GWB Category: Habitat Management

Geophysical Habitat Mapping for Fisheries Conservation at Nsumbu Tanganyika (Zambia) This project aims to improve the productivity of Lake Tanganyika’s fishery in Zambia, by securing food resources and improving the health of thousands of villagers in the vicinity of the Nsumbu Tanganyika Conservation Project co-management area, by using high-resolution geophysics and limnogeological sampling (sediment cores and dredge samples), detailed echosounding, side-scan sonar, and CHIRP seismic reflection profiling, and providing the scientific foundation for defining coastal

Some five million people live in the greater Lake Tanganyika watershed and face extreme poverty, disease, and the effects of environmental degradation associated with unregulated development. Communities along the shores of Lake Tanganyika are dependent on fish, both for sustenance and generating income. This project formed the framework for defining small protected zones that will secure the health and productivity of the littoral fishery.

Farmers worry about increased damages caused by Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombats (SHNW) and the associated viability of their land, whereas the general public and some conservation groups are concerned that current practices will see the species reduce in number, or become locally extinct. This project was part of a large-scale project aimed at developing a technique to model SHNW abundance at several different scales (state-wides, regionally and/or property specific).