Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Bula sia tribe!

It has been a while since I’ve blogged for TW, I’ve been finishing my masters degree in CA and working for a non-profit dealing with sustainable seafood.

But like the rest of you, I couldn’t be more excited about Tribewanted’s new project in Sierra Leone and I couldn’t help but jump at the chance to visit the area. I will be going to Sierra Leone in November to help Tribewanted develop environmental sustainability goals for the project. In order to help achieve this goal of sustainability, baseline information will need to be gathered on the marine and freshwater resources in the area, sustainability goals set for the project’s future, and policies and protocols implemented to achieve these goals. This won’t be an easy task to accomplish in the 3 weeks I have on John Obey beach, so I’m looking for help. Anyone visiting the project in the first few months will have an opportunity to be a big part of this sustainability work.

The areas we will focus on will be:

Seafood Sustainability: Identify species vulnerable to overfishing (fish high in the food web, shrimp, lobster) and create policy for sustainable harvest. This can include food miles, decreasing habitat impacts, ensuring fair fishing practices (fishermen safety and fair trade) and decreasing the fishing carbon footprint. For data deficient fisheries, data and samples can be collected, catches tracked with log books, and collaboration implemented with fisheries management agencies.

Marine Impacts: Create a policy to prevent marine debris, overharvest, habitat impacts from boats and moorings, and pollution from wastewater.

Freshwater Impacts: Create a policy to prevent freshwater debris, overharvest, habitat impacts, and pollution from wastewater. A policy should also include water use for drinking water, agriculture, aquaculture (if applicable) and wastewater.

Habitat Impacts: Create a policy to protect wetland, mangrove, and seagrass areas from development and wastewater contamination. This should also include storm and erosion protection for buildings near the beach and river.

Ocean Education: Create goals to educate visitors on sustainability and water resources. This can include topics such as sustainable seafood, local marine life, subsistence fishing, and guided boat and snorkel trips. This can also include lesson plans for the schools about marine science.

If you will be visiting John Obey in 2010 there will be plenty of sustainability work to help with, and if you visit in November I hope to see you there!

I’ve done some preliminary research into the area and especially the fisheries, and will be posting that information in more blogs soon!