Eritrea's Coastal Marine and Island Biodiversity Conservation Project

5.8. Conservation efforts
Despite Eritrea’s extensive coastline share in the Red Sea, majority of the stakeholder institutions lack the adequate knowledge on the dynamics of the
marine ecosystems and the appropriate conservation strategies. Nevertheless, efforts are being made to establish an integrated marine and coastal
environment conservation system.
Even though there is lack of complete regulations, Eritrea has been practicing and enforcing some regulatory actions to preserve its corals and other
marine ecosystems in a haphazard manner; since early 1990s the export of live corals and spear fishing has been banned and trawling has also been
delimited to a depth of 30m and deeper. Similarly, in the sense of minimizing stresses from tourism the number of islands accessible to tourists has
been determined only to 21.
In order to conserve the nations’ major biodiversity elements and to rehabilitate some of its ecosystems, Eritrea has taken concrete actions to the
establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). For this purpose, taking their ecological, research and economic significance into account four sites
Dissei-Madote, Museri, Ras Fatuma and Sheik Seid (Green) islands have been proposed. The GEF and Government of Eritrea funded Eritrean Coastal
Marine and Island Biodiversity (ECMIB) project taking the leading role is facilitating the implementation of the MPAs. Under the same auspices the
ECMIB is also working to set up Integrated Coastal Zone Management; a participatory approach that takes the interest of all partners into consideration,
and defines the jurisdiction rights of each stakeholder.
State of the Coast Eritrea, 2006-2007 40