Peter Limbu, Tanzania

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Peter Limbu, The Nature Conservancy, Tanzania

2019 Status:      LINKEDIN

2014-2019   Fisheries Technical Lead,  The Nature Conservancy,  Tanzania

TASKS: Prepare work plan and budgets and take lead in the implementation of the strategy;

Advise and train BMU members and the general community about sustainable fishing practices including identification and elimination of illegal fishing gears, identification and protection of fishing breeding and nursery sites;     Train Collaborative Fisheries Management Institutes (CFMIs) commonly known as Beach Management units (BMUs) members on improved fish processing technologies and marketing so as to enable them improve their living conditions;      Foster cross-site learning among BMUs members and the general community on best fishing and fish processing practices;          Collaborate with research institutions such as TAFIRI, FETA, SUA, UDSM to undertake relevant surveys and research on fisheries resources in order to address priority fishery management issues;     Advance and sustain integration other Conservation projects in Tanzania, Burundi, Zambia and DRC (along Lake Tanganyika waters);      Advocate and support use of environmentally friendly fishing technologies such as Solar lanterns in fishing so as to reduce emission of GHGs;    Collect project monitoring data and prepare quarterly reports

2018 Presentation  “Conserving Lake Tanganyika's Fisheries and Biodiversity: From Local Collaboration to Lake-wide Imp...     for the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group    

“In his January 8, 2018 presentation titled, Conserving Lake Tanganyika's Fisheries and Biodiversity: From Local Collaboration to Lake-wide Impact, Peter Limbu, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), discusses the work being done to combat declining fish populations and conserve biodiversity along Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania as part of TNC’s Tuungane project.”  Download Presentation Slides

2015 Conference Paper:  (Session: Fishing Communities and Sustainability)

"The Role of GIS in Conservation of Fisheries Resources in Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania"

* Presenter: Peter Limbu, The Nature Conservancy, Tanzania The Greater Mahale Ecosystem (GME) in west Tanzania is inhabited by more than 20 villages. GME approximates 54,000 women, men and children live and depend (40% of protein and more than 50% of income from) on the lake. The area is affected by high population growth, which puts pressure on fisheries and terrestrial resources. TNC through Tuungane project has facilitated establishment of local institutions that co-manage sustainable use of fisheries resources within village waters called Beach Management Units (BMU). BMUs protect fisheries resources. Lack of capacity to develop GIS maps led to illegal fishing and destruction of fish breeding sites. Attending this SCGIS training has resulted into capacity development where, GIS coordinates from fish breeding sites are now being developed into maps, which are shared with villagers to reduce illegal fishing practices. GIS Maps developed after attending this training, have helped to predict sites potential for accumulation of soil sediment and advise/warn respective communities in advance. It was concluded from this training that GIS has helped to resolve community frictions while helping to predict conservation risks and take precautionary steps as communities advance sustainable use of fisheries resources

2015 Scholar Profile:  *-Organization name: The Nature Conservancy Africa program
*-Organization full street address (in your local format): Bangwe Road
*-Organization full mailing address, if different: The Nature Conservancy Kigoma, Bangwe Road, PO Box 894, Kigoma, Tanzania
*-Country: Tanzania
*-Work phone with country and area code: +255 787 988 810, +255 752 893 869
*-Work fax with country and area code: N/A
*-Main email: plimbu@tnc.org
*-Organization Web site URL if any: www.nature.org/africa

describe the work that your current organization does: In Western Tanzania The Nature Conservancy works in collaboration named Tuungane, a Kiswahili word meaning ‘let’s unite”. The Nature Conservancy has joined efforts with Frankfurt Zoological Society, Pathfinder International and Tanzania national Parks Authority to work with local people in enhancing the long-standing relationship between People and natural resources. The collaboration provides a holistic population, health and environment (PHE) approach to provide sustainability in natural resources utilization for some of the most marginalized communities in East Africa.

In Northern Tanzania, The Nature Conservancy works through a collaborative effort with local organizations by facilitating sustainable rangeland management and natural resource conservation across the Northern Tanzania Rangelands. These areas are faced by increased pressure from population growth, competing land use interests and resource limitations, threaten the ecological integrity of the rangelands, and in turn, the benefits they provide to local communities and the national economy.  We seek to achieve this by enhancing the integration of pastoralist and hunter-gatherer livelihood systems with the maintenance of key biodiversity and ecosystem services. The project aims to strengthen co-ordination, communication, information sharing and field-level collaboration amongst development, conservation, tourism and health care organisations in order to achieve whole system conservation.

