In Mauritania biodiversity protection and scientific research cannot be fully supported by public funding. This is why the programme has focused on identifying new sources of funding. We have developed a partnership with the oil and gas industry resulting in more transparent and trustful communication, sharing of non-commercial data, and funding of activities of the Programme Biodiversity, Oil and Gas on a voluntary basis. This included support for a ship-based surveys co-financed by Kosmos Energy and a Master’s degree course supported by Kosmos and Total. In addition, the programme is now collaborating with BP.
It has to be understood by all stakeholders that private sector volunteer contribution comes in addition to contract obligations.
Only serious and renowned oil and gas companies have been awarded contracts for offshore operations. Most of them have social and health, safety and environment (HSE) standards and policies.
Mauritania complied to IETI requirements.
Good relationships with local and headquarters staff.
We cannot rely on public funding even though they would be greatly paid off for their investments in marine biodiversity conservation. Governments have difficulties to invest in environment protection. Marine biodiversity conservation, despite being a key factor for Mauritanian socio-economic development, is unfortunately not a priority. Therefore, efforts should go towards capacity building and awareness raising.
Compared to real sustainable sources of funding, private sector financing depends upon the economic context. However, this partnership is also rewarding not only form a financial perspective.
Unexpectedly, it was easy to get all stakeholders on board and support the idea of a voluntary commitment plan. However, converting it into an official document is time and energy consuming. And in the end not necessary to trigger consistent changes in sea use management policies.
Marine and coastal areas are no longer the exclusive playground of fisheries. For more than 15 years, the oil and gas sector has been a major stakeholder, local and international shipping is increasing and urban and industrial development threatens ecosystems. This has not been entirely anticipated by the government. Many departments have prerogatives but none is in charge of global coordination. Thus, there is a gap in the law regarding marine spatial planning. It is commonly assessed that civil society has to take a major part in negotiations for the corresponding policies implying capacity building for these actors. The programme works as a facilitator by creating overlaps and joint-activities between the stakeholders. In this regard, a ship-based seabird and marine mammal survey is co-financed by the private sector and brings aboard scientists from the Mauritanian Institute for Oceanography and Fisheries, civil servant from the Ministry of Environment, civil society and students along with international experts. These joint-activities will be shaped as a multi-partner platform enabling mutual understanding, creating trust and making up an operational entity towards sustainable governance of the sea and its resources.
Communication on the roles and interests of each actor
Empowering the civil society
Deepening the multidisciplinary role of the Ministry of Environment
The natural trend in the administration to work on its own without interaction with other departments is a constraint stronger than expected
Another weakness lies in the possibility for one stakeholder (mainly in the administration) to lock the whole dialogue process. Alternative solutions have to be designed and, in case, developed, to give the system a second chance. To be honest, we couldn’t make any miracle regarding these issues. And, unfortunately, we have to put the puzzle in place by working with each stakeholder group to make them aware of their role and the benefit they can make from interacting with the others.
All this process appeared to be much longer than initially expected...
Scientific results and data are often published in formats that managers cannot access or find challenging to process and extract directly useful information (e.g. scientific publications). Once managers know what data they need to inform management (have thought through objectives and indicators), they can create a data request form asking researchers for the specific data most relevant to MPA management and in the format managers are using to allow rapid understanding and integration into existing databases.
Training in understanding marine and coastal ecosystems. Managers know what data they need for management. Scientists are willing to share data (may require memorandum of understanding – as part of data request form – specifying how data will be used).
Managers are frequently frustrated by lack of access to data collected in their MPAs. Scientists often do provide data, but in formats not preferred by managers. We surveyed MPA managers from 8 nations to determine how they would like to receive data from managers, then helped them develop data request forms reflecting their needs, and in the units that they understand. Researchers have expressed willingness to complete these forms, especially when they contain an memorandum of understanding indicating that data will be used for management and not in publications or presentations without prior consent and acknowledgements. This has increased access of data by managers.
Managers and community members often have little training in marine and coastal ecological and social systems. Conducting monthly monitoring provides data about the system, but also provides a mechanism for managers to understand and witness changes in the system. Engaging community members in this process helps promote collaborative problem solving. Finally, this process helps managers better understand data they receive from scientists because they know what is involved in collecting data.
Training in understanding marine and coastal ecosystems.
Participatory process with managers, scientists, and community members.
Agency support for use of boats and equipment for monthly monitoring.
Scientific oversight of monitoring methods and data entry/analysis.
Collaborative monitoring of marine systems has been the single most effective component of the SAM program because it builds excitement for the marine system. Previously, many MPA managers and community members had few swimming skills and little knowledge of marine systems. Introducing them to monitoring has engaged many to dramatically increase swimming ability and participate. Further, the firsthand knowledge gained by doing the monitoring has increased understanding of challenges and willingness to find management solutions. However, data management is an on-going issue that needs scientific support and potentially data entry forms to help prevent mistakes.
