Improving fishing practices with Association of Zanzibar For Social Economic Empowerment (AZSEE)

North Unguja, Zanzibar

The community/organization and local perspectives on conservation and stewardship

Fishing is considered as an activity like any other economic activity in the North regions of Unguja, in the Zanzibar archapelago. The North region of Unguja is surrounded by the Indian Ocean and a large number of its inhabitants including men, women, elders and youth are directly involved in fishing activities and depend on the fishery sector as their main livelihood. However, most of them do this activity in a very poor environment. There are also some cases of illegal fishing undertaken by some defaulter fishermen. There are several types of fisheries activities practiced in the community. One of the leading activities which involves both men, women and youth is the processing of small pelagic fishes (anchovies). The value chain of anchovies involves many who are engaged in the process directly and others indirectly. Since many people in the community regard fishing as their main source of income, they thus have an interest in gaining knowledge on environmental conservation to ensure that local fisheries are sustainable.

Because many of the community members do not have enough knowledge on the sustainable use of fishery resources, they are not able to take care to preserve local environments. Due to their poverty level many of them do not to consider environmental conservation as key issue in their fishing activities.  

Stewardship experience: Bans of illegal fishing, reduced use of poison, raising community awareness

The issue or problem being addressed

The AZSEE became aware of a problem through its outreach programmes, meetings with fishing communities, and reading the reports from various partners and stakeholders including environmental actors and the government. There are some local fishers who use poison (e.g., cyanide) and illegal weapons/gear to catch fish in shallow waters. Those who engage in anchovies processing often have little connection to marine environmental degradation but are inadvertently contributing to environmental degradation by cutting mangroves for firewood and destroying fish breeding places. The problematic activities include the following:

Fishers: There is very high level of destruction by illegal fishing through using very small mesh nets; trolling in very shallow waters (juya) which is highly damaging to reefs, grasses and all sorts of breeding and hiding shelters of coral fishes. This needs to be addressed with high level advocacy and involvement of higher level officials in the Zanzibar Government. Action has been taken by fishing communities but still the activity continues. The Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) offices like TUMCA in North West and MIMCA in the North East of Unguja Island need to act to rescue the situation.
Processing of fishes: There is several conservation problems in processing, one being destruction of mangrove forests for firewood which is frequently used for the anchovies drying process. Post-harvest loss is very high in processing, where a number of tones of anchovies are spoiled and discarded, especially during raining season, but also during drying and packaging. The green belt is vanishing due to percolation of boiled waters in the anchovies drying camps. There is a need to research on how this runoff water is impacting local aquatic ecosystems.

The activities

An outreach and awareness raising visit to one of the fishing communities on the small island

Upon becoming aware of these conservation problems, the AZSEE initiated a community awareness program. The Association has now done some awareness raising programmes to address the conservation problem in the fishing communities in the Northern district of Zanzibar, by identifying activities being undertaken by fishers and processors which damage the environment and sharing information on these impacts. Meetings have focused on illegal fishing including the use of poison, and on trolling with small mesh nets. These awareness meetings were conducted at villages as well as at the district level, and have attracted different types of participants including women, youth and disabled persons. With this increased awareness, communities can begin to address and learn from these experiences.

These challenges need to be addressed by further collective efforts by all stakeholders and partners in Zanzibar. Advocacy programmes, awareness campaigns, community engagement, seminars and workshops are to be organized in collaboration with different actors including Department of Fisheries, Environment Authorities, MPAs, and community groups. There has been a ban on illegal fishing introduced by the Department of Fisheries through the Fisheries Act, and so the District Fisheries Office has to follow up for the implementation of the legislation. Some of the local communities have already taken the initiative and made by-laws which aim at introducing the bans for illegal fishing.

The benefits/impacts including sustainability/environmental effects

Sustainability of local fisheries will be improved with increased awareness of the need for environmental conservation. This is being considered an important issue by some of the community leaders which needs to be more heavily emphasized,  through good management and responsible use of resources from the ocean.

Fish ponds surrounded by mangrove areas

Among the results of the effort is the speeding up of the establishment of the Tumbatu Marine Conservation Area (TUMCA), which occured in July 2021 after being awaited for long time. Through ongoing advocacy and raising of conservation concerns, the Manager of TUMCA was appointed and has already started working in the area. Also, the Regional Commissioner has strengthened enforcement of the illegal fishing ban through its Regional and District Security Committees. Although it is familiar to hear about the strategies, their implementation takes a long time to start. Let us hope patrols and security measures to safeguard the environment will be sustained in the long run. During the last two weeks (early September, 2021) the patrols organized by TUMCA resulted in the arrest of several fishers who were illegally fishing in the protected areas.

AZSEE team with Amana Bank Management during outreach activity to assess MSMEs

The result is also very positive for anchovy business, including fishing and drying, whereby the environment is being considered more heavily than it previously had. Some of the significant results are;

Government has shown readiness to work with partners and stakeholders in the sector for anchovy business development, to meet expert standards
Fishers and processors are aware of regulations for environmental conservation. Their concerns are on the required infrastructures and equipment for the quality requirements.

AZSEE, apart of creating awareness in legal fishing, is also intensively involved in capacity building and economic empowerment of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through providing them with Business Development Services (BDS) including supporting them with credit readiness and linking them with financial Institutions to access affordable loans.

The success and significance of the activities

The community is ready to take any good action that will have benefits for them and their generation at large. The anchovy business has a significant impact on many livelihoods and on the community as a whole. AZSEE has confidence that the success of this activity will benefit the large population which will engage in the business, and further reinforce the importance of long-term stewardship of the resource.

Some lessons learned or words of wisdom

If the fishery environment is conserved it will benefit the society at large. If the community is given knowledge on issues of environmental conservation it will be a starting point toward having good and proper methods of fishing. Community involvement and participatory decision making is very important in any project. The most important thing is awareness of all groups and cohorts within the community.  Women must be involved because they are among the biggest stakeholders of fisheries in their communities; some are more active than men.