Empowering Fishing Communities in the MAR Reef

After a two-phase project of participatory design of fish refuges and fisheries co-management areas in the Río Sarstún Multiple Use Area in Guatemala, the fishermen have achieved very important results such as:

• A research protocol was designed to establish the baseline for commercial fish species
• Five monitoring exercises developed inside and outside the proposed refuges
• Two workshops organized for the fishing communities of San Juan, Cocolí and Barra Sarstún to determine:

                 - Three conservation targets for the two fish refuges: mangroves, sea grass beds and commercial fish species

                 - Most relevant threats for these targets: climate change, pollution by agrochemicals, habitat loss and overfishing

                 - Strategies for conservation and good management of the fish refuges design:               

                             * Environmental education

                             * Constant biological monitoring

                             * Strengthening control and surveillance within the fish refuges through community participation

                             * Identification of alternative income

• Co-management agreement draft for the fish refuges in Barra Sarstún / Laguna Grande and Cocolí were completed and sent to hte National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP)
• A training plan on the AGRRA methodology was designed for the monitoring of corals and different species of fish to further capacity building of the fishers trained in scuba in 2013
• Materials were purchased for the San Juan collection center, including two stainless steel tables and two sets of professional knives. 

We are very confident that these fishing communities will continue to grow their capacities and will have very productive fish refuges.

We will let you know about their progress!

From July 31 to August 1st, the Fifth Tri National Fishermen Forum from the Gulf of Honduras was held in Punta Gorda, Belize.  It was organized by the Tri National Alliance for the Conservation of the Gulf of Honduras - TRIGOH -.

The main objective of the forum was to strengthen the network of fish refuges in the Gulf.

A total of 79 persons among fishermen, staff from NGOs and Fisheries and Protected Areas authorities from the three countries (Belize, Guatemala and Honduras) participated in the forum.  The most represented delegation was the one from Guatemala, folllowed by Belize and then Honduras. After evaluating the representation by sector, the fishers were the highest represented with 38 persons, follwed by the NGOs and the authorities with 31 and 10, respectively. Fisherwomen were also represented.

Among the results obtained during the forum are:

• Socialization of the research protocol for establishing the baseline of fish refuges within the Gulf of Honduras and fishermen participation in its implementation.
• Ellaboration of the map of the network of fish refuges and identifying its geographical gap

Eleven new potential sites were identified within the Gulf of Honduras as fish refuges as follows: six sites in Belize: 1 in Gladen Spit, 4 in Sapodilla Cayes and 1 in Port Honduras. In Honduras, the five sites identified were: Tulian, Barra de Chamalecon Boratex, Capiro, Los Micos and Peñón de Punta Isopo.

The representatives from the Fisheries and Protected Areas authorities committed to support the fish refuges initiatives among the three countries in order to consolidate the Network.

We will keep you posted of every progress TRIGOH has!