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Strengthening the co-management of Nosy Hara Marine National Park to ensure sustainable management of marine resources and increase the resilience of local communities to climate change

Key Biodiversity Area Marine Managed Area Marine Protected Area

Livelihoods Management Effectiveness Governance

Local Communities Women Youth Farmers/Fishermen

Sustainable development Ecosystem/habitat restoration Capacity Building Awareness/education

Medium Grant | 199,981€ Madagascar; Southern Africa 01.01.2023 – 30.06.2024

Protected and conserved area(s) concerned

Nosy Hara National Marine Park

The BIOPAMA AC Objectives addressed

Enhance the management and governance of priority areas by addressing existing limitations;
Enforce the legal framework required to achieve effective biodiversity conservation in protected areas;
Support local communities’ initiatives aiming to enhance the livelihoods of local people whilst effectively contributing to protected areas’ management

Priority need addressed

There are several pending priorities outlined. The first are demonstrated by the results of the METT from December 2021: The Park’s 2021 METT Score was 78% with the following weaknesses identified:

Lack of surveillance against illegal mangrove harvesting,
Lack of habitat restoration activities (mangroves)
Illegal catch of octopus and crab leading to a decrease of 20% in annual yield since 2018 – this situation is urgent, especially in specific communities. The basis of concern for management is a knowledge of life cycles, ecology, threats and sustainable harvesting techniques as well as abiding by closed periods, and maximising the yields and profits through improvements in harvest, handling, storage and transport for sale.
Lack of public outreach and education about the park, the marine systems and regulations much has been done on the level of individual villages, but this will be the first time all 21 villages are impacted as well as news disseminated nationally and internationally via traditional media (radio, film) and social media (website, Facebook, Twitter, BIOPAMA portal).
Lack of monitoring and surveillance equipment for CLPs
One of the key drivers for the first two problems, is the immigrant fishers from the Nosy Be region coming to exploit Park resources illegally compounded by the limited capacity of CLPs for surveillance and enforcement. This project will ensure wide scale registration of legal fishers with issuance of identification cards to ensure that enforcement is facilitated.
Currently the CLP representatives on the CBO do not even have a list of current CLP members in their own communities. It is therefore urgent to set up a simple and effective database system that is sustainable and transparent.

The change the project implementation will bring for the protected area(s)

The project aims to enhance management effectiveness of regionally critical marine habitats and biodiversity (mangrove, seagrass, reefs, dugongs, turtles, birds and fish) through capacity building of CLPs in marine ecology, threats and monitoring and surveillance. Wide scale public outreach, registration of CLPs (notably increasing women’s participation in MPA management) and registration of legitimate fishers will ensure higher compliance with Park rules and regulations and easier processes for eliminating illegal and unregulated fishing. Active restoration of mangrove forests by communities and improvements in their income from octopus’ fisheries will improve their overall wellbeing and sustained motivation in MPA Management.

Download the project infofiche.