Socio-economic Monitoring
Coral reefs are a last economic resort to many people of the coastal zones of the Western Indian Ocean (WIO), providing protein and income to many poor households. Sustainable management of marine resources depends on understanding the conditions under which the majority of users live, their constraints, and opportunities that they have other than fishing. It is therefore increasingly recognised that for resource management to be effective in the long term, management has to integrate and adapt to changes related to resource users and their socio-economic context.

SocMon WIO
Regional interest in socio-economic monitoring was illustrated by enthusiastic participation in socio-economic monitoring workshops, the WIOMSA/IUCN workshop Human Dimensions of Coastal and Marine Environment workshop (April 2003) and the CORDIO Regional partnership workshop on socio-economics (June 2005). The partnership workshop was the beginning of SocMon-WIO programme, an expanded regional socioeconomic monitoring initiative. The SocMon WIO programme grew from a socioeconomic monitoring pilot project (SEMPP) initiated by CORDIO East Africa in 2002. Monitoring was done in one pilot site, Diani-Chale in Kenya. This later expanded to include three more sites, Msambweni-Kenya; Tanga and Mtwara-Tanzania in 2003 under the Socio-economic Monitoring Project (SEMP). Interest in conducting socio-economic monitoring in the WIO has been growing since. There are currently 12 sites doing socioeconomic monitoring spread in Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Mauritius and Mozambique in SocMon WIO.

Global Socio-economic Monitoring Initiative for Coastal Management
SocMon-WIO is part of a Global Socio-economic Monitoring Initiative for Coastal Management, which aims to increase coastal managers’ capacity to understand and incorporate the socio-economic context of the coastal resource user communities into coastal management programmes. This is done by providing a clear and concise guidance on how to establish socio-economic monitoring programmes at sites around the world. 

Socio-economic Manual for Coral Reef Management
The ‘Socio-economic Manual for Coral Reef Management’ has been a large part of SocMon’s guidance and facilitation of socio-economic monitoring around the world, and more recently, regional manuals produced for South East Asia and the Caribbean have helped tailor guidelines to different regions including the recently developed SocMon WIO guidelines.  

Contacts:

Innocent Wanyonyi, Coordinator SocMon WIO
CORDIO East Africa
#9 Kibaki Flats, Jomo Kenyatta Public Beach
P.O. Box 10135, Mombasa 80101, KENYA

Tel +254 41 548 6473, +254 548 0117
Fax +254 41 548 6473
E-mail iwanyonyi@cordioea.org, socmon@cordioea.org