Net results

What did the WWF do to establish its APM award-winning programme in the coastal fishing regions of Tanzania – and how will the organisation be taking forward what it learned? Ros James reports.

‘Give a man a fish…’ Well, you know the rest. But teach a man (or woman) to manage their own fish stocks, and you achieve far more, both for them and the eco-system they depend on.

Conservation charity the WWF has for many years been involved in working with communities, helping provide the incentives for local people to look after their own environment and the wildlife within it.

But in the case of the APM award-winning Rufiji-Mafia-Kilwa Seascape (RUMAKI) programme in Tanzania, the organisation took this involvement one stage further – facilitating the empowerment of communities along the coast to act together to look after their own fishing grounds.

David Tanner, WWF’s programme manager, Coastal East Africa, explained: “We believe the RUMAKI programme represents a new generation of projects, because it was about empowering people on a much bigger scale than had been done before. We provided the structure and the resources to help individual communities work together, and showed them how much more could be achieved through cooperation. And this is something we are now working to encourage the country’s central government to replicate in other areas.”

Local hands

In the Rufiji, Mafia Island and Kilwa coastal districts of Tanzania, around 150,000 people depend for their living on fishing. But in 2005 their future looked bleak – with unsustainable fishing practices, degradation of marine habitats and loss of fisheries production.

Since then, WWF has been running a programme aimed at improving the socio-economic wellbeing of communities of the area by putting the responsibility for local fisheries’ decision making, revenue collection and longterm sustainability into local hands.

As David explained, WWF has played a key role in helping communities act together. “Before WWF started its work in the region, some villages by Lake Victoria already had their own Beach Management Units (BMUs) to manage the villages’ fresh-water fisheries.

WWF – RUMAKI was the first project to establish BMUs within Rufiji, Mafia Island and Kilwa districts and facilitated the capacity of its members to create a strong organisational structure and work effectively. We succeeded in invigorating these units, and encouraged them to act together for the first time.”

Local people were demonstrably engaged in conserving fish stocks, with 11 villages actively conducting patrols, confiscating illegal fishing gear, compiling catch data and collecting revenues to run their operations sustainably.

There are also encouraging signs that these activities are having a positive effect on fish stocks, with fishermen in at least one management area reporting improvements in fish catches.

The 12-strong WWF RUMAKI programme team that initially implemented the project had to do a great deal of groundwork to reach that point – and not just about fish. There was a major challenge in changing the mindset of local people, convincing fishermen that long-term sustainability was as important as that day’s catch, engaging women in new activities that were not typically seen as being part of women’s roles and to encourage fresh perspectives.

From the start, the team needed to establish local community partnerships and demonstrate the benefits of local empowerment. So, they began by investing resources over a two-year period in focused livelihood support, in particular establishing microfinance groups – Village Community Banks, or VICOBAs – in target villages. This was complemented with projects promoting small-scale enterprise and aquaculture, all of which provided a context into which fisheries management could be introduced.

During the project, the role of the programme management team evolved. As David explained, the starting point was to build the capabilities of the BMUs, giving each of them a formal structure with chairman, surveillance, data collection and financial committees and a secretary to take minutes, and bringing much greater transparency to their activities. The team then took the lead in facilitating partnerships between the different villages’ BMUs.

At the same time, the team was also working to help local people understand that this was ‘their’ resource, rather than something outside their control. “Once you have those elements in place, and achieved that mind switch, you need to take a step back and let the communities take the lead,” said David. “However, the support from WWF is still there – providing ongoing advice on running organisations, and acting as a focal point for lobbying local and national governments. The role becomes more of a partnership, with us there to liaise, facilitate and troubleshoot as issues arise.”

Josephine Meela, who is now co-ordinator for the RUMAKI Programme, explained that working in partnership with the government at both national and local level has become key to the success of the programme. This partnership has meant that the provisions of the Tanzania Fisheries policy of 1997 and Acts of 2003 and 2009 – which provide for the involvement of local communities in managing their own fisheries resources – can be fully implemented.

The programme has enabled a change in mindset, she added. “Before it started, people tended to feel that fish stocks and other such matters were for central government to decide on. Now that has changed – people feel empowered to have a say in running things. There’s been wider cultural change as well – because of the microfinance programmes and the opportunities they have brought, there is, for the first time, a ‘savings’ culture. “Also, for the first time, through the VICOBAs and the support we have provided, we have enabled women to get involved in running businesses, giving them greater confidence, and enabling them to invest in the things that are important to their family, such as their children’s education.”

Testimonials gathered by the WWF among local people paint a similar picture. Says one female nurse: “Before, I always had to borrow money to be able to travel to collect my wages. Now I have enough money to cover this myself. I have also started a clothes selling business.”

Another testimonial, from a man this time, reflects the increasing confidence within communities that they can do things for themselves: “The training we received in business and leadership skills gave some of us the confidence and skills to run as village leaders.” He is now chairman of his own village’s VICOBA.

The one that got away…

Of course, such a wide-ranging programme also presents some major ongoing challenges, he added. “Local politics have always been a major factor – because of them, there is still one village where we have not succeeded in establishing a partnership. And while we have achieved a significant reduction in the amount of illegal dynamite fishing in the region, we have not managed to eradicate it altogether.”

Despite these challenges, however, it’s clear that the programme has achieved a great deal, both in terms of local empowerment, and a more encouraging outlook for the area’s ecosystem. So is this the way all sustainable projects should be delivered in the future? David points out that there are clear advantages in this type of holistic and large‑scale approach, as the ‘gaps’ that occur when an organisation tries to address a conservation issue in a narrow way, rather than focusing on the wellbeing of communities, are far less likely. However, he also makes the point that the large-scale approach does have major resourcing implications.

“In making a success of this project, our sponsors – the UK’s Department for International Development, Barclays Bank, and the European Commission – were all key. And, of course, as we take this type of effort to new places we will be looking for further corporate funding as well as the support of the country’s government

Future framework

So, given the success of the programme, what are the key learnings that WWF can take forward to other areas? David commented: “First, we’ve shown the importance of establishing a formal structure – a framework we can take to communities that enables them to operate their village organisations sustainably. Having that structure means we can then facilitate collaboration between the different community-based organisations. “Another learning is how crucial it is to identify your stakeholders as early as possible. In achieving what we did, we needed to involve village councils and BMUs, but also local district offices and other interested parties such as the local tour operators and the owners of the Mafia Island Marine Park.

“Then there was the learning of how important it was to have an ‘entry point’ to communities. We didn’t just come in and talk about the conservation of fish stocks; we also introduced the microfinance element, which meant we could achieve ‘buy-in’ to the programme and demonstrate benefits quickly.”

Finally, said David, this programme broke new ground in setting up much more rigorous monitoring of what was achieved. “Many WWF programmes have been excellent, but some have struggled to talk about their impact in such detail. The way we have continued to measure the impact of this programme, in partnership with the communities themselves, has meant we can gather statistics on fish stocks and on the other beneficial effects on communities in far greater detail – and this is certainly something we can take forward to other projects.”

In numbers

23 villages have established Beach Management Units of these 6 have created large fisheries management areas covering 1,500 sq km of sea.