CARE-WWF Primeiras e Segundas

In October 2011 Robin Beatty, the 321Fire consultant who facilitated the Introduction to Integrated Fire Management (including the early burning practical) for Potone Reserve in July of last year (see preceding article), returned to Angoche. As a pro bono contribution to the Alliance, Robin met with community leaders, community rangers, Government and Alliance staff to see first hand how the forest structure was looking 3 months after Potone’s first ever early burning campaign. The overall objective was to compare areas that had been part of the early burning campaign with areas that had experienced late, hot and uncontrolled fires during the same season.

Map showing a mosaic early burning pattern in Potone Forest from the July 2011 campaign.

In the areas where early burning was conducted (in parts of the forest where hot fires had prevailed in previous years), little or no new destruction of tree saplings was evident. In addition, the recovery of adult trees and the herbaceous layer was clearly in progress. Grass was also recovering, providing food for grazers

Robin Beatty explains how tree saplings are affected by fire.

late in the dry season when food was scarce. Robin pointed out scars at the bases of larger trees to demonstrate how over time regular hot fires eventually burn through the tree, destroying it in the process.

In comparison, in areas that were not burnt during the campaign but instead experienced late hot fires, it was evident that many trees had been completely destroyed with others suffering significant damage, and that the herbaceous layer had also been significantly impacted.  While some recovery of the physiognomy or structure of the forest is possible after such an impact, without early burning interventions the tendency is towards less trees and more grass, with increasing damage to the herbaceous layer, soil and biodiversity. In addition the capacity of the forest to sequester carbon is significantly decreased.

Forest structure after experiencing late, hot and uncontrolled wildfire (photograph was taken directly across the road from where the previous pictures were taken and where the early burning campaign was conducted).

Over a period of decades, this repetitive fire regime will homogenize local ecosystems, reducing spatial and temporal habitat variability. Reducing habitat diversity leads to reduced overall biodiversity and ultimately the services the forest can provide.

Trees destroyed after late, hot and uncontrolled wildlife.

The terrestrial coastal forests of the proposed Primeiras e Segundas Reserve experience uncontrolled wildfires every year. Nearly all the fires are started intentionally as a land management tool to stimulate fresh growth for livestock grazing, open new areas of forest using slash-and-burn agriculture, control pests, or enable harvesting of natural products such as honey collection.

Map showing the proposed Potone Reserve.

Once fires are started, however, no one controls them. When fires are started at the end of the dry season in September or October, dry vegetation acts like fuel. A fire started to clear one acre can quickly engulf hundreds of thousands of acres, destroying important plants and trees, killing animals, and harming the structure of the soil.

The solution to this problem is straightforward: carefully managed controlled burns between April and July, shortly after the end of the rainy season. Such burns allow local people to meet their needs, while preventing uncontrolled fires that needlessly destroy vital forest habitat.

Few local people are aware of the damage done by large uncontrolled burns, and even fewer understand how to carry out a controlled burning. The problem is compounded by fragmented and inconsistent fire management legislation and policies that do not adequately address the appropriate use of controlled burning, particularly on communal land. Limited government capacity and weakened traditional institutions have also contributed to a lack of understanding of fire management.

It is estimated that the majority of Potone Reserve and Gile Reserve (a long established partial reserve within the overall Primeiras e Segundas proposed partial reserve) are burned every season, with most fires initiated when farmers are preparing their land for the monsoonal rains. Over more than a 30 year period, this repetitive fire regime has homogenized local ecosystems, reducing spatial and temporal habitat variability. Reduced habitat diversity leads to reduced overall biodiversity. For example, proportions of the ecosystem (flora and fauna) unsuited to high intensity fires have decreased in abundance and distribution. High intensity fires also contribute to greater greenhouse gas emissions.

In response, the CARE-WWF Alliance initiated an Integrated Fire Management Project in the proposed community-based Potone Reserve from 11 July to 19 July 2011. The overall objective is to manage wildfires, land-use and environment to maximize benefits of the Reserve for the community. The approach is based on using controlled burning to integrate existing community skills, knowledge and institutional structures with sustainable fire management strategies and ecological requirements. The objectives of this Project Introduction were to:

1. Introduce and demonstrate fire management activities to the community, reserve rangers and government stakeholders;

2. Commence fire management training of the community, reserve rangers and government stakeholders; and

3. Implement controlled mosaic pattern burning in the reserve to minimize the occurrence and extent of uncontrolled wildfires, enhance land use and maintain ecological processes.

321 Fire consultant Robin Beatty and Alliance staff facilitating the introduction workshop.

This first attempt at fire management was a great success. Over 75 people participated including men and women leaders from nine communities in and around Potone forest and the Potone Reserve Association, forestry representatives from the District Department for Economic Activities (SDAE), Angoche Bombeiros (fire brigade), CARE-WWF Alliance staff, and rangers from both Potone Reserve and Gile Reserve.

