Abstract
THE WORLD'S demands for hydrocarbons increase, remote areas previously made inaccessible by technological limitations are now being prospected for oil and gas deposits. Virtually unnoticed by the public, such activities are ongoing in the East African Great Lakes region, threatening these ecosystems famed for their hyperdiverse biota, including the unique adaptive radiations of cichlid fishes.
The thousands of oil spills reported in Nigeria demonstrate that the extraction and transport of oil are prone to accidents. This is especially bad news for the African Great Lakes because they are virtually closed ecosystems.
An oil spill would markedly affect the health, water supply, and food security of local communities. More than 10 million people depend on Lake Tanganyika alone for fisheries and water resources, and many more along the Congo River, into which the lake drains, are highly dependent on the lakes' ecosystem.