Climate Action Guatemala Project #1841

Empowering Fishing Communities in the MAR Reef

by Mesoamerican Reef Fund (MAR Fund)

Project Report | Feb 4, 2022
Work in conservation and restoration of reefs and mangroves continues

By Ximena Flamenco | Project Officer II

Roatan Marine Park-Coral fragments installation

As promised, results have been achieved through the initiative Involvement of Local Communities in the Conservation and Restoration of Mangrove and Coral Reefs and Promotion of Good Practices in Sustainable Fisheries in the Mesoamerican Reef System.

The restoration of public natural assets such as fish stocks, mangrove and coral reef ecosystems is what this initiative seeks. Up to date, we have been able to:

Implement three projects in coral reef restoration. Two of which have ended and one is still under development.
Implement one project in mangrove restoration, still under development.
Strengthen the MAR Coral Reef Restoration Network through the creation of a strategic plan with its action plan, operational plan, financial sustainability plan, information exchange protocol and a code of ethics, all of which have been approved by the Network’s Executive Committee.
Strengthen the MAR Sustainable Fisheries Network through meetings of the Executive Committee of the Fisheries Network and the hiring of the coordinator for the network.
Develop meetings of the Regional Dialog Group for the creation of capacities regarding the Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) and standardized the SCTLD monitoring in the region through the investigation of different methodologies used.
Development and publishing of the Manual for the Ecological Restoration of Mangroves in the Mesoamerican Reef System and the Wider Caribbean.

Through the development of this joint initiative, between the MAR Fund (RRI Reef Rescue Initiative, MAR Sustainable Fisheries Network, Local Communities), the MAR2R-CCAD Project and Organización del Sector Pesquero y Acuícola del Istmo Centroamericano (OSPESCA), we continue to develop actions that focus on the restoration of these natural assets, with the participation of different actors, and local communities.

Each activity developed takes us closer to the thriving resource we need.

Thank you for your help and for believing in our work.

The MAR Fund Team.

EcoLogic Development Fund - Reforestation

Mangroves restoration in the MAR manual cover

Permalink

Oct 8, 2021
Supporting the Bay Islands, Honduras in fish spawning aggregation (FSA) sites management

By Ximena Flamenco | Project Officer II

Moving to the south, we find ourselves in the Bay Islands National Marine Park, formed by three islands, Roatán, Guanaja and Utila. This Park has a very important function in the protection of the coral reefs ecosystems of the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR).

In Honduras, there is little information on fish spawning aggregation (FSA) sites and their fisheries, despite their ecological and economic importance. That is why the NGO Bay Islands Conservation Association-Roatan (BICA-Roatan) is working on acquiring information through the monitoring of the FSA. Through your support we were able to provide funding to help them develop a project called “Working with island communities to improve spawning sites in the Bay Islands”

The goal of this project is to develop a participatory FSA monitoring process that promotes protection and sustainable fishing. Specifically, it seeks to work with the fishing communities of the Bay Islands to generate information that improves the management of these sites. It also focuses on raising awareness in the communities to protect these sites and carry out sustainable fishing practices that will help secure the future of fisheries.

The objectives of this phase are:

Identify possible fish spawning aggregation through the traditional knowledge of artisanal fishermen in the three islands.
Quantitatively characterize the status of the Bay Islands fish spawning aggregation fisheries.
Build capacities and knowledge in the three chapters of BICA (Utila, Roatan and Guanaja) and artisanal fishers to improve the management of fish spawning aggregations and their associated fisheries.
To sensitize the island population about the importance of protecting the fish spawning aggregation sites in the Bay Islands National Marine Park.

Involving the communities in the process and sharing the knowledge and importance of the FSA will only help them get empowered and on board with protecting the sites.

All of this has been possible because of the help you have provided, for this we are more than grateful. We´ll keep you posted on the results achieved with this project.

Thank you for your support

The MAR Fund Team.

Permalink

Jun 11, 2021
We reach our goals, if we work together

By Ximena Flamenco | Project Officer II

Fisheries along the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) support the livelihoods of millions of people across four countries: Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. But along this coastline, unrelenting fishing pressure has contributed to a 23% drop in commercial fish biomass in sites surveyed by the Healthy Reefs Initiative, as registered in their 2018 Report Card.

To maintain fish populations, the protection of Fish Spawning Aggregations (FSAs), temporary gatherings of fish that come together for reproduction, scattered along the reef is essential. The FSAs present densities up to three times higher than those found during non-reproductive periods and are extremely vulnerable to fishing.

Due to the importance of FSAs, MAR Fund jointly with partners across the region will support the rebuilding of the Mesoamerican reef fish stock by strengthening the protection and monitoring of a network of fish spawning aggregations sites as critical areas of the life cycle of fish species. The MAR Fish project is a four-country project that will monitor the first regional spawning network in the Mesoamerican Reef region, contributing to the existing network of marine and coastal protected areas, as well as the network of fish replenishment zones (FRZ).

The focus area will include the recently discovered “Cayman Crown” (2013, by Ana Giro, of Healthy Reefs Initiative, and local Guatemalan fishermen), an extremely healthy reef straddling the maritime border between Guatemala and Belize, which likely includes Guatemala’s only multi-species FSA. If properly protected under this Project, the Cayman Crown and five of its more established neighbor FSAs, would truly complete a 4-nation protected areas network of sites.

The project has two specific objectives:

Obtain legal recognition and manage Cayman Crown in Guatemala and Belize, a newly discovered aggregation area;
Promote participatory monitoring of a network of sentinel spawning areas in the four Mesoamerican reef countries.

All the work that we do is possible thanks to your support. We will keep you posted on how this project develops and the results achieved by each of the partners.

Thank you for your help in protecting the Mesoamerican Reef.

The MAR Fund Team

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 23 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.