Kaufman Research Team Launches Blog Series on the Future of Lake Victoria

Les Kaufman, a Faculty Research Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and a Professor in the Department of Biology, is part of a research team that is attempting the first lake-wide fish biodiversity survey in the world’s largest tropical lake, Lake Victoria. The team recently launched a multi-part blog series, in which they will explore the escalating conflict over fisheries in Lake Victoria and the critical role the lake plays in providing long-term food and economic security for people across the region.

Lake Victoria is one of the two largest inland fisheries in the global tropics (the other is Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, where Prof. Kaufman’s team also works). They have been studying Lake Victoria since the 1980s, balancing the prioritization of biodiversity conservation – our insurance policy for the future – with the immediate needs of the people in the Lake Victoria region of East Africa.

The survey is being conducted by the three fishery research institutes based in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania: the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), The National Fisheries Resources Research Institute (NaFIRRI), and the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIRI). Denver’s Secure Fisheries, the home institution of Prof. Kaufman’s Co-PI Sarah Glaser, is the lead organization for the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant that is supporting this project.

• Click here to read Part One of the series from Uganda, written by Sarah Glaser of Secure Fisheries.
• Click here to read Part Two from Kenya, written by Paige Roberts of Secure Fisheries and John Okechi of KMFRI.
• Click here to read Part Three from Tanzania, written by Michael O’Neill of the New England Aquarium, with Hillary Mrosso and Mary Kishe of TAFIRI.
• Click here to read Part Four, written by Pardee Center Faculty Research Fellow Les Kaufman.