The Conservation and Sustainable Use of Freshwater ... - IUCN

Managing Water Ecosystems for Sustainability and
Productivity in North Africa
Chedly Rais
The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief outline of freshwater ecosystems
in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt), and assess the
sustainability of their exploitation.
Much of the North Africa region has an arid or semiarid climate. Consequently,
freshwater ecosystems are relatively rare and are often subject to big seasonal
variations. Also, most of the countries experience periods of drought,
sometimes lasting many years, causing water bodies to dwindle or even
disappear. Although adapted to such variations, most of the region’s freshwater
ecosystems have difficulty recovering their vitality after long periods of
drought, with sometimes profound changes in the ecosystems’ main features.
It should be noticed that the situation in the
four countries in the region is almost the
same, except for Egypt, which finds itself in a
different situation due to the presence of the Nile
and the complex hydrological system it forms.
From the surface area angle, most of the region’s
water bodies are artificial lakes and reservoirs,
created when dams were built. The dams’ main aim
was to store run-off water for different uses, and to
control the hydrographical systems, particularly
protecting against flooding. Exploiting the living
resources generated by these inland waters is of
secondary importance, and is only borne in mind
as a side issue when planning and managing these
hydrographical systems (Jackson & Marmulla,
2001).
There is almost no use made of the living resources
of the inland waters in Libya, and relatively little use
is made of them in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.
For the last three countries, the inland waters are an
important source of income for the people who live
around them, but make only a modest contribution
to the national income. However, certain studies
show the appreciable potential of making the best
use of them. In the case of Egypt, exploiting the
living resources of the inland waters constitutes a
major economic sector, the main elements of which
are fishing and aquaculture.
The dominant feature of the inland water
ecosystems in North Africa is their artificial nature
both with regard to exploitable species (mostly
introduced) and habitats.
Main habitats
Because of the region’s climate, only a few types of
freshwater habitats are represented in the countries
of North Africa where permanent watercourses and
natural freshwater lakes are extremely rare. The
system for classifying Mediterranean wetlands
elaborated by MedWet (Farinha et al., 1996) offers
a detailed description of these kinds of habitats.
Here we shall merely enumerate the region’s main
inland water systems that are pertinent to exploiting
natural resources. These fall into three categories
in the FAO Report Source book for the inland
fishery resources of Africa (FAO, 2000):
• Natural lakes
• Watercourses and their related systems
• Reservoirs
We should also mention the freshwater systems
of the oases, which are hardly productive in fishing
and aquaculture, but play an important role in
the local economy of certain areas, especially in
tourism and recreational use. These activities
play a central role in improving income for local
populations of many wetland areas in North Africa
(Benessaiah, 1998).
Present uses of living resources in the
inland waters of the region
The present direct use most often thought of is
that linked to fishing and aquaculture. The rest of
this paper will discuss this type of use. However,
there are various other uses, such as rush and reed
collection, grazing, hunting, and tourism.
With regard to fishing, the main feature of the
inland waters of North Africa is the lack of diversity
of species that can be exploited for fishing. The
native ichthyologic fauna contains few species,
most of which are small or of very bad quality.
The example of the Barb fish Barbus callensis is
very explicit here. This species develops to an
appreciable size (several kilograms), but is of very
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