The Ward Fisheries Committee (WFC) is in Zanzibar the community institution responsible for local marine resources management. But they have often been weak: with little capacity and effectiveness.

The Eco-credit pilot was embedded in a wider project aiming to build a more effective co-management framework with strengthened WFCs.

Without a wider ongoing project in which an eco-credit scheme is nested, it would still be key to have an active community institution in charge of local natural resources management in some way, to link loans access to environmental conditions agreed by the community.

The community-level marine management plan sets priorities and objectives to manage natural resources. It is created by the WFC, facilitated by the project team if applicable. The plan can then serve as guidance for the environmental compliance and actions to be undertaken by the eco-credit groups’ members.

The local management plan can be started simple and focus on a few conservation/management targets with matching by-laws to enforce, and be further elaborated while the eco-credit scheme is running. In such cases the active participation of the broadest possible base of community members (especially those members of the eco-credit groups) is very important.

For the implementation of EMR, it is required that the people of the community are trained and appropriate of the benefits that this technique provides to their livelihoods, mainly the effects on fisheries.

With the support of the local organization, community members should understand the relationship between hydrodynamics (freshwater and saltwater flow) and the diversity of fish available for fishing at the site.

The people of the community are responsible for carrying out:

• The construction of a temporary containment of the water flow.
• The removal of logs that may affect water flow and the removal of invasive species that compete with natural regeneration.
• The removal, transfer and final disposal of sediments, according to the technical specifications provided by the local organization.

For the implementation of the EMN, a local organization is required that has the institutional agreements and the necessary legal protection to carry out actions within natural protected areas and is specially classified as a co-manager.

The local organization is in charge of identifying the most degraded channels, designing the dezasolve and planning the removal, transfer and final disposal of sediments.

The local organization must carry out training to avoid any accidents while the actions are being carried out; it is in charge of forming the work groups and distributing the tasks, as well as supervising the quality of the works for compliance.

The importance of a local organization with strong community roots lies in its credibility with the community, as well as its ability to reach consensus and avoid potential conflicts, especially when selecting beneficiaries, distributing workdays and defining payment methods.

Farmers. Farmers are the key players in this process for the production of agricultural residues that are used as our raw materials.

Organized transport systems: Raw material sources are always scattered, and they need to be collected and transported to the production facility. This requires consolidating them for easy transportation. There is need for reliable means of transport that have to be used efficiently and effectively

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Retail outlets and distribution centers. When briquettes are produced, communities’ members need to be accessing them without any hustles. This requires the recruitment of retailers to stock these products.

Pricing mechanisms. Switching the communities to the new alternative sources of cooking energy requires offering them with reduced price that will attract them. To achieve this, entrepreneurs need to consider minimizing their production costs by analyzing the production process.

Labour intensive. The process of collecting raw materials from farmers is labour intesnsive. Loading and offloading from the trucks also requires labour.  Soring of raw materaisl is another area also. Packaging of the product is also labour intensive.

Understanding the reasons for forest encroachment:  The driving force is the need for firewood. This is caused by the need for cheap sources of cooking energy and the need for employment.  To solve these two issues, people resort to cutting down trees for firewood affecting the natural habitat for plants and animals.

Site selection: Consideration is made for site selection that is close to the source of raw materials and the targeted population and building of structures.

Raw Material sourcing. The first step is to consider establishing the potential availability of agricultural waste that can be used in the process of producing the briquettes.

Processing and production This involves sorting and grinding. Then the sorted materials are pressed into briquettes which are then sent for drying and testing to establish durability of the briquettes.

Community involvement: Durability of the briquettes to the community is done through participatory cooking demonstration. Community leaders are invited to explain the benefits.

Biodiversity conservation: When communities become aware of the availability briquettes meeting their cooking and employment needs trees are no longer cut down hence preserving the natural habitats for animals and plants species.

The trees that HAF with community partners grow from seeds in nurseries in Morocco are generators of direct revenue from the a) sale of the trees at a subsidized rate to farmers, cooperatives, associations, and education centers, and b) voluntary and credited carbon offsets that are secured with HAF’s monitoring system of the trees that are transplanted from the nurseries, integrating and maximizing the benefits from remote sensing and ground-truthing with community engagement. The sale of carbon credits, in particular, ensures maximum impact - revenue generated by the trees planted is reinvested directly into the communities that grow the trees. 

Combines solar solution to provide ligth and access to power and charge phones 

Build partnership to implement projects in biogas in niassa reserve and other reserves in Mozambique

Crab Shack Restaurant has become the icon of DCCG. It is reknown for its iconic samosa pastry deliciously made from crabs harvested in locally fabricated traps. 

Expansion of the restaurant through funds obtained from KCDP under HMP has lead to:

• Attract more visitors for celebration, events.
• Job opportunity for the local communities especially the youth.
• Crab Shark restaurant attracts tourists from the nearby hotels to come and experience the unique atmosphere in the mangroves, crabs are reared in cages in the streams within the mangroves  

Tapping into traditional knowledge and drawing upon the rich cultural traditions and biological heritage of local communities gives them a sense of pride in their heritage and enhances conservation outcomes. Documentation of the PBR by Sükhai village was an excellent entry point for enhanced conservation.