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
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 10/1/21 → 10/1/24 |
Funding
- Society of Exploration Geophysicists: $81,000.00
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