Abstract
Continued degradation of Lakes Malawi/Nyasa, Tanganyika, and Victoria has major implications not only for their globally significant biological diversity but also for tens of millions of people depending on them for survival. Governments responsible for the lakes understood this in the early 1990s and approached the GEF for funding to begin addressing the threats. Some early lessons from implementation of GEF projects for the lakes are presented. Different approaches for each lake provided different experiences, including how to cope with war. Different institutional approaches that were chosen have broad implications for how to address complex, transboundary water problems in Africa. The role of science in addressing barriers provided by complexity are discussed, and the importance of harnessing the local scientific community is underscored. However, lack of attention to management institutions, regulatory reform, and joint management in some projects can render even the best studies politically irrelevant.
The GEF international waters focal area is introduced, with sixty some projects covering 131 participating nations. Lessons learned from some of the early projects such as the Black Sea, Danube, and Mediterranean are described. Experiences in reversing degradation in the North American Great Lakes are also presented. An institutional neutral ground is needed for jointly examining facts, for building trust among nations, for leveling the playing field, and for building the political commitment for country reforms on land and water management that are needed to restore and sustain the lake basin ecosystems. The Lake Tanganyika project attempted to secure these commitments while the other two focused on single country studies and pilots. Country commitments to reduce pollution and sediment inputs and to develop joint institutions for sustainable management of the fisheries will be important considerations for additional GEF funding to reverse the growing degradation of these unique lake basin ecosystems.
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© 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Duda, A.M. (2002). Restoring and Protecting the African Great Lake Basin Ecosystems-Lessons from the North American Great Lakes and the GEF. In: Odada, E.O., Olago, D.O. (eds) The East African Great Lakes: Limnology, Palaeolimnology and Biodiversity. Advances in Global Change Research, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48201-0_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48201-0_23
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