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Newsletter and Technical Publications CHAPTER 2. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ASPECTS OF EUTROPHICATION 2.5. Examples of the History and Culture in Improving the Aquatic Environment 2.5.2. Lake Malawi and East African Great Lakes Region Background In 1979, the Society of International Limnology - United Nations Environmental Programme Workshop on African inland waters in Nairobi, Kenya, concluded that information on the aquatic systems of Africa was dispersed and essentially inadequate to yield a management scheme of these resources. The same can be said about information on eutrophication in these aquatic systems today. In addition, research on traditional or culturally based management strategies of African lakes continues to be dispersed although some patterns have emerged. The problem derives, in part, from the geography of the region and how that geography shapes the cultural location of the lakes. Unlike on other continents, such as Europe and America, most of the soil on the African continent is of ancient origin and has therefore been subjected to natural environmental processes, such as leaching of nutrients and erosion over long periods. The result is that the soil lacks fertility and is therefore more vulnerable to human activity, especially deforestation and its attendant consequences of desertification and soil erosion. In summary, the environmental crisis of Africa stems from low land productivity and not population pressure, as is sometimes supposed. One of the consequences is that environmental refugees are a common feature of the African landscape. The problem is that during the aging of the continent by geologic processes, environmental refugees create new, and often temporary, political and social-cultural configurations. Under this unstable condition, the key victims are traditional management schemes, which often die with the abandonment of unproductive resources. Further, the African continent is caught up in a more universal struggle, particularly how to reconcile the protection and management of natural resources with future sustainability and development. The environmental challenge of eutrophication cannot be considered apart from other contingencies of economic development. Two common assumptions are especially pertinent here. One is that if Africa follows the Western model, some deterioration of the environment is a necessary cost for economic development. The second is simply that the management of natural resources is a luxury that developing countries can only ill-afford. In respect to the first assumption, it should be noted that hot spots do exist in the East African lakes where industrial pollution is a factor in eutrophication. For the most part, however, industrial pollution is not the decisive factor. In respect to the second assumption, the challenge is simply one of commitment and solution at the level of central policy. The generally low level of industrialization in the region of the East African Lakes means that eutrophication does not present the same problem as it does in industrialized contexts. However, there are important differences in the water bodies themselves and the societies around them, and there are similarities between industrialized hot spots along these water bodies and familiar contexts of eutrophication in the West. The question is how the management of eutrophication poses a problem for the special cultural and social setting along these water bodies. To address this question, a rural, rather than urban, approach is essential since it is in the rural environment where traditional management schemes are more likely to survive. The enormous cultural complexity of Africa is a second hurdle. The fact that the continent is home to almost 700 million people that speak over a third of the worlds known languages militates against a homogeneous framework. It is tempting to ascribe broad philosophical trends derived, for example, from the major religions on the continent to characterize the environmental ethic of the adherents. Such a solution would be ideal if it could, indeed, account for the environmental practices of the 250 million Christians and 215 million Muslims in Africa. But it does not, for reasons that are too numerous to list. For one, both Christianity and Islam continue to be indigenized in ways that pose problems for orthodoxy and its tenets. For another, Africans that profess these major religions also continue to hold on to many beliefs that derive from traditional practices whose diversity is precisely the point of concern. In short, to project such broad philosophical trends would be a gross oversimplification and would certainly yield an African environmental ethic only by default. In this publication, an important assumption is that both the level and quality of communal participation in environmental management depends on specific contexts and the mechanisms that they offer for community-led initiatives. In a broad survey of this nature, it is difficult to be specific. Lake Malawi then serves as an example for more general insights. In order to identify cultural determinants surrounding eutrophication, the discussion highlights selected indicators, such as coastal pollution, watershed land use patterns, and attitudes to water hyacinth. The Great Lakes of East Africa are of special interest to culture because the region is believed to be the cradle of human evolution. Olduvai Gorge in Northeastern Tanzania is home to the remains of Zynjanthropus dating back 1.75 million years. Other archaeological discoveries near Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya have yielded even older fossils from two to four million years ago. In addition, the region is also one of the early sites for the domestication of plants and animals and thus a site of an important transformation in our relation to the environment. Cereals, such as barley, were first cultivated along the Nile as far back as 18,000 years, and archaelogical evidence indicates that cattle were reared around Lake Turkana 6,000 years ago. Aside from the historical factor, the individual significance of the African Great Lakes is another attraction. Each one is unique in some important respect. For example, Lake Victoria belongs to the Nile River system while Lake Tanganyika is linked to the Congo River system, and Lake Malawi to the Zambezi. Also, Lake Victoria is the world's second largest natural lake. Unlike Tanganyika and Malawi, it is not a rift valley lake. Rather, it is situated between the east and west rifts (Figure 2.2.). Its broad shape and shallow depth is a result of its peculiar formation, but also accounts for the peculiar vulnerability of Lake Victoria to environmental degradation. On the other hand, Lakes Tanganyika and Malawi have the characteristic shape and profile of rift valley lakes (Figure 2.2.). They also have the distinction of being classified as ancient lakes dating back to 20 million years BP and 2 million years BP, respectively. At 32,600 and 30,800 square miles in surface area, they are the fifth and eleventh largest lakes in the world. In addition, Tanzania is the second deepest only to Lake Baikal having depth at 1,471 m and volume of 18,800 km³. All three lakes provide a unique habitat and are well known for their endemic cichlid fishes, particularly Tanganyika and Malawi. Collectively, the lakes play a critical role in the socioeconomic welfare of their riparian populations. They are not only a source of nutrition, but are also important reservoirs of fresh water and a means of communication. Finally, they offer great potential for tourism. Figure 2.2. East African Rift Valley Lakes.
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