Empowering Fishing Communities in the MAR Reef

As part of MAR Fund’s webinar series, where partners are invited to present results, lessons learnt, experiences and share information regarding projects they have developed, the Comunidad y Biodiversidad, A. C. (COBI) presented their work on digital tools for resilient fishing communities and sustainable oceans.

This webinar was carried out on April 28^th, 2023 with the participation of 46 people and the goal was for COBI to raise awareness on the importance of digital tools for sustainable fisheries management at the community level.

In recent years, innovation and technologies have progressed and are permeating all sectors, including the fishing industry. In order to reduce the digital gap in the fishing sector, the involvement of fishers (men and women) in these changes is vital. Furthermore, the importance of being connected as a fishing sector is essential to co-create, scale, and implement solutions for the recovery of marine resources, as well as the resilience and well-being of the communities themselves.

COBI presented the importance of integrating digital tools such as PescaData for the sustainable management of fisheries. This application, used to systematize information and link the fishing sector, empowers the community, which participates in science-based decision-making for the sustainability of small-scale fisheries, through access to fishing information and data.

We continue to work with the fishing sector, providing tools that will help them manage their resources and empower them to make decisions that will support them and future generations.

You can find more information on the PescaData tool here: www.pescadata.org

If you are interested on viewing the webinar, you can find the recording here: https://marfund.org/en/mar-fund-events/#Seminar9Recording 

We will keep you posted on any other community fisheries topic presented in MAR Fund’s Webinar Series.

The MAR Fund Team.

Heading to the north east side of Belize, we find ourselves in Corozal Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (CBWS), encompassing approximately 72,000 hectares of the Belize portion of the Mesoamerican Reef’s largest estuarine system. Co-managed by the Sarteneja Alliance for Conservation and Development (SACD), who for 15 years have strived for an effective management of the protected area working hand in hand with their stakeholders.

Strengthening, maintaining and improving activities and programs that have been developed successfully for the benefit of CBWS stakeholders and resources, is what we are supporting with this new project.

The objectives of this phase are:

• To ensure that MPA fisheries compliance (inspections per infraction) maintains a positive trend and the increasing trend in Coastal Development Infractions (CDIs) is addressed with 100% of reports followed-up with by the relevant departments.
• To continue the monitoring and research of identified key conservation targets in CBWS that informs decision making throughout 2022 and into 2023.
• To support the continued roll-out of the sustainable, traditional rights-based fishery framework in CBWS, with 100% of the local fishers renewing their site-specific permit..

Through this project we continue supporting SACD’s management of CBWS and their work with traditional fishers and stakeholders.

Thank you for your help and for believing in our work.

We´ll keep you posted on how this project develops.

Thank you

The MAR Fund Team.

Within the framework of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI) meeting in Merida Yucatan, Mexico carried out in November 2017, The Mesoamerican Reef Fund (MAR Fund), the Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (FMCN) and Rare Conservation organized a side event to lay the foundations for the creation of the Mesoamerican Reef Sustainable Fisheries Network (MAR-SFNet).

Derived from the side event, MAR Fund and FMCN developed a follow up meeting in November 2018 to consolidate the network to promote and support the sustainability of fisheries, especially small-scale fisheries, in the MAR region. Since its consolidation, the MAR-SFNet, formed by civil society organizations, community organizations, academic institutions and fishing cooperatives from the four countries (Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras) of the MAR currently working in fisheries, have gathered to follow up on their indicators, marketing, legal framework, capacity building, strategic communication, financial sustainability and their work plan.

This initiative has generated a strategic document that maps and analyzes key actors, projects and organizations that work in the small-scale fishing sector in the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR). This document presents information about priorities, opportunities, limitations and threats that the fishing sector faces and it also provides trustworthy data to support and inform the Network’s next steps with a regional and multilevel approach.

Thanks to your support, we were able to strengthen the Network, in collaboration with funds from the Integrated Reef to Ridge Management of the Mesoamerican Reef Ecoregion” Project (MAR2R-CCAD/WWF-GEF), and the general assembly in August 2022 was developed. The objective of this meeting was to carry out the updating and appointment of the new Executive Committee (2022 – 2024) of the Network, share the activities the Network has been developing, lessons learnt from 2021 and the plan for the up-coming years.

