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members who are elected by the villagers. The Village Government is divided into five committees that focus on specific topic areas. The Village Act requires that at least one third
of the representatives in each committee must be women. One committee is responsible for Environment and Natural Resources Management issues.
Leadership at the district level is provided by the District Commissioner, who is the arm of the Central government and the District Executive Officer, who is an employee of the Local
Government Authorities. Councilors elected from the divisions form part of the District Council Team that is charged with daily operations. The District Council is led by the
Council Chairman – who is elected from amongst the Councilors.
The Bagamoyo municipality does not qualify to have a mayor and that makes the Chairman of the Council the highest authority of the elected leaders. The Local Government Act
devolves the powers to undertake planning, collect certain types of taxes, and supervise development activities to the District and Village Councils. The District Council is also
empowered to prepare bylaws, which must be approved by the Minister responsible for local government. Under the current administrative set up, traditional leadership has a negligible
role in the Bagamoyo government, because it is not part of the formal structure. Traditional leadership is only relevant and practiced among the pastoralist communities that are found in
Bagamoyo—and only for matters that have relevancy to these groups.
Although the rules and procedures are clear and well defined in the law, there are implementation gaps, especially with respect to accountability and transparency of public
resources and funds. Village level meetings to deliberate matters of interests to the villagers are not taking place as often as they are prescribed in the Local Government Authority Act.
There are specific issues related to environmental governance; for example, there are inadequacies in how natural resource related levies and taxes are collected and accounted for.
The Bagamoyo District has a Strategic Plan and a five year Development Plan. The district also has an Integrated Coastal Management Action Plan, which was first adopted in 2001. In
implementing the District ICM Action Plan, there is an ICM Working Group at the District level.
5.2 Ongoing coastal governance efforts relevant to Mbegani Bay
There have been many government, civil society and donor project efforts focused on conservation and coastal management around Mbegani Bay, the Mbegani Fisheries Center
and Mlingotini village. They are briefly summarized below. For example, at the District level, in the last decade there have been Intgrated Coastal Mangmeent ICM Action Plans,
Collaborative Fisheries Management planning and the designation of no-take zones in four reef zones around the outside of Mbegani Bay, Mariculture Zoning at the District level, and
Eco-tourism planning both in Dunda and Mlingotini. In addition, in Mlingotini Village, the Msichoke Seaweed Farmers Community Based Organization has been active in seaweed
farming planning and management in Mlingotini Bay.
Despite this, there remain weaknesses in the governance of the Mbegani Bay area. Plans do not always result in effective implementation and well intentioned efforts are not always
sustained. A specific management plan for the Bay does not exist that would give the District and local stakeholders the legal authority to designate the Bay as an ecologically sensitive
area under special protection from destructive development and uses. Nor does the District have its own spatial zoning plan that defines what local stakeholders would like to see as the
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road map that puts limits on the location and intensity of future development and mandates conservation areas.
ICM Action Plans
In 2001, the Bagamoyo District Council completed its first ICM Action Plan. The Plan identified nine key issues and outlined three overarching objectives:
• Reduce conflicts in the use of coastal resources
• Ensure that destructive activities are controlled and resources improved
• Build capacity in coastal resources management
The Action Plan was updated in 2009 with the assistance of the World Bank Marine and Coastal Environment Management Project MACEMP. However, the revised action plan is
yet to be approved by the District. The following key issues were identified in 2009:
1. Illegal and uncontrolled cutting of mangroves
2. Destructive fishing practices
3. Conflicts between shrimp trawlers and artisanal fishers
4. Resource use conflicts between fishers artisanal and trawlers and seaweed farmers
5. Lack of alternative income generating activities
6. Inadequate credit facilities
7. Declining shrimp catch
8. Conflict on the use of beach areas hoteliers and community
MACEMP also provided grants to livelihood groups in villages surrounding the Mbegani Bay. Alternative Livelihood and Fishing Groups were formed in all fishing villages at the
time of the MACEMP project for the purpose of gaining access to the grants. Most of the funding requested by the groups, including those in Mlingotini and Kondo village were
directed at fishing boats, gear and engines, thus increasing pressure on over exploited fish stocks Mkama et al., 2010.
Collaborative Fisheries Management
Collaborative Fisheries Management CFM and Beach Management Units BMU were formally introduced in Law with the Fisheries Regulation 2009. However CFM’s have
existed in Tanzania for almost 20 years.
The Bagamoyo Collaborative Fisheries Management planning process took place between 2005 and 2006 and resulted in the adoption of a CFM plan covering the seven coastal villages
that use the reefs outside the Mbegani Bay. The Goal of the plan is to rebuild fish stocks and associated habitats to levels that allow for increased and sustainable fish catches by artisanal
fishers, and that result in improved income for artisanal fishers in the Bagamoyo District. The plan identifies three key issues:
• Depletion of fish stocks due to over-fishing and harvesting of juveniles
• Habitat destruction due to unsustainable fishing and other practices
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• Conflict between trawlers and artisanal fishers
Each CFM has a leadership and membership structure, typically located in a single fishing village but a CFM can also encompass more than one village. While BMUs deal only with
fish resources; a CFM is designed to address fish resources and other marine resources mangroves, reefs, seagrass, etc.. In this way, CFM is an ecosystem-based approach to
coastal and marine conservation. Multiple CFMs are resource users of the same reef system and marine ecosystem, so a Central Coordinating Committee CCC that draws from all of
the relevant CFMs is the coordination and decision-making structure for that particular marine area. The CCC is responsible of managing and overseeing the protection of the four
areas that are closed to fishing i.e. no-take zones within this Bay. As shown in Figure 15, the four closed reefs are Maduga, Mshingwi, Mjini, and Poyogo. The no-take zones are in
essence community based marine protected areas MPAs declared by the DistrictVillage by- law.
The Bagamoyo CCC is currently not active and there is no patrolling or monitoring of the closed reefs. The main problem is that the district and local villages have no funding for these
activities. The Department of Fisheries is reviewing the Fisheries Act to determine how to provide sustainable funding for CFM structures, and to provide policy guidance to Districts
on how to manage CFM areas without outside support.
Beach Management Units
Beach Management Units BMU are composed of stakeholders from a fishing village. The BMU’s goa is to conserve, protect, monitor, and control fisheries resources and the
environment. The BMUs also collaborate with the local government to plan and develop the fishing community. The intent is to minimize conflicts between different stakeholder groups
engaged in fisheries, reduce the costs of patrol and surveillance, and support Village
Figure 16 Mbegani Bay and surrounding area of influence showing location of fish no-take sites source: Muhando, 2006
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Environmental Committees in marine environmental protection. The BMUs are tasked with the following MLDF, 2010b:
• Enforce the Fisheries Act and Fisheries Regulations
• Prepare by-laws to facilitate the implementation of the National laws
• Ensure beach sanitation and hygiene
• Collect fisheries datainformation, including fish catch and effort
• Educate fellow community members on the negative impact of illegal fishing
practices and other environmental issues that affect fisheries resources and the general environment
• Inspect fishing licenses, vessels, gear and fishing camps
• Monitor marine resources, including nursery and spawning grounds
BMUs are composed of a Chairperson, Secretary, Executive Committee, and the BMU Assembly made up by all members. The Assembly is supposed to meet once per year. In
principle, the CCCs and BMUs are intended to share recommendations and guidance and be mutually supportive. At this time, BMUs exist on paper but they are not active. To be more
effective, BMUs need a sustained source of funding and training for the BMU leadership and Assembly members.
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6. SCENARIOS FOR MBEGANI BAY’S FUTURE
