Tengefu Tapestry
In September of 2023, we set off on the first Sea Collective Expedition to Kenya. We chose to focus on Kenya because we are not only aiming to collect social-ecological data around the world, but we are also fascinated by creative marine protected area strategies and how they are applied in different tropical fisheries. Learning from the successes and shortcomings of other marine management systems will help us develop a successful template to more efficiently protect our oceans and sea people.
Have you heard of Tengefus? If not, they’re super interesting and I will try my best to explain them here. Tengefu in Swahili means “to set aside.” Which is a very straightforward way of denoting that a fishing area is being saved for later. What a creative way to combat the tragedy of the commons, but only if participants are socially conditioned to saving things for later. Are Kenyan fishers used to setting things aside? I’m not sure, but that would be a great social survey wouldn’t it?
Dr. Tim McClanahan, the leader of Kenya’s Tengefu Movement, explains in the interview below, that Kenyans who predominantly rely on primary resources are generally skeptical of, if not in abject opposition to government-run protected areas, which are usually called reserves or parks. The semantics of Marine Protected Area/Reserve/Park apparently strikes a nerve with Kenya’s fishing communities.
Remy Oddenyo, a passionate researcher at WCS, explains in the video below how tengefus can have different management objectives depending on what they are trying to protect but to be maximally effective, they should include community members in the decision-making and management processes, as well as design buffer zones in their spatial planning to maximize the benefits of spillover.
Tengefus are sort of like Kenya’s own take on Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs), which are portions of the marine environment reserved to protect marine resources but are managed by fishing communities as opposed to governments. There are currently 24 Tengefus in Kenya, many of which have contributed to the conservation or recovery of marine ecosystems.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), under the Ministry of Forest and Wildlife, manages Kenya’s marine reserves. However, many tengefus are not maximally effective due to their unscientific design and top-down management. When they were developed, many were not established in the optimal locations to provide ecological benefits. Though LMMAs, by definition, should be managed by the community they benefit, fishing communities are not given the educational, organizational, or financial resources to effectively manage Tengefus in Kenya.
Regardless, the Tengefu Movement was started with conservation and livelihood preservation in mind. If protected areas are poorly funded or not made a priority, they are bound to fall short of their objectives. If we are to uphold the 30x30 framework, it’s time to take the establishment of socially-focused MPAs seriously and learn from the successes and shortcomings of LMMA networks around the world.
