Fishermen Community Meetings on Livelihoods Subprojects Selection and Prioritization at Dungonab Bay and Mukkawar Island National Marine Park and Meetings with DMMNP Women on Livelihoods Subprojects Selection and Prioritization at Dungonab Bay and Mukkawar Island National Marine Park

Series of meeting were organized in Dongonab and Mohamed Gol villages. One of the major meetings with the fishermen community was conducted in Mohammad Gol and attended by 35 participants, representing fishermen of Mohamed Gol and Dungonab. The objectives of the meeting were to familiarize the fishermen with the process the selection of livelihoods subprojects; to feed back the results of the expert group meeting conducted in Port Sudan last November 2015 for projects selection guidance; and to facilitate a participatory process to select and prioritize subprojects for DMMNP. The introductory session of the meeting witnessed high level of understanding and expectations from the DMMNP the community, the Sheikh Ali Wajih (M. Gol Omdah), indicated that the community has gained new knowledge and skills; the youth have joined the wild life force to protect the MPA, and movement of fishermen from outside the area have been rather organized controlled, however the expectations of the community from the project is still high. The process have been clarified to the fishermen in a simple clear and local language as follows

  • Going through the experts recommended areas of sub projects
  • Add any new suggestions that might be of potential importance
  • Prioritization of the subprojects in terms of importance, feasibility and sustainability to the community
  • Selected projects will be subject to technical, financial and environmental assessment before the final approval
  • Identify gaps and needs within the community to implement the project in sustainable manner
  • Develop subprojects document including operational plan.
Fishermen participants from M. Gol selected provision of fishing gears and boat maintenance service as the top priority. Fishermen from Dungonab also claimed that maintenance service is their priority in addition to salt production facility Several meetings were conducted with women in Mohamed Gol and Dungonab. These were also consultation meetings to discuss areas of subprojects recommended by the expert group meeting and subsequent meetings with fishermen. The participant women supported selection of fishing gears and boat maintenance service as priority subprojects, and they recommended considering other a subproject to support household production facilities, including goat husbandry and poultry, and bakery work based on women centers in the two villages. In addition they indicated that a subproject to support ecotourism and increase of MPA visitors will enhance marketing their household products. Other expectations mentioned by the participants from the subproject were to address lack of energy and potable water supplies.