This is the first time that a study, coordinated and supervised by the IUCN and presented in September during the last World Conservation Congress in Jeju, South Korea, has revealed the socio-economic importance of North-African freshwater species, together with the high levels of threat that they face. Indeed, in the Maghreb region, about 46% of freshwater fish species and 28% of freshwater plants provide direct socio-economic benefits to local populations, whether as food, construction and craft materials, or medicines. But these species are also highly threatened by human activities, with 25 % of them already risking extinction.
For instance, 378,000 people are directly dependant on activities related to inland fisheries and/or aquaculture in Egypt, whose subsistence is therefore directly related to the conservation level of target species.
According to the IUCN, “this report clearly demonstrates the strong synergies between targets for the conservation of biodiversity and targets for the protection of sustainable livelihoods based on use of natural resources”.