Monitoring; African Great Lakes; Lake Tanganyika; Climate change; Fisheries; Pollution; Biodiversity
Abstract :
[en] The African Great Lakes are under threat from global and local environmental challenges including climatic
change,water pollution and overfishing. To address those issues,managers need observations based on regularly
monitored environmental indicators. However, environmental monitoring of the African Great Lakes is often
lacking or not based on harmonised methods. The presentmanuscript is a case study based on Lake Tanganyika,
impacted by climate change and anthropogenic pressure affecting water quality, fisheries and biodiversity
changes. The implementation of environmental monitoring has often not been continuous or standardised
among bordering countries. This prevents managers from taking data-based decisions and opens a risky field
where speculation may overcome a rational approach. Long-term monitoring observations are essential to
guide management measures to adapt to climate changes and decrease, whenever possible, unfavourable
human impact on the Great Lake environment. A regionally standardised long-term monitoring programme is
proposed. The sustainability of such monitoring requires that it remains inexpensive and focuses on a fewessential
parameters. Its strength would be its uninterrupted implementation. Setting up a long-termintegratedmonitoring
programme is also a goal of the Lake Tanganyika Authorities (LTA) with mandated national authorities
and stakeholders. A Lake Tanganyika Regional IntegratedMonitoring Programme (LTRIEMP) needs to be widely
encouraged and supported to ensure its sustainability. General principles from the Lake Tanganyika case study
could be useful to develop a wider harmonised sustainable long-term regional monitoring network of the
African Great Lakes in a multi-lakes collaborative approach.
Disciplines :
Physical, chemical, mathematical & earth Sciences: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Author, co-author :
Plisnier, Pierre-Denis ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Chemical Oceanography Unit (COU)
Nshombo, Muderhwa
Mgana, Huruma
Ntakimazi, Gaspard
Language :
English
Title :
Monitoring climate change and anthropogenic pressure at Lake Tanganyika
Publication date :
2018
Journal title :
Journal of Great Lakes Research
ISSN :
0380-1330
eISSN :
2773-0719
Publisher :
International Association for Great Lakes Research, United States
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