The large lakes of the East African Rift Valley are among the oldest on Earth, and are vital resources for the people of their basins. They are unique among the large lakes of the world in terms of their sensitivity to climatic change, rich and diverse populations of endemic species, circulation dynamics and water-column chemistry, and long, continuous records of past climatic change. A comprehensive study of the large African lakes is long overdue. The scientific justification for such an effort is noted in the previous paragraph and is illustrated in great detail in this volume. Societal need for the sustainable utilization of these lakes offers an even more compelling reason for examination of biological food webs, water quality, and past climate variability in East Africa. The lakes provide the most important source of protein for the people of the African Rift Valley, and fish populations are shifting dramatically in response to fishing pressure, introduction of exotic species, land use impact on water quality, and perhaps climatic change. Current estimates of primary productivity, the underpinning of the food resource, are extremely crude and based on only a few spot measurements.

IDEAL, the International Decade for East African Lakes, is a ten-year multi-national, multi-disciplinary investigation of the biological, geological, chemical, and physical limnology of the East African Lakes, taking into special account the Great Lakes of the East African Rift Valley and the climatology and paleoclimatology of the Rift Valley itself. The selected papers in this book serve as baseline knowledge for this intensive examination, with most of the contributing authors already actively researching these lakes. The oldest in the world and the largest on the continent, the lakes are vital resources for the indigenous populations of their basins. They are unique not only in their diverse populations of endemic species of fish and invertebrates, but in their sensitivity to climatic change, unusual circulation dynamics and water-column chemistry in relation to higher altitudes, and continuous record of climatic change in tropical Africa. This volume provides an overview of our current knowledge of the lakes combined with the most recent results of specific research efforts by African, American, and European investigators. Included also are some discussions on the impact of man, as well as comprehensive bibliographies.

As atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to increase, so does the potential for atmospheric warming and associated climate change. In an effort to address the threat of global climate change, 155 countries signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. As of the first session of the Conference of the Parties, 128 nations had ratified the Convention. Among their other commitments, Parties to the Convention must develop and periodically update national inventories of net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions using comparable methodologies, and must develop and implement national programs to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. To further the development of emission inventories and mitigation options within the African context, 64 governmental and non-governmental scientists and policy analysts from 23 nations gathered at a workshop near Johannesburg, South Africa from 29 May to 2 June 1995. The workshop focused on forestry, land-use change, and agriculture, because these sectors not only are responsible for the majority of emissions from the continent and provide promising opportunities for emissions mitigation, but also are a vital component of African economic growth and development. This book presents the workshop's major conclusions and findings, as well as individual papers that were prepared for the workshop, each of which was peer-reviewed and accepted for publication as part of the workshop process. The papers cover four areas: (1) issues are associated with data collection and emission factor determination; (2) problems associated with applying the IPCC inventory methodologies in Africa; (3) results of national inventory assessments in Africa; and (4) possible emissions mitigation options and methods for evaluating their potential viability. As the first book dedicated solely to greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation options in Africa, this will be an invaluable resource to scientists, policymakers, and development specialists interested in global climate change and Africa.

The Second International Symposium on the East African Lakes was held from 10-15 January 2000 at Club Makokola on the southern shore of Lake Malawi. The symposium was organized by the International Decade for the East African Lakes (IDEAL), a research consortium of African, European and North American scientists interested in promoting the investigations of African Great Lakes as archives of environmental and climatic dynamics. Over one hundred African, European and North American scientists with special expertise in the tropical lakes participated in the symposium which featured compelling presentations on the limnology, climatology, palaeoclimatology and biodiversity of the East African Lakes. It is their papers that comprise this book. The large lakes of East Africa are important natural resources that are heavily utilized by their bordering countries for transportation, water supply, fisheries, waste disposal, recreation and tourism. The lakes are unique in many ways: they are sensitive to climatic change and their circulation dynamics, water-column chemistry and biological complexity differ significantly from large lakes at higher latitudes; they have long, continuous, high resolution records of past climatic change; and they have rich and diverse populations of endemic organisms. These unique properties and the significance of the palaeolimnological records demand and attract research interest from around the world.

As atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to increase, so does the potential for atmospheric warming and associated climate change. In an effort to address the threat of global climate change, 155 countries signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. As of the first session of the Conference of the Parties, 128 nations had ratified the Convention. Among their other commitments, Parties to the Convention must develop and periodically update national inventories of net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions using comparable methodologies, and must develop and implement national programs to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. To further the development of emission inventories and mitigation options within the African context, 64 governmental and non-governmental scientists and policy analysts from 23 nations gathered at a workshop near Johannesburg, South Africa from 29 May to 2 June 1995. The workshop focused on forestry, land-use change, and agriculture, because these sectors not only are responsible for the majority of emissions from the continent and provide promising opportunities for emissions mitigation, but also are a vital component of African economic growth and development. This book presents the workshop's major conclusions and findings, as well as individual papers that were prepared for the workshop, each of which was peer-reviewed and accepted for publication as part of the workshop process. The papers cover four areas: (1) issues are associated with data collection and emission factor determination; (2) problems associated with applying the IPCC inventory methodologies in Africa; (3) results of national inventory assessments in Africa; and (4) possible emissions mitigation options and methods for evaluating their potential viability. As the first book dedicated solely to greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation options in Africa, this will be an invaluable resource to scientists, policymakers, and development specialists interested in global climate change and Africa.

This volume contains original research papers presented during the Second International Symposium on the Limnology, Climatology, Palaeoclimatology, and Biodiversity of the African Great Lakes, organized by the International Decade for the East African Lakes (IDEAL). The book provides a comprehensive coverage of the large lakes of the African Rift System, touching on climate, limnology, palaeoclimatology, sedimentation processes, biodiversity, and management issues of these lakes.

The papers contained in this book have significantly advanced our understanding of natural and anthropogenic processes operating in the African Great Lakes, their temporal and spatial variability, their rates of change, and the linkages between environmental and ecological systems. For example, Lake Victoria has undergone dramatic shifts in the lake ecosystem caused by the introduction of the Nile Perch in the 1950s and of the water hyacinth during the past five years. The lake also dried up completely prior to 12,400 yr BP. Thus, the hundreds of species of fish in modern Lake Victoria may have evolved within the last 12,400 years; this is the fastest rate of vertebrate species evolution ever recorded.

This volume provides a comprehensive and comparative view of large African lake systems such as Lakes Victoria, Tanganyika, and Malawi. It serves as a basis for understanding the lakes' system history and sensitivity to processes of change, thus providing an essential tool for decisions related to the sustainable management of such precious resources. This book has been written to be of interest to a wide audience, including limnologists, palaeoclimatologists, evolutionary biology students andresearchers, as well as people generally interested in the aquatic environment.