Biodiversity information for the Lake Malawi catchment Eastern Africa: Data for decision-makers
Location: Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa catchment, Eastern Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique).
Photo: Open Street Map contributros and the GIS User community
Status: Completed
Project Partner: Malawi Department of Fisheries
Donor: JRS Biodiversity Foundation
Photo: JRS Biodiversity Foundation
Background: The Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa catchment is an area of high freshwater biodiversity that plays a crucial role in the local economy of people living around the lake. It is however also under increasing threat from development, deforestation, hydropower development, oil exploration and multiple other interconnected factors. There is currently a lack of information and awareness of freshwater biodiversity within the region so existing conservation actions fail to recognise its importance and vulnerability.
Objectives: This project updated assessments of the status and distribution of freshwater species in the Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa catchment to raise awareness and improve their conservation and sustainable use. Stakeholder input was combined with species data to identify and delineate a freshwater Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) network, as the potential basis for a protected areas network to better represent freshwater biodiversity. The project helped to build capacity through promotion and training in use of biodiversity information portals, such as the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT).
Project activities:
- IUCN Red List Assessments: Red List assessments were updated or drafted by species experts for all described freshwater fishes, molluscs, dragonflies, shrimps, crabs and selected families of aquatic plants within the Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa catchment. A Red List review workshop was held in Malawi and the finalised assessments were made freely accessible through the IUCN Red List.
- Freshwater Key Bidiversity Areas (KBAs): Potential KBAs were identified using information from the Red List assessments. A KBA stakeholder validation workshop was held in Malawi to confirm freshwater KBAs, identify national KBA focal points, and to demonstrate the use of biodiversity information portals such as the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT).
- Published technical report: Information gathered during the project was disseminated through a published technical report, as well as a policy brief. These include recommendations for a more representative protected areas network for freshwater biodiversity.
- Dissemination mission: A final meeting was held in Malawi to disseminate the project findings to key stakeholders. Meetings took place with KBA National Focal points to discuss plans for future work on maintaining, updating and expanding the KBA network.
Key messages:
- Freshwater bidiversity in the LMNNC is suffering ongoing decline and the risk of species extinctions is increasing. The greatest declines are seen in the freshwater fishes of LMNNC, primarily due to unsustainable harvesting, including in commercially important species upon which livelihoods and economies depend. Information provided here can guide planning on species conservation priorities and sustainable use.
- The ongoing decline in freshwater biodiversity is impacting livelihoods of the rural poor in the LMNNC. Freshwater fishes are particularly important for provision of food, with the fisheries supporting local livelihoods and national economies within the LMNNC. Freshwater plants have diverse uses, including for medicine and food, and constitute an important resource, since many communities either lack access to, or cannot afford, market goods.
- At present freshwater species in the LMNNC are primarily under threat from biological resource use (primarily over-fishing), pollution (mainly from agricultural and urban sources), land use change for agriculture, and poor water management. These threats have resulted in 6% f native species and 11% of endemic species being classified as threatened with extinction. LMNN is also vulnerable to threats, such as unsustainable use of natural resources and invasive alien species, which could have significant and rapid negative effects on its biodiversity and the consequences of which could be irreversible.
- We lack sufficient information on freshwater species to effectively inform their management, as well as environmental and development decision making within the LMNNC. Baseline surveys and long-term monitoring programmes for freshwater species are urgently required to support management of this important but neglected biodiversity.
- Management of natural resources in the LMNNC needs to take freshwater biodiversity into full consideration. Effective use of Integrated River Basin Management and Environment Flows methodologies can ensure that freshwater ecosystems can sustainably provide water and other ecosystem goods and services in the long term, while at the same time supporting biodiversity. This in turn will maintain social and economic benefits.
- Site-scale conservation, focussed on Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), can help to guide conservation of freshwater species in the region. Twenty-two important river, lake and wetland sites have been delineated as KBAs for freshwater biodiversity, including six Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) sites. It is now important to raise awareness of their importance and to develop plans for conservation action at these sites.
- The data collated through this study should be used by decision makers, from scientists and conservation practitioners to businesses and governments, to ensure sustainable development in accordance with country obligations under the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), whilst safeguarding the freshwater biodiversity upon which it depends, in accordance with obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
