USAID Heshimu Bahari Project
Request For Application-Mafia Seascape
Heshimu Bahari RFA1/2024

The USAID/Tanzania Heshimu Bahari (Respect the Ocean) Project is a five-year project that aims to improve the ecological resilience and productivity of Tanzania’s high marine biodiversity areas. Tanzania’s coral reefs are among the world’s fifty most climate-resilient reefs based on biological and oceanographic characteristics, and Tanzania’s marine and coastal ecosystems support a diverse range of coral reefs, seagrasses, open-ocean pelagic habitats, and mangroves. Not only do the ecosystems support species such as dugongs, sea turtles, and sharks and rays, but they also support a variety of livelihoods such as artisan fishing, aquaculture, and marine/coastal-related tourism activities. Overfishing, poorly planned infrastructure projects, and climate change all threaten not only these ecosystems and their fauna and flora, but also livelihoods and food security. These obstacles, together with the lack of a functional marine management area (MMA) framework, underdeveloped governance systems, insufficient funding, and an unincentivized private sector, severely limit effective management and measurable impact in marine biodiversity conservation.