Geophysical Habitat Mapping for Fisheries Conservation at Nsumbu Tanganyika (Zambia)

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

The project will directly support four lakeshore villages (Lungu tribes people plus refugees) in the Nsumbu Conservation Project co-management area in Zambia; each village contains several hundred households with an average of nearly seven people/household. Therefore the project will potentially benefit thousands of people, the overwhelming majority of whom are young and deeply impoverished. Notably, Zambia ranks tenth globally in terms of population growth rate, and the total number of Lungu people in the 1990s exceeded 230,000 people distributed across the country. Many of these people are concentrated around southwestern Lake Tanganyika, and they are suffering from food insecurity. Human health relies on a reliable protein source for nutrition. Fish are the chief protein source for people living near Lake Tanganyika, but this food resource is threatened by: (1) overfishing and illegal fishing practices, (2) sediment pollution (from slash and burn deforestation) that fouls shallow water fish spawning grounds, and (3) climate change, which reduces nutrient cycling and plankton availability (fish use the plankton as their food source). Fish also represent one of the few opportunities for cash income generation for these people, too. These factors have converged into a humanitarian crisis on Lake Tanganyika. Leaders from Lake Tanganyika''s riparian nations acknowledge that coastal protected zones are successful in safeguarding juvenile fish and improving fish catch numbers and body size. However, the financial resources and human assets needed to establish, manage, and enforce rules around protected areas are very limited. A few co-management projects like Nsumbu Tanganyika exist; these are groups of NGOs that work directly with communities to improve the lives of lakeshore villagers. Nsumbu aspires to a goal of community-led sustainable fisherie
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date10/1/2110/1/24

Funding

  • Society of Exploration Geophysicists: $81,000.00

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