Freshwater biodiversity in the Lake Victoria Basin

The Lake Victoria Basin is internationally recognised for its high freshwater species diversity and endemism, which are of critical importance to local livelihoods and national economies within the basin. However, freshwater ecosystems within the region are highly threatened, with current safeguards proving inadequate and the focus of much past and ongoing conservation work in the region focussing on terrestrial ecosystems. Systematic conservation planning analysis was used to identify a critical sites network for freshwater biodiversity in the Lake Victoria Basin, based on the existing protected area, KBA (including the newly delineated freshwater KBAs) and Ramsar site network. These Guidelines provide new and updated information and insights that will motivate actions to help safeguard the high diversity of life within freshwaters of the Lake Victoria Basin.