The Department of Marine Conservation, Zanzibar, with support from the Wildlife Conservation Society under the Blue Action Fund Project and Bloomberg, is working to establish two new Marine Conservation Areas (MCAs) in Eastern Pemba, covering approximately 1,000 sq km. The MCAs aims are to effectively manage and conserve the marine resources for the current and future generations, within a sustainable Blue Economy.
A taskforce has been set up, with the mandate to plan and conduct the activities required to gazette the new MCAs, this includes consultation meetings with communities, government and stakeholders, as well as documenting the consent from communities, drafting the gazettement document for the two new MCAs.
Initial consultations with government officials and community representatives have been positive towards the MCA initiative. The next steps will consist of village-by-village consultation meetings and a public consultation forum in Pemba to gather feedback and request consent. This process is taking place alongside Mwambao’s and WCS’ ongoing project activities in Eastern Pemba, which include building capacity and awareness of marine conservation issues for local communities.
Once the consultation and validation are completed the next activities include developing General Management Plans, establishing Collaborative Management Groups, building ranger stations, and community livelihoods and value chain addition development.