Second Quarterly Report: Collaborative Management for a Sustainable Fisheries Future in Senegal

The project's primary goal is to establish collaborative fishery management plans for priority stocks using CLPAs as institutional entry points. These plans integrate institutional, administrative, socio-economic, and environmental factors to contribute to improved fisheries community well-being, food security, biodiversity conservation, and coastal and marine ecosystem resilience to climate change. The project focuses on three new intervention areas: Casamance, Saint-Louis, and Saloum. In these areas, the project has contributed to strengthening local governance of fisheries by establishing new CLPAs. Authorities have been assisted with extension services, and the project has validated the MPA National Strategy. Additionally, consultation frameworks for mainstreaming climate change have been established, and the validation of sardinella management plans has continued. The project has also made significant progress in developing institutional and stakeholder capacity. A total of 18 workshops were organized, training 350 fisheries and environmental stakeholders, including 305 men and 45 women from 3 new CLPAs, the Boudie/Balantacounda consultation framework, and 24 national and sub-regional institutions. The project has also assisted stakeholders in acquiring sanitation and fish processing equipment, refurbishing and equipping local fisheries council facilities, and providing office supplies and furniture to CLPA secretariats. Furthermore, the project is sponsoring two Ph.D. students whose theses support ongoing efforts to develop management plans for sardinella and bonga fisheries. COMFISH is also working with five partner institutions to prepare for an exchange visit on fisheries extension in the USA. To improve its scientific knowledge base, the project has finalized the terms of reference and methodologies for studies on bonga and sardinella fisheries. In the area of climate change, the project has organized a national workshop to validate the diagnostic study on climate change and begun implementing the action plan on climate variability and change. The project has also organized two workshops to improve the capacities of vulnerable coastal communities, training 56 persons. Efforts to roll out the adaptation plans of the CLPAs in Rufisque/Bargny, Sindia, and Joal began this quarter, using community radio to disseminate local knowledge and provide stakeholders with weather forecasts and alerts. The project has also made progress in the area of gender, completing work on the modern processing unit and organizing several preparatory meetings for its inauguration, which took place in April. The project's long-term objective is to ensure that Senegal's fisheries are free from overfishing and provide a durable source of high-quality protein, contributing to improved quality of life in artisanal fishing communities and maintaining the capacity of coastal and marine ecosystems to produce goods and services desired by the Senegalese people.