The Munje
Co-management Area Plan
Inside a Collaborative Management Area Plan
Map showing location of Munje Co-management Area
The Munje CMA Plan (English)
The Munje CMA Plan (Swahili)
varying degrees of interests and power.
Establishment of Munje co-management area and development of this co-management plan was largely guided by steps outlined in the draft co-management guidelines for marine areas in Kenya. They included, stakeholder identification, establishment of a Co-management Planning Committee, stakeholder awareness, participatory mapping, Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA), ecological baseline survey, management planning and revision of By-laws.
Ecological Risk Assessment allowed prioritization of issues based on certain criteria and grouped into ecological well-being, socio-economic, governance and external drivers. Priority ecological issues included decreasing catches, caused by many factors, limited information on fish spawning dynamics (season and sites), limited information on species population dynamics (e.g., spawning stock biomass, stock size, recruitment size by gear, etc.), inadequate fisheries data, coral destruction, and increase in sea urchin populations among others. Priority socio-economic issues included, lack of sustainable financing schemes for fishers, limited livelihood options, lack of landing infrastructure (including landing stations), poor cooperation and unity among fishers, unsatisfactory fish prices offered to fishers by dealers, limited fishing skills in modern fishing methods and low literacy levels among fishers. Key governance issues were poor law and policy enforcement and difficulties in understanding BMU and fisheries laws while external drivers were mainly associated with coral bleaching, siltation and shortage and increase in prices of essential commodities.
These issues generated part of measures required to manage the co-management area in order to achieve the desired goal. Management measures included gear regulation (banning of gears such as ringnet within the shallow areas, speargun, mosquito net and other unconventional gears, etc) spatial and temporal restriction (including setting aside a temporary octopus closure), licensing, fish size and species controls and landing fees. Consequences for contravening these measures are entrenched in the revised By-laws. In order to implement this plan, a set of logical frameworks is given for each management objective, achievable in 5 years. This will require adaptative management where monitoring and evaluation as well as communication will be key to the success of implementation.
The above web article is an extract of the Executive Summary of the Munje Co-Management Area Plan. Learn more about the launch of the plan here.