Following recommendations adopted at the 1st Session of the Committee for Inland Fisheries of Africa (CIFA), Sub-Committee for Lake Tanganyika, convened in 1978, the Lake Tanganyika Research (LTR) Project 'Research for the Management of the Fisheries on Lake Tanganyika' - (GCP/RAF/271/FIN) became operational in January 1992. The project is regional in scope, being shared by the four lake basin States of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Zambia. It is executed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and funded by the Finnish International Development Agency (FINNIDA) and the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND). The project's scientific coordination is carried out by the University of Kuopio, Finland.

    The following sections provide the general information on Lake Tanganyika and its fisheries, and summarize LTR efforts, results, and the outlook for project planning and management proposals.