Local | PANORAMA

Community-based opening of closures

Closure openings can be an exciting and hectic time. All closures in an area need to open the same day (to avoid massive affluence in one site, low individual catch rates and undesirable habitat impacts.) If not well defined and organised, they can cause conflict within and between villages, as well as feelings of being cheated, and discourage the establishment of future closures (e.g. gear specifications). Opening day procedures are established well in advance, with the participation of all concerned villages and coordinated well with buyers. They need to be well communicated, so that everyone understands the rules, and so it is easy to enforce a fine on someone who does not respect them. If possible, simple catch monitoring is be carried out on the opening day, to give the community some simple and rapid feedback on the effectiveness of their closure.

An effective, community-led temporary closure for octopus fishing of around 2.5 to 3 months preceding the opening day.

Rule system agreed upon by all participants.

- All closures in an area should open the same day to avoid massive affluence in one site, consequently low individual catch and bad impact on habitat. - Coordinate the opening with buyers, ensuring all the products can be bought, that the price won’t decrease because of the abundance of product and, ideally, that there will be a price incentive at opening. - It is best to have one starting point, so that everyone is equidistant when it opens. One person should be in charge of announcing when the closure is officially open, and this announcement or signal should be clear. - If a traditional ceremony is to be performed, make sure adequate time has been allotted for this, and that the people performing the ceremony have adequate time to prepare to fish if needed. If catches are to be monitored, make sure that weighing stations are established, monitors prepared, preferably weighing at usual buying points so that fishers don’t have to perform an extra effort to get their catch sampled.

Collaborative regulation setting

The rules and regulations of the closure need to be decided upon in a village meeting setting, encouraging participation by as many people as possible to ensure a high level of community ownership and support. If the regulations are not widely agreed upon as fair, they will be very difficult to enforce. Once the community is satisfied with the rules and regulations for the closure, locals laws should be discussed openly and agreed upon. Fines should be an amount that is realistic for fishers to pay, but large enough to effectively discourage theft. It is also important to determine procedures for enforcement of the local laws at the time of its creation to avoid future delays and/or confusion if an infraction is observed. The concept of local laws is often familiar in Madagascar, and there may already be an established procedure for enforcement. In such a case, it is best to work with well-established procedures. Local laws should be formalised in regional courts to ensure legality as well as to provide strong institutional backing if a local law infraction needs to be taken to court.

Existence of a legal framework for community management / customary laws such as the Dina in Madagascar.

Important points when developing regulations: - Access during the closure (for fishing other species, travel) - Paying a guardian will usually be cost-prohibitive. All members of the community and neighbouring communities are considered guardians for local law discussions: - Communication of fines to people attending enforcement meetings can improve faith in the association and encourages participation in meetings - Tiered fines can be an effective way of discouraging repeat offenses but showing compassion for a first-time offender not causing hard feelings towards the management association - Illegal catches from the closure should be confiscated and sold/shared out Logistics should be discussed and agreed by entire community - Confiscating fishing gear until fine has been paid is not effective: the person may need their gear to earn money to pay the fine - Members of other communities can come to fish at opening, but have to sell their catch to the village implementing the closure

Inception phase

Implementation

Local

Collaborative closure design

Communities select a target species for temporary closures. This should be short lived and fast growing to allow clear benefits to fisher catches, and preferably economically important to ensure financial returns on the opening. A second step is selecting the area to be closed. Communities discuss and agree site selection and fishing area with the establishment of the closure. Closures are better-suited to smaller villages to avoid them being overfished on opening day. Good collaboration between villages for surveillance and benefit-sharing at opening. Consult with commercial seafood buyers prior to closure implementation, to ensure that they are aware of the closure and supportive. If they are not supportive, they may encourage fishers not to respect the closures, or refuse to buy catches from closure-implementing villages. They also need to be ready to process a glut of seafood on opening day, which can present logistical challenges. Decide on timing of closure and opening. Seasonal variations in fishing and resource use patterns may mean that an area is only suitable for closure establishment during certain times of the year.

