Biological baseline of Lake Kivu

Lake Kivu harbours a unique ecosystem and its management deserves special attention. The “Biological baseline of Lake Kivu”, supported by the Belgian Technical Cooperation, addresses the sustainability of the exploitation of the main lake’s resources, which are the sardine fishery and the harvesting of methane, which can become a precious source of energy for the local populations.

A major issue for the managers is to evaluate to what extent these two exploitations are compatible. The Biological Baseline of Lake Kivu, undertaken by LFE and supervised by EWSA (Energy and Water Sanitation Authority, Rwanda, which runs the Lake Kivu Monitoring Program) aims at evaluating the middle to long-term effects of methane exploitation on the organisms living in the biozone, in order to avoid any negative impact on the biota and the environment of the lake.

The study is divided in three main objectives

1) Assessment of the present fish stocks

2) Determination of composition and biomass of planktonic communities

3) Assessment of primary production and export of organic matter
All these aspects include acquisition of equipment, local capacity-building and acquisition of data allowing description of variations in time and space.

Lake Kivu baseline database (restricted access)

See also http://www.lake-kivu.org/