Sustainable Management and Conservation of Aquatic Resources in Burundi: Ecological Assessment of Impacts and Land Use Change in Rural Areas

Summary

This proposal responds to the need of baseline knowledge and management tools to support management decisions regarding the sustainable use of freshwater resources in three subbasins of the Upper Congo Basin in Burundi. Community-level ecological status of pristine and impacted sites will be determined, based on environmental DNA (eDNA) samples from water, (2) fishes and macroinvertebrates, used as environmental quality bioindicators, (3) a standard set of physicochemical environmental parameters, and related to land use change using aerial photographs and satellite imagery. We will create an MSP and MIP network that will meet in person and online, to enable uptake and implementation by several local stakeholders, such as national conservation agency (OBPE), and two (inter)national conservation ONGs (APRN/BEPB and AVEDEC). We will provide support for training of 1 PhD student (at UBurundi), and infrastructure support for reference natural history collections.

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