a socio-economic baseline assessment of the mnazi bay - IUCN

1 INTRODUCTION
Coastal communities are often highly dependent on marine resources for their livelihood and food
security (Malleret King, 2000, Malleret King et al., 2003). By introducing changes to traditional user
rights, and to the socio-cultural context within which coastal communities determine access to marine
resources (Fiske, 1992; Cocklin et al., 1998), Marine Protected Areas (MPA), such as the Mnazi Bay -
Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park (MBREMP), are likely to affect these communities
Past experiences show that without the support of the communities affected by the establishment of an
MPA, the MPA has very little chances of success (Salm and Ngoile, 1998). Increasingly, coastal
communities’ effective involvement is seen as paramount to the success and sustainability of MPA
management (Christie and White, 1997, Cocklin et al., 1998). However, effective community
involvement is not always achieved. Two main reasons for this have emerged, the difficulty in finding a
good balance between community empowerment and government role, and the failure to acknowledge
communities’ heterogeneity (Leach et al., 1997; Cocklin et al., 1998). Indeed, communities are a
complex make up of user, gender, ethnic, religious and wealth groups, whose interests and objectives
are often in conflict (Leach et al., 1997). When these differences are not acknowledged by MPA
managers, key stakeholder groups may not be involved in the MPA establishment and management
process, thus leading the MPA to fail.
For MPAs to have a chance to succeed in their marine resource management and conservation
objectives, it is thus essential that managers understand the diversity of stakeholders, of livelihood
strategies, the way they use the resources and the way in which they determine access to the
resources. This is why a socio-economic baseline assessment of the Mnazi Bay - Ruvuma Estuary
Marine Park communities was carried out. The objective of this assessment is to increase the Marine
Park’s understanding of the communities within it and provide the foundation for taking account of their
diversity in the Marine Park’s management plan.
1.1 Background to the socio-economic assessment
The Mnazi Bay - Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park (MREMBP) was gazetted in 2000 following a
consultative process that had started in 1998. It covers an area of 650 km 2 , 450 km 2 of which are land.
The remaining 200 km 2 are marine, including mangrove forests, islands, seagrass, and coral reef
ecosystems. The rationale behind incorporating such a wide area of land into the Marine Park was to
constitute a buffer zone and control human activities that impact the protected marine environment
(UNDP/GEF, 2000).
The inclusion of the land and communities adjacent to the marine area was also to ensure that local
marine resource users are included into the management and planning processes as required by
Marine Parks and Reserves Act (1994). This meant, however, that 11 villages, 3 sub-villages with a
population of approximately 28,000 people (Census 1988) were incorporated into the Marine Park.
Furthermore, population densities around the Marine Park are high (UNDP/GEF, 2000).
The MBREMP is located in Mtwara Region, at the Southern tip of Tanzania’s coast. It is rich in
biodiversity and has outstanding beaches and seascapes, coral diversity, an important population of
turtles and marine mammals such as whales migrating through the area on a seasonal basis. This was
the basis of its establishment. Its tourism potential as well as its location within the realm of international
economic development initiatives (e.g. Mtwara Development Corridor Project) makes the Marine Park
an important player in developing opportunities by the attraction it represents for external investors.
However, recent biodiversity assessments and previous research in the area have shown that the
marine environment is highly impacted by human activities, particularly by over fishing, destructive
fishing, and coral mining (Guard et al. 1998; UNDP/GEF, 2000; Guard, 2002; Obura et al., 2004;
Richmond, 2004). Mangrove forests were also found to bear the mark of intensive use (Wagner et al.,
2004).
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