The success of enforcement work relies on collaboration from the authorities. The SIMCA Enforcement Steering Committee has been established to reduce illegal fishing activities within the marine protected area. The steering committee included Reef Guardian, Sabah Wildlife Department, Department of Fishery, Marine Police, Malaysia Navy, District Offices, Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency and Eastern Sabah Security Command. The Joint collaborative enforcement activities were conducted regularly to ensure efficiency in handling threats in illegal fishing, wildlife poaching and trafficking, illegal immigrant, and piracy issue within and outside of the marine protected area.

The illegal fishing practice, such as illegal fish trawling at the shallow area local communities fishing grounds, impacts the sustainability of marine resources and the livelihood of local fishing communities. Implementing awareness programmes to the fishing communities and engaging them to be eyes and ears in reporting on the potential illegal fishing or activities in the sea. 

Investment in a radar tracking system for broader monitoring of the area. The radar tracking system is real-time monitoring speed, and directional heading of the boat in the marine protected area's vicinity. The radar information can infer the type of activity of the boat is likely to be engaged in the sea. For example, a fish trawler boat that is trawling tends to move at a slower speed of 7-10 kph than a passing trawler that usually travels at a speed of 16 – 20 kph. Furthermore, five blast detectors were installed to monitor and analyse blast fishing activities within SIMCA. The blast detector's information enables the Reef Guardian enforcement team to do strategic sea patrol to increase enforcement presence in the hot spot where illegal fish bombing often occurred.

Effective enforcement relied on the main four steps from Step 1 on detection of illegal fishing, Step 2 on successful detention of the suspect, Step 3 on the case prosecution and Step 4 on the criminal conviction. The Reef Guardian enforcement team plays an essential role in the early process of detecting illegal fishing.  Enforcement guideline has been used to standardize the sea patrol operation, ensure the team safety and efficiency from boat check, and preserve all criminal evidence (protected species, illegal fishing equipment/substances). The guideline has been used as capacity training for systematic enforcement procedures to the recruit.

This integrated and highly participatory approach has been fundamental to ensure the success of the WWTP.  The Polo's Water Board collaborated with CORAL, The West End Patronato (Community board), and the Roatán Municipality to gain support and cooperation from the local community; which was essential to ensure the connection of residences and businesses.

The community was also involved in the establishment of a fee, a process developed by Polo's under the guidance from the Ente Regulador de los Servicios de Agua y Saneamiento (ERSAPS), which is the federal government entity responsible for regulating water and sanitation providers. 

It has allowed us to secure funding, build strong partnerships, and most importantly gain the community’s support and trust by creating a positive change in their environment and creating job opportunities.

Budget modeling has been incorporated into the plant’s management model. With CORAL’s support, Polo’s Water Board has been able to design its annual budget based on different economic scenarios that range from the financial needs to ensure operations remain at full capacity to budgeting based on austerity measures due to reduced revenue. 

Coral and Polo's Water Board are also collaborating on creating a strategy to diversify income sources by engaging with new partners and donors and the potential commercialization of the treatment process (sludge composting). 

The partnership between Polo’s Water Board, CORAL, and the Bay Islands Conservation Association (BICA - Roatán) has strengthened local marine water quality monitoring efforts.

The partnership created a win-win collaboration where BICA can learn more about the connection between their control sites and the impact of wastewater infrastructure; while Polo's Water Board can have access to data that helps them assess the plant’s performance and CORAL can also access valuable data and information to continue promoting clean water for reefs. 

Partnership in the recycling industry enhances success in the business. Arena's recycling industry duty is to collect plastic wastes as raw materials which is why they have been able to enter into a partnership with Coca-Cola because they have common goals and interests. Coca-Cola is producing a lot of plastic packaging items which are raw materials for Arena. Likewise, Arena is in the process of establishing collaboration with all the companies that produce plastic products. The aim is to enter into an agreement that all the garbage produced at any of their events must come to Arena.

After the baseline assessment the deliberation and co-learning process needs to shift towards a long-term continuous process with recurring meetings. This may include changing roles and encouraging stakeholders to claim ownership and take lead. For this to be a smooth transition it needs to be addressed already when the process starts.

To achieve fisheries sustainability, it is necessary to have the participation of all stakeholders involved in decision making. In this way, they share responsibilities and rights for the use and management of resources, conflict resolution, and knowledge exchange. This is what is known as co-management of fisheries; where those involved become allies and collaborate to achieve the same objective.

To achieve this, all potential allies were first identified: fishing communities, the government sector, academia, civil society organizations and the market. They were invited to collaborate and a series of meetings were held with the participation of all stakeholders, where the project, its objectives and goals were designed. Stakeholders were invited to be part of the project and to contribute to it from their experience and field of work. This was formalized by signing a memorandum of understanding. Now, biannual meetings are held to present the progress made and establish the next goals, always seeking transparency and fostering trust and equitable participation.