- Progressive seafood buyers who see the benefit of communities implementing closures - No decrease of price and even price incentives from seafood buyers for closure-implementing communities - Strong local leadership to galvanize support for the closures - Support from local government for the closure

- Seafood buyers must be consulted early on to ensure support. - Close to villages to allow monitoring - Outside of frequently travelled routes - In a suitable habitat for the target species - Big enough to produce local fishery benefits and handle the generally large number of fishers attending an opening day - Not so big villages cannot afford to forego use of the area - Decide what tide the opening should be on. Dependent upon movements of target species - Good implication of neighbouring villages - Several closures opening simultaneously in the same zone to avoid overfishing and bad impact on habitat in one site - Consider seasonality, environmental factors - Consider any national/regional fisheries closures as this can have legal and economic ramifications - Timing of closures and openings need to be discussed fully with the fishers to ensure that everyone is party to the decision and aware of the timings - No price decrease at opening and even price incentive.

Inception phase

Implementation

Local

Peer-to-peer learning exchange

Fishers from target communities visit other communities already implementing temporary fishery closures or other marine management strategies. By learning directly from the real experiences of fishers from similar backgrounds to themselves, target communities realise that this is something that they can adapt to their own contexts. Experienced communities often recount not only the benefits but also the challenges that they have faced in implementing community management and thus allow new communities to prepare for, or even avoid these challenges themselves.

- Funding to support a fisher-fisher exchange - An initial management interest in the visiting/target community - Key fishers representatives / respected spokespeople from visiting communities to lead discussions in their home communities - An honest and supportive hosting community with relevant experience - Planned follow up after the exchange

Follow up after a peer exchange trip is crucial. The supporting organization must ensure that participants have understood key messages from the host community, synthesized what they’ve learned and are comfortable leading discussions in their home communities. Participants in the exchange trip should be community members who are legitimate in the eyes of fishers (i.e. fishers themselves) and respected. It is also helpful to have participants who are known as being sceptical and asking difficult questions –these types of people will often be the hardest to convince and the first to oppose the establishment of a closure, so having them in support of the closure from the start is a big advantage.

Divided by sea, united by vision

Crossing the ocean for marine conservation

Community assessment

Community evaluation

Preliminary diagnostics are carried out with communities to assess their perception of the state of marine resources, the need for management and their motivation to take responsibility for management. To ensure adequate community ownership, it is critical that the support organisation (e.g. an NGO), does not pressure the community into agreeing to management measures that they are not necessarily motivated to enforce. If adequate recognition of a need for management and community motivation exists, the support organisation can move on to the next step.

- Established relationship between community and support organization - Community recognizes a need for management and is motivated - Support organization is flexible enough to adapt to community needs and/or lack of interest - Support organization is familiar with basic diagnostic exercises, such as problem trees, concept models, etc.

This first step is critical, and if carried out properly results in a community that is motivated to manage their marine resources and feels a strong sense of ownership over the initiative: - The support organization should refrain from proposing, or pressure the community from agreeing to, management measures (such as a marine reserve) before the need for management and community motivation (for management and enforcement) has been established. Otherwise the proposed action may always be perceived as an “outsider” initiative, and suffer from poor community ownership. - If adequate recognition of a need for management and community motivation exists, the support organization can move on to the next step. - The support organization must also be ready to walk away if the community expresses that it does not recognize a need for management, or is not motivated to take responsibility.

Planning phase

Local

Sponge aquaculture as an alternative means of income

The cultivation of seaweed for the production of carrageenan, a thickener widely used in foods, has been a major source of income for Zanzibari women for more than 20 years. An analysis of the local conditions revealed that the cultivation of seaweed is subject to a sharp decline in production due to increasing occurrences of diseases and pests, and a low world-market price. Consequently, unmarried women with kids are no longer able to make a living from seaweed farming.

When searching for alternative means of income many aspects such as the know-how of the parties involved, eco friendliness, market-opportunities, investment requirements, general acceptance of the method, scalability, and availability of resources need to be considered. Aquaculture of sponges was identified to be a suitable alternative to seaweed farming promising substantially higher incomes.

The methods for cultivating sponges and seaweed share many aspects which made it easier to set-up sponge farms and train the women.
The shallow coastal waters are organised as common property and dedicated sites for sponge farms could be negotiated with the local fishers and communities.

It was difficult to find women pioneering as sponge farmers willing to learn how to swim and to try something completely novel – a challenging task in Zanzibar’s traditional society.

Planning phase

Local

Participatory landscape management

Mangrove nursery

A Rocha Ghana

Mangroves after 2months

A Rocha Ghana

Mangroves after 1year

A Rocha Ghana

Degradation of mangrove resources at the site led to loss of biodiversity undermined the ecological integrity of the site. This also affected the livelihood of community members who are predominantly fisherfolks. As part of efforts to restore the ecological integrity of the site, community members volunteered and supported efforts by A Rocha Ghana to replant degraded mangrove areas along the lagoon shore. Subsequently, it has improved the recovery of biodiversity at the site with records of migratory birds increasing as well as reports of increased fish recruitment for fisherfolk due to availability of spawning grounds for fish.

