Through its Ocean Defenders Program, the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) is bolstering Tube Awu-Community Research and Development Association, established in 2015 to support sustainable livelihoods, rehabilitate fish stock, and safeguard the marine ecology.
Through the initiative, EJF offers funding, communications, videos, and storytelling training to help local communities effectively safeguard maritime habitats. It assists regional non-governmental organizations that work with coastal communities and have an extensive understanding of the dangers to our seas and the know-how to safeguard them.
In light of this, EJF has provided its partner, Tube Awu, with a focused training program in Kribi and Ebodjé as part of the Ocean Defenders initiative. EJF expanded Tube Awu’s storytelling abilities to showcase regional ocean conservation initiatives, strengthened Tube Awu’s organizational capacity, and assisted in evaluating community-led fisheries monitoring. These initiatives will support sustainable livelihoods, restore fish stocks, and safeguard marine habitats.
It was an opportunity for EJF to demonstrate the DASE app as a viable tool to assist local communities in protecting their waterways. EJF and Tube Awu worked on participatory monitoring of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing during this first visit.
The program also included field excursions to the Manyange Na Elombo Campo Marine Protected Area, enabling Tube Awu to showcase their impact, conservation projects in action, and record environmental initiatives through photography and visual storytelling.
To preserve ocean species and promote sustainable livelihoods for coastal people, EJF and Tube Awu are combining their knowledge, technology, and local leadership through this relationship. This ties in with the acceptance of the Global Charter for Transparency in Fisheries in April 2025, which is one of Cameroon’s major political pledges to the seas.
According to Léa Moutard of the EJF, “Local communities are the first to defend our oceans. Our partnership with organizations such as Tube Awu aims to amplify their impact, helping them protect marine ecosystems, empower communities, and combat the climate crisis and illegal fishing. Together, we can ensure the prosperity of people and nature.”
“This training enables community members to acquire the skills needed to monitor environmental threats, document conservation efforts, and amplify their impact through storytelling and local engagement,” said Xavier Ndjamo, Tube Awu.
It should be noted that with the Yaoundé Declaration on a Sustainable Blue Economy in July 2025, the signing of the BBNJ (Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction) agreement on May 2, 2025, and the adoption of a new legal framework for fisheries and aquaculture in December 2024, the role of civil society is more crucial than ever. There is a clear need for strong and competent civil society organizations to contribute to the effective implementation and promote accountability. EJF’s support for Tube Awu directly addresses this need, the EJF press release reads.
The training provided an opportunity to reflect on Tube Awu’s organizational strengths and areas for improvement, using workshops and baseline data collection to develop the organization’s development plans for 2026-2028. Participants explored strategies to foster positive environmental change, drawing on EJF’s experience in advocacy, journalist engagement, stakeholder mapping, and storytelling.