We will keep you posted on the activities and results achieved by the Network.

Thank you for your support.

The MAR Fund Team

As promised, results have been achieved through the MAR Fish “Knowledge, monitoring and protection of Mesoamerican Reef’s Fish Spawning Aggregations”, a four-country project monitoring the first regional spawning network in the Mesoamerican Reef region.

To maintain fish populations and the protection of Fish Spawning Aggregations (FSAs), temporary gatherings of fish that come together for reproduction, is what this project seeks. The focus area includes “Cayman Crown” (known by local Guatemalan fishermen and new to science since 2013) an extremely healthy reef straddling the maritime border between Guatemala and Belize, which likely includes Guatemala’s only multi-species FSA. Below you will find some of the results achieved up to date:

• Healthy Reefs Initiative (HRI), in collaboration with Sam Purkis Partnership Inc, developed the habitat maps for Cayman Crown area.
• The Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE) from Belize and Fundación para el Ecodesarrollo y la Conservación (FUNDAECO) from Guatemala, continue working towards the protection and management of the reef through bi-national collaboration;
• HRI and Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) conducted training sessions on reef health monitoring using AGRRA. A total of 51 participants completed the course.
• Two additional sites were incorporated in the network in 2020: Sandy Bay in Honduras, monitored by Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL), and Emily in Belize, monitored by the Belize Fisheries Department (BFD). Other sites have been incorporated in Mexico and Honduras in 2021: Blanquizal and San Juan in Mexico, monitored by COBI, and a new site that hasn't been named yet in Honduras, monitored by CORAL.
• HRI conducted reef health monitoring near sentinel sites in the four Mesoamerican reef (MAR) countries.
• A workshop for fishers in the three countries of the Gulf of Honduras (GoH): Belize, Guatemala and Honduras was developed and representatives of fishing communities were selected to establish a Tri-national Committee to enable the development of collaborative actions to protect natural resources within the Cayman Crown, while supporting local livelihoods.

Through this project we continue to develop actions that focus on the management of the FSA, with the participation of different actors and local communities.

Each activity developed takes us closer to the network of FSA the region needs.

Thank you for your help in protecting the Mesoamerican Reef.

The MAR Fund Team

As promised, results have been achieved through the initiative Involvement of Local Communities in the Conservation and Restoration of Mangrove and Coral Reefs and Promotion of Good Practices in Sustainable Fisheries in the Mesoamerican Reef System.

The restoration of public natural assets such as fish stocks, mangrove and coral reef ecosystems is what this initiative seeks. Up to date, we have been able to:

• Implement three projects in coral reef restoration. Two of which have ended and one is still under development.
• Implement one project in mangrove restoration, still under development.
• Strengthen the MAR Coral Reef Restoration Network through the creation of a strategic plan with its action plan, operational plan, financial sustainability plan, information exchange protocol and a code of ethics, all of which have been approved by the Network’s Executive Committee.
• Strengthen the MAR Sustainable Fisheries Network through meetings of the Executive Committee of the Fisheries Network and the hiring of the coordinator for the network.
• Develop meetings of the Regional Dialog Group for the creation of capacities regarding the Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) and standardized the SCTLD monitoring in the region through the investigation of different methodologies used.
• Development and publishing of the Manual for the Ecological Restoration of Mangroves in the Mesoamerican Reef System and the Wider Caribbean.

Through the development of this joint initiative, between the MAR Fund (RRI Reef Rescue Initiative, MAR Sustainable Fisheries Network, Local Communities), the MAR2R-CCAD Project and Organización del Sector Pesquero y Acuícola del Istmo Centroamericano (OSPESCA), we continue to develop actions that focus on the restoration of these natural assets, with the participation of different actors, and local communities.

Each activity developed takes us closer to the thriving resource we need.

Thank you for your help and for believing in our work.

The MAR Fund Team.