In Tanzania, over 40% of small-scale fisheries operate without effective local management, threatening fish stocks, food security, and the livelihoods of more than 4.5 million coastal people.
Across Tanzania’s 1,400 kilometre coastline, local fishers have long known how to read the tides, but not how to shape the rules. Action For Ocean is changing that through fisheries co-management, a system where communities and government share responsibility for protecting and managing marine resources. It is not about taking control from anyone, it is about giving coastal people a rightful seat at the table.
We partner with the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, local councils, and national networks of Beach Management Units (BMUs) and Collaborative Fisheries Management Areas (CFMAs) to turn traditional fishing communities into accountable, data-driven stewards of their own waters.
We equip fishers and local leaders with the tools to collect data, set fishing zones, establish seasonal closures, and enforce sustainable practices, homegrown solutions rooted in local Tanzanian knowledge and supported by evidence.
Our goal is a governance system that is locally led, nationally recognised, and globally respected. When Tanzanian fishers help write the rules, compliance becomes culture and conservation becomes common sense.
“When communities govern, sustainability stops being a dream, it becomes daily practice.”
287,240 mangroves restored. 69 communities in co-management across Tanzania’s coast. None of it happens without people like you.
