Darwall, W.R.T.

L’Afrique occidentale est riche en biodiversité d’eau douce et en endémicité régionale, soutenant l’ensemble des populations mondiales de nombreuses espèces d’eau douce menacées, notamment les poissons, les mollusques, les libellules, les crabes, les crevettes et les plantes aquatiques. Ce rapport s’appuie sur une évaluation de référence régionale réalisée en 2009 ainsi que sur une évaluation des Zones clés pour la biodiversité (KBAs) d’eau douce en 2015.

Western Africa is rich in freshwater biodiversity and regional endemicity, supporting the entire global populations of many threatened freshwater species including fishes, molluscs, dragonflies, crabs, shrimps and aquatic plants. This report builds on a regional baseline assessment completed in 2009 as well as an assessment of freshwater Key Biodiversity Areas in 2015.

The Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa Catchment (LMNNC) supports exceptionally high diversity and endemism of freshwater species. This globally recognised centre of freshwater biodiversity is of extreme importance, not only for its biodiversity value but also for our understanding of evolutionary processes and species sorting. Additionally, it provides a resource that underpins the livelihoods of many people in each of the riparian countries of Malawai,  Mozambique and Tanzania, and is important to national economies and human wellbeing.

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.

The inland waters of Madagascar and the Indian Ocean islands hotspot support a high diversity of aquatic species with high levels of endemism. The information presented in this report will help support implementation of multilateral Environmental Agreements in Madagascar, such as the Ramsar Convention and the Convention on Biological Diversity, guiding conservation planning and priority setting at national level. In addition, this new information will help efforts to achieve targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The Mediterranean Basin biodiversity hotspot is known to be one of the most biologically rich and complex regions on Earth. The north-western part of the hotspot (the area that covers all of the Iberian Peninsula, southern France, most of Italy and Malta) supports important river, lake, karst and wetland systems critical for the survival of threatened and restricted range freshwater species.

A workshop was held in Cambridge between March 20-22, 2017, to bring together the PiN team and the Global Species Programme (GSP) and TRAFFIC to discuss the inclusion of data from PiN landscape assessments within the Species Information Services (SIS), building on discussions held over the last four years. The objective of the meeting was to collectively agree on the content and architecture of a PiN benefits assessment within SIS and explore how to apply this assessment from an institutional perspective. 

Le hotspot  (point chaud) de la biodiversité du bassin méditerranéen est bien connu pour l'importance que sa biodiversité revêt à l'échelle mondiale, mais l'importance de la biodiversité d'eau douce n'était pas reconnue précédemment. Dans le cadre de ce projet, les ZCB d'eau douce ont maintenant été identifées, cartographiées et validées dans une grande partie du hotspot méditerranéen. à présent, il est important de faire prendre conscience de leur statut en tant que ZCB d'eau douce validées, et de mettre en place des programmes d'actions de conservation adaptées sur ces sites.

The Eastern Mediterranean region supports just over 4.4% of the global human population yet contains only 1.1% of its renewable water resources, which are under constant threat from the impacts of unsustainable water withdrawal, dam development and climate change. This IUCN report and accompanying dataset represents a major advance in the provision of information to help incorporate biodiversity needs into water development planning processes within an Integrated River Basin Management framework.