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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Making the most of the International Women's Day celebrations, a workshop was held last week to engage palaiês on Príncipe in the process of creating a network of marine protected areas around the island through a co-management approach.
The main objective of the workshop was to highlight the importance of palaiês' involvement in the process of creating marine protected areas, to understand why there is limited participation on their behalf in community meetings and shed light on the problems they currently face. The results of the analysis of the value chain for the exportation of salted fish from Príncipe to São Tomé were also presented to the palaiês during this workshop. This resulted in a good discussion among the palaiês with the aim of reaching a solution to the problems associated with salted fish exports to São Tomé. We are very proud of Dr. Ana Nuno and the entire team at Fundação Príncipe who were part of the first phase of the project, whose results continue to be invaluable!
A new article by the team, recently published in Conservation Letters, explores how to improve individuals' perception of their own ability to influence marine conservation, identifying key determinants of psychological empowerment and possible implications for marine resource management. Dr Ana Nuno: “Fishing communities are crucial in addressing conservation issues around the world. Stakeholder participation and fisheries co-management have been recognized as key approaches, particularly when implementation is challenging due to limited government capacity. But how can we promote individual actions and support measures that improve marine ecosystems? Some might say we need to empower stakeholders. Empowerment has become a popular concept in conservation but, while well intentioned, it is often used as a buzzword with unclear claims. How can we move beyond this in conservation?" Check out the article here to learn more about this interesting topic! Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the project team was able to carry out several activities and take a step forward with regards to the creation of a network of marine protected areas in São Tomé and Príncipe through a co-management approach.
Some of the main achievements in 2020 were: the inclusion of five new target communities on the island of Príncipe, additional progress in the community consultation process in more than 10 communities, the presentation of the new results of the MARXAN analysis aimed at facilitating the selection marine protected areas (based on biological and socio-economic information collected so far), training of five new extension workers to collect data on fishing effort and the participation in the regional activities held for the Youth Day. The team would like to thank all fishermen and palaiês on the island of Príncipe, as well as Government authorities, Tour Operators and other conservation NGOs for facilitating and supporting our work! The Omali Vida Nón organized a training session for all relevant stakeholders at the end of September. In addition to the concepts of sustainable coastal zone and fisheries management and shared governance principles, the training focused on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as tools for sustainable management of biodiversity and natural resources, as well as the creation and management of MPAs through a participatory approach. Check the television coverage of this event. For updates about phase 2 of the "Omali vida nón" project, please check our news on Fundação Príncipe's facebook page (#OMaliVidaNón)
On the 1st of April, we had a regional closing event for our project, also launching its new phase funded by the Blue Action Fund. Have a look at the news coverage about this event in the video below. How do you summarize three years of work? We are using community presentations, regional events, technical reports, 1-page summaries and... a 22-min video showcasing what people think about our project! Find out what fishers, fisher traders and others have to say about it. Around three years after the start of our project funded by Darwin Initiative, it was great to receive so many guests at our closing event in Santo António, Príncipe. Fishers, fish traders, government representatives and environmental organizations, among others, were present and it was a great opportunity to present results and discuss next steps. Thank you all for your support and collaboration! Looking forward to working with all of you during the second phase of the project also launched at this event and funded by the Blue Action Fund!
Our project started in July 2016 and its first phase, funded by the Darwin Initiative, finished in March 2019. Read about our project activities and what we learned in this summary. We look forward to the next steps of this project!
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