Celebrate Islands 2023

Through the eyes of our elders – capturing stories of the past to build hope for a better future.

The Ropes of Hope (one of the CMCDCoLtd projects): Our goal is to halt and reverse the decline of the coral reefs of the Mafia Island Marine Park through research, set up of coral nurseries and ex-planting on destroyed reef together with divers trained from the local communities, support to communities in alternative income activities and less destructive use of their marine resources as well as collecting the wisdom of the elders through participatory methodologies that will allow us to leverage their lifelong learning for conservation and regeneration, to be used in raising awareness in island communities, schools and conservation clubs.

It is our mission to provide technical assistance and to find financial support for a network of coastal communities in Mafia that believe LIVING coral is the foundation to their thriving blue economy and that strive to protect and regenerate the coral reef systems for their benefit and that of future generations. 1: CREATE A GENE BANK: over the next 5 years is to build 25 nurseries and maintain 100,000 coral fragments for posterity and for research with trained local coral gardeners. 2: RESEARCH: to experiment with cost-effective local materials and solutions for growing and ex-planting corals, to monitor outplanting by generating photo-mosaic maps and measuring and analysing changes in eDNA to assess the impact of our interventions on biodiversity. 3: COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: to engage with multiple partners in order to also offer alternative income streams and protein sources to the island communities in the Mafia Island Marine Park, to expand to the other two inhabited fishing islands in the Park, to support the secondary school on one of these islands (Jibondo) and make it a focal point for marine environmental awareness and citizen science by building displays and teaching facilities and involving biology students in our research activities.