planning, doing, assessing, learning and adapting, while also applying what was learned to the next iteration of the natural resources management process. Adaptive management facilitates developing and refining a conservation strategy, making efficient management decisions and using research and monitoring to assess accomplishments and inform future iterations of the conservation strategy.
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is working with Pathfinder International, a global reproductive health organization, on an innovative project that simultaneously addresses reproductive health, livelihood and natural resource management needs in a holistic manner. This integrated approach imparts knowledge that is helping people build healthier families and manage the resources on which they depend in ways that will sustain them and local wildlife over the long-term.
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.
The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Network (BES-Net) is a capacity building network of networks that promotes dialogue among science, policy and practice for more effective management of biodiversity and ecosystems, contributing to long-term human well-being and sustainable development. BES-Net is hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and implemented through partnerships with the Norwegian Environment Agency, SwedBio at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and Germany's Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB).
As part of an IUCN-led project, this document outlines optimal solutions for a critical sites network that best represents freshwater biodiversity in the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB). Using this approach the authors provide a foundation for species conservation through site protection whilst also maximising species climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods.
The FAO GeoNetwork provides internet access to interactive maps, satellite imagery and related spatial databases maintained by FAO and its partners. Its purpose is to improve access to and integrated use of spatial data and information. Through this website FAO facilitates multidisciplinary approaches to sustainable development and supports decision making in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food security.
This Story Map focuses on seven of Africa’s Great Lakes (Albert, Edward, Kivu, Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa, Tanganyika, Victoria, Turkana) and highlights key biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics designed to stimulate discussions around development and conservation of the lakes and their basins, especially in the face of increasing variability and change in climate.