COMMUNITY-LED CONSERVATION

The WWF is run at a local level by the following offices...

Zimbabwe

Community-led Conservation

Coastal communities are the de facto stewards of the region’s coastlines and our partners in ocean and marine conservation.

Many of Africa's 60 million coastal residents are poor and rely heavily on nearby natural resources such as locally occurring fish species, coastal reefs and mangroves for their food security and livelihoods.

However, these resources are under extreme pressure from poor fisheries management, competing industrial uses and the amplifying effects of climate change.

Developing alternative livelihoods for coastal communities can help improve their resilience to climate change while reducing pressure on natural resources.

Given their reliance on nature, the region’s coastal residents are highly invested in restoring and ensuring the sustainable management of local marine and ocean ecosystems.

This makes them powerful custodians of their natural environment. However, given the scale of the challenges they face, it is unfair and unrealistic to expect them to restore and preserve their local ecosystems without support from the global community.

Our goal is that, by 2030, small-scale fisheries are sustainably managed, contributing to the resilience, food security and livelihoods of coastal communities in the region.

FURTHERMORE, BY 2030, 20 MILLION HECTARES ARE EFFECTIVELY MANAGED BY EMPOWERED COASTAL COMMUNITIES, RESTORING 9,400 HA OF MANGROVES AND BUILDING THE CLIMATE RESILIENCE AND FOOD SECURITY OF 2.6 MILLION PEOPLE.

LEVERS FOR CHANGE

We follow a five-point plan for embedding sustainable and inclusive natural resource management through community-led projects at sub-seascape level.

1. Enshrine co-management and community rights

The right of local communities to co-manage marine resources is enshrined in policy, as are their rights to access the oceans and coastal regions, including marine protected areas.

2. Strengthen community governance structures

We work to strengthen the capabilities of community-led governance structures, such as beach management units, including by helping them develop constitutions and mechanisms for fair and inclusive decision-making.

3. Enhance small-scale fisheries management

We work with small-scale fishers to develop a data-driven, inclusive approach to local fisheries management.

4. Improve ecosystem resilience

We partner with communities to effectively conserve and restore coastal habitats including establishing an integrated network of marine protected areas and community managed areas in each of our 15 seascapes, creating a network of managed areas that will restore ecosystem resilience for the region.

5. Build socio-economic resilience of coastal communities

To help coastal communities thrive, we work with them to develop sustainable livelihood alternatives such as small-scale fisheries cold chain development, seaweed farming etc. We also build resilience to the impacts of climate change through nature-based solutions and disaster risk reduction.

Together, these five levers serve to establish local governance systems that can effectively and sustainably manage their immediate natural resources.

As part of our Seascape Approach, these empowered communities can contribute to integrated ocean governance by making credible contributions to regional policy discussions while advocating for their needs to be considered in governance decisions.

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