MALINDI, Kenya (AP) 鈥� The unfinished restaurant is still little more than concrete walls and wooden beams. As her daughter sweeps away the last piles of sand, 54-year-old Nuru Mohammed directs women hanging fishing nets to serve as d茅cor. In a few days, the beachside restaurant on Kenya鈥檚 Indian Ocean coast will open, offering another way to earn a living.
鈥淔or us women, this is hope,鈥� says Mohammed, who for most of her life was one of the few fisherwomen in Malindi, a town northeast of the port city of Mombasa. 鈥淚t will help support many families that have depended on the ocean for decades.鈥�
Across East Africa鈥檚 coast, fisherfolk are increasingly turning to tourism, ecosystem restoration and other conservation-based businesses, reinventing their relationship with the sea as climate change, overfishing and declining ocean health threaten their livelihoods.
In Kenya, women are turning restored mangrove forests into sources of income through beekeeping and ecotourism. In Tanzania鈥檚 Zanzibar archipelago, fishing communities are protecting coral reefs through locally managed closures. In Mozambique, sea grass restoration is creating jobs while reviving marine habitats. Together, these efforts are redefining resilience, not as leaving the ocean behind, but as restoring it while building enduring livelihoods.
鈥淐ommunities that depend on the ocean are also its best stewards,鈥� said Andreane Martel, project director for a conservation program dubbed ReSea. 鈥淲hen local people, especially women, lead conservation, they protect biodiversity while creating more resilient and inclusive livelihoods.鈥�
Mohammed said she has lost boats to theft and now struggles to compete with industrial trawlers. A nearby Chinese-owned fish processing facility reflects the dramatic changes for the industry.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 compete with that kind of power or scale,鈥� she says.
鈥淚t has been tough,鈥� Mohammed says, looking toward the ocean. 鈥淚 fought to remain a fisherwoman. But I think it鈥檚 a fight I can no longer win.鈥�
Ten kilometers (six miles) away, where the Sabaki River meets the Indian Ocean, Beatrice Mwanyiro oversees a mangrove nursery and restaurant built by ReSea, a 30-member women鈥檚 self-help group supported by the Canadian government.
鈥淲e have to adapt to the changing times,鈥� Mwanyiro says. 鈥淭he number of fish coming into the shallow waters are falling every year. Without another source of income, we won鈥檛 be able to feed our families.鈥�
Mangroves, coral reefs, sea grass meadows and nearshore fisheries provide food, protect coastlines from storms and store vast amounts of carbon. But those ecosystems are imperiled by warming oceans, pollution, habitat loss and overfishing.
Mohamed Somo, a leader of fishermen in Lamu, a UNESCO heritage site, says boats that used to come in with catches of up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of fish now often bring home less than 30 kilograms (66 pounds).
Kenyan law restricts trawlers to waters at least 5 nautical miles (9 kilometers) offshore, but fishers say some vessels routinely operate much closer. The challenge extends beyond Kenya. Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing costs the global economy an estimated $23 billion annually while threatening marine biodiversity and the food security of billions who depend on fish as a primary source of protein, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization.
鈥淭he trawlers fish offshore during the day, but at night they move into the shallow waters where artisanal fishers work,鈥� Somo says. 鈥淏y morning, there鈥檚 very little left for us.鈥�
The growing pressure on coastal communities has pushed ocean conservation higher on the political agenda as communities struggle for survival and try to protect their ocean economies.
鈥淐oastal communities are on the frontlines of climate change and declining ocean health, but they are also among the strongest drivers of resilience,鈥� said Jerry Mang鈥檈na, co-founder and executive director of Action for Ocean, a Tanzania-based organization that restores mangroves along its coastline.
鈥淪upporting sustainable livelihoods, from aquaculture and eco-tourism to ecosystem restoration, helps families adapt while reducing pressure on the ocean. If we鈥檙e serious about protecting our seas, we must invest in the people who have cared for them for generations.鈥�
At the recent Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, conservation groups urged African governments to ratify the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement, or 鈥淗igh Seas鈥� treaty, a landmark U.N. pact establishing marine protected areas in international waters and fair sharing of marine resources. It entered into force in January, and as of April had been signed by 145 countries and ratified by 81.
The outcome of negotiations over additional ratifications of the treaty could have a profound impact on the lives of fisher people like Mohammed as they try to build futures that no longer depend entirely on increasingly uncertain catches.
鈥淭he BBNJ Agreement gives African governments a historic opportunity to protect the high seas and safeguard the future of our fisheries,鈥� said Aliou Ba, oceans campaign lead at Greenpeace Africa.
鈥淏ut protecting the ocean also means confronting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing that is stripping African waters of marine life and robbing coastal communities of food and income,” he said. “Governments cannot afford to delay.鈥�
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