well as two species of sea turtles (green and hawksbill), one species of whale (humpback), 8 species of dolphins, and dozens of species of seabirds. A number of endangered species can be found in the sanctuary, including the Napoleon Wrasse, the Bumphead Parrotfish, Giant and Potato Groupers, and as mentioned before, green and hawksbill turtles, which use the island as nesting and feeding grounds, respectively.
As well as small patches of seagrass beds, 8 species of mangroves can be found in Vamizi. One of the largest areas of mangroves is found on the Southern side of the island, close to the border of the sanctuary. These areas provide important nursing areas for several species of fish, playing a crucial role in the survival of their populations.
Challenges setting up Community Sanctuary
Getting a community that has been relying on fisheries for centuries to give up a large area of fishing grounds can be a challenging task. However, because the initiative to create the protected area came from the local community themselves, and because they are the ones in charge of managing and protecting it, better results are seen than in other places. This needs to constantly be enforced, however, and communities need to be empowered and often reminded of the impact they can have in the conservation of their own resources.
The news of the increasing amount of fish seen in the waters inside and surrounding the community sanctuary soon spread to nearby villages, other provinces and even Tanzania, which has led to greater numbers of migrant fishermen seen on the island in the recent years. These fishermen are harder to manage, as they have no real investment in the sustainability of the marine resources they are removing from the water, and because they bring improved and more destructive fishing gear. These migrant fishermen look at the resources in Vamizi as a short term need, knowing that once depleted they can move on to another area to fish. A lot of work is done to ensure that as they migrant fishermen arrive on the island, they are informed of the sanctuary and the rules related to fishing around the island.
The sound conservation and management of an area and the sustainable use of resources requires more than just scientific analysis. The success of such management will depend of the level of involvement and empowerment of local communities in all areas, from data collection to decision making and monitoring.
Benefits of the Community Sanctuary
One of the immediate benefits of creating the CS was the empowerment of the local communities, allowing them to manage their own fishing grounds and have an important impact on the sustainability and conservation of such important resources. They are in charge of handing out fishing licences and educating the fishermen on protected species and banned fishing gear, which can have a direct impact on the way the resources are used and perceived.
Fish stocks and community structure of the reefs around Vamizi have been monitored since 2004, 3 years before the creation of the CS, which has allowed us to measure the direct benefits of the protected area over time. A recently published paper by Silva et al (2015) has shown the existence of a significant and consistent effect on the abundance and distribution of reef fishes of the Vamizi CS. Six years after its establishment, both herbivorous and piscivorous fish are more abundant inside the reserve than outside, where no difference existed before the closure. The abundance of herbivorous fish started to increase in 2009, with abundance substantially increasing towards the CS. In contrast, the abundances of piscivorous fish are only very different well inside the border of the CS. The study also shows that the biomass of herbivorous fish is greater at the border zone and inside the CS, and that large herbivorous fish still only occur well within the reserve boundaries. Additionally, spillover effects were detected for herbivorous fish, meaning the abundance of these species has increased outside of the sanctuary. Most importantly, fish abundance outside the sanctuary has not decreased in relation to its abundance prior to the reserve establishment, despite the pressure of fisheries. Good numbers of herbivores are a sign of reef resilience to climate change. In the context of MPAs, protection and recovery of herbivorous fishes is of major importance to the conservation and recovery of coral cover and health. Another important finding is that despite the existence of what is called “fishing the line” (when fishermen fish right on top of the border of the sanctuary), the spillover effect was detected in a distance over 1km from the border, which contrasts with experiences in other areas with similar closures. Moreover, the study seems to show that a homogeneous habitat around the reserve can enhance spillover, which highlight the need to protect the reef as a whole in order to allow for this recovery to continue and reach areas further from the border of the CS.
The most significant of these findings is the spillover effect that was detected as this demonstrates the benefit of the protected area to the fishing grounds surrounding it. Most of the controversy surrounding MPAs concerns the benefits to fisheries, and to local communities, who rely so deeply on them. Vamizi seems to be a good example of a community managed Marine Protected Area that has shown the potential to benefit both the conservation of one of the most pristine reefs in the world, and those same communities whose livelihoods depend on it.
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