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Mwambao : Linking communities for Sustainable Coastal Management




Mwambao Coastal Community Network (‘Mwambao’) connects Tanzanian coastal communities to each other and to other stakeholders, facilitating information sharing, learning and action for improved marine ecosystems and local livelihoods. We do this by:

Enabling community voice & advocacy




...about key coastal management issues and to advocate for rights. Mwambao has gathered statements and testimonials from coastal stakeholders about detrimental practice of using explosives for fishing. This helped to put the practice into context and identify what is needed to curb this harmful activity.

Implementing projects that improve community-based coastal management




...enabling communities to steward and benefit from marine resources. On the island of Pemba we are working with Village Fishery Committees to build their capacity to manage their local fisheries. We are also partnering with fishers on the main island of Zanzibar to increase their resource base by creating areas of artificial reef using cement reefballs.

Providing a coastal communications platform




...for sharing best practices and building skills and knowledge. Each year we bring together community representatives from our network to exchange stories, discuss common challenges and set a shared agenda of issues and priorities. We build local capacity to manage resources in the context of the existing legislative framework.

Facilitating conflict resolution




...over access to resources at community level. Conflict for coastal resources includes access to freshwater by villagers and tourist hotels. We have helped villagers use community film to bring the issues to the table with the Zanzibar Water Authority and local hoteliers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-58FrxfG8Y


Providing a link for knowledge sharing




...between scientists and local communities. Octopus biology dictates that a mature female needs at least 30 undisturbed days to brood her eggs. Therefore, by closing off an area for a couple of months octopus populations can quickly recover. By coordinating an octopus recovery period around Ramadhan, which is when octopus fetch the best price, we are bringing science and local cultural practice together for improved management.

Participatory Video

Mwambao participatory videos (PV) are used as a means to a beginning with a community or to document project activities. It’s an insightful and exciting learning experience – for both the community and Mwambao – it builds trust and results in a community-produced film that can be used for awareness raising, capacity building, and advocacy.

So far Mwambao has helped produce 17 films, covering topics from dynamite fishing to mangrove restoration efforts.

Learn more about the videos we’ve produced here.

FAO Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries

The Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (VG-SSF) in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication, as adopted by FAO in June 2014, is the first internationally agreed instrument dedicated entirely to the immensely important – but often neglected – small-scale fisheries sector. The VG-SSF are a milestone in securing human rights, equality and participation for all those involved in the small-scale fisheries sector.

The Guidelines mirror much of Mwambao’s work, and we have been playing an active role in their translation into a Swahili summary version, as well as introducing and disseminating them to Tanzanian small-scale fishers.

For coastal communities throughout the world, the small-scale fisheries sector underpins livelihoods, and acts as an economic and social engine, providing food and nutrition security, employment and other multiplier effects to local economies.

Network

One of our key areas is the creation and facilitation of a network of coastal villages throughout Tanzania; a platform where challenges, experiences and solutions can be discussed and shared by communities. Our network currently has 8 member villages, on Unguja, Pemba and mainland Tanzania. Mwambao staff visit each member village at least every 6 months, and bring all members together once a year, to conduct educational, outreach and capacity-building activities in areas such as leadership, record keeping, cash handling, conflict resolution, communications and team building.

As part of our network activities, we produce a quarterly newsletter in Kiswahili that is distributed among members of our network. The newsletter contains success stories from our member villages, and acts to link communities who face similar challenges.

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