Das Projekt "Nutzung und Schutz der Wasservorraete im Victoria-See durch nachhaltige Bewirtschaftung der Feuchtgebiets-Uebergangszonen" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Zürich, Institut für Pflanzenbiologie durchgeführt. The project investigates the filtering capacity of wetland-ecotones and the resource use practices and management arrangements of wetland users with regard to different stages of urbanization. The aim of the study is to define options wich will allow to integrate sustainably managed wetlands into urban and rural water and sanitation planning. This will protect wetlands and contribute to the improvement of the inshore water quality. Significance for the partner country: The project contributes to protect wetlands as habitants rich in biodiversity and as resource base mainly for poor people and it contributes to an adequate use of natural wetland-ecotones in wastemaster treatment schemes and thus helps to improve the inshore water quality. The project improves the capacity of the Fisheries Research Institute in its task to monitor the national water resources through improvement of its infrastructure and through training of its staff (short term training of laboratory technicians, M.A., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees of research personel). The project helps to enforce the environmental policies of Jinja town through the collaboration of the Environmental Department of the Jinja Municipal Council with the water quality laboratory set up at the Fisheries Research Institute. Accomodation of the project to the research policies of the Partner country: The project is part of the National Wetlands Management Programme which itself follows the guidelines of the National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP). The research project focuses on the sustainable use of surface water, a steadily increasing problem in the densely populated areas around lake Victoria. The Ugandan Freshwater Fisheries Research Organisation (FIRI) and the Institutes of Plant Biology and Ethnology of the University of Zurich will collaborate in an interdisciplinary approach to investigate lake shore ecotones, the potential waste water treatment plant barriers along the lake shore. It is our aim to study the efficiency and the regeneration capacity of ecotones and to find options for sustainable management of wetlands as an integral part of water supply schemes through peoples participation.