Saving Lake Faguibine - Foresight Brief

This document examines the environmental, socio-economic, and security challenges surrounding the decline of Mali’s Lake Faguibine, a system of five interlinked lakes historically sustained by seasonal overflows from the Niger River. Once a vital source of fishing, agriculture, and biodiversity, the lake has dramatically shrunk due to prolonged droughts, reduced upstream rainfall, and hydrological changes from dam construction, compounded by poverty, conflict, and resource competition. The impacts have included loss of livelihoods for up to 200,000 people, migration, and ecosystem collapse. Past restoration efforts—such as large-scale 1980s reforestation using Acacia tortilis raddiana and Prosopis juliflora, the creation of the Office for the Development of the Faguibine System (OMVF), and a UN-led reflooding project launched in 2009—were hindered by insecurity, with the 2011 phase halted entirely.