The ecosystems of the Nile River Basin provide not only valuable and essential resources like food, medicine, and materials for clothing and construction for the populations along the river, but also serve to direct natural processes, including the cycle of water and the formation and nutrition of soil. However, in a region of such heavy population density biodiversity and habitats are constantly threatened. Dangers to the Nile ecosystem include:· Heavy urbanization and industrialization – the Basin is reaching its carrying capacity (the amount of life that can be supported by a specific environment based on its size and resources). Subsequently, crowded and ever-expanding cities threaten the remains of the surrounding habitats.
· Over-exploitation of resources – in addition to the sheer expansion of civilization, the increasing numbers of inhabitants are overusing the non-reusable resources of the Basin at unsustainable rates.
· Introduction of foreign species that upset system equilibrium – an increasingly globalized world continues to bring commerce and trade from far-reaching sites to the region, hence initiating new forms of plant and animal life to the stable Nile system.
· Development policy – state governments of the region focus mainly on the rate of development, not the conservation or sustainability of the environments upon which they are encroaching. The long-term effects of a deteriorating ecosystem are neglected in growth planning.
· Poor implementation of environmental policy – for those states which manage to incorporate the environment into legislation, many of them lack the institutionalization and infrastructure necessary to enforce the policies they initiate, rendering them nearly useless.