9 June 2011: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released a report, titled “The Diversity of Life in African Freshwaters: Underwater, Under Threat – An analysis of the status and distribution of freshwater species throughout mainland Africa,” which provides information on the distribution and conservation status of species in all inland water ecosystems across mainland continental Africa, as well as the reasons behind their declining status.

The analysis represents the most comprehensive assessment of freshwater biodiversity at the species level for an entire continent. With major threats including loss and degradation of habitat, due to agriculture, and impacts of new infrastructure, such as dams for irrigation and hydropower, the report aims to: assist managers in designing and delivering targeted action to mitigate and minimize these threats; guide policy makers in evaluating progress made towards meeting national obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention), and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); and provide input to national-level conservation priority setting.

Some of the key messages of the publication are that: the inland waters of Africa support a high diversity of aquatic species with high levels of endemism; current levels of threat to freshwater species across Africa are high relative to other ecosystems, with 21 percent of species threatened; protected areas must be better designed to protect freshwater species and, as with other conservation actions for freshwater species, must be designed to employ the principles of catchment management; management of water resources must take account of the requirements of freshwater biodiversity; lack of available information should no longer be given as a reason for inadequate consideration of development impacts to freshwater species; species information remains very limited for many parts of Africa; and environmental impact assessments should expressly require reference to the species data sets made available through the IUCN Red List.

The report was published together with an online interactive map for each of the 7,079 river and lake sub-catchments across mainland Africa, containing information on the distribution, conservation and ecological needs of 4,989 freshwater species. [Ramsar Press Release] [IUCN Press Release] [Publication: The Diversity of Life in African Freshwaters: Underwater, Under Threat] [Interactive Mapping Tool]