IUCN - The World Conversation Union

In January 2005 we received funding from the European Commission to initiate a five-year project to assess the status of freshwater biodiversity throughout Africa and to demonstrate the application of these data in environment / development planning at four demonstration sites. Click here to read more about this project.

The objectives for the project are:

• the conservation and sustainable use of freshwater biodiversity throughout Africa in the face of widespread plans for large-scale water resource developments;
• and safeguarding of livelihoods for those millions of people in Africa dependant upon the goods and services provided by biodiversity in inland waters.

Technical Annex to the project proposal (PDF)

The project is funded by the European Commission:

European Commission, through the Program on Environment in Developing Countries: Contract EuropeAid/ENV/2004-81917. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Commission

The Freshwater Biodiversity Unit is conducting regional assessments of the status and distribution of a number of priority groups of freshwater taxa. The following assessments have been completed:

• Eastern Africa assessment
• Madagascar assessment
• Mediterranean assessment

This project aims to provide a methodology, using species-based criteria, to identify those areas supporting important freshwater biodiversity. Click here to read more about this project.

The project is developing a toolkit of methodologies to assess the value of wetland biodiversity to livelihoods, particularly of the poorest, and to find ways to clearly present this information to decision-makers. Click here to read more about this project.