Lamu’s pristine beaches, Swahili architecture and cultural festivals have adorned tourism brochures and attracted visitors for hundreds of years. But for the residents of this archipelago, there is more to Lamu than the attractions that have made it a World Heritage Site.

About a year ago, I received a request from The Nature Conservancy to document their community-led conservation projects in Lamu County. This was to be my first time in Lamu. Yeah, in all my travels, I’d never sank my toes into Lamu’s beaches, swam in it’s warm waters, ridden it’s donkeys or treated my eyes to the marvel of it’s architecture.

And this trip there wasn’t to be the time to do that.

I landed at Manda Airport and immediately made my way to the NRT-Coast offices where I met NRT-Coast staff including TNC’s George Maina who is coordinating their marine work in Kenya.

We hopped onto a speed boat and took a 45-minute ride to Faza Village on Pate, Lamu’s largest Island.

Fishing is a major economic activity for residents of Pate Island. However, most fishermen use methods that damage the fragile marine ecosystem and earn very little compared to the work they have to put in.

Step in TNC and their conservation partners.

Through a program called OceanWORKS, TNC provides fishermen from Pate Marine Community Conservancy with ice boxes that enable them fish in the high seas where the fish are larger than what is caught closer to the shore.

One such fisherman is Mohamed Bwanaheri Kassim. We caught up with him as he returned to Faza after a night out fishing in the high seas.

On this day, his catch was 100 kilos, which is more than great for a single night of fishing.

Mohamed at home with his son Abdul Moho.

Mohamed usually keeps aside some of his catch for domestic consumption.

Zena Athman, Mohamed’s wife prepares fish at their home in Faza.

Adbul having a taste of dad’s catch.

Katana Kahindi prepares to fillet red snapper in the Manda Bay Hotel kitchen.

What Katana is filleting is similar to what fishermen who are part of the OceanWORKS project catch. Once filleted and vacuum sealed, the fish is sold to hotels and restaurants in Nairobi and upcountry.

To contrast Mohamed’s story with that of other fishermen, we got back on our speed boat and went looking for fishermen at work. We chanced upon a group using beach seine nets.

Though they were outlawed in 2001, beach seine nets are still heavily used off Kenya’s coast.

A beach seine net is dropped from a moving boat and dragged along the ocean floor, catching juvenile fish and damaging fragile coral in the process.

The net is then dragged back into the boat by the fishermen, to see what has been caught.

What is caught on a single drop of the net at times isn’t enough to feed a single family. With fishing teams comprising of 20 or so fishermen, a lot of net drops have to be done, meaning more damage to the fragile coral life.

At the end of a fishing expedition, the day’s catch is divided among the fishermen who either sell at local markets, or take it home for their own consumption.

The little a fisherman has to show for several hours of fishing in the hot sun.

Compare that to Mohamed’s 100-kilo catch!

One of the markets the fishermen sell their catch at is in Kizingitini Village.

A businessman and fisherman negotiate over the price of octopus.

Yusuf Stambul (in yellow) records the weight of lobsters brought by a fisherman to Kizingitini.

Because lobsters must reach their customer when still alive, they are stored in these submerged cages before being exported or sold in the larger market in Mombasa.

Fish purchased from fishermen at Kizingitini.

A boat hand loads fish purchased from fishermen at Kizingitini.

A boat hand cleans fish purchased from fishermen in Kizingitini.

Apart from the market at Kizingitini, fishermen also deliver their catch to fish-buying boats off Faza Village.

The fish-buying boats have ice storage to keep fresh what is purchased from fishermen.

The fish is transported by boat to Mokowe Jetty and then by road to the fish market in Mombasa.

Mangrove in Faza.

Through it’s partnership with the Northern Rangelands Trust, USAID, fishing communities, Kenya Fisheries Service, Lamu County Government, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya Forest Service and others, TNC is helping build capacity and skills for community-led conservation by helping create market incentives that reward sustainable fishing practices.

Other beneficiaries of these partnerships are the rangers in Pate Marine and Kiunga Community Conservancies.

Together with TNC, they are working to develop and implement monitoring and assessment methods that are improving the way fisheries resources are managed, helping them add value to local fisheries resources.

Pate Marine Community Conservancy’s Fauz Ahmad Bakari prepares to enter data into Marine Comms Database. With him are TNC’s George Maina and Fisheries Officer Leonard Njihia.

Fauz receives data collected on paper by other rangers while on patrol and inputs it into the computer database for better record keeping and analysis.

The rangers from Pate Marine Community Conservancy patrol islands in Lamu to protect the fragile ecosystem.

Nasir Yusuf Mohamed, Hassan Omar, Mbwana Athman and Pate Marine Community Conservancy Warden Shali Kale planning their island patrols.

Turtle poaching is a menace in Lamu. On one of his patrols, Pate Marine Community Conservancy’s Athman Mbwana found a green turtle shell killed through poaching.

He later let it rest at the bottom of the ocean.

Rangers from Pate Marine Community Conservancy pose with planks of mangrove they confiscated from illegal loggers.

Kiunga Village.

Rangers from Kiunga Community Conservancy patrol a beach in Kiunga.

Kiunga Community Conservancy’s Radio Operator Saada Omar in the conservancy’s control room.

With vast areas to be covered on land and sea, Saada plays a key role in ensuring rangers are able to work as a team, even though they are kilometres apart.

A fisherman repairs his net in Kiunga.

It’s always a joy sharing the stories of people working hard to protect our environment. The rangers in Pate Marine and Kiunga Conservancies are such. Their determination and resilience in protecting Kenya’s heritage despite the challenges they face is to be admired. If it could be bottled and given in doses to other people working in conservation, our fears about extinction of animal and plant species would be forgotten.

I left Lamu for Nairobi happy – even though I hadn’t experienced what has put Lamu on the international tourism map. Knowing that there are people working day and night to protect Lamu’s ecosystem, and with the support organisations like TNC, I know that Lamu will still be there when I eventually return for a vacation.