Traditional slash and burn, or swidden agriculture, had a place in the past when local population density was low and resources were plentiful. When soil fertility declined in one area, farmers were able to abandon a field and move to new, more fertile areas. Exhausted soil had three or four years to recover before farmers returned to it. Burning a newly cleared field releases key elements important to plant growth such as potassium and nitrogen, as well as other trace minerals. However, with so little coastal forest remaining, this practice is considered particularly destructive and ultimately unsustainable.

To address this problem, the Alliance has been promoting Conservation Agriculture (CA) in the target area. One of the key principles of CA is that through application of locally appropriate interventions, a farmer can improve soil quality and water retention without shifting the farm each year.

The potential impact of this new approach is clear: when more farmers adopt CA techniques, soil fertility and productivity increase over a much longer period on a specific piece of land. This reduces the need to move onto new fields and, theoretically, results in less encroachment on remaining natural forests. Combined with new fire management techniques, CA techniques can help the community better utilize and protect the environment on which their livelihoods are based.

Running a burn line along the trail to Namizope Community.

Based on holistic management principles, the Potone Reserve Integrated Fire Management Project combines traditional burning practices with contemporary land use and environmental requirements. Land use productivity and sustainability is enhanced through use of controlled burning to improve grazing, natural product harvesting and agriculture. The timing, intensity and frequency of burning is determined by specific land use objectives in specific areas. Typically implemented in the early dry season (April – July), controlled burns create an extensive mosaic burn pattern. This minimizes the occurrence and extent of wildfires by reducing and fragmenting fuel loads. Infrastructure and sensitive resource areas are protected by strategic reduction of fuel loads around these assets. The environment is enhanced through reduction of fire intensity and diversification of fire regimes to enhance habitat and biological diversity.

By controlling when, where and how fires occur, rangers and communities minimize negative effects of fire while maximizing the benefits. Extensive knowledge of the area, and of how fires behave, allow for safe and efficient controlled burning is achieved with minimal equipment.

Reserve Rangers clearing growth from around community farms (Machambas).

The next step in the development of the Integrated Fire Management Project will be to continue to work with the community leaders to develop a Fire Management Plan for Potone Reserve that meets their objectives and the objectives of the proposed Primeiras e Segundas Reserve. The Alliance recently secured funding from Iniciativa para Terras Comunitarias (iTC), a Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) funded operation, allowing us to help nine communities in and around the Potone Reserve legally secure their land rights, while also supporting sustainable development in these areas. This will enable the continued development of the area. The funding will also allow the project to buy important equipment such as motorbikes, drip torches, GPS tracksticks and camera traps, as well as develop of infrastructure such as roads and ranger stations. It will also allow for the first dedicated capacity building program to enable the local leaders to effectively manage the reserve as an integral part of the overall proposed Primeiras e Segundas Reserve.

A well earned meal at the end of a days hard work.

MOMS (Management Oriented Monitoring System) consists of simple forms used by local community rangers to keep track of events such as wildlife sightings.

M&E.

Those two letters alone can send shivers down the spine of project managers and project staff all over the world, conjuring up scary images of time-consuming research and complex data analysis that means little if anything to the communities in which the projects are being implemented.

But in the Primeiras & Segundas Project, community members themselves are taking part in the monitoring and evaluation process, and finding it to be not so scary after all.

It’s now been over a year since about five dozen local fishermen and farmers from Angoche, Moma, and Pebane districts received training in a participatory data collection system known as MOMS (Management Oriented Monitoring System), which is integrated into their work as community rangers, or fiscais, and feeds directly into the Primeiras & Segundas Project monitoring and evaluation program.

Bernardo Cachimo, chefe dos fiscais, shows off one of the forms.

Adapted from the Event Book System that WWF first developed for use in Namibia, MOMS consists of about a half dozen simple forms on which the local rangers can record things that happen from day to day: sightings of endangered animals, fires set by local farmers that spiral out of control, incidences of illegal cutting of mangrove trees, and a variety of other events.  At the end of each month, these events are tabulated and the results shared with the P&S staff, who incorporate it into the rest of the M&E system.

Bernardo Cachimo, the head of the fiscais and a native of Angoche, acknowledges that getting the monitoring system off the ground took a bit of time and effort.  “We really had to sit with the fiscais and help them learn how to fill in the forms.  But now they can do it themselves,” he explained.

The fiscais take their M&E role just as seriously as their other work.  Charamatane Momade, one of the fiscais who has taken on the role of MOMS representative, stresses the importance of having hard data available to back up their sensitization activities with local communities, particularly when it comes to endangered species.

Charamatane Momade (at right), the ranger who oversees MOMS implementation, visits the ranger post at Murussa, where Manuel Mattias Caninela does a fantastic job with the data collection even though transportation challenges make it hard for his supervisors to visit as often as they'd like.

“For example,” he offered, “in Tamole [a local beach community] people used to use the sea turtle eggs and the turtles.  We’ve taught them that they should return them to the water, and now they’re doing that a lot more, and now we’re seeing more turtles recorded in MOMS, so we can tell people it’s working.”

