Established by a Convention and Statute signed on May 22, 1964, by Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, countries sharing borders on Lake Chad. The Central African Republic (CAR) joined the Commission as the fifth Member State during the 8th Summit of Heads of State held in Abuja, Nigeria in March 1994. The aims of the Commission are to regulate and control the utilization of water and other natural resources in the basin; to initiate, promote and coordinate natural resources development projects and research within the basin area; to examine complaints; and to promote the settlement of disputes, thereby promoting regional cooperation.

Established by a Convention and Statute signed on May 22, 1964, by Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, countries sharing borders on Lake Chad. The Central African Republic (CAR) joined the Commission as the fifth Member State during the 8th Summit of Heads of State held in Abuja, Nigeria in March 1994. The aims of the Commission are to regulate and control the utilization of water and other natural resources in the basin; to initiate, promote and coordinate natural resources development projects and research within the basin area; to examine complaints; and to promote the settlement of disputes, thereby promoting regional cooperation.

In December 1977 at Enugu, Nigeria, the Third Summit of Heads of State of the Commission signed the Protocol for the Harmonization of the Regulations Relating to the Fauna and Flora in the four member countries, and adopted plans for the multi-donor approach toward major integrated development for the Conventional Basin.

The Secretariat has continued its contact with donor agencies as well as with other international organizations in its efforts to apprise them of the development problems and requirements of the subregion. These contacts led to the 8th Consultative Meeting, which was held in N'Djamena in March 1986, during which the donor agencies and international financing institutions represented (African Development Bank (AfDB), CARE/CHAD, French Assistance Agency (FAC), FAO, European Economic Commission (EEC), UNDP, and US Agency for International Development (USAID)) indicated their respective areas of interest in the 1987-91 Five-Year Action Programme.

Established by a Convention and Statute signed on May 22, 1964, by Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, countries sharing borders on Lake Chad. The Central African Republic (CAR) joined the Commission as the fifth Member State during the 8th Summit of Heads of State held in Abuja, Nigeria in March 1994. The aims of the Commission are to regulate and control the utilization of water and other natural resources in the basin; to initiate, promote and coordinate natural resources development projects and research within the basin area; to examine complaints; and to promote the settlement of disputes, thereby promoting regional cooperation.

The second project, similar to the first one but more extensive, was the planning and management of the basin's surface water resources. This was also jointly financed by UNDP and LCBC and executed from May 1990 to December 1993. The output of this project was the establishment of a mathematical model for the basin's surface water resources.

The 8th Summit of Heads of State, held in Abuja in March, 1994, approved the document of the Master Plan for the Development and Environmentally Sound Management of the Natural Resources of the Lake Chad Conventional Basin. This document consists of 36 projects relating to water resources, agriculture, forestry, biodiversity management, livestock, and fishery developments within the Lake Chad Conventional Basin. The Heads of State also launched an international campaign to save the Lake, with the Secretariat being instructed to organize a donors' conference to mobilize international support for the implementation of the Master Plan. The 8th Summit also approved the final report of a border demarcation exercise between Member States, which had been carried out from 1988 to 1992, and decided that each country should adopt that document in accordance with its national laws.

The LCBC/GEF Project on the integrated management of Lake Chad, financed by the Global Environment Fund, aims to integrate the projects of the conventional basin in such a way as to avoid duplication. Its main objective is to set up a coordinated, integrated and sustainable management of the international waters and natural resources of the Lake Chad basin and to reverse the degradation trend of soils and water resouces of the Lake Chad conventional basin. Six pilot projects have been identified, as follows, with the search to finance them being the subject of a donors' roundtable conference to be organized:

1. Rehabilitation and management of hydrological and ecological resources of Waza-Logone Flood Plains (Cameroon-Nigeria-Chad)

2. Integrated management of humid zones of the Komadougou-Yobe sub-basin (Niger-Nigeria)

3. Transboundary project to fight sanding up (Chad-Niger)

4. Management Plan Definition of Lake Fitri (Chad)

5. Integrated management of transboundary humid zones in the Chari upper basin (CAR-Chad)

6. Inscription of Lake Chad on the list of RAMSAR sites (Cameroon-Niger-Nigeria-Chad)

The Strategic Action Plan that resulted from this project was discussed in January 1998 with the national experts, who recommended its adoption by the Honorable Commissioners. The plan is a long-term vision spread over 20 years and includes an 8-year action program with the following priorities: (1) create a dynamism for the management of shared water resources with intra- and inter-country cooperation and integration mechanisms; (2) put in place viable basic information collection networks for better knowledge and follow-up of water resources, ecosystems and their exploitation; (3) carry out basic sectoral activities for mastery of the demand for water and for desertification control and biodiversity loss; (4) start feasibility studies on intra- and inter-basin water transfer and environmental impacts; (5) prevent and control contaminants, as well as preserve fishery resources; and (6) improve modes of tapping aquatic aquifer ecosystems and protect flood-plains in relation with regional development.

In March, 1999, a three-year inlands fisheries project started in the Lake Chad Basin , financed by the European Union. The objectives of this project, scheduled to finish in May of 2002, are: 1) to contribute to inland fishery development in the Lake Chad basin; 2) to strengthen the relationships between the sectors of fisheries, research institutes, national and international organizations in the region; 3) to encourage a greater participation of trustees (fishermen and fishery organizations) in the process of a politic formulation; 4) to increase the capacity building of the research institutes involved in the project; 5) to strengthen the links between the regional research institutes in the Lake Chad Basin througout a south-south collaboration in the project, and the north-south links throughout the project activities.

COMPOSITION

5 member countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Niger, Nigeria

Sudan was admitted as an observer by the 10th Summit held in N'Djamena in July, 2000. It will become the sixth member state after ratifying the convention and statute which created the Commission.

STRUCTURE

The highest authority is the Summit of Heads of State which, effective March 1994, is held once a year.

The Commissioner's Meeting, which comprises of two Commissioners per Member State, meets once a year.