The Watamu Conservation Festival was held on 14th January 2023 at Mida Creek, Malindi-Watamu-Arabuko-Sokoke Biosphere Reserve. The annual celebrations exemplified the uniqueness and importance of the Malindi-Watamu-Arabuko-Sokoke and Kiunga Biosphere Reserves in promoting sustainable ecosystem resilience, blue economy, and eco-tourism initiatives. It also highlighted and recognized the contribution of artisanal fishers of Watamu and Mida Creek in marine conservation through the promotion of sustainable fishing gear, community engagement and uptake of citizen science; and leveraged Watamu and Mida Creek as ecological marine hotspots in Kenya.
During the celebration, various artisanal fishing competitions were held, geared at promoting uptake and adoption of sustainable fishing gear and fisherfolk skill in identification of fishes and their diversity. The competition drew in approximately sixty fishers (60) from eight (8) fishing landing sites around the Mida creek (fish breeding and spawning area) Watamu Marine National Reserve. Worth noting is that the banning of monofilament nets in the creek has promoted uptake and use of artisan fishing gears. Consequently, there has been an increase in fishes catch sizes and variety which contributes to alleviation of poverty (SDG 1) and hunger (SDG 2); and sustainable consumption and production patterns (SDG). These efforts are a testament of awareness creation (SDG 4.7) and public-private partnership (SDG 17) in combatting illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
More than a one hundred children from the K624 Gede Child Development Centre, Rainbow, and Mida community members attended the event. Their capacity on diversity, construction and use of community fishing gears and marine ecology through indigenous knowledge and intergeneration learning was enhanced. They also participated in a beach clean-up exercise and collected over 25 kilograms of marine plastics, which were sent to Eco-world for recycling. The Conservation Education Society, through a team of volunteers used the festival to encourage the community on the wonders of the Mida Creek ecosystem, focusing on sea turtles, sharks and rays, marine habitats, fishing, and plastic pollution among other citizen science opportunities. Bahari Huru, a performing arts group from the Jukwaa Arts Theatre, presented a skit on sustainable fishing and the importance of mangroves in mitigating climate change and marine disaster risks.
The festival was a good opportunity to bring together the older fishers with rich ecological knowledge, like Sulubu, who is still fishing at 80 years old, and young children to teach, learn and show what good fishing practice looks like
Dongo Kundu Local Fishermen Group emerged as winners. The festival recognized Mr. Sulubu Karisa and Mr. Omar Said, who scooped the oldest fisherman and most sustainable fisherman respectively. Mr Said uses “uzio” (fence traps). The trophies were presented by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Watamu Deputy Warden, Mr. Ramadhan Mwatsefu. He acknowledged that the Watamu Conservation Festival was a valuable experience in creating conservation awareness to the community, as it provided an opportunity for KWS to interact and share the conservation challenges and achievements with the community and other stakeholders.
It was hoped that in subsequent celebrations, women and youth will actively participate and showcase their skills. The festival as organized by Bahari Hai and A Rocha Kenya and Conservation Education Society in collaboration with Kenya Wildlife Service and partners.