Of course, the system still has room for improvement.  The fiscais are still limited in their reporting ability by the lack of equipment such as GPS systems, which would help them identify the locations of wildlife sightings and other events more accurately.  They could also use more frequent support – Mr. Cachimo wishes that he could get out to each post a lot more often to check in with all of the rangers on a regular basis, but transportation is a challenge.

The next step in MOMS is to start involving the fiscais and the local communities in more of the data analysis.  By this point, the system has been in place long enough to start seeing some trends in the data, and the P&S Project has plans to introduce a simple graphing method at each ranger post that will help the fiscais start to identify the trends themselves.  Not only does this give the communities local ownership of the data, but it will also help to alert them to negative trends that might develop over time so that they can identify and implement solutions that make sense for them.

Marcos Assane and Arlinda Beirão, M&E officers for the P&S Project, visit a ranger station in the Potone Sacred Forest with Mr. Momade. The data collected by the fiscais play a key role in project M&E.

Will MOMS completely replace other forms of M&E in the Primeiras e Segundas Project?  Well, maybe not, but it definitely has an increasing role to play as the project moves into its next phase and more of the management responsibilities are shifted to local community members.

“The system is welcomed,” Mr. Cachimo concludes.  “It’s brought us a lot of new experience.  We hope that it stays forever and helps us continue to learn.”

About the author: Domingos Ossufo was born in Angoche but spent many of his 40 years in other locations – including several years in the former East Germany. Father of three, Domingos began working for CARE in 1998, first as a field extensionist and then as an assistant district supervisor. He finally returned to his hometown in 2008 to supervise the marketing and associations component of the P&S Project. In January of this year his role changed again; he is now working with the DIPECHO Project (in conjunction with P&S) as an Officer for Disaster Risk Reduction on the Koti Islands off the coast of Angoche. In his spare time, Domingos is studying geography through the distance learning program at the Catholic University of Mozambique.

Our third story features a man of many talents whose determination to implement the P&S Project techniques has led his market and savings association to unprecedented levels of success. Though he was also a participant in conservation agriculture trainings (see Objective 1), his accomplishments most closely tie into Objective 3: To improve marketing and stimulate the development of marketing associations so that producers realize more value for their products. The story was written by Domingos Ossufo (see profile at left), edited and translated by Rachel Mason.

Success Story: Essiaca Abacar Mussa, Mobilizer for Market and Credit Associations

By Domingos Ossufo, P&S Staff

Essiaca Abacar Mussa, 47, is married with four children, all of whom are in school.  A farmer, tailor, and member of Ochucuru Mali – an association of agricultural producers in the community of Napuala – he began his collaboration with the Primeiras & Segundas Project in 2009.

When the Project was first presented to the communities, the people of Napuala, in the Administrative Post of Namaponda, Angoche District, chose Essiaca to serve as their community mobilizer – a volunteer  who receives extra trainings to reinforce the methods introduced by the project.

Highly motivated to succeed, Essiaca quickly began to mobilize other community members to join together and create associations and savings groups.  He admits that it was not an easy task to get people to unite around a single objective, but as he took his role as a volunteer mobilizer seriously and wanted the project to continue working in his community, he did whatever he could to get the project activities implemented.

With Essiaca’s commitment and perseverence, as well as that of several other dedicated community members, nine associations have been successfully formed in Napuala.  Five of these have already succeeded in gaining legal recognition – a lengthy process that requires groups to be well organized.  What’s more, the small groups have been further aggregated into an umbrella organization, known as the Napuala Forum, with various members trained by the project in commercialization and association work. This component is essential to guarantee the sustainability of the associations as the project technicians strategically decrease their level of direct support, and it already seems to be paying off through the continuation of activities in the associations that make up the Napuala Forum.

Within his own association and savings group, Essiaca occupies the position of treasurer.  He feels that with the earnings that they have brought in, a significant change is taking place in his life and the lives of his neighbors.  Since the project began working in the community, with the assistance of AENA [the local NGO in charge of conservation agriculture activities], not only were various groups and associations were formed, but demonstration fields for improved methods of conserving the soil have also helped the community to see the advantages of conservation agriculture in terms of increased production.

Essiaca with his wife, son, and sewing machine

As an example, Essiaca points to the benefits these trainings have brought to his own life.
“In this agricultural season, I grew more than usual and earned more by selling many products only after identifying good prices, and I increased the value of my savings, which is contributing in an encouraging way to improving my life.”

Essiaca used his savings this year for both immediate improvements in his life as well as some investment that will pay off more in the future. “For example,” he explained, “I was able to build my house with a zinc roof that I got for a total of 18,500 meticais [approx. US$560], and I bought a mattress in Nampula for 4,450 meticais [approx. US$135], but I also bought two cows for 27,600 meticais [approx. US$836].”

