The Pwani Project: Tanzania Coastal Ecosystem Conservation

The Pwani Project: Tanzania Coastal Ecosystem Conservation

Events

A female fisher on the beach. (credit: CRC)
A female fisher on the beach. (credit: CRC)

The Conservation of Coastal Eco-Systems in Tanzania: The PWANI Project started in December 2009, building on 12 years of previous experience and investments of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), CRC, the Government of Tanzania and other partners. Locally, the project was often referred to as the Tanzania Coastal Management Partnership (TCMP), which was what the projects were called from 1996 until 2005.

The Pwani Project was an ecosystem-based management initiative. It targeted an area stretching from Bagamoyo to Pangani town, focusing on the Saadani National Park (SANAPA) and the Wami River estuary. An additional area of focus was the Menai Bay Conservation Area on Zanzibar. Cross-cutting in nature, it recognized that poverty, gender, climate change, population and HIV/AIDS can be significant constraints to coastal and marine biodiversity conservation. The project took an integrated approach to building community resilience and addressing key barriers for women obtaining increased benefits from their utilization of natural resource based livelihoods. It also recognized that implementation of an ecosystem-based program must be directed at catalyzing changes in human behavior. As such, Pwani worked to strengthen capacity at the local level to implement policy; advocate for policy adjustments (good governance); and integrate poverty concerns into conservation strategies.