The quest for mangrove protection in Kilifi County has received a major boost.
This is after a community in the region stopped logging mangroves for timber, charcoal, and firewood. This followed a successful project of sea fish farming that is bearing fruits.
Based at Kibokoni at the far end of Kilifi Creek, the community is now embracing proper conservation methods to protect the ecosystem as opposed to the previous years when they would destroy nature for survival.
Among the species of fish, is the rabbit fish popularly called ‘tafi’ in Swahili, and prawns that are highly marketable to the locals in the Coastal strip.
Tafi is famous due to its sweet taste and affordability in terms of costs to all including those who are not well off.
The Project was started by Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute through the Mariculture Development and funded by Western Indian Marine Association.
Reporters who toured the project together with senior officials from KEMFRI realised that the community had made a major step in development.
Christine Tsori the Chairlady of Umoja Self Help Group said before the project started they were suffering as their work entailed cutting firewood from the mangrove sites to transport the same to Kilifi.
She said since the project started things have changed for the better because they breed a variety of fish species including prawns which have a large market.
“Prawns have a high demand and fetch a lot of money from the market,” she said.
Tsori said the Rabit fish have been the game changer because even though they have not been harvested people are demanding already.
“We are confident that once we start selling tafi all of us shall benefit, we shall get money to educate our children and uplift our standards of living as opposed to the previous lifestyle where we depended on selling firewood, a really pathetic life,” she said.
The chairlady confessed that they were thieves stealing from the mangrove forest but stopped immediately after the project started.
Currently, she said they have now become the watchdogs to prevent any destruction and have their own nursery beds for planting which are financed by other organizations.
Dr. David Emirera the KEMFRI Assistant Director in charge of Mariculture Development said they started working with Umoja Self Help Group in 2011 teaching them how to produce fish so as to move away from the mangrove destruction.
He said Western Indian Marine Association. offered them funding to research whether Rabbit fish which has a high demand could be produced in fish ponds away from the ocean.
“As KEMFRI we came here and renovated the community fish ponds and began working with fishermen who looked for live fish from the Ocean which is now in the ponds and being fed,” he said.
Emirera said their research has established that Rabbitfish can do well in the intertidal area and many areas can be used to breed the fish.
To him, if the community can breed fish they will be able to transform their lives.
Normally Rabbit fish he said is found in rocks within the ocean and fishermen use basket nets to fish them adding that their demand is very high within the Coastal region.
Previously he said communities used to breed Milk fish but cannot compare with the demand for rabbitfish.
“Rabbitfish has a good market price compared to milkfish, a kilogram of Milkfish can cost Sh. 250 while rabbit fish can be sold at Sh. 350 to Sh. 450 per kilo depending on where one gets the fish,” he said.
The Assistant Director said with time they will teach the community how to do filleting because the rabbit fish has a lot of stakes.
Currently, he said the whole world is eying the blue economy and with such innovations and goodwill of the country, the communities can be able to begin exporting the fish.
Currently, he said they are working with 45 community members in Kibokoni and as KEMFRI they intend to begin hatching fish by having a hatchery for farmers to get whenever they want as they now get them from the ocean.
With such initiatives, he said there will be no shortage of fish even during the low season when winds are strong and fishermen are not able to go to the ocean.
Emrirera said there is a commercial production fish pond which is 1200 meter square pond that is 40 by 30 meters wide with a capacity of breeding 1000 fish at once and one can harvest over 300 kilograms of fish after five months adding that it can cost Sh. 250,000 to set up.
He said smaller ones can cost Sh. 60,000 and are 120 meters square.
“The investment needed to set up the ponds is not huge anyone who wants to breed fish can set up and get returns,” he said.
In the Ocean he said there are over 250 species of fish and they started with milkfish which has low demands, forcing them to turn to ponds that have a high market.
Currently, they also are breeding marine tilapia which is also having a good market.
Mathia Iguru Program Coordinator Western Indian Marine Association Project based in Zanzibar said the project aims at ensuring that fish such as Rabbitfish can be produced in ponds and even hatched.
He said what is being done can be done in Tanzania, Burundi, South Africa, and Somalia, among other African nations.
“There are so many opportunities in the Indian Ocean but have not been tapped with such indication it is possible to move forward,” he said.
Iguru said the entire project Which is not in Kenya alone cost 350,000 US Dollars
He said the project is also in Tanzania which has a similar setup, together with Mozambique among other countries.
Hamol Jabir Vice Secretary of the Umoja Self-help group said it’s time the government invested more along the Kilifi Creek for the community to benefit from such a project.
Jabir said he joined the project in 2011 when he was a youth and has seen the benefits ever since.
To him, there is not enough fish within the creek and through such projects communities can produce them on a large scale and uplift their standards of living.
