Bycatch to protection through community leadership

Sea turtles, crucial to healthy marine ecosystems, are significantly threatened by accidental capture in artisanal fisheries. In Kwale County, we are investigating how engaging fishing communities can effectively mitigate this threat. Previous outreach initiatives improved awareness of sea turtle conservation, but long-term conservation outcomes remain constrained by fragmented local leadership structures, weak stakeholder relationships, inconsistent data systems, limited financial sustainability, and overreliance on marine resources for livelihoods among Beach Management Units (BMUs). The Sea Turtle Ambassador (STA) programme engages eleven BMUs across 50 km of coastline, working collaboratively with fishers, youth, women, Kenya Wildlife Service, Fisheries officers, and local stakeholders to strengthen community conservation leadership and participation. This study examines the first three years of the programme, outlining the transition from BMU members to STAs, adopting the train-the-trainer model and later to a structured community-led governance and participatory conservation approach.

The STAs first participated in comprehensive training workshops, following which knowledge was rapidly decentralised through peer-to-peer learning and outreach events, leading to community feedback forums and “Sauti za Kwale”, documenting their personal experiences and establishing a compelling storytelling approach. With this unified narrative, the emphasis moved towards field action; data gathering and participatory research trials, experimenting the effectiveness of lights on bottom-set gillnets in reducing bycatch. This evolved the participants into skilled citizen scientists taking charge of fisher-led monitoring and reporting. The STAs also formalised their individual networks by registering their groups within their BMUs. Recently, the focus has been on governance and leadership to ensure that the newly established groups possess the necessary institutional capacity to independently manage and lead their initiatives.

This study demonstrates that structured community leadership systems, participatory research approaches, and stakeholder collaboration can strengthen equitable marine conservation governance, improve community ownership, and support long-term sea turtle protection within marginalised coastal communities.