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.

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.

No species exists in a vacuum. A myriad interacting forces come into play to shape their fate, at levels that go far beyond their direct ecological environment. Recognising this means shifting the focus from the species alone to englobe the entire system (ecological, social, political, economic) in which they live. It also implies accepting the uncertainty that arises from these interactions “that simultaneously affect, and are shaped by, the wider system” (Canney, 2021). This means preconceived solutions have very little, if no, chance of truly succeeding.

Not knowing what to do forced the project to ask, observe and listen, letting the answer be shaped by the context. Over the years, it has meant understanding the social-ecological context to identify key intervention points where small inputs can have relatively large impacts, “planning for a greater degree of flexibility in responding to the unexpected, seizing opportunities, and adapting to changing circumstances” (idem), and working at different levels and with a variety of stakeholders to achieve objectives. While the initial focus was on elephants, this approach has in effect delivered multiple benefits and contributed to improving many problems at once, from ecosystem degradation to compromised livelihoods, youth unemployment, local governance and social conflict.

A harvesting strategy is a set of formally or traditionally agreed upon tools used to ensure good utilization of the resource. In the fish fishery, it is a challenge to define these strategies and evaluate whether they work or not, since this activity usually involves a large number of species with different biological characteristics.

In order to identify the capture strategies used in the fish fishery, a fishery monitoring system was implemented through logbooks. These include information on catches, effort, fishing gear, and catch size and weight. The information collected in the logbooks is analyzed every six months to learn about the fishery and identify opportunities for improvement. Two examples of improvements made by fishing communities have been to modify the fishing gear in order to have a more selective fishery. They have also decided to establish minimum catch size agreements for fish species. This information recorded by the fishermen is shared with the government sector in order to have more information to know the state of the fisheries and define sustainable management strategies.

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.

One of the most immediate challenges facing fish fisheries on their path to fishery sustainability is the implementation of fishery monitoring. This gathers all the information needed to understand how the fishery functions, including its economic and ecological components, allowing better management decisions to be made. To achieve this in the fish fishery, fishermen and fisherwomen were trained on the importance of monitoring their fisheries and how to carry it out. Together with the fishing communities, the government sector, academia and civil society organizations, a fishing logbook format was designed and approved by the government.

Subsequently, the logbooks were implemented in four fishing communities, adapting the process according to local needs. 2021 marked four years since the communities began monitoring their fisheries (specifically for different species of fish), which has allowed them to make inferences on the behavior of the fishery, plan their activities, monitor their income, etc.

8 teams formed for SMART patrolling in 4 Forest Ranges of the Sundarbans. A mother vessel, one fiber-body trawler (for patrols in the canals and creeks) and a speed-boat to go to the areas where trawler couldn’t access due to narrow width of canal/creek and less water depth as well as to chase offenders. Under the leadership of a Team Leader, each team stays in the field for 10-14 days and patrols crime hotspots, records sightings of key wildlife species, illicit activities, checks permits and necessary documents, gadgets/gears of fishers, arrest offenders, handover offenders to nearby Forest Offices, records all data in the data model configured in the handheld device (i.e. CyberTracker).

After completion of the trip, Team hands over their handheld device to ‘Data Manager’ for data quality checking and unload data in the data storage platform. Team Leader also make a briefing note for the next patrol team highlighting their coverage areas, potential crime hotspots and dierction for next patrol team. Cleaned data then comes to ‘Data Coordinator’ who then compile data from all 4 Ranges, analyze and generate reports with` findings in different graphs, shows trends, hotspots, information on offenders and arrested ones, etc. and present to SMART enforcement committee to help further decision making and adaptive management.