"Participants
gather at the inaugural Great Lakes to Great Lakes Initiative on the
shores of Lake Tanganyika in Kigoma, Tanzania".
"The North American and African Great Lakes systems hold nearly half of the world's surface freshwater resources."
The
United States Special Envoy for the African Great Lakes and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Russell Feingold, in
collaboration with the Lake Tanganyika Authority (LTA), launched a
unique initiative this week to bring together experts from the North
American Great Lakes with counterparts from the African Great Lakes to
address sustainable management of these trans boundary waters.
Together the North American and African Great Lakes systems hold nearly
half of the world's surface freshwater resources.
Over
three days (February 2-4) on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in Kigoma,
Tanzania, scientists, academics and policymakers from the United States
and Canada engaged in an in-depth exchange with colleagues from
countries around one of the African Great Lakes, Lake Tanganyika,
including Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Through
presentations and break-out sessions, conference attendees discussed
the challenges involved in the management of the North American and
African Great Lakes including:
- Threats to fisheries;
- Harmful algal blooms;
- Invasive species; and
- Climate change.
Special
Envoy Feingold remarked, "This tremendous exchange is one example of
the positive benefits of strengthened cooperation between the countries
of the African Great Lakes region, as well as a rare opportunity to
learn from each other about our respective approaches to key
environmental issues."
Participants
in the conference worked together to identify priority areas for
further collaboration. Future sessions of the "Great Lakes to Great
Lakes Initiative" are expected to focus on these topics, as well as on
other African Great Lakes.
Susan
Hedman, Great Lakes National Manager for the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, opened the conference by emphasizing "the scale of
the resource management challenges in the North American and African
Lakes systems, which hold almost half of the earth's surface freshwater
resources."
In
early 2012, Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia adopted a
multi-lateral strategic action plan to protect biodiversity and
sustainable development of natural resources in the Lake Tanganyika
basin. Lake Tanganyika is the largest of the African Great Lakes. Later
that year, the U.S. and Canada updated the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement, which has governed bi-national management of the North
American Great Lakes since 1972.
Jean-Marie
Nibirantije, the Director of the Lake Tanganyika Authority, emphasized
the importance of confronting threats to biodiversity and sustainable
use of the lake's resources: "Discussions with experts from the North
American Great Lakes allowed us to understand that many of the problems
we are facing are shared by our colleagues. This initiative has given
new hope for a sustainable partnership to find new solutions."
Photo 1
(Map) Caption: "The North American and African Great Lakes systems
hold nearly half of the world's surface freshwater resources."
Photo 2
Caption: "Participants gather at the inaugural Great Lakes to Great
Lakes Initiative on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Kigoma, Tanzania"
No comments:
Post a Comment