A first working draft of the Lake Tanganyika Convention was prepared, in French and English, in June 1999 on the basis of the recommendations of the Regional Legal Workshop held in Lusaka, Zambia in February 1998.

The discussions of the Anglophone Sub-Regional Legal Workshop (Tanzania and Zambia) held in Dar es Salaam during the last week of August and the French-speaking Sub-Regional Legal Workshop (Burundi and DR Congo) held in Arusha the following week were based on the first draft. At the end of each workshop, a new second draft of the Convention was prepared: a second working draft in French and a second working draft in English.

A third completed draft of work, including the amendments issued by the two Sub-Regional Workshops, served as the basis for discussions during the Regional Legal Workshop in Arusha during the first week of November 1999, during which the delegations of the four coastal countries were present.

This document, the fourth working draft, is the latest version in French of the draft Convention now entitled “Convention on the Sustainable Management of Lake Tanganyika” and intends to contain the amendments and modifications approved during the Regional Workshop. For logistical reasons, it was not possible to print the final text approved at the Workshop in order to submit it to the workshop delegates. Delegates are therefore invited to carefully review this fourth draft of work, to compare it with their own notes to ensure the accuracy of the text, and to send any comments or observations to the Marine Resources Assessment Group.

1999 Convention on the Sustainable Management of Lake Tanganyika