1. Increased awareness of impacts of anthropogenic activities on both biodiversity and livelihood. 2. Participatory planning of project design and implementation. 3. Good leadership ensures successful project outcomes.

Salinity levels can affect the growth of mangroves species planted at a site. Though diversification of species planted is important in supporting biodiversity, the history of the site being planted and feasibility of species survival should be considered so as to maximize resources used in restoration activities. The wider environment where restoration activities such as tree/mangrove planting are done should be monitored regularly to forestall incidents of domestic animals feeding on the planted area due to their proximity to living quarters’ of community members. If there are any such areas, these should be secured to prevent loss of plants to domestic animals.

Implementation

Local

Participatory development of alternative livelihoods

Snail farming - Alernative livelihood option

A Rocha Ghana

Beneficiary with her giant snails

A Rocha Ghana

Grasscutter rearing

A Rocha Ghana

In a participatory dialogue with community members, feasible conservation based livelihood ventures notably grasscutter rearing and giant snail farming were identified. In addition to training, beneficiaries were provided with a startup capital in the form of equipment and logistics. Beneficiaries were encouraged to pay back this start-up into a revolving fund to help support other people in the communities. Thus, the economic status of the communities’ members is enhanced, addressing the issues of poverty which was named as one of the reasons for excessive resource exploitation. This has also enhanced their efforts towards conservation of their natural resources.

1. Participatory planning of project design and implementation. 2. Provide hands-on income earning/skills development components in the project design as this serves as a motivating factor for community action. 3. Good leadership ensures successful project outcomes.

However, beware of community members that show weak leadership and commitment during the project implementation. Ensure that you resolve leadership challenges and find committed people to invest project resources as this can hamper success of project outputs.

Implementation

Local

Development of new sustainable decision-making skills

Community engagement

A Rocha Ghana

Contribution from participant during stakeholder engagement

A Rocha Ghana

Capacity gaps were identified through a survey and an assessment of stakeholders’ and community members’ needs. Based on this analysis, specific activities such as conservation education targeted at both communities and schools, livelihood training and replanting of degraded habitats and tools such as stakeholder dialogue platforms as a communication tool, and marketing techniques building on local conditions were developed. A learning and sharing approach was applied to provide the required technical and logistical support to enable beneficiaries notably community members who are most vulnerable to the challenges to utilize these new tools. The stakeholders and community members developed skills in alternative livelihood options and decision making mechanisms as well as the mandate to take action to stop detrimental activities that destroy resources and the environment. Institutions such as the district assembly were also engaged in some of the decision making mechanisms that could support the actions of community members. Thus, their ability to make informed decisions on issues pertaining to developing a balance between conservation and development is improved.

1. Work with existing institutions (if any) that impacted the area. 2. Try to build synergies. 3. Assign roles to participating stakeholders. 4. Good leadership ensures successful project outcomes.

Institutional collaboration is an essential tool when building synergies. In the past communities and government bodies in charge of resource management worked in isolation. However, collaborative efforts through projects such as the Community Mangrove Restoration, has broadened the opportunities to bridge the gaps between conservation and community development.

Implementation

Local

Communication of challenges and solutions

Conservation education at Winneba Junior High School

A Roche Ghana

Conservation education Radio broadcast

A Roche Ghana

In order to draw the attention of community members on the impact of their actions on the resource and their livelihoods, different communication formats were used to inform communities about the challenges as well as suggesting solutions and incorporating local knowledge on the history of the site. Communication tools used include documentaries, community durbars, door-to-door visits as well as stakeholder fora. In addition, pictorial representation of challenges and outcomes of solutions using posters, billboards were placed within communities and at vantage points where people can easily see them. Community members are now more receptive to conservation action.

1. Dialogue with community beneficiaries in the event of project activities that are not clear to them. 2. Assign roles to participating stakeholders. 3. Make use of existing norms and regulations that support conservation and build on them if possible. 4. Good leadership ensures successful project outcomes.

One important lesson through this project is that if communities are well informed and empowered they can take steps to protect their environment. Building trustworthy relationships is also important for the success of the building blocks.

Entirety

Local