Timor-Leste: where the world's most diverse coral reefs meet some of its most determined communities.
You’ll find unmatched biodiversity in Atauro Island’s waters, stewarded by local communities for generations.
Since 2016, we've been proud to work alongside those communities, helping to revive Tara Bandu, traditional governance practices that have protected these ecosystems for centuries, and adapting them for the challenges of today. Temporary fishing closures, community-led monitoring, and permanent protections for critical reefs and seagrass beds are all part of the picture.
But this is bigger than one island. From Atauro to the mainland, a growing movement of coastal communities is coming together, sharing experiences, building solidarity, and advocating for a new model of marine management across Timor-Leste's coastline.
Asia's newest country, some of the world's oldest conservation wisdom, and a future being written by the people who know these waters best.
#BlueVentures #SmallScaleFishers #SmallScaleFisheries #TimorLeste
For generations, fishing communities across Madagascar have been protecting their local marine ecosystems; managing fisheries, preserving habitats, and passing down knowledge that no policy document could replace.
Earlier this year, Madagascar's Council of Ministers approved a landmark decree formally acknowledging community-led conservation areas - known as LMMAs - within the country's national framework. For the first time, the stewardship of local communities counts toward Madagascar's national and global conservation commitments.
Guy Rakotovao of the MIHARI Network shared: "This decision formally secures the rights and role of local communities in marine governance."
This is what years of patient, community-led work looks like when it reaches national policy. And it matters far beyond Madagascar, showing the world that the path to protecting 30% of our ocean by 2030 runs through the communities who are already doing it.
In the lead up to #OurOceanKenya, we’ll be sharing stories of hope, about who we are and what we do, and our plans for the second half of this vital decade for our ocean.
#BlueVentures #SmallScaleFishers #SmallScaleFisheries
Sandra Amezaga Menendez didn't plan a life in fishing - but the sea had other ideas.
What began as an administrative role in a Madrid tuna company became a decades-long commitment to the women who keep coastal communities alive, yet remain largely invisible in the decisions that shape their futures.
Today, Sandra leads Mulleres Salgadas: Galicia's first feminist association for women in fishing, bringing together nearly 2,000 women across the entire maritime value chain. Their mission is as simple as it is radical: put women at the centre of a sector that has long kept them at its edges.
Her ask is for gender parity in leadership. Women's knowledge shaping policy, and decision-making tables that actually reflect the communities they serve.
"The future I imagine is one where women of the sea are not just praised in speeches, but visible in power structures."
Activism, Sandra reminds us, is rarely heroic. It's slow, and often frustrating. But it's also solidarity, and the occasional hard-won victory that reminds you why you started.
#BlueVentures #SmallScaleFishers #MakeFishingFair #TransformBottomTrawling
Across East Africa's coastlines, millions of people depend on a healthy ocean for food, livelihoods, and identity. Yet the communities who know these waters best are often the ones with the least say in how they're managed.
That's what we're working to change.
Earlier this year, we brought together 17 frontline partner organisations from across East Africa, sharing tools, trading lessons, and strengthening the networks that help community-led fisheries management travel further and last longer.
The solutions are already out there. In temporary fishery closures that give fish populations room to recover, in communities collecting their own data and using it to make better decisions.
Our role is to help build the systems, skills and partnerships that turn local knowledge into lasting change.
#BlueVentures #SmallScaleFisheries #SmallScaleFishers
Ghana has established its first ever Marine Protected Area (MPA)!
Spanning 700 square kilometres and encompassing 21 coastal communities, the Greater Cape Three Points MPA is a landmark step for the small-scale fishers who have advocated for stronger protections for years.
For communities that have watched catches decline and industrial fleets encroach on their waters, the impact will be palpable. MPAs give fish populations room to recover, ecosystems space to breathe, and fishing communities a fighting chance.
This milestone was built on years of research, advocacy, and the tireless voices of fishers demanding fairer access to the waters they depend on. We're proud to have played a part, alongside our partners Hen Mpoano and the Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana, in laying the groundwork that helped make this possible.
As our Regional Director for West Africa, Prudence Wanko, put it: "There is a real opportunity here to do things differently."
Onwards, together, for our ocean.
#BlueVentures #SmallScaleFishers #SmallScaleFisheries #MPA #Ghana
Almost 17,500 islands, the world's second longest coastline, and some of the most biodiverse waters on the planet.
More than 90% of Indonesia's seafood comes from small-scale fisheries, woven into the fabric of coastal life across the archipelago.
Since 2016, we've been proud to support community-led marine conservation here; working alongside 17 local organisations, across 81 communities, in 14 provinces, collectively reaching over 80,000 people.
