Blue Ventures joint seminar

Jenny House (PhD Candidate) is hosting her colleagues from Blue Ventures in Timor-Leste here at RIEL from the 29th August – 1st September. The group will be participating in a knowledge-exchange about participatory fisheries management, marine conservation and natural resource-based livelihoods. As part of their visit, the Blue Ventures team will be giving a seminar about their work on community-based marine management, ecological monitoring, and coastal livelihoods. This presentation will be followed by a Q&A and lunch. Please come along to learn about this fascinating work and meet the team!

About Blue Ventures

Blue Ventures is working to restore the world’s oceans and improve the livelihoods of small-scale fishing communities. Informed by two decades working alongside coastal communities, we partner with small-scale fishers and community organisations to address overfishing and safeguard ocean life in ways that benefit them. Together we design, scale, strengthen and sustain fisheries management and conservation at the community level. We bring partners together in networks to advocate for reform, and share tools and best practices to support fishing communities across the globe. Around the world, hundreds of millions of fishers are denied their rights to access and manage traditional fishing grounds. Through our work, we’re enabling them to secure and uphold these rights, improving local management, enriching local livelihoods and sustaining healthy oceans for generations to come.

Since 2016, our work in Timor-Leste has evolved into a dynamic movement supporting community led marine management and coastal livelihood diversification in Asia’s newest country. From our origins on Atauro Island, considered to harbour amongst the highest levels of marine biodiversity on earth, we’re now working with numerous communities on the island and the mainland to ensure that local communities have access to diverse sustainable livelihood options to relieve fishing pressure on critical coral reefs and seagrass ecosystems.

We’re engaging communities in monitoring the relatively unexplored marine biodiversity of Timor-Leste, and managing local marine resources through customary local laws known as Tara Bandu. Alongside our community conservation efforts, we have pioneered Timor-Leste’s first homestay association, which now provides a consistent income from visiting ecotourists and sparked interest in replication by a mainland community. Using homestays as a hub, communities are well placed to host learning exchanges, training events, and act as an outreach platform to engage and inspire communities in fisheries management and livelihood diversification. Exchanges have led to communities of best practice and strengthened associations, and the opportunity to establish a formal network throughout the country.

To learn more about Blue Ventures’ activities in Timor-Leste, please attend our seminar or view our blog: https://blog.blueventures.org/en/five-years-in-timor-leste