In Zambia The Nature Conservancy is working with the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) and
other  agencies, the  Conservancy works to  enhance resource protection,  wildfire  management,  park  infrastructure  and share  lessons learned  from  other  work  in  southern  and eastern Africa to improve community based natural resource management programs in  the Mulobezi Game Management Area.

In Kenya, The Nature Conservancy is tackling some of Kenya’s most complex environmental and social challenges in its northern rangelands, the Tana River basin and along its northern coast. The Nature Conservancy works partners to improve conservation enabling policies and legal frameworks to help communities secure rights and effectively manage natural resources at local and national levels, to expand and perfect conservation practices to build resilient communities with strong local governance structures, diverse livelihoods and effective natural resources management programs, supports community-led efforts to protect endangered and threatened wildlife, such as elephants, black rhino and Hirola (Earth’s most endangered antelope), to secure their survival and established a Nairobi Water Fund to protect freshwater resources for nearly four million people in the city and generate economic, ecological and social benefits for the Tana River Basin’s up and downstream users.

describe your personal role in the organization: I work as a Fisheries Technical Lead and responsible to facilitate co-management of Fisheries Natural Resources which involves the following overarching objectives in the coastal villages and waters surrounding L. Tanganyika and the GME:
Establish Sustainable Fishing Practices and Aquatic Conservation through Beach Management Units (BMUs) and
Improve Income of BMU Members through both Sustainable Fishing and Alternative Livelihood with specific tasks to:

• Facilitate formation and capacity building of BMUs including fish stocks monitoring, data collection and  reporting;
• Support BMUs to develop and enforce by-laws that advance sustainable fisheries resource management in their respective village waters;
• Prepare work plan and budgets and take lead in its implementation;

Advise and train BMU members and the general community about sustainable fishing practice including identification and elimination of illegal fishing gears, identification and protection of fishing breeding and nursery sites (figure 1, map example with help from Dan Kelly [TNC Africa GIS]);

• Foster cross-site learning among BMUs members and the general community on best fishing and fish processing practices
• Collaborate with research institutions to undertake relevant surveys and research on fisheries resources in order to address priority fishery management issues;
• Advocate and support use of environmental friendly fishing technologies in fishing so as to reduce emission of GHGs. Hence my roles above could be well enriched by training in SCGIS to strengthen my career but also improving my capacity to discharge organization conservation objectives

describe the history of your personal work in conservation and GIS: I was born and raised a fisherman in Lake Victoria zone. My first aquatic animal to befriend was a crab as they were being brought at home while entangled in the gill nets. Crabs could collect and destroy/cut the whole gill net if it was large. I was curious to learn on how to repair broken net meshes and by the age of 5 I could independently help my father to mend broken gill nets.

At the age of 10, my father and other fishermen drowned and he gave away all of our gill nets to other fishermen marking the end of his fishing work. One year later I locally developed a 10-meter gill net that myself with my friends used to capture fish in the near shore (cichlids). Although there was no serious enforcement about undersize gill nets and use of Beach seine nets, but already I could tell hotspots for fish hiding grounds which today are called fish breeding and nursery grounds (fishery critical habitats).

At the age of 12 I abandoned making small-mesh size gill nets due to pressure from my father who claimed that the fish caught by small mesh had no taste/flavour since they were still growing. There I shifted to larger mesh size gill nets which shifted us from the breeding shallow waters to slightly deep water. My intimacy with fish and their environment grew further and I could guess where the fish are hiding and catch them with bare hands! When I joined the University, fisheries was a small portion of my studies, but I made it huge and did a full dissertation on it and proceeded with it to my postgraduate studies. In 2010 while working with Tanzania coastal fisheries communities, there was a huge challenge on how BMUs could protect breeding sites without having clear boundaries and demarcations. I worked on the ground to collect raw data using GPS while my colleague at the WWF Headquarters worked on the data using GIS to produce CFMAs maps that today resolved all community conflicts pertaining to village water boundaries. Currently, I am involved in collection of raw data using GPS at the field (figure 2, example of GPS data collection and map work) and am getting guidance from the TNC GIS expert who is supportive to learn GIS so as to help work out field data timely and more efficient.

Live Map Application created during the 2015 UC Davis-SCGIS Web GIS Training.
This describes fisheries no take zone designated and protected by fisheries communities under the facilitation of Tuungane - The Nature Conservancy Project in Lake Tanganyika.

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