Coral reefs to mangrove forests, Sumatra to Maluku, our approach is always rooted in local knowledge, local leadership, and local rights.
No two communities are the same, so neither is our support.
#BlueVentures #SmallScaleFishers #SmallScaleFisheries
This Earth Day, join us in celebrating the communities who protect it every day.
Across the world's tropical coastlines, 225 million people's lives and cultural identity are inherently connected to the sea. They are fishers, stewards, mothers, leaders - and they are among the most powerful forces for ocean health on the planet.
We believe the future of our ocean doesn't lie in top-down policy alone. It lies with the coastal communities who know these waters best; and who, when given the rights, resources, and recognition to lead, protect and restore them with extraordinary results.
The power to restore our ocean lies in coastal communities. We move forward in hope, together.
#BlueVentures #EarthDay
In Indonesia and across the Asia Pacific region, we work at the intersection of community leadership and ocean governance, supporting small-scale fishers and coastal communities to have a genuine seat at the table.
That encompasses everything from facilitating community-led participatory mapping in remote fishing villages, to bringing local knowledge into national conversations about how our oceans are managed, protected, and valued.
Last week, that work reached a new milestone. Alongside Indonesia's Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, we co-hosted a national workshop bringing together 500+ participants from government, academia, and civil society; exploring how participatory mapping and ocean accounting can build more inclusive, rights-based marine governance.
We know that when communities generate and on their data, policy gets better, and that securing tenure rights for small-scale and traditional fishers is essential for sustainable ocean management.
As momentum builds toward the Ocean Impact Summit 2026, we're proud to be part of a growing movement connecting local action to national and global change.
#BlueVentures #SmallScaleFishers #SmallScaleFisheries
We congratulate the Government of Ghana on establishing the country has established the country’s first Marine Protected Area!
This moment marks a significant step towards rebuilding coastal fisheries and supporting the future of small-scale fisher communities.
For more, head to our Stories.
#BlueVentures #SmallScaleFisheries #SmallScaleFishers
In Timor-Leste, an ancient governance system is doing what decades of top-down policy often couldn't: bringing fish back, rebuilding livelihoods, and putting decision-making where it rightly belongs - with the people who live and fish these waters every day.
‘Tara Bandu’ is a customary system that has long regulated how, when, and how much communities can take from the sea. After periods of disruption, it's being revitalised. In communities across Ataúro Island, Manatuto, and beyond, nearshore fish stocks are recovering, coral reefs are returning to life, and household incomes are stabilising.
Seasonal closures, no-take zones, and community monitoring work because they're upheld by social norms and shared values, as opposed to distant bureaucracies. When communities have secure rights over their coastal resources, stewardship replaces survival.
Timor-Leste's national government has recognised this too: Decree-Law No. 26 of 2012 gives communities legal standing to govern their waters, turning ancestral knowledge into enforceable practice.
The lesson is one we carry into every coastline we work on: give people the right to protect their seas, and prosperity follows.
#BlueVentures #SmallScaleFishers #SmallScaleFisheries #TimorLeste
In Belize, we’re actively promoting community led fisheries management - having led a decade-long MPA monitoring and evaluation programme in Bacalar Chico Marine Reserve, and providing regular training in coral reef monitoring methods to MPA authorities across Belize; including helping establish management targets for Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve, Belize’s largest MPA.
Our team supports and strengthens fishing associations that advocate for the rights of their communities to be involved in decision making around access and use of coastal fisheries and to be key members of MPA management groups.
Across the country, we’re working to ensure that fishers interests are mainstreamed in the design and implementation of marine conservation and fisheries management, improving the effectiveness of co-management of coral reef, mangrove and seagrass areas.
Intrigued? Dive into the details at: blueventures.org.
#BlueVentures #SmallScaleFishers #SmallScaleFisheries
One year to go until #IMPAC6 lands in Dakar, and Senegal's ocean story has never been more urgent.
In Senegal, fish = culture, livelihood, and identity - so much more than simply food. Yet industrial overfishing, artisanal fleet pressure, and the growing fishmeal export trade are pushing stocks to the brink. Thiebou Djeun, the beloved national dish of fish and rice, is becoming a luxury for the very communities who built it.
In the fish-rich mangroves of the Sine-Saloum and Casamance deltas, we're working alongside Kawawana, Senegal's oldest community-managed marine area, to protect 18,000 hectares of mangroves and the fisheries they sustain.
We're new to Senegal, but our commitment runs deep. We're building alliances from the grassroots up; advocating for stronger inshore exclusion zones, better marine protection, and policies that put small-scale fishing communities first.
#BlueVentures #Senegal #SmallScaleFisheries #SmallScaleFishers