Although he may not have been left with much money after such large investments this year, Essiaca is not worried about the future.  “I’m still participating in the savings group with the plan that next season I’ll buy a motorbike that can serve as transportation for my family, and I always have a stock of food in storage.  In general, I would say that the presence of the Project has helped me grow.”

About the author: Cremildo Mario Armando, 28, is the WWF Marine Officer for the Primeiras & Segundas Project. Born in Maxixe in Inhambane Province, far away both physically and culturally from the P&S zone, Cremildo has already accomplished a great deal in less than two years with the Project, overseeing the management of all marine and coastal resources in Angoche, Moma, and Pebane districts. With a bachelor’s degree in marine biology already behind him, Cremildo aspires to greater academic achievements, hoping to eventually apply his work with the P&S Project toward a master’s degree in the same field.

The second story in our series relates directly to the second objective of Phase I of the Primeiras & Segundas Project: To improve coastal management, thereby increasing marine ecosystem productivity. Rather than focusing on a specific individual who has benefited from the P&S activities, this story shows what is possible when multiple groups of people at various levels – from poor local fishermen to the District government – come together around a single goal.  The story was written by Cremildo Armando (see profile at left), edited and translated by Rachel Mason.

Success Story: Marine Sanctuaries in Moma

By Cremildo Armando, P&S Staff

It’s been almost exactly one year since the establishment of two marine sanctuaries in the district of Moma, and the verdict is already in: this initiative has been a tremendous success.

The creation of the sanctuaries, located within the large Moma estuary near the communities of Thapua and Corane, was the direct result of a participatory process involving community members, P&S Project staff, and local government officials.  During the Rapid Rural Appraisal conducted at the initiation of the Project, one of the concerns raised by communities was the declining quantity and size of fish near the major fishing centers, due in part to over-fishing and the frequent capture of juvenile fish that had not had a chance to reproduce. The Project proposed establishing sanctuaries, or no-fishing zones, where the fish would be able to grow larger and reproduce freely, leading to spill-over effects that would improve fishermen’s catches outside of the boundaries of the sanctuaries.  Several of the communities agreed to give it a try.

Proposed sites for marine sanctuaries were identified by the communities themselves through a participatory process.  The P&S technical team then visited these sites together with the community leaders and government officials, and additional community meetings were held to make sure that everyone was on the same page and to work out how the sites would be managed.  Then in late February of 2010, buoys were placed to demarcate the boundaries and a ceremony was held to formally present the Thapua and Corane Marine Sanctuaries to the communities.  All fishing activities within the boundaries ceased, and volunteer community rangers set up a rotational schedule to make sure the policy was observed, along with the official Community Fishing Council rangers (subsidized by the P&S Project) who also conduct monitoring on the more remote Primeiras and Segundas Islands.

A buoy marking the boundary of the Thapua sanctuary

Six months later, technical staff from the P&S Project and the National Institute for Fisheries Investigation visited the sites, along with the sanctuary rangers and leaders from the Moma Fishing Association and the local CCP, or Community Fishing Council, to conduct a monitoring exercise in the zone around the sanctuaries with the aim of assessing the quantity and quality of fish both in and near the sanctuaries.  The staff noted a high level of satisfaction on the faces of the fishermen as the sampling was done.  The locals already knew what results the exercise would yield: they claimed they’d already observed more fish swimming in the waters around the sanctuaries than they’d seen in the previous ten years.

“Some species, like dolphins, which we haven’t seen around here much since before the war, now they’re coming back,” noted Eurico Abudo Napale, a volunteer ranger and lifelong fisherman.  “The dolphins know that there are now more fish in this area, and that’s their primary source of food,” he explained.

Eurico Napale, volunteer community ranger, points to the return of dolphins as a good sign that there are now more fish in the area.

Mr. Napale, a resident of Corane, takes his role as community ranger very seriously.  In exchange for spending some of his free time monitoring the sanctuaries with the project boat, he and the other volunteer rangers received a pair of three-ply fishing nets to fish in the areas around the sanctuaries.  He was more than satisfied with this arrangement, as the net and increased fish from sanctuary spill-over are helping him feed his four children.  Providing for his family has also been made easier by his involvement with another component of the P&S Project, the conservation agriculture activities featured in last week’s success story.  Like most fishermen in the area, Mr. Napale doesn’t rely exclusively on the bounty of the sea and also maintains a small farm plot.  His one hectare of mostly cassava has become more productive since the start of the project activities – a good example of how the integrated approach of the P&S Project can influence people’s lives across different sectors.

Meanwhile, the results of the sampling activity confirmed what the local fishermen already knew:  after only six months, there was a significant difference in both the size of fish and the number of species found inside the sanctuaries compared with the sample taken outside the sanctuaries – with more species and bigger fish found within the protected area, of course.

The establishment of the sanctuaries was the result of cooperation among many partners, including the Moma Fishing Association (of which João Tito Abacar, at left, is the secretary), the Community Fishing Council (of which Aliti Atumane, at right, is the president), as well as P&S Project staff (middle), government officials, and many local fishermen.

