Restoration Mentored Online Course – Zanzibar 2021

"Reef ball," Kuu Kuu Village, Pemba Island. Photo © Juma Mohamed

March through June 2021, 29 marine managers, scientists, and members of community in Zanzibar, Tanzania participated in a mentored online coral reef restoration course to learn restoration best practices and a planning process, and apply learned concepts to develop a restoration plan for projects in Pemba Island in Zanzibar and Tanga on the mainland Tanzania.

During the course, participants took the Reef Restoration Online Course and worked together on a series of webinars and a private discussion group on the Network Forum. Mwambao Coastal Community Network has an ongoing reef restoration program integrating ‘no-take-zones’ with the restoration of reef structure using cement 'reef ball modules’.  With support from expert mentors, the Zanzibar restoration cohort produced a plan that is now being used to guide their ongoing reef restoration work aimed to enhance coral recruitment and recovery, support fish production, and improve reef structure.

This work is supported by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Reef Resilience Network (RRN), and Mwambao Coastal Community Network building on a model piloted in Lamu, Kenya. As follow-up to the trainings, a series of three remote advising webinars are provided to both the Kenya and Zanzibar restoration cohorts. One of those webinars featured a learning exchange between the two cohorts. The course and reef restoration approaches have attracted interest from other restoration groups in Zanzibar, including the training of local conservation rangers from Mnemba Island where a separate coral restoration program will begin.

The community-based reef restoration project is receiving mentorship from renowned restoration experts Phanor Montoya Maya of Corales de Paz, Boze Hancock and Dr. Elizabeth Shaver of TNC, as well as Mwambao’s experts. Interested in learning about reef restoration? Explore our restoration toolkit or take the online course.