Community-Run Marine Protection in the Bijagós Islands

Founded in 1991, Tiniguena ('this land is ours') spent years consulting villages across the Urok islands before helping establish, in 2005, the Urok Islands Community Marine Protected Area — the first community-managed MPA in Guinea-Bissau and West Africa. The 545 km² (54,500-hectare) reserve protects more than 3,000 hectares of mangrove forest, seagrass beds and nesting grounds for manatees, sawfish and migratory birds, and is governed by a community council on which women and youth must hold at least a quarter of the seats. Tiniguena continues to run climate-resilience, agroecology and fisheries programs with the 33 villages of the Bijagós archipelago.