Management objectives are discussed with local communities.
Kenya Wildlife Service
Managing without targeted objectives is like driving a car blindfolded. Objectives help determine how effective the current management is, which areas need active management, and whether actions taken contribute to moving the system toward objective targets. We develop a comprehensive suite of ecological and social indicators, have these prioritized by regional social and ecological scientists, and work with managers to independently prioritize indicators and develop objectives focused around each management goal. The final list includes manager and scientist priorities and is peer reviewed by stakeholders and regional scientists. Lists of objectives are flexible and updated often. Due to the lack of data or analytical capacity, we help them conduct a literature review, and establish ecological targets using baseline data (e.g., historical status or status within reference areas of long protected MPAs), non-linearity in large datasets (i.e., threshold levels at which ecosystem state changes), or established target levels (e.g., levels set by governments). For social state targets, we work with managers and stakeholders and use reference directions (improvement from existing state), or normative (value-based) targets.
Training in understanding marine and coastal ecosystems.
Participatory process with managers, scientists, and community members.
Agency support for use of objectives to guide management.
Managers find the process of selecting objectives highly valuable and the targets help them understand status and guide decision making. However, the objectives need to be embraced by the agency, managers, and community to be effective and should be incorporated into national MPA management policy. Selecting management objectives requires that the managers and community understand the social-ecological system, so training may be required first.
Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs) are zones managed by coastal communities to help protect fisheries and safeguard biodiversity. Through the use of Dina – customary laws that are recognised by the Government of Madagascar –partner communities have designed effective rules that can be enforced locally to ban destructive fishing practices, protect endangered species and designate priority marine areas for protection. To ensure the long-term financial sustainability of LMMAs, a variety of mechanisms including marine ecotourism programmes, seafood supply chain incentive schemes, eco-certifications for sustainable fisheries, and payment for ecosystem services are developed. Velondriake is Madagascar’s first LMMA where elected representatives from 25 villages have put in place a management plan that includes permanent reserves, temporary octopus fishery closures, community-based aquaculture of seaweed and sea cucumbers, all regulated through a series of locally developed and enforced rules (Dina). Preliminary protected status was granted by the Government of Madagascar in 2010 and definitive protected status was successfully acquired in 2015.
Community motivation for creating LMMAs has been established throughtemporary octopus fishery closures, which boost octopus landings and fisher incomes. The legal basis for LMMAs is the use of Dina – customary laws recognised by the Government – with additional frameworks allowing LMMAs to be formally designated as community managed protected area. Effective community management is supported through Madagascar’s national LMMA network, which facilitates exchanges and forums to share experiences.
Managing fisheries and marine resources works best when responsibility is placed in the hands of local communities. This is particularly true in low-income countries where there is often limited capacity and infrastructure for fisheries management and marine conservation. Our experience in Madagascar has shown that peer-to-peer learning is a highly effective tool for building local capacity and confidence in marine conservation.
The purpose of this building block is to provide Blue Ventures’ partner community members with positive experiences of marine management, demonstrating that it can yield tangible economic benefits in reasonable timeframes. The short-term octopus fishery closure model involves periodic closures of a portion of a village’s octopus gleaning grounds. At any communally agreed time, up to a quarter of a community’s fishing area may be closed for around three months. This approach has been shown to result in dramatic increases in octopus landings and improved fisher incomes when closed areas are reopened to fishing (Oliver et al., 2015), thereby sparking and building enduring support for more ambitious marine management efforts (including the creation of permanent marine reserves within locally managed marine areas) that are led by communities, for communities. By returning meaningful economic benefits in timeframes that work for traditional fishers, these temporary octopus fishery closures inspire local leadership in marine conservation. The approach depends on and benefits from broad support from the entire seafood supply chain, with fishers and buyers now contributing to the modest costs of establishing and managing the closures.
Support from seafood collection and export companies, as they coordinate their collection schedules with the reopening of closures and pay a premium price for octopus on the opening days.
Leadership of the village president, who mobilised his community to experiment with closures. When the fishing ground reopened, the village experienced increases in both octopus landings and fisher incomes. As news of this fishery boom spread, neighbouring communities started adopting the approach.
This building block works by demonstrating that fisheries management can yield meaningful economic benefits for communities and seafood buyers, in realistic timescales. Only by making this connection can marine conservation be sustained and scaled beyond its current limited scope. We started in Andavadoaka monitoring the state of coral reefs but soon realised that we needed to address pressing community concerns about food security and livelihoods before having a conversation about marine conservation. This is why we started with a temporary octopus fishery closure in a portion of a single village’s fishing grounds and discovered that this provided an effective foot-in-the-door for marine conservation by inspiring communities to engage in more ambitious management efforts. Thus, we started with what was important for communities and saw that lead to a more sustainable and socially meaningful form of management than traditional top-down protection efforts.
