The Victoria, Tanganyika and Malawi lakes serve as renewable sources of freshwater and fish, besides fulfilling other important functions in their riparian countries. Their ecosystems are in danger, however. Research on the lakes' ecosystems and their main environment problems is a prerequisite to the formulation of strategies and action plans for integrated environmental management of the lakes' basins. This volume presents data collected and the main results of hydrological studies.

This volume is taken from an ecological study of wetlands undertaken in northern Lake Victoria (East Africa) between 1993 and 1996 with the major aim of characterizing shallow vegetation-dominated interface habitats, and evaluating their importance for fish, in particular, for the Nile tilapia.

This book is an essential knowledge base for both ecological restoration and management. Although tropical lakes are not identical, and therefore require individually developed and restoration and management practices; there are general principles in both restoration and management that can be derived from the case histories in this book and the limnological literature in general.

This volume offers comprehensive and up-to-date information on research in many different disciplines which give an overall insight into the environmental history of Africa.

East Africa is one of the most diverse and interesting tropical area on the planet. It is home not only to the last great megafaunal assemblage, but also to human populations with the highest growth rates. This book draws on the expertise of leading ecologists, each intimately familiar with a particular set of East African ecosystems, to provide the first in-depth and integrated account of the ecology, management, threats, and conservation of these diverse ecosystems. Summarizing the tremendous wealth of scientific research that has come out of East Africa in the last few decades, each chapter analyzes a given ecosystem type, taking the reader through the basics of its ecology, its historical use (and misuse) by humans, and its prospects for conservation. Throughout the book, linkages and similarities among ecosystems are emphasized, the historical and contemporary role of humans in shaping these ecosystems is considered, fundamental principles of ecology are considered, and interesting case studies are highlighted. Students and researchers in ecology, conservation biology, and environmental sciences will find this book useful in their work.

The large lakes of the East African Rift Valley are among the oldest on Earth, and are vital resources for the people of their basins. They are unique among the large lakes of the world in terms of their sensitivity to climatic change, rich and diverse populations of endemic species, circulation dynamics and water-column chemistry, and long, continuous records of past climatic change. A comprehensive study of the large African lakes is long overdue. The scientific justification for such an effort is noted in the previous paragraph and is illustrated in great detail in this volume. Societal need for the sustainable utilization of these lakes offers an even more compelling reason for examination of biological food webs, water quality, and past climate variability in East Africa. The lakes provide the most important source of protein for the people of the African Rift Valley, and fish populations are shifting dramatically in response to fishing pressure, introduction of exotic species, land use impact on water quality, and perhaps climatic change. Current estimates of primary productivity, the underpinning of the food resource, are extremely crude and based on only a few spot measurements.

The report synthesizes the findings of ten case studies published in FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 426/2. The case studies have been conducted in five medium-sized lakes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The synthesis focuses on three features relevant for the SADC region: How has fishing effort developed in these lakes over the last 50 years? What causes changes in fishing effort? How do fishing effort and environmental factors compare in their effects on the regeneration of fish stocks?