A guide for planners and managers - IUCN

PART III
Case Histories of Marine Protected Areas
each village has a government, representatives of which are affiliated to political parties.
Political pressure brought by elections resulted in the village government of the
original pilot village to declare the reefs open. This decision was taken unilaterally
with one day’s notice and so contravened verbal agreements made with the other villages
and the District administration. This lack of adherence to agreed procedures has led
to the loss of an important component of the plans and it will be of interest to see
what measure(s) will be taken by the other partners in light of this decision.
Key Lessons Learned
– The participatory approach was successful in gaining initial agreement between
government and users as to what should happen and who should do it. There have
been and still are problems between parties regarding the pace of implementation
and who should take ultimate responsibility for shared actions.
– The process was also successful as a means to initially shift responsibility for
management actions from government to the community. However, it did not prevent
the government institutions when politically motivated to take back decisionmaking
power despite successes in implementation. More legally binding agreements
may provide better adherence to agreed procedures.
– The plans produced by the process were simple, direct and easily understood by
all parties. This has made monitoring and evaluation simple and direct but the
plans alone did not adequately ensure that management institutions had to follow
procedures.
– Destructive fishing was controlled by a collaborative effort between government
and communities. Both had failed to control the problem when acting individually.
– Villagers can collect reliable monitoring data and feed it back to their communities.
The problem lies in that some groups refuse to believe findings even from
information collected by members of their own group if they see it being against
their self interest. Despite this, many other groups have accepted the village
monitors as being their own experts and seek their opinions on issues brought up
during management discussions. There is an increasing need for government to
recognize the skills of these village level teams to ensure sustainability of
management.
Summary
Development of collaborative management in Tanga has produced environmental
benefits in terms of improved reef status and reef fish stocks as well as improved catches
for legal fishing techniques. The procedure for formulating these plans increased
awareness of how communities can deal with their own issues and monitor their
success. However, sustainability of this type of management is dependent on different
351