As an import part of towards finalizing our OctoPINTS project we conducted a field visit back to Zanzibar to say thank you to those that participated in our research over the years, to validate our findings, and provide a space for discussion around our results and methods.

We hosted an open event in Stone Town, where practitioners, state representatives, researchers and students participated. The invitation was shared further through our networks by snowballing, and thus many people we hadn’t interacted with before came to the workshop. This blog and associated report summarizes this open research feedback event.

Particpants and organizers at our open research