[Ledama Masidza] I love Kuruwitu.
It’s a home not only to me, but also the things I love most,
which is the life in the water.
When I when I swim around the Kuruwitu Marine Sanctuary,
every single moment is just happiness.
It’s also home to such a vibrant, loving community,
which has shown so much resilience to the changes that we are currently seeing.
There is a saying – “No fish, no village.”
In the late 1900s,
this community experienced a serious decline in its fish stock.
We saw a decline in livelihoods
affecting not only food insecurity, household income,
but also future generations and the opportunities that they had.
[Narrator] This fall in fish stocks was driven by overfishing.
In response to their losses,
the community came together to find a solution.
[Ledama] This solution was based on a traditional form
of resource management called the tengefu system.
It’s where the community themselves decide
to allocate a portion of their marinescape and their fishery
to see it be rehabilitated
and have that bounce back to influence the livelihoods that it supports.
[Narrator] To protect and replenish fish stocks,
fishing has been completely banned within the Kuruwitu Conservancy
since it was established in 2003,
and work has since been done to restore corals within the lagoon.
In the first 10 years,
the biomass of fish inside the protected area increased by 400%.
[Ledama] This is essentially a fish bank.
By protecting the fish in the sanctuary
and allowing the density of fish to grow to its capacity,
the fish then spill over into the surrounding areas,
providing fish to other fishing grounds.
[Narrator] But outside of the sheltered waters of the lagoon,
the fish face threats that are well beyond the control of Kuruwitu’s community.
[Ledama] The pressures that our fish are now facing are tenfold.
You’ve got ocean acidification, which is impacting the coral reefs.
You’ve got an increase in sea temperature
and a change in ecosystem conditions due to climate change.
[Narrator] This is driving some to question whether the
community can cope with both the ban on fishing within the conservancy
and the changes that are now happening in the surrounding fishing grounds.
[Narrator] In 2023,
a climate cycle began which could amplify the pressures
already being felt in Kuruwitu and beyond.
During El Niño events,
warming surface waters impact ocean temperatures and currents,
as well as local weather from Australia to South America.
The last El Niño event, in 2016,
impacted the lives of 60 million people across our planet.
It is a phenomenon
that the local community in Kuruwitu know all too well.
[Narrator] The threats to this area
are now being driven by changes at a global scale,
which are impacting marine life across our planet.
This makes the protection that the conservancy offers
even more important.
Protected areas can create sheltered nursery grounds for juvenile fish,
which spread out and populate the surrounding waters.
And restoring coral provides a vital lifeline
for the 25% of all marine species
that are thought to rely on reefs at some point in their life cycle.
The decision to stop fishing in Kuruwitu Conservancy
might come at a short-term cost to the local community,
but it will help to secure their livelihoods for the future
in the face of our planet’s changing climate.
[Ledama] The future is bright
and Kuruwitu are looking to share this knowledge
and spread this approach with their neighbouring fishing communities.
My hopes for the future of the planet
is rooted in a concept very important to my upbringing,
and that is ubuntu,
which is care for others,
embracing this interconnectedness in a shared future.
If we can all take a more collaborative approach,
a more caring approach, a more kind approach,
not just to our ocean but to each other,
I believe that we’ll have a beautiful world.
