Scaling up periodic fisheries closures

Title of the Initiative (project/programme): Scaling up periodic fisheries closures

Project Overview:

Start date: 2004

End date:

Countries covered: Madagascar

Donor(s): Cartier Foundation, The MacArthur Foundation, CEPF (Critical Ecosystems

Partnership Fund)

Principal Investigator: Blue Ventures

Website: https://blueventures.org/conservation/community-health/

 

Aim/Objectives:

Blue Ventures works with coastal communities to develop transformative approaches for catalysing and sustaining locally led marine conservation. Successful octopus fishery management inspires community interest in broader marine management or conservation measures, such as establishing permanent protected areas or no-take zones.

 

Key activities:

  • We identify opportunities for local marine management. Together with communities we design, pilot and adapt marine management models that generate benefits for communities – sustaining local fisheries and safeguarding marine biodiversity. The use of local customary laws, such as dina in Madagascar, are effective at enforcing local bans on destructive fishing practices, protecting endangered species and designating priority marine areas for protection.
  • Blue Ventures provides training and resources to support the development of local management structures and monitoring processes.
  • Developing a framework to enhance peer-to-peer learning as an effective tool for building local capacity and confidence for fisheries management.

 

Main outputs:

  • Targeting key species, such as octopus, during rapid growth in their life cycles can boost productivity. Therefore measurably increased catches in terms of catch per unit effort, average size and maximum sizes caught.
  • The community has increased confidence in management, and the social infrastructure, institutions and process for management are established.
  • Learning exchanges have taken place to share local experiences of community-based fisheries management and conservation, and a network has been set up providing a framework for community exchange and dialogue.
  • Temporary fishery closures will act as a catalyst, sparking interest and encouraging communities to engage in broader and more holistic approaches to marine management

Partners involved: Mwambao, The University of Toliara, Smart Fish, Shoals Rodrigues, 50 in 10,

Sea Around Us Project, Too Big To Ignore, Madagascar Ministry of Fisheries and Marine

Resources