Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic received their first grant from JRS in 2022 supporting  the collection of data on indicators of biodiversity, fisheries health, and human health along the DRC coast of Lake Tanganyika on and around the Ubwari Peninsula. Field Scientist Dr. Deo Mushagalusa oversaw species collection and analysis which were catalogued into the Darwin Core Standard and entered into the GBIF database.  LTFHC shared initial findings from the first deployment with key policymakers at a regional conference, SIAL9, and leveraged this work to gain additional funding from The Nature Conservancy.

As international partners plan for multiyear programming in the Lake Tanganyika basin, they are grappling with a significant lack of baseline information along the Congolese and Burundian coastlines. The lack of credible fish biodiversity data (including distribution, abundance and documented declines) makes program design and implementation fraught. A complex array of urgent community needs –health, security and livelihoods– impacts fisheries stocks and overshadow local conservation efforts. LTFHC seeks to address this gap by continuing in-depth survey work in identified lakeside KBAs.

LTFHC will continue the extensive survey process in KBAs identified that overlap with the Nundu Health Zone (HZ) in South Kivu, and Nyemba HZ in DRC’s Tanganyika Province. Sampling data will be accompanied by a social survey tool with a range of questions to assess the health of the Lake Tanganyika fishery focusing on species crucial to both ecosystems and livelihoods (i.e., Ndagala/Dagaa [Stolothrissa tanganicae] and Mukebuka [Luciolates stappersii]), as well as Cichlids. 

The immediate objectives of the Cross-Sectoral Household and Critical Biodiversity Surveys in Riparian South Kivu and Tanganyika Provinces project include:

1. To provide regional & local policymakers with access to crucial data, which can inform UNEP-GEF program design, decision-making, and local policy. 
2. To continue to contribute to open-access database (GBIF), an important tool for conservation and fisheries entities.
3. To assess the health, socio-economic, and security status of communities to identify key local challenges that can be matched with contextually-tailored solutions congruent with biodiversity protection and fisheries management goals.

Detailed studies on key fish species diversity and related fishing-activities are still quite limited in the Lake Tanganyika basin (LTB). Local communities living along the lake rely on its fisheries for daily survival and have intimate knowledge of fish species diversity and ecology. LTFHC will continue surveys to document local attitudes and fisheries fleet activities to record local catch data. Household surveys will provide complementary knowledge of the nexus between fish biodiversity, malaria incidence, environmental degradation, the incidence of endemic diseases, and food insecurity in newly identified KBAs. Through extensive survey data, the project will (a) provide accurate data to regional & local policymakers, (b) add new and expanded data to GBIF-and open-access databases, and (c) gain critical insight on the causes of key local challenges. This work aims to enable more effective fisheries and conservation strategies which operate with greater synergy with local community health and livelihood needs, while taking into account the actual operational conditions of the region.

Dr. Amy G. Lehman is the founder of the Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic (LTFHC)/Water Based Aid, Value, Engagement (WAVE). Dr. Lehman graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall and was chosen as their 2014 Alumni Award recipient. She received both an MD and MBA from the University of Chicago, and additionally trained in General Surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center and was a Senior Fellow with the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Dr. Lehman received the 2014 Distinguished Young Alumni Award from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She has been honored by Newsweek as one of the “150 Women Who Shake the World,” and by a number of other publications for her work in the Lake Tanganyika Basin.