SOCIOECONOMIC ASSESSMENT AND IDENTIFICATION OF POTENTIAL SITES FOR COMMUNITY-BASED CORAL REEF MANAGEMENT IN THE COMOROS

The Comoros have been identified as one of the ‘hottest hotspots’ in terms of global conservation priorities (Myers et al. 2000). The three main obstacles to the country in the implementation of effective coral reef management strategies are: lack of technical and financial resources; demographic pressure and an absence of fair distribution of the benefits arising from natural resources (CBD report 2003). Although clearly the fundamental origin of these difficulties, the human dimension of coral reef management has not been fully considered to date. This project will utilize established local, regional and international partnerships to work with CORDIO to establish a far-reaching socioeconomic monitoring program for the management of coral reefs throughout the Comoros, on the islands of Mohéli, Anjouan and Grande Comore. A training workshop, supervised by CORDIO trainers, will take place on Grande Comore at the beginning of the project. Individuals from local partner institutions will be trained to carry out the SocMon survey work to ensure a strong local knowledge base and long-term monitoring programmes will be instigated at three sites. This project aims to build on previous baseline work by C3-Comores and local partners to identify potential sites for community-based coral reef management in the archipelago and adaptive management processes using SocMon methodology. This project will be coordinated with current efforts by the Comorian government to implement a national network of marine and terrestrial protected areas. A regional, multilingual publicity and reporting campaign will strengthen the network of coral reef socioeconomic scientists in the region.

This project will be implemented in collaboration with CORDIO East Africa and Comorian partners.  C3 is grateful to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration (NOAA) for funding this work through the coral reef conservation fund.