West Indian Ocean
This part of WWF’s work focuses on the coastal region of East Africa – a 4,600 sq km long area stretching from southern Somalia, down the Kenyan coast, through the waters of Tanzania and Mozambique, to the tip of South Africa.
Why is it important?
- Open waters, coral reefs, mud flats, rocky shores, seagrass beds and mangrove forests form a mosaic of complex ecosystems and host a rich variety of marine life.
- Turtles, dolphins, whale sharks and critically-endangered dugongs are among the 11,000 species of marine life supported by these ecosystems. Around 15% of the region's species are not found anywhere else in the world.
- The coastline supports more than 22 million people, most of whom are dependent on the sea's resources for their livelihoods and have fish as their main source of protein. Marine resources are highly important economically to all the countries in the region.
Threats and challenges
The marine resources along the entire length of Eastern Africa's seaboard are under severe pressure from the rapid growth of human settlements locally. Global demand for natural resources such as oil and gas, tuna, shrimps and timber makes this problem even worse.
In the past 50 years, fish catches in these waters have plummeted by almost half due to over-harvesting. Such a loss of marine life threatens millions of extremely poor local people who rely on fish for protein and income. There are laws which protect marine resources but enforcement is weak.
Turtles in the region are deliberately hunted for their eggs, coastal and mangrove forests are illegally harvested and global climate change is harming coral reefs (increases in water temperature can cause the coral to discolour (bleach), become brittle and die).
If these pressures are not controlled, the entire ecosystem will be degraded beyond recovery, threatening the future of all the species within it. Already, the extinction of Africa's most endangered mammal – the dugong – is a real possibility if nothing is done to protect its remaining habitats.
WWF in action
WWF is working with governments and coastal communities to establish a network of marine protected areas and other legally-protected conservation areas. Thanks to WWF support, several key sites along this seaboard are now under protection. For example:
- Mafia Island Marine Park in Tanzania was created in 1995 as a direct result of WWF interventions.
- The Rufiji delta in Tanzania and the Zambesi Delta in Mozambique, which have been declared as Ramsar sites (wetlands of international importance), will be offered greater protection by their respective governments due to lobbying pressure by WWF.
Progress is also being made to save the dugong after a comprehensive WWF study drew worldwide attention to its plight. WWF is now seeking to reduce dugong mortality by 15%, largely through a community awareness programme and by creating protected areas for vital dugong habitat.
In Tanzania's Mafia Island Marine Park, WWF has had considerable success in reversing the trend in marine life losses. WWF has successfully worked with the government to eliminate dynamite fishing in and around the park, and there is evidence that fish stocks are gradually recovering. Sea turtles are also receiving protection; community guards now monitor hundreds of turtle nesting beaches to ensure that the nests are not poached or damaged, and to increase the survival rate of the hatchlings. Since 2002, there has been no poaching of marine turtle nests in the park.
WWF has also played an active role in tabling discussions among Eastern African and Western Indian Ocean states to consider working as a bloc when negotiating their shared fish stocks with other countries (e.g. Korea, Japan and EU member states) which send their commercial fishing fleets to these waters. This will put them in a stronger position at the negotiating table, helping these states to achieve more sustainable quotas, better prices and improved monitoring to reduce illegal fishing.