The recently concluded Regional Workshop on “Reef Restoration Initiatives in the WIO for Lesson Sharing, Capacity Building, and Networking” was a huge success, laying the groundwork for future projects and collaborations.
The workshop took place in Zanzibar from July 16 to 18, 2024, and brought together 41 coral reef restoration practitioners and key stakeholders from the WIO region, including eight members from fisher communities.
The workshop built on a series of reef restoration initiatives in the WIO spearheaded by various stakeholders, including fishers’ learning exchanges, virtual workshops, and two WIOMSA Symposium Special Sessions on reef restoration held in 2017 in Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) and 2022 in Port Elizabeth (South Africa). A follow-up Special Session or Mini-Symposium on WIO Reef Restoration Initiatives has been proposed for the next WIOMSA Symposium, which is scheduled for late 2025.
The WIO region accounts for nearly 6% of the world’s coral reefs (approximately 15,180 km²), making it a significant hotspot for biodiversity. Despite their importance, coral reefs are being decimated by climate change, habitat degradation, pollution, and coastal development, endangering communities, livelihoods, and local economies.
The Reef Restoration workshop served as both a knowledge-sharing event and a motivator for action. Participants provided insights into reef restoration initiatives. They established the WIO Coral Reef Restoration Network to facilitate regional collaboration and reef restoration. The network’s goals include promoting national, regional, and global collaboration and connections, increasing network members’ capacity and skills in reef restoration best practices, facilitating the sharing and creation of knowledge, science, and coral reef interventions among WIO practitioners and globally, and advancing supporting actions such as policy advocacy, monitoring and evaluation, funding opportunities, and career development.
Dr. Makame Omar Makame, Director of the Marine Conservation Department, opened the workshop on behalf of the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Blue Economy and Fisheries (Zanzibar’s Revolutionary Government). He emphasised the importance of coral reef ecosystems to the marine environment, local communities, and economies, particularly in the Zanzibar Islands.
Prof. Riziki Silas Shemdoe, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries in the United Republic of Tanzania, urged participants to ensure that the workshop’s resolutions are incorporated into the WIO countries’ conservation and development agendas. He also reaffirmed his intention to do the same.
WIOMSA’s Executive Director, Dr. Arthur Tuda, emphasised the importance of a regional network for knowledge sharing and standardised monitoring. This, he noted, would reduce the spread of poorly planned and implemented projects while also improving the effectiveness of restoration efforts to achieve the desired results.
“This workshop has demonstrated a great model for scaling up effective reef restoration initiatives by leveraging local, regional, and global expertise to achieve national and global conservation agendas,” said TNC Africa Fisheries Strategy Manager George Maina.
The Nature Conservancy funded the workshop, which was co-hosted by the Reef Resilience Network, Mwambao Coastal Community Network (Tanzania), Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT-Coast), the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA), Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, Coral Restoration Consortium, Kenya Wildlife Service, University of Mauritius, and Université de Toliara.
Contact: Joan Kawaka, Marine Program Officer (WIO), The Nature Conservancy, Africa Region- Joan Kawaka <joan.kawaka@tnc.org>
