Empowering Fishing Communities in the MAR Reef

As you all know, the first initiative to create fish recovery sites in Guatemala was driven by three communities of fishermen of Punta de Manabique Wildlife Refuge: La Graciosa, Santa Isabel and Punta Gruesa, working together with the Gillnetters and Manjueros Fishermen Committee of Puerto Barrios. Together with the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP), three sites where created two in La Graciosa Bay, Mono Rojo and Punta Gruesa, and the other one including the entire area of Santa Isabel Lagoon.

To be able to make the fish recovery sites sustainable and have them achieve their purpose, Ana Giró, Guatemalan Coordinator for the Healthy Reefs Initiative (HRI) and Dr. Luios Bourillon, Mesoamerican Reef Program Director for Community and Biodiversity (CoBi), experts on the topic helped the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP) by creating a Training Plan for community members.

The training is an important factor that seeks efficiency and higher productivity in the development of activities within the project "Establishing of the baseline and training for monitoring the three Zones of Fisheries Recovery Sites located in La Graciosa Bay and Laguna Santa Isabel, Punta de Manabique Wildlife Refuge”. The training plan is part of a process which highlights various activities such as appropriate management and importance, strengths and weaknesses as well as the steps to take for the sites to be successful, among others, that if worked together with community participation will achieve a positive effect in the population, providing knowledge to the communities of La Graciosa, Santa Isabel and Punta Gruesa on topics of importance on the Fish Recovery Sites.

Involving the communities in the process and sharing the how’s and why´s of the initiative will only help them get empowered and see it as their own, hence protecting the sites and following fishing regulations.

All of this has been possible because of the help you have provided, for this we are more than grateful.

Thank you for your support

The MAR Fund Team.