Pemba's east coast gazetted two community marine conservation areas

Two stretches of sea off Pemba's east coast are now official conservation areas, written into law after fishing villages spent years watching their catches shrink. Mongabay reported on October 29, 2026, that the North-East and South-East conservation areas were gazetted in June 2026. Together they cover about 1,300 square kilometres of coral, mangroves, and seagrass, with threatened animals including the reef manta ray.

More than 20 communities worked with the Tanzanian government and environmental groups on the designation. In Tumbe, on the north-eastern shore, fisher Omar Hamad Salim told Mongabay that boats had been returning with very few fish, or none, for a long stretch, not a single bad week. He is one of 12 elected members of the local fisheries committee. Mongabay noted that people on this coast had already seen fish and livelihoods improve after the Pemba Channel Conservation Area was created on the other side of the island in 2005.

The June gazette is the legal step. The article does not publish a new catch figure for the east-coast grounds.