Ecological underwater surveys inform us about the abundance of the coral, algae, and fish communities on the reefs at the coral sites in Kongowea, Mkwiro, Vamizi, and Pemba. The data provides a measure of the stocks of many of the ecosystem service chains and allows us to interpret how human activity has impacted on ecosystem processes. From a fisheries perspective, it is a second way, along with the fish catch surveys, to assess the status and sustainability of local fisheries. Landings data was collected on how many people are fishing, how long they are fishing, what types of fishing gear and vessels they are using, and how much fish they are catching and of what size and species.This project aims to better understand the links between ecosystem services (ES) and wellbeing in order to design and implement more effective interventions for poverty alleviation. We do this in the context of coastal, social-ecological systems in two poor African countries; Kenya and Mozambique. Despite recent policy and scientific interest in ES, there remain important knowledge gaps regarding how ecosystems actually contribute to wellbeing, and thus poverty alleviation. Following the ESPA framework, distinguishing ecological processes, 'final ES', 'capital inputs', 'goods' and 'values', this project is concerned with how these elements are interrelated to produce ES benefits, and focuses specifically on how these benefits are distributed to (potentially) benefit the poor, enhancing their wellbeing. We thus address the ESPA goal of understanding and promoting ways in which benefits to the poorest can be increased and more people can meet their basic needs, but we also identify conflicted tradeoffs, i.e. those which result in serious harm to either the ecosystem or poor people and which need urgent attention. Several fundamental questions are currently debated in international scientific and policy fora, relating to four major global trends which are likely to affect abilities of poor people to access ES benefits: (1) devolution of governance power and its impacts on local governance of ecosystems and production of ES, (2) unprecedented rates and scales of environmental change, particularly climate change, which are creating new vulnerabilities, opportunities and constraints, 'shifting baselines', and demanding radical changes in behaviour to cope, (3) market integration now reaches the most remote corners of the developing world, changing relationships between people and resources and motivations for natural resource management, (4) societal changes, including demographic, population, urbanisation and globalisation of culture, forge new relationships with ES and further decouple people from direct dependency on particular resources. Study sites have been chosen so as to gather empirical evidence to help answer key questions about how these four drivers of change affect abilities of poor people to benefit from ES. We aim for direct impact on the wellbeing of poor inhabitants of the rapidly transforming coastal areas in Mozambique and Kenya, where research will take place, while also providing indirect impact to coastal poor in other developing countries through our international impact strategy. Benefits from research findings will also accrue to multiple stakeholders at various levels. Local government, NGOs and civil society groups - through engagement with project activities, e.g. participation in workshops and exposure to new types of analysis and systems thinking. Donor organizations and development agencies - through research providing evidence to inform strategies to support sector development (e.g. fisheries, coastal planning and tourism development) and methods to understand and evaluate impacts of different development interventions - e.g. through tradeoff analysis and evaluation of the elasticities between ecosystem services and wellbeing. International scientific community - through dissemination of findings via conferences, scientific publications (open access), and from conceptual and theoretical development and new understandings of the multiple linkages between ecosystem services and wellbeing. Regional African scientists will benefit specifically through open courses offered within the scope of the project, and through dissemination of results at regional venues. Our strategies to deliver impact and benefits include (1) identifying 'windows of opportunity' within the context of ongoing coastal development processes to improve flows of benefits from ecosystems services to poor people, and (2) identifying and seeking to actively mitigate 'conflicted' tradeoffs in Kenya and Mozambique.

FISH. The fish community is surveyed, using two methods along the same 100m long transects. The first data gathered is an estimate of the biomass of fish that are present on the reef. This is done along two 100m transects at each site, and all fish within 5 meters of the transect line are identified to family, and their size estimated to the nearest 10cm. We can then use published data on the relationship between fish weight and fish length to calculate how much fish biomass is present on the reef. The second type of data gathered, is the diversity of fish on the reef, collected by counting the number of fish present within 11 of the most important fish families on coral reefs present along each transect for each species. CORALS. Coral abundance is collected using line intercept transects, where a 10m long tape is laid over the reef, and the amount of each type of coral, algae, or other substrate cover is measured. This is repeated 6-9 times to give an average amount of coral and algae cover on each reef. REEF BUDGET. The reef framework is a product of the growth of corals, and the erosion of the reef by parrotfish, urchins, and other organisms. The Reefbudget approach is a way to work out if the reef is growing or eroding. The carbonate budget surveys allow us to fill in many of the stock components of the ecosystem service chains and allow us to calculate some of the flows and estimates the goods, particularly in the chains that describe the benefits from beaches and coastal protection. The carbonate budget data contributes towards a system-dynamics model as well.