business / Saturday, 30-Aug-2025

Kenya’s Kuruwitu corals are back, thanks to local conservation drive | UN News

Climate and Environment

A small, quiet village in Kenya has found a new purpose in the fishing industry through a successful marine coral conservation project, the first of its kind in the Marine Protected Areas of the western side of the Indian Ocean.

UNEP, in conjunction with UN Habitat, launched the Go Blue Project to help cities and towns near oceans thrive. Florian Lux of the Go Blue Project explains how this tie in works: "Cities and towns exist next to oceans and seas, and this brings about sea and landscapes. For them to be resilient in the face of climate change, they need to regenerate".

UNDP Equator Prize winner

  • Kuruwitu Conservation is working with the local Beach Management Unit (BMU), the Kenyan State Department of Fisheries and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to develop a co-management plan that will cover an 800-hectare area of ocean off the Kenyan coast.
  • The territory includes a 12 km coastline, six landing sites and three villages, with a population of around 30,000 people. 
    In 2017, the work of Kuruwitu Conservation saw it awarded the Equator Prize, organized by the Equator Initiative within the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP.
  • The award is made every two years, to recognize outstanding community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. 

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