The African Great Lakes Conference and the Future of Great Lakes Science in Africa

Session: 27. - Emerging Partnerships, Research, and Capacity in the African Great Lakes

Robert Hecky, Editor, Journal of Great Lakes Research, [email protected]

Abstract

The African Great Lakes Conference (AGLC) 2017 enabled appreciation of progress on current and emerging issues but also to recognize constraints on the development of Great Lakes science in Africa.  The AGLC theme was Conservation and Economic Development in a Changing Climate. The African Great Lakes are vast reservoirs of water, fisheries, biodiversity and earth history, but most immediately and importantly they are engines of regional development shared among 13 riparian countries all experiencing rapid population and economic  growth.   The North American Great Lakes (NAGL) in the past century underwent such rapid development that left the lakes with a legacy of degradation.  Does a similar fate await the African lakes? The AGL are already suffering degradation from problems familiar to the NAGL, accelerating non-point and point source nutrient and sediment loading, HABs, invasive species, contaminants, etc., but the AGLC also highlighted some new issues which have received less attention in the NAGL: hydrocarbon exploration and extraction, net pen aquaculture    and climate impacts. These issues in the NAGL  are being addressed with appropriate investigation, regulation, remedial investment and strong binational institutions which are the eventual outgrowths of sound science and policy.  Can the AGL benefit from the NAGL experience?

1. Keyword
Africa

2. Keyword
climate change

3. Keyword
fisheries

4. Additional Keyword
hydrocarbons

5. Additional Keyword
aquaculture