05/10/16

MWAMBAO is pleased to announce that we have entered a formal partnership with the award-winning organisation Blue Ventures. MWAMBAO and Blue Ventures hold a shared mission and vision for locally-managed healthy marine ecosystems that directly benefit coastal communities.

Blue Ventures, based in the UK, has more than 10 years of field experience in Madagascar and Belize, including short-term closures for octopus and other interventions for sustainable marine management. As part of their model of expansion, they are working with ground-partners such as Mwambao who know and understand the sociocultural context on the ground. This partnership will play an important role in continuing our own organisational growth.

Blue Ventures have provided MWAMBAO with funding that allows us to extend the sustainable octopus management work we have been conducting on Pemba to three new sites on Unguja – the villages of Matemwe, Mtende and Tumbatu. For the implementation of this project, MWAMBAO has employed a new full-time member of staff –  Aliy Abdurahim, who has 20 years of experience working in natural resources management who will work alongside existing members of the Mwambao team.

Capacity building activities for the Shehia (village) Fisher Committees began in November 2016, followed by wider education and awareness campaigns for each community to be undertaken prior to the commencing of the first 3-month closures in March 2017.