MALIDI, Kenya (AP) — The unfinished restaurant is still just concrete walls and wooden beams. While her daughter sweeps away the last pile of sand, Nur Mohammed, 54, instructs the women as they hang decorative fishing nets. In the coming days, a beachside restaurant on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast will open, offering another way to earn a living.
“For us women, this is hope,” Mohamed said. She spent most of her life as one of the few fishermen in Malindi, a town northeast of the port city of Mombasa. “It will help support the many families who have relied on the ocean for decades.”
Across East Africa’s coasts, fishermen are increasingly turning to tourism, ecosystem restoration and other conservation-based businesses to rebuild their relationship with the ocean as climate change, overfishing and declining ocean health threaten their livelihoods.
In Kenya, women are turning restored mangrove forests into a source of income through beekeeping and ecotourism. In Tanzania’s Zanzibar Islands, fishing communities protect coral reefs through locally managed closures. In Mozambique, seagrass restoration is creating jobs and restoring marine habitats at the same time. Together, these efforts are redefining resilience not as leaving the ocean behind, but as restoring it while building lasting livelihoods.
“Communities that depend on the ocean are also its best custodians,” said Andrean Martel, project director of a conservation program called ReSea. “When local people, especially women, lead conservation efforts, we can create more resilient and inclusive livelihoods while protecting biodiversity.”
Mohammed said he lost his boat to theft and is now struggling to compete with industrial trawlers. A nearby Chinese-owned seafood processing facility reflects the dramatic changes in the industry.
“I can’t compete with that kind of power and scale,” she says.
“It was tough,” Mohammed says, looking out to sea. “I fought to remain a fisherman, but I don’t think it’s a fight I can win anymore.”
Ten kilometers away, where the Sabaki River joins the Indian Ocean, Beatrice Mwanyiro oversees a mangrove nursery and restaurant built by ReSea, a 30-member women’s self-help group supported by the Canadian government.
“We have to adapt to changing times,” Mwanyiro said. “The number of fish coming into shallow waters is decreasing every year. Without another source of income, I can’t feed my family.”
Mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and inshore fisheries provide food, protect coastlines from storms, and store vast amounts of carbon. But their ecosystems are under threat from ocean warming, pollution, habitat loss, and overfishing.
Mohamed Somo, a fisherman leader in Lamu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, said boats that used to come in with fish up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) now often return with fish weighing less than 30 kilograms (66 pounds).
Kenyan law restricts trawlers to at least five nautical miles (9 kilometers) offshore, but fishermen say some vessels routinely operate much closer. This challenge extends beyond Kenya. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing costs the global economy an estimated $23 billion a year and threatens marine biodiversity and the food security of billions of people who rely on fish as their main source of protein.
“The trawlers fish offshore during the day, but at night they move into shallow waters where artisanal fishermen work,” Somo said. “By morning, there’s not much left for us.”
Increasing pressures on coastal communities are pushing ocean conservation higher on the political agenda as communities seek to survive and protect their marine economies.
“Coastal communities are on the front lines of climate change and ocean health deterioration, but they are also some of the strongest drivers of resilience,” said Jerry Mangena, co-founder and executive director of Action for Ocean, a Tanzania-based organization that restores mangroves along coastlines.
“Supporting sustainable livelihoods, from aquaculture and ecotourism to ecosystem restoration, helps families adapt while reducing pressure on the ocean. If we are serious about protecting our oceans, we must invest in the people who have cared for them for generations.”
At the recent Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, conservation organizations called on African governments to ratify the Biological Diversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), or “High Seas” Convention, a landmark UN agreement that establishes marine protected areas on the high seas and equitably shares marine resources. It entered into force in January, and as of April, 145 countries have signed it and 81 countries have ratified it.
The outcome of negotiations for further ratification of the treaty could have a significant impact on the lives of fishermen like Mohammed, who are trying to build a future that is not completely dependent on increasingly uncertain fish catches.
“The BBNJ agreement gives African governments a historic opportunity to protect the high seas and secure the future of fisheries,” said Aliu Ba, Greenpeace Africa Oceans Campaign Director.
“But protecting our oceans also means tackling illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing that strips African waters of marine life and deprives coastal communities of food and income,” he said. “The government cannot afford to delay.”
____
Associated Press climate and environment reporting receives funding from several private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP standard Please see below for our philanthropic efforts, list of supporters and areas funded. AP.org.
