Progress report for
Achievement at a glance
The octopus closed season pilot in Jambiani, Zanzibar could not be realized due to strong opposition. With all neighboring villages on the southern east coast of Zanzibar participating, the project became too big and enforcement was not taken serious enough. The opposition formed in Jambiani comprising a group of about one hundred fishers who were not part of the groups involved in the initial planning. It took us some time to fully understand the difficulties in play between the different groups. We were able to mediate and to convince the opponents to join the preparations for a closure in 2018. This time we are targeting a partial closure to ensure that some areas remain open to octopus catchment during the closure period. We are currently working towards strengthening the capacities of the local fisher committees and the new steering board to prepare everybody for their duties.Our efforts were not without avail: Everybody in the village now agrees that closed seasons are needed to guarantee a healthy octopus stock and that an octopus management is for the benefit of all. An experienced catch monitoring team is ready to collect scientific data. Local and national authorities have expressed their full support and the necessary by-laws are being developed. All octopus buyers and traders have been identified and were involved in the process which includes analysis of octopus sales covering all local restaurants and hotels. Finally, consumers (especially tourists) will be informed when and why octopus should not be eaten.
Submitted on
06 July, 2018
Progress Status
On track
Organization
marinecultures.org
Name
Christian Vaterlaus
Email
c.vaterlaus@marinecultures.org
