The East African Community has designated Lake Victoria and its Basin as an "area of common economic interest" and a "regional economic growth zone" to be developed jointly by the Partner States. Lake Victoria is the focus of new attention following the declaration by the East African Community Heads of State that a joint programme be developed for the overall management and rational utilization of the shared resources of the Lake.
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.
The hydrology of Lake Victoria is, to a large extent, a function of the balance between rainfall on and evaporation from the lake surface. Historical climate variability has resulted in significant fluctuations in the water level in the lake. Climate models predict changes to the balance between precipitation and evaporation over the coming decades, with potentially serious impacts on the lakes water balance. These impacts have implications for the approximately 30 million people living around the lake, as well as further downstream in the Nile River basin.
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.
NatureUganda in parternship with World Wide Fund for Nature - Eastern and Southern Africa Programme Office (WWF - ESARPO) is coordinating this Education for Sustainable Development - East Africa Programme as part of the Lake Victoria Catchment Environmental Education Project (LVCEEP). The programme is addressing children's rights to education and health with a focus on food security, a healthy environment, clean water and sanitation.
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 fishery of Lake Victoria is dominated by three fish species: the introduced species Nile perch (Lates niloticus), Nile tilapia, (Oreochromis niloticus), and the native Silver fish Dagaa (Rastrineobola argentea). Over time fish stocks have been changed both in composition and relative abundance in response to multiple stressors including but not limited to the changing water environment and the ever increasing fishing pressure.
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.
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) provides grants to nongovernmental and private sector organizations to help protect biodiversity hotspots, Earth's most biologically rich yet threatened areas. Grant recipients range from small farming cooperatives and community associations to international organizations. Every grant helps implement an investment strategy found in the ecosystem profile for each region where we invest.
Proposals that target direct global environmental benefits and meet the following eligibility criteria are welcome:
Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) was established in 2003 after a fatal scabies skin disease outbreak in critically endangered mountain gorillas in Uganda was traced back to rural communities who have inadequate healthcare. In 2007, CTPH started an integrated Population, Health and Environment (PHE) program to promote biodiversity conservation at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP).
The conservation strategy for the Great Lakes Region (GLR) aims to:
The Conservation Leadership Programme provides conservation awards on an annual basis to support the work of early career conservationists. There are three grant levels to allow teams to scale up their initial projects: Starting with a Future Conservationist Award, teams are supported to undertake small-scale research and awareness-raising projects.
The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) was specially formulated to stimulate the necessary reforms in the agriculture sector and bring agriculture toward the support of socio-economic growth and sustainable development. CAADP is Africa 's policy framework for agriculture and agriculture-led development. It is an integral part of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
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:
In response to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the Community Water Initiative (CWI) was launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2004 in seven countries (Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya, Mauritania, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda), and was recently expanded to three new countries (Mali, Niger and Senegal).