SUSTAINABLE SEAS PROGRAM

OVERVIEW

Sustainable Seas helps fishing communities on Mozambique’s Inhambane coast look after their own fishing grounds. Since 2015, MMF has worked with community fisheries councils, local leaders, and government partners to help families keep fishing while protecting threatened marine life.

Inhambane Province is a global hotspot for more than 30 threatened species of sharks and rays, including manta rays and whale sharks. Fishing supplies around 40% of the animal protein Mozambicans eat, and many coastal families depend on it. Communities themselves have raised concerns about gill nets set on reefs and in fish breeding areas. We train local conservation leaders and support community fisheries councils. We also work with fisheries authorities and help fishing families develop other sources of income. Today the program focuses on community education, helping fishers bring their concerns to government, and supporting fisheries enforcement.

KEY SUCCESSES TO DATE

• 90 Ocean Ambassadors, local conservation leaders working in seven communities across four coastal districts: Tofo, Barra and Rocha (Inhambane), Morrungulo (Massinga), Vuka and Fequete (Inhassoro) and, since 2025, Závora (Inharrime). In 2025 they gave 140 community talks, reaching 5,867 people, about 40% of them fishers, and collected 1,114.7 kilograms (2,457.5 pounds) of plastic waste from the beaches.

• Communities and government around one table. The Ocean Ambassadors’ 2025 annual advocacy meeting in Inhambane City brought together more than 100 people, including provincial government partners, fishers, and community leaders, to discuss putting the rules for community-managed fishing areas into practice.

• 15 community fisheries inspectors accredited. In 2025, inspectors from the Community Fisheries Councils of Tofo, Barra, and Rocha were officially accredited in partnership with the Maritime Administration, the District Services for Economic Activities, and the Coastal Police. They trained alongside 30 Coastal Police officers in identifying protected marine species and applying fisheries law, and by the end of 2025 were patrolling the beaches together with the police.

• Equipment for coastal patrols. We equipped the Coastal Police and the community inspectors and donated an all-terrain quad bike, with fuel, to the Tofo Coastal Police. Signs showing protected marine species now stand at the landing sites on Tofo, Barra, and Rocha beaches, installed with the Maritime Administration and the National Fisheries Administration.

• New livelihoods for 33 fishing families. In 2025 we set up a garden in Tofo that raises fish and vegetables together, supporting 11 families and the first of its kind in Inhambane District. An 800-square-meter (8,600-square-foot) greenhouse in Rocha supports 12 families, and an egg cooperative in Barra supports ten, with its hens laying more than 10,800 eggs in the last three months of 2025.

• Saving together. At the end of 2025, 206 people were saving in 10 village savings and loan groups, 67% of them women, with accumulated savings of 1,237,265 meticais (Mozambique’s currency).

• A community-managed reef closure in Barra. With government support, the Barra Community Fisheries Council closed a reef to fishing for six months, from August 2021 to February 2022.

• A community center for Morrungulo. By the end of 2025, a new center for Ocean Ambassador talks, Ocean Guardians activities, and community meetings in Morrungulo was nearing completion.