We will initiate a series of project activities to ensure that conservation management on Chumbe Island will continue and to address the threat on the marine park, Chumbe staff, and local fishing communities.
First is the vital enforcement of a 55 hectare no-take Coral Reef Sanctuary and a 17 hectare Closed Forest Reserve, and improvements in MPA patrols in order to safeguard Chumbe’s unique biodiversity and reduce the prevailing risk of wildlife poaching. We'll need to ensure the continuous protection of crucial biodiversity for the East African region and the preservation of Chumbe’s important function as a fisheries nursery ground, benefiting fishing communities through spillover and restocking of adjacent fishing grounds.
The continued full-time employment of the experienced conservation team is imperative, to implement optimal patrol efficiency and monitoring. In addition, we plan to deploy two additional security officers to assist with the enforcement and upholding of both protected areas during the worsening economic times.
It will be important to ensure the continuation of the environmental education program with key fishing communities and support skills development of local youth from key target fishing villages to be trained as rangers.
This project will allow for full patrol operations over the coming 12 months which will decrease poaching attempts inside the MPA and subsequently ensure that 25 years of successful conservation efforts are not lost. Eight Chumbe rangers will receive full-time employment for the whole project duration, each supporting on average 12 dependents in their local communities. Zanzibari community members from neighboring fishing villages will gain knowledge and practical insights in nature conservation through Chumbe’s extensive environmental education program which will positively impact compliance to marine protected area regulations.
|||  {% end %} {% row(bgColor="#F2F2F2" margin="moderate" padding="top" id="ruins") %}  ||| ### Mbweni RuinsMbweni, 5km south of Zanzibar Town, was a Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) base and settlement for former slaves in the 19th century. The ruins of St Mary’s School for Girls, built by missionaries for girls freed from slave ships, is now set amid the lush gardens of Mbweni Ruins.
The Historic Ruins of the Mbweni School for freed slaves founded in 1874, with associations with Sir John Kirk, Zanzibar’s first scientific botanist. Kirk (1832 – 1922) was also instrumental in the ending of the East African Slave Trade. He was resident in Zanzibar for 20 years from 1866-1886.
Near Mbweni Ruins is St John's Anglican Church, another thought-provoking reminder of the colonial missionary era. The caretaker-guide is a direct descendant of a freed slave who became the UMCA's first African deacon (junior priest).
Our aim is to restore the ruins to their old glory and revive it as an education center. We will also integrate the old church.
{% end %} {% row(bgColor="#FFFFFF" margin="moderate" padding="top" id="botanical") %} ### Mbweni Botanical Garden & Restoration ProjectThe gardens around the ruins are beautiful, and they are being revived to become even more majestic. The garden is mature, with a wide variety of fine tree specimens and other interesting plants, including coral rag forest on the cliff and mangroves on the shoreline. Its mature and jungle atmosphere is only found in a few other places in Zanzibar and Pemba.
Some of our planned activities include general maintenance and cleaning of the gardens, creating a space for local flora and fauna, creating a space for quiet learning about the history of the garden and what is needed to be nature positive, creating a space for art, installations, and performances related to the history of the garden, and sharing knowledge of good plant care and management with other landowners and hotels.
Together we will deliver research, design and planning, carrying out a comprehensive survey of plants in the garden to create an up-to-date plant list, training Mbweni gardeners in immediate garden recovery and the importance of key species, a garden map, vision and plan for the future, and more.
The team is led by Robert Wild and John Ndege. They will source mapping skills and support labor.
Robert Wild, Social Ecologist. Robert has lived and worked in East Africa for over 30 years. He was a technical advisor for the establishment of Jozani Chwaka Bay National park, Zanzibar from 1995-2000. From 2014 to 2018 he was Regional Technical Coordinator for the Eastern and Southern Africa Region (30 countries) of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature for Forests and Drylands based in Nairobi. He was responsible for forests and drylands, and led the regional effort of forest and landscape restoration. During this period Zanzibar was his home base. He returned to Zanzibar full time in 2019. He knows many local actors in the nature, history, arts and hospitality communities.
John Ndege, Botanist. John is a botanist with extensive experience of East African Coastal Botany and botanic gardens. He has lived and worked in Zanzibar for 5 years. He carried out a survey of the plants of Mbweni Ruins in 2019. Most recently he has been the technical lead and project manager of the Kilimani Botanic Garden 2018-2020. He was employed by Potsdam Botanic Garden, Germany. He is the most experienced active botanist on Zanzibar and an expert in the local and very biodiverse Dwarf Tropical Dry Forest (known as Coral Rag Forest, the best example of this locally is on Chumbe Island). He has discovered species new to science.
||| 5200 Seedlings of Mangroves Replanted at Mbweni.
This effort helps the Wanawake Mazingira Group and a number of partners in assuring the desired goal of 10,000 Mangroves for 100 years of carbon offset.
Mbweni Mangrove forest is a vital periurban forest just at the edge of Dar es Salaam and Coastal region, and there is a degraded area as a result of El Nino of the late 1990s, where a lot of waterlogged at the mangroves and nearly 2 acres died.
We are restoring the degraded part of Mbweni mangrove forest with 10,000 Mangrove seedlings through community-based restoration, since March 2018 and up to the moment we have restored 5200 seedlings.
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