Saving Lake Faguibine - Foresight Brief No. 001 - August 2017

The Faguibine system, located in the Tombouktou region in Mali is a series of five interlinked lakes (Télé, Takara, Gouber, Kamango and Faguibine). In the late 19th century the floodplain extended over an area of 1,000 km–, however declining rainfall led to it shrinking to about 90 km² by 2010 (Hamerlynck, et al. 2016). Prolonged droughts over the years also led to the lake completely drying up in 1914, 1924 and 1944 (Pérez, Fernández and Gatti 2010). The decline of the Faguibine is an important issue because of its impacts on livelihood’s, food security and the resulting collapse of the natural ecosystem.