In the community of Praia Abade there is a committee of local fishermen and palaiês that produces handmade soap.
This committee has its origins in the intervention of the Omali Vida Nón project in the fishing communities with which it has been working. This group of fishermen and palaiês participated in a community ideas competition, which aims to promote sustainable income alternatives in fishing communities, with the proposal of producing handmade coconut soap. The support they have received (training and materials) has enabled them to produce handmade soap made from coconut oil, which has many benefits for our skin and body. The project continues to support the group, which has allowed them to continue producing soap and making it available to the local population. This soap is available for sale at Bela Casa, Lusocash, and Mr. Hipólito's shop, all located in the city of Santo António.
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The extensionists of the Omali Vida Nón project are fishermen and palâies from the fishing communities covered by the project. In their work, extensionists go to the beaches of their communities and collect data on fishing effort, such as:
- the fishermen and their fishing gear - fishing practices (including effort and fishing areas) - types and quantity of fish - size and weight of selected species This data has contributed to the development of a database essential for the definition of marine protected areas in Príncipe and the participatory monitoring of the impacts of management interventions for the conservation of ecosystems and marine resources, done by directly involving the fishing communities. The socio-economic data survey in the fishing communities of Príncipe island aimed at collecting socio-economic data of the fishing communities, essential to understand the living conditions of the various communities (especially fishermen and Palaiês) where the project takes place and their dependence on natural resources. Like this, we can take into account their needs and priorities, and inform the development of measures that benefit (and not harm!) the fishing communities. Beyond this, this information is also important to monitor the impact of the various marine management and conservation initiatives in Príncipe.
In October, the Omali Vida Nón project successfully concluded its socio-economic monitoring work with a total of 532 respondents in 15 fishing communities on the island of Príncipe. Congratulations to Príncipe island! The Regional Government and fishing communities, with the support of the Omali Vida Nón project, have agreed to create the first Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the country and jointly selected the priority areas for this purpose.
This major step was taken during the Assembly of the Co-Management of MPAs held on September 10th, in the presence of the President of the Regional Government and representatives of various stakeholders. With this initiative we intend to regenerate fisheries resources and improve the livelihoods of fishermen and palâies, protect biodiversity and marine habitats, as well as contribute to the Sustainable Development Plan of Príncipe (Principe2030) goal regarding the creation of MPAs. Once again the island of Príncipe demonstrates to be a model of sustainability that cares for its natural resources and the class of fishermen and palâies - who feed the country! Fauna & Flora International Fundação Príncipe Oikos - Cooperation and Development Marapa Blue Action Fund Arcadia Last week our Field Assistant Manuel da Graça (known as Lindo) from the island of Príncipe travelled to São Tomé to participate in an exchange with the project partners based there. Together, the partners carried out, among other things, several visits to the target communities to speak with fishermen and palaiês. They also held a specific training for the extension workers on São Tomé, with the aim of improving the quality of the data collected by them. We are very happy to be able to facilitate and participate in this type of inter-island knowledge exchange and hope to continue with more activities of this kind in the future!
Through Omali Vida Nón we have been working with the fishing communities on Príncipe island, to establish a network of co-managed Marine Protected Areas. In the words of our Project Assistant, Claricela Andrade: "We are all going to work together, united to guarantee the preservation of our marine ecosystem for today and tomorrow!" Learn more about our work in this short video and subscribe to our YouTube channel to find out more about our project activities in São Tomé and Príncipe! On April 20th, an entrepreneurship workshop was held to promote the "community ideas" initiatives the project has been supporting on the island of Príncipe. In addition to the members of the micro-businesses we support in Abade, Santo António and Praia das Burras, representatives from the recycled glass cooperative (CVR), the honey cooperative, the Facilita Fora Umuen project and Inspira took part. It was a day full of opportunity for knoweldge exchange between the small sustainable businesses on the island of Príncipe and a chance to reflect together on the creation of plans and implementation of micro-businesses in this context.
The objective of this activity is linked to the objective of encouraging communities to diversify their sources of income beyond fishing, thus alleviating the pressure on fishing resources and contributing to the conservation of marine ecosystems. As part of the ongoing consultation process (with fishers, palaiês, government authorities and other stakeholders) that the team has been facilitating with the aim of reflecting on the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs), a 1st meeting of the Assembly for the co-management of fisheries on the island of Príncipe was held last week.
This memorable day was attended by the President of the Regional Government and brought together for the first time members of the Regional Assembly, representatives from the Regional Departments of Fisheries, Environment, the Biosphere Reserve, Coast Guard, Port Authority, tour operators, the Association of Guides and representatives from each of the island's fishing communities (chosen by the communities themselves as spokespersons). It was with great satisfaction that we heard the various stakeholders reaffirm their agreement on the importance of implementing Marine Protected Areas in Príncipe as an effective tool for restoring fish stocks and protecting the marine environment. To facilitate reflection and debate, the team presented maps with all the data collected so far (representing the areas of greatest fishing effort, gear types used and abundance of commercially important fish species, etc.). The team also presented a map produced using Marxan software, which brings together all this data and suggests a set of areas of interest for the recovery of marine resources, whilst ensuring the majority of fishing areas of the different coastal communities remains unaffected. The discussion culminated with a first list of potential marine areas that the various stakeholders consider to be important to protect. This represents a fundamental step along the way to reaching a consensus on the MPAs to be created, their delimitation and the rules applicable to each one - using a transparent and participatory approach . After completing the field work to collect data with BRUVs (Baited Remote Underwater Videos) last year, we are now working to analyse the data in order to understand the distribution of marine species around São Tomé and Principe better and inform the consultation process for the creation of the first network of marine protected areas in the country. Here is a sample of some of the species identified so far - do you know what they are?
Last week we held a virtual meeting to present the results of the value chain analysis of salted fish exports from Príncipe to São Tomé. This study was carried out in 2020, with the participation of fishermen, palaiês and relevant government authorities on the two islands and has provided us with a lot of useful information about the activities of both fishers and palaêis and the challenges they face in carrying out their activities. We would like to thank everyone for their collaboration!
The final report of this value chain analysis can be found in the "Resources" section of this page. You can also watch the video of the online presentation, as well as information about many other project activities on our YouTube channel. |
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