Tanzania – Sustainable Environmental Management through Mariculture Activities (SEMMA)

Developing Economically Viable & Environmentally Sustainable Income-Generating Activities

For the past two years, ACDI/VOCA has been helping coastal villagers in the Tanga region of Tanzania increase their incomes through the sustainable use and management of the natural resources on which they depend. The 5-year, USAID-funded $1.3 million Sustainable Environmental Management through Mariculture Activities (SEMMA) project works to conserve biodiversity along the Tanzanian coastline through the sustainable development of profitable mariculture enterprises.

SEMMA builds on the successes of ACDI/VOCA’s previous project, the Smallholder Empowerment and Economic Growth through Agribusiness and Association Development project, which was instrumental in linking sustainable environmental management to economic growth and poverty alleviation. By transforming coastal villagers from casual laborers to mariculture entrepreneurs and fostering a sense of community stewardship of resources, SEMMA joins the goals of conservation and poverty alleviation, with an emphasis on civil society capacity building to improve governance.

SEMMA’s principal objectives are to

1. establish and strengthen conservation enterprises that generate increased and equitable benefits from the sustainable use of natural resources
2. strengthen the capacity of small-scale mariculture producers to practice participatory landscape-scale conservation
3. facilitate the application of policies and laws that integrate conservation and development by all stakeholders in the mariculture subsector

ACDI/VOCA supports a variety of mariculture activities, including seaweed farming, lobster sheltering and mud crab fattening. Mud crab fattening and lobster sheltering are new activities in Tanzania that have been introduced to coastal communities with ACDI/VOCA’s support. These activities have enabled smallholders to increase their incomes while playing an active role in conserving and sustaining the very resource base that they rely on.

ACDI/VOCA provides assistance in various areas, including technical support, to enable smallholders to improve their production practices and enhance efficiency in resource use and overall productivity. To help smallholders achieve economies of scale, ACDI/VOCA provides training in association building and management, business planning and product marketing. The project plans to establish an apex organization for mariculture producers, which is expected to be self-sustaining beyond the life of the project.

SEMMA activities are also geared towards enabling smallholders to establish mutually beneficial long-term business relationships with lead firms, mainly exporters. This guarantees them a market for their goods and creates opportunities for smallholders to tap into other benefits such as credit provision and technical assistance provided as embedded services by the exporters.

SEMMA draws on cross-cutting themes of gender equity, capacity building, communications and public-private alliance tools by

• providing financial incentives for biodiversity conservation
• focusing on economic activities that include large numbers of women in order to maximize food security and poverty alleviation
• strengthening existing economic activities to enable quick impact and create project momentum
• developing transferable business skills to increase diverse livelihood income streams

Through SEMMA, ACDI/VOCA seeks to substantially increase the incomes of some of Tanzania’s poorest communities, resulting in poverty reduction and increased food security for at least 10,000 people in the coastal region of Tanga. In addition, the SEMMA project contributes to the USAID mission’s health, HIV/AIDS, and democracy and governance strategic objectives by strengthening civil elements of the communities and sustaining economic empowerment for smallholders, particularly women who make up about 80 percent of project beneficiaries.

For more information, contact Penelope Hucker at pbhucker@acdivoca.org.

Updated: 5/08

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