Marine habitats sustain critical biodiversity and fish stocks that support the livelihoods of coastal communities across Honduras and the world. Healthy oceans and well managed fisheries ensure continuous benefits for those who depend on them during good times and bad.

Saving clubs provide economic safety nets against crises and shocks by serving as mechanisms for families to save and borrow in the absence of formal financial services. During COVID-19 and after the hurricanes, saving clubs provided an immediate safety net for many families.

Fish Forever’s overarching community-driven approach and concrete elements within it, like savings clubs, have strengthened bonds between community members and built social capital across fishing communities. Stronger social cohesion and greater social capital—through shared savings and joint participation in natural resource management— proved essential in times of crises and resulted in families and communities supporting each other with food and other essentials.

The University of Wollongong (UOW) Blue Economy projects recognized that building a community based approach requires an investment in relationships. This means that we expended considerable resources in building networks, fostering relationships and giving those relationships time to mature and evolve. This occurred internally, as we got to know the different disciplinary areas that different team members represented within the project. It also involved building collaborations with external partners over time. The most significant demonstration of this the growing role of Aboriginal partners in the research. Aboriginal partners and co-investigators had input into the early stages of the project and over time this relationship grew and evolved to the point that today our partners, the Illawarra Local Aboriginal Land Council, are co-leaders in the project and are co-developing future collaborations with UOW.