CEBioS mission in Burundi

Two staff members of CEBioS, Dr. L. Janssens de Bisthoven and Dr. M. Vanhove visited Burundi on 27 September-5 October 2016 in order to monitor and participate to the South Initiative (VLIR-UOS) “Surveillance de la dynamique de la biodiversité du Lac Tanganyika », as co-promotor.

Release date	13/10/2016
Contributor	mlsusini

The promotor in Belgium is Prof. Ludwig Triest (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), and in Burundi, Prof. Joël Ndayishimiye (Université du Burundi). The rationale of the project stems from a demand by the ‘Office Burundais pour la Protection de la Nature (OBPE)’ to install a rapid and effective biomonitoring system of the Burundese part of the coast of Lake Tanganyika, based on scientific evidence of the value of riparian habitats as hatching and nursery ground for pelagic fish, important for the local artisanal fisheries and income for local communities. In order to install such a surveillance system, the multidisciplinary team explores both the water physico-chemistry, as algae, macrophytes and macro-invertebrates to be used as bioindicators. Also the fish fauna of these habitats is inventoried. The lake suffers from pollution by the city of Bujumbura and artisanal palm oil processing, input by small streams with loads of sediments from erosion due to deforestation and overfishing by catamarans with light fishing of sardines at night.

Moreover, the ‘Centre de Recherche en Hydrobiologie’ of Uvira in DR Congo was invited for a fruitful brainstorming with the colleagues from OBPE and Université du Burundi to explore avenues of cooperation to better understand and monitor their common lake resources in a sustainable way.

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Finally, Luc and Maarten participated also to a national workshop on cooperation between traditional healers and researchers, see here.

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