LAKE VICTORIA BASIN

Foreword

The Lake Victoria Basin covers 194,000 square kilometres and its water resources comprise one of the world’s greatest complexes of lakes, wetlands, and rivers. Lake Victoria itself with a surface area of 68,000 square kilometres is the largest freshwater lake in Africa. The lake basin plays major ecological, social and economic roles in the East African Community (EAC). It is the main source of water for domestic, industrial, and hydro power generation. It is a climate regulator, a reservoir of biodiversity and a medium for transport. The basin contributes significantly to nutrition and food security through agricultural and fish production. The Nile River, which flows out of Lake Victoria, is an extremely important freshwater resource for downstream countries of Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt. Of the estimated population of 150 million people in the EAC region, about 40 million reside within the Lake Victoria Basin. A large concentration of the basin’s population lives along the lakeshore, including in towns such as Mwanza, Entebbe and Kisumu. The grasslands, wetlands, mountains, rainforests and riverine areas are home to many species of plants and animals. The lake basin is also a land of unparalleled natural beauty. Its vast mineral and natural resources provide immense opportunities for economic development and human well-being. However, increasing population and rapidly changing land- use patterns are having profound effects on the local environment. Sustaining high economic growth rates needs to be matched with maintenance of the integrity of environmental and natural resources in the Lake Victoria Basin. It is therefore imperative to identify and understand environmental challenges in Lake Victoria and to provide decision- and policy-makers with a scientific basis to guide the sustainable use of the basin’s resources. The Lake Victoria Basin Commission, in collaboration with GRID-Arendal, developed this Lake Victoria Basin: Atlas of Our Changing Environment as part of

its mandate under the Protocol for the Sustainable Development of the Lake Victoria Basin. The atlas provides compelling evidence of the extent and severity of the dramatic changes over the past 30 years on the Lake Victoria Basin’s environment due to both natural processes and human activities. The atlas is the rst major publication to depict environmental change in Lake Victoria Basin using satellite imagery. By telling a vivid, visual story of the dramatic natural and human activities effects on the Basin’s landscapes, it is a resource for remedial action at local, national, and regional levels. The satellite images show different types of environmental change, including conversion of forests and the loss or degradation of habitats, urban growth, altered hydrology, degraded shoreline areas, mining developments, and impacts of climate change. The active participation of partner states and other stakeholders signifies the importance attached to this atlas, and their commitment to implement its recommendations. Therefore, there is a need to create more awareness and sensitize stakeholders at all levels on the importance of the findings of this atlas. Its content should be disseminated to a wide audience in the partner states and beyond to enable them to incorporate the findings into their activities, decisions and policies. In line with the Protocol for the Sustainable Development of the Lake Victoria Basin, the Lake Victoria Basin Commission supports the partner states to actively protect, conserve and where necessary rehabilitate the basin and its ecosystems. On my own behalf and that of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, I take this opportunity to thank GRID-Arendal, Lake Victoria Basin Commission staff and experts from the basin who spearheaded the writing of this atlas. I urge all players in the lake basin to support the implementation of the findings by taking the first steps to implement the atlas’s recommendations.

Thank you

Dr. Ally Said Matano Executive Secretary Lake Victoria Basin Commission

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