African Great Lakes hold 25% of Earth's freshwater as unique species face extinction

Somewhere along the East African Rift Valley sits a chain of lakes holding more than a quarter of all the surface freshwater on the planet. Most people have never heard of them. The African Great Lakes span ten countries, keep over 50 million people fed and employed, and rarely get a mention alongside the world's other great natural wonders. Beneath the surface, though, is a level of biodiversity that would not look out of place on a coral reef, packed with fish, crustaceans and invertebrates that exist nowhere else on Earth. A new global assessment of freshwater species has now put a number on just how much of that is at risk, and the African Great Lakes sit right at the centre of the story.The African Great Lakes hold over 25% of Earth's surface freshwaterThere isn't just one African Great Lake.