Only one year after the sanctuaries were declared, most of the area’s fishermen are already fully convinced of the benefits.  Ussein Daniel, one of the CCP rangers who also patrols the Primeiras and Segundas islands, claims that his shifts in the sanctuaries are the easiest part of the job.  “The fishermen here respect the sanctuaries so we never catch anyone fishing here,” he explained, although João Tito Abacar, the secretary of the Moma Fishing Association, pointed out that there have been some cases of people sneaking into the sanctuaries at night, when there is no patrolling.  “They know it’s wrong, it’s like stealing fish,” explained Mr. Abacar, “That’s why they only do it at night.”  The Project is planning to equip some of the patrol boats with lights so that additional monitoring can take place at night.

The communities are so pleased with the results of the first two sanctuaries that they are already asking for assistance in establishing more.  Aliti Atumane, president of the Moma Center CCP, explained that the communities are capable of identifying additional areas to protect without any input from the P&S Project, but they don’t have the money to provide the buoys for the boundaries or the boats for monitoring.

“We all think it’s a good idea, because we’re already seeing the results,” Mr. Atumane said.  “For example, there’s a fish that we call ncupucupu [Drepane longimana; concertina fish].  We hadn’t seen it for years, we thought it was gone for good.”  He smiled as he delivered the punch line.  “Now it’s back!”

The first phase of the P&S Project is coming to a close, but here in Mozambique we’re still moving full-speed ahead. As we wrap up our first three-year project cycle and head into Phase II, we’ve asked the project staff to identify success stories corresponding with each of the main components of Phase I.

About the Author: Arlinda Beirão, 35, a native of Zambézia Province, is a single mother of three. In a country where female heads of household usually find themselves in positions of low social status, Arlinda has overcome the odds with her tenacity, hard work, and can-do attitude. An employee of CARE since 1998, Arlinda has already occupied a number of positions: extensionist, assistant district supervisor, and now Conservation Agriculture Officer for the P&S Project. Despite her full time employment and full time motherhood, Arlinda still manages to find a few extra hours each week to devote to her continuing education: she is currently enrolled in a distance learning program through the Catholic University of Mozambique, where she is pursuing a degree in biology and nutrition.

To kick off the series, we begin with a story about Abilio Alte Julmeia, whose participation in conservation agriculture trainings is a fantastic example of what we were hoping to accomplish through Objective 1: To improve the quality and quantity of foodstuffs produced by the population while maintaining or improving ecosystem productivity. The story was written by Arlinda Beirão (see profile at left), edited and translated by Rachel Mason.

Success Story: Abilio Alte Julmeia, Community Demonstrator for Agricultural Techniques

By: Arlinda Beirão, P&S Project Staff

At 40 years of age, Abilio Alte Julmeia has already tried a wide variety of fishing and agricultural activities to support his wife and seven children.

A native of Pilivili – a remote coastal village in Moma District – Mr. Julmeia is known in his community for his creativity and drive. Every year, in addition to sowing the usual agricultural crops, Mr. Julmeia would also plant income-generating trees such as coconut palms, orange trees, and guava trees, albeit with limited success. He also maintains a small boat, which he uses for line fishing when he has the time.

When the Primeiras & Segundas Project began activities in 2008, Mr. Julmeia’s community requested technical assistance from the project. The project, in turn, asked the community to choose a local volunteer to receive training to help promote the conservation agriculture practices that the project’s local implementing organization, AENA, would introduce.

Naturally, the community chose Mr. Julmeia for his distinctive dedication, vision, and leadership skills.

Through his participation in this project, Mr. Julmeia has learned to help his community by spreading the message about good techniques and practices to ten groups of producers, with a total of about 160 participants engaged in activities of agricultural production and fishing. Many of the groups are in the process of creating a formal structure so that they can become legally recognized associations.

Following P&S Project trainings, Mr. Julmeia now teaches people to reuse old plastic bags for sowing the seeds of fruit trees, which makes transplanting the saplings much easier and more successful.

In an interview, Mr. Julmeia said, “Ever since I received my first training with the technicians, I’ve learned many things. Before, I had difficulty transplanting seedlings from a nursery, then the technicians taught me to use the plastic bags from sugar for the seeds, and that made it easier to transport them to the field and transplant them. Before, I planted coconuts and fruit trees in a disorganized manner, not using the space well, but I learned to plant them in rows and now I’m doing it that way in my farm plots. With the techniques of conservation agriculture that they taught, I now leave a grass cover around the plants, and in the last growing season it really made things easier for me because I didn’t have nearly as many problems with weeds as I used to.”

Of course, it’s not just Mr. Julemia who has benefited from the trainings. “All of the farmers who used conservation agriculture,” he explained, “covering their fields with grass mulch instead of burning them, said that their yield was greater than in the fields that they burned or those without conservation agriculture.” In addition to boosting yields and reducing labor for weeding, the reduction in burning helps preserve the surrounding forest from uncontrolled fires.

Mr. Julmeia also noted the benefits of improved post-harvest techniques. “I learned – and also taught groups – to dry their peanuts on slanted peanut racks, and those peanuts came out with a higher quality without rotting. We have problems with pests in our crops, but now we use neem [a plant that has natural insecticidal properties], which has helped reduce the pests in our crops and in storage.”

Mr. Julmeia and his family now store their grains in an improved silo that he learned to make during a training exchange visit last year.

On the topic of storage, Mr. Julmeia credits a project-sponsored experiential learning visit with further helping his community improve their techniques. “Last year, I traveled to Chiure with the project and we saw new types of silos called thethere. After I got back, I did a demonstration in my community about how to construct the silos to protect the seeds.”

While strongly committed to his role as a community demonstrator with a sincere desire to see his friends and neighbors in Pilivili strengthen their livelihood security, Mr. Julmeia nevertheless stresses the impact that the trainings have had on his own life. “In addition to helping the others in the techniques of production, I have my own fields of peanuts, cassava, and nhemba beans, in an area that totals about 3.5 hectares. With the improved production, I’ve bought new land – now I have about 15 hectares.” The land that Mr. Julmeia acquired, which was previously used for agriculture or livestock but abandoned because it was not productive enough or its owners did not have the means to sustain agricultural activities there, will soon benefit from the improved techniques that Mr. Julmeia will begin to employ there in the next growing season.

Mr. Julmeia now has about 300 coconut palms and 259 fruit trees. He also used some of his profits from the past season to rebuild his house, and his seven children no longer worry about having enough food or basic school supplies. One of his sons is enrolled in the high school in the district capital of Moma, and he is finally able to pay the monthly tuition. And, of course, he understands the value of saving of saving seeds and some of his earnings to get his family through the lean months and help him get started with the next growing season.

Looking to the future, Mr. Julmeia is starting to think big. “Right now I use a bicycle, but I’m saving up money to buy a motorbike to help me get around more easily. I’m going to increase the area of my coconut palms and fruit trees, and another farm plot that mostly has cassava will go up from two hectares to four hectares.”

“With the techniques that I’m learning,” he concluded, “I’m going to help improve my own production and also put to rest any doubts of other community members, who are now following me. As everyone starts seeing the advantages, every day more people come looking for me to explain these techniques.”

In early November, our  Primeiras e Segundas program staff  and community partners were extremely pleased to receive the visit of the CARE and WWF CEOs  Helene Gayle and Carter Roberts, along with members of the CARE and WWF Boards and guests.  The purpose of the visit was to provide an opportunity for these individuals to see the work of the CARE and WWF Alliance on the ground in Primeiras e Segundas, examine potential for building upon WWF efforts in Quirimbas, and more concretely define the depth and breadth of the Alliance effort.

It is no small achievement to bring together for nearly a week the individuals that composed this group – all very active and successful professionals committed to the ideals of philanthropy and giving of themselves to contribute to the making of a better world.  Each of them brought unique and extremely valuable perspectives from previous experience, from business acumen,  and from the ability to see beyond the immediate to a clear common sense of being both touched and humbled by the experience.

Initial meetings in Maputo, attended by representatives from the Danish, American and French Embassies as well as the Ministry of Environment and the private sector, sparked discussion on upcoming challenges, threats and opportunities for Mozambique.  These included concerns regarding the immense coal reserves in the western part of the country possibly leading to the dredging of the Zambezi River for exportation purposes, and resulting implications including waste deposit leaching linkages with advancing climate change processes already drastically affecting Mozambique and its vulnerable environment and population.  Further issues highlighted included the lack of integrated policies to address the need to reduce pressure on highly sensitive environments, while promoting alternative income generating streams and access to markets for those people who are becoming increasingly poor and more vulnerable and growing in numbers in Mozambique.

These issues formed a “mental backdrop” for the field visits that were then carried out by the group: first to the island of Abdule Rahmane and the Maziwane village off the coast of Angoche, then to the Angoche Administration Office to participate in a feira held to demonstrate the diverse and extremely beneficial results of project interventions (soil conservation methods, use of appropriate fish nets, fish drying techniques, village savings and loans, amongst others), and finally to the Island of Ibo in the Quirimbas National Park, where the group had the chance to share in the celebration of the official demarcation of the Arrimba  no-take fishing zone initiated by community members themselves.  As the visitors joined the community celebrating the event, they were greeted by hundreds of women, men and children dancing out to the sea, singing and dancing to receive them, bestowing upon the men traditional garb, and decorating the women’s faces with musiro, the lovely sun screen mixture that heightens a woman’s beauty while protecting her face from the sun.

Conversations while aboard boats churning their way across the high seas, seated beside the camp fire, stargazing, navigating through the dark nights, or over shared food and drink centered on questions such as: What can we as the Alliance aspire to?  What can we dream but also achieve?  How do we focus on the intrinsic link between the environment and people’s needs, while ensuring a nurturing of both for the future?  How do we bring our immense wealth of skills and experience together in a way that can have the most positive impact for the many people of northern Mozambique and the beautiful yet fragile environment they inhabit?

As one of visitors later wrote, “Our experiences tested our will, our courage, our patience and our passion to believe in something greater than ourselves. The WWF and CARE Alliance speaks to the essence of that passion because we all must become more responsible caretakers of our food chain because in the end, both wildlife and people need to eat! We are our sisters and brothers keepers.”

We are working on making this vision a more articulate one – one that is bound by a ten year timeframe with achievable and realistic but visionary objectives built upon our unique premise of inter-relatedness and co-dependency.   A small team will be meeting in Maputo in early December to work on harnessing our visions and dreams into a tangible, actionable plan that resonates with our current work, the view of Mozambique’s near future on the horizon and our collective commitment and effort to support this plan.

Many thanks to one of visitors who so rightly said, “We should also thank the natural elements, because surely ocean, sand, dirt, stars and sun brought us together in a way that no conference room ever could!”

For more photos from the visit, please click here to watch the Flickr slideshow

Comments, feedback and recommendations are welcome!

The reefs in the P&S archipelago exhibit a high degree of coral species diversity.

The stunning coral reefs that surround the Primeiras and Segundas islands are not simply beautiful to behold – they’re also an extremely important part of the local and regional ecosystem on which both the human and non-human populations depend.  In fact, the P&S archipelago is home to the most abundant and diverse hard and soft coral communities in all of Mozambique, so their protection is especially important.

That’s why, for the second year in a row, the P&S Project has hosted a team of international experts from The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to help us conduct a Rapid Reef Assessment of the Primeiras e Segundas archipelago.

The 10-day assessment, conducted in October, used a simple methodology designed to get an overall impression of the health of the reef and obtain information about coral and fish species diversity and abundance.

Overall, the assessment revealed that although the diversity of fish species was relatively high (300 species recorded), the numbers of fish were extremely low.  Only two out the archipelago’s ten islands, Ilha do Fogo and Ilha da Caldeira, had reefs with good numbers of fish.  Not coincidentally, these islands are also the only ones with tourist lodges, whose operators customarily (and illegally) deny local fishermen access to the reefs around the islands.  All of the other island reef systems yielded poor results.  One of the team’s experts remarked, “in all my years of experience assessing tropical reefs around the world, I have never seen such bare reefs.”

Coral coverage around the islands is relatively high, but the low numbers of fish are of concern to international specialists.

In contrast, the coral reefs themselves and the sea grass beds were found to be in relatively good condition.  Last year’s rapid assessment indicated that many of the coral species exhibit resistant and resilient characteristics, a finding which the 2010 assessment reaffirmed.  Just after a major bleaching event, new coral colonization was evident and the damage was random, indicating perhaps that cold water upwellings and local currents help diffuse the impact of increasing surface temperatures (which can cause coral bleaching).

Another concern is that the area between the offshore reefs and the inshore mangrove estuaries, informally known as the “blue highway,” is consistently overfished by the industrial and semi-industrial prawn fishery.  Mosquito net fishing, practiced by many community members, undoubtedly contributes to the problem as well.

Mozambique’s National Fisheries Research Institute (IIP) is aware of the problem and recommends that fishing be reduced by 40 percent in the archipelago, but low fish abundance is already having a negative impact on the reefs.  The absence of herbivores, for example, who control the growth of algae, has already resulted in significant algal spread in some areas.  When the algae cover is too dense, the coral polyps, which compete for space with the algae, do not have anywhere to attach and the reef slowly turns to algae.

The takeaway message from the Rapid Reef Assessment is clear:  with the application of a comprehensive and well resourced management regime sensitive to local livelihoods and based on good science, it is possible for the Primeiras e Segundas archipelago to recover and provide a sustainable source of income and food for many local stakeholders.

The assessment team heading out to survey the sea grass beds near Sangage.

Following the assessment, the results were shared with the local and national officials of the Ministry of Fisheries in seminars and meetings.  Particularly at a national level, the government was very receptive of the findings and eager to form tighter partnerships to protect the ecosystem.  In fact, the Deputy National Director of the Fisheries Administration Commission noted that the CARE-WWF Alliance and TNC’s ecosystem approach should be integrated with the Ministry of Fisheries’ monitoring program to ensure a more complete understanding of fisheries and habitats in the future.

With clear support from the Government of Mozambique and joint initiatives already underway on the ground, the future of the P&S reefs looks positive if the momentum continues.

Maria Tadeu, president of the Muentasana Association

Maria Tadeu is not the kind of woman who stands out in a crowd.  Seated among the seventy participants at a recent commercialization training, she listened attentively as the trainer, a representative of the P&S local partner organization OLIPA, demonstrated techniques to record information about yields and market prices.  Several of the men asked questions or voiced opinions about the usefulness of the new recording system, but Maria did not speak up – even when the trainer explicitly asked if the women in the group had anything to add.

At first glance, the gender balance in the group was encouraging:  40 per cent of those who had gathered under the trees in the Mirrepe village center were female.  The training was supposed to bring together the leadership committees of the 16 community associations that made up the larger forum, “A Luta Contra Pobreza” – The Fight Against Poverty, so the high percentage of women suggested that gender equality is penetrating the decision-making mechanisms of community associations.  But on closer inspection, one could not help noticing that most of the women were seated – intentionally or unintentionally – on the outer rings of the circle, and that like Maria they mostly kept quiet during the training.

Maria might have gone completely unnoticed in the meeting, but her importance in the community was revealed early on when the trainer requested that the president of each association stand and introduce his or her group to the larger forum.  One by one, over a dozen men rose from their mats on the ground to represent their associations.  And then, quietly, Maria stood.  “My name is Maria Tadeu and I am the president of the Associação Muentasana.”  She paused for a moment, and then continued more softly, “We had 20 members, 15 women and 5 men, but one woman just died, so now we are 19.”

At the P&S commercialization training in Mirrepe. Social norms dictate that women usually sit farther away and participate less than men.

After the training, Maria opened up more and spoke about her life and her role in the Muentasana Association.  She declined to give her age, possibly because of modesty but more likely because she does not know it.  A lifelong resident of the small village of Mirrepe in the remote Moma District of northern Mozambique, Maria never went to school and can only speak only a few words of Portuguese, the country’s official language.  With the help of a local P&S employee interpreting between Portuguese and Mokua, the local language, Maria shared her motives for participating in the morning’s training, starting her story with the creation of her association ten years ago.

In 2000, she explained, she and a few other women were growing frustrated with their inability to feed their children.  Many of them were widows or had husbands who were ill or unable to provide for their families, and getting help from the government seemed to be out of the question.  So they pooled their meager resources and built a bread oven, forming an association to bake and sell rolls in the village.  “We were actually the first association in Mirrepe,” Maria proudly revealed.  “The others that you saw this morning just followed our example.”  Optimistically, they named their association muentasana, a Mokua word that means “things are going well.”

However, the entrepreneurs quickly discovered that there was no money to be made in the bread business.  “In a city, it might be possible,” she conceded.  But in Mirrepe, more than 50 km from the nearest urban center, the expense of obtaining flour and other necessary materials was too great, and they were unable to turn a profit.

Rather than throwing in the towel and disbanding the association, Maria and the other moms decided to try their hands at an even more ambitious project: raising goats.  With the help of the Dutch SNV (this was several years before CARE and WWF began working in the area), they acquired several dozen animals and learned how to take care of them, breed them, and sell the kids and milk.  Around the same time, they also started letting men join their association, although the leadership has remained firmly in the hands of the female founders.

Maria and another member of Muentasana show off the meeting house that they built last year with P&S support. Behind her is a makeshift easel for flipcharts, which P&S staff have taught the community to use.

Muentasana now has about 60 female goats and three billy goats for breeding.  While this project has been successful enough that members can take home meager profits, several years ago they also began reinvesting a percentage of their earnings into other ventures in order to further diversify their sources of income.  Maria named half a dozen different activities that her association now undertakes, including small-scale farming, construction of mud bricks, and cashew processing.

Despite her quiet nature at the morning training session, Maria and her association are highly involved with the community leadership.  Last year, the Primeiras & Segundas Project helped the forum build a small community meeting space.  Although technically owned collectively by the entire forum of 16 associations, Muentasana is the association primarily responsible for oversight and upkeep.  They themselves use the space for their semi-monthly meetings.  They have also become involved in seeking solutions for community problems, such as the shortage of potable water faced in Mirrepe.  “There’s now only one functioning well for the entire zone, which means people have to wait in line a long time or drink unclean water,” Maria explained.  “We tried to organize the community, tried to raise money, and now we’re in a process with the government, although the issue still has not been resolved.”

Three members of the Muentasana Association pose outside the community meeting house with Luis Sapula Papusseco, the trainer from P&S's local partner organization OLIPA.

With ten years of experience as an entrepreneur and activist, Maria does not seem like someone who needs the commercialization training provided by the Primeiras & Segundas Project.  She agreed that her association already has more experience than most of the other participants in the forum, but firmly asserted that there is always more to learn.  “Our suffering has diminished over the past few years,” she explained, “but we are still very poor, and we have large families to look after.”  In Maria’s case, she has 14 children depending on her: nine at home, four studying in Angoche, and one in the provincial capital of Nampula.  Only six of the children are hers biologically; the rest are orphans she has taken in, despite the additional burden.  “That’s just what we do here,” she said.  “And that’s why we need to learn more and get advice from others, and why we need more different types of interventions – so we can earn more and save more and give our kids a better life.”