30 September 2008, Burera - A farmer working the land along the banks of Burera Lake. FAO Project: EP/RAF/401/GEF - Trans-boundary Agro-Ecosystem Management Programme for the Lower Kagera River Basin, PDF-B. The natural resources of the Kagera river basin, which rises in Burundi and flows through Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania into Lake Victoria, are facing increasing pressures and degradation as a result of population pressures, the intensification of agricultural and livestock activities and unsustainable land use systems and management practices. The basin's land and freshwater resource base, its associated biodiversity and thereby human livelihoods and food security are threatened by declining productivity capacity and resource value of the cropland, rangeland and forests and by wetland encroachment. The PDF-B grant aims to improve knowledge and strengthen capacities at local, technical and policy levels for the preparation of an integrated agro-ecosystems and biodiversity management framework, known as the Transboundary Agro-ecosystems Management Programme (TAMP). The full scale project will support the implementation of TAMP with the long-term goal of protecting the integrity of the ecosystems of the lower Kagera Basin and harnessing global environmental benefits through ensuring the productive and sustainable use of the biodiversity resources and agricultural ecosystems. The TAMP will mobilise the adoption of productive and sustainable land management and livelihood strategies of local populations in range, agro-pastoral and arable lands. An integrated ecosystem management approach across the transboundary river basin will help combat degradation, rehabilitate degraded lands and achieve local and global environmental benefits in terms of biodiversity conservation, protection of international waters and mitigating the effects of climate change through enhanced carbon sequestration.