Jun 25 2009
What did WIOMSA say about the SUCCESS closeout meeting?
From SUCCESS to RECOMAP and Other Projects
(Extract from the current WIOMSA newsbrief - Courtesy of WIOMSA)
In 2004, the five year Programme, titled Sustainable Coastal Communities and Ecosystems (SUCCESS), was initiated in Eastern Africa and Latin America. Many wondered then, whether the acronym SUCCESS would live up to its name. Four years on, there is consensus amongst partners, peers and the coastal communities that have benefited from the program, that it has indeed been a SUCCESS! The SUCCESS Program was a collaborative initiative of Coastal Resources Center of the University of Rhode Island (CRC-URI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote Integrated Coastal Management, Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture worldwide. In Eastern Africa, the Programme was implemented by the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) in collaboration with the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) of the University of Dar es Salaam both based in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
The programme’s accomplishments in Tanzania and East Africa were celebrated at a special seminar held in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, on the 11th March 2009. During the event, experts from the project presented their results to stakeholders from the coastal communities, relevant government departments, USAID officials from Washington and the mission in Tanzania, academia, NGOs and other implementing partners. They also held plenary discussions on implications of the Programme and future opportunities.
The highlights of SUCCESS include the introduction of pearl farming; communities in Fumba Peninsular ,Zanzibar have started their own small scale half pearl farms. This follows the production by SUCCESS of the first ever artificial pearls in the region. Shell polishing, which is a part-time activity of the Programme has become a lucrative business earning some women up to 400 USD per month. Milkfish farming has improved from 0.5 tons/ha up to 3 tons/ha, with the prices rising from 0.4 USD up to 4 USD through proper choice of markets and the farms size changing from tens to hundreds of ha. The communities of Fumba Peninsular, especially the women, have become very enterprising.
At the inception of pearl farming, adult oysters were collected from the wild. The practice was found to be unsustainable; accordingly,spat collectors were set and the settling spats cultured to seeding size. Besides being more environmentally friendly, spats produce better animals with less attached parasites – thanks to regular monthly cleaning. The seeding of oysters for pearls, instead of eating into an additional year of their reproductive cycle, has substantially improved the conservation of oysters. This and the establishment of no-take zones has resulted in remarkable recovery of the pearl oyster population at Bweleo; which in 1989 was depleted beyond recovery. Collecting pearl oysters for food has also decreased substantially as the women collectors are now engaged in different income generating activities like pearl farming, shell polishing and marketing, and seaweed farming. Further, the organization of the women into groups by SUCCESS has made it easy for other donors such as the Tanzania Marine and Coastal Environmental Management Project (MACEMP) to provide loans for poultry and agriculture; develop infrastructure for seaweed drying and storage; and construct a building for meetings and display of their commodities.
The Government of Tanzania created a taskforce to develop the National Aquaculture Development Strategy (NADS) and has created a division of aquaculture in the Department of Fisheries, activities that seem to have been influenced by the SUCCESS Programme in some way. The Government is also creating an enabling atmosphere, and proper policy and permiting procedures.
As the SUCCESS Programme ends, new projects are emerging, which are adopting its activities. These include the US State Department exchange training program on jewelry making, the 2 year Regional Program for Sustainable Management of Coastal Zones of the Indian Ocean Countries (ReCoMaP) projects for pearl farming and milkfish farming and MACEMP.
The ReCoMaP program on milkfish farming is developing 1ha demonstration ponds in Tanga, Pemba and Mtwara to complement the Changwahela demonstration sites developed by SUCCESS. At each centre, at least 25 people are trained on all aspects of fish farming in six 5-day training stints (30 man days over the two year period). The trained extension officers are encouraged to develop their own farms with those developing the right type of ponds being rewarded with the installation of a main gate to the pond - an otherwise costly venture. The ReCoMaP project on pearl oyster farming and shell polishing is being carried out in Fumba Peninsular with the aim of consolidating the pearl farming and shell polishing industry from farming through polishing, packaging and marketing. In a related,development, the US State Department in collaboration with IMS have launched a training and exchange program where women entrepreneurs will travel to America to visit their counterparts in the business and trainers from America will come to Zanzibar to conduct training.
It is reasonable to believe that the seed that was sown by SUCCESS is growing.
Group picture of the participants to the closeout meeting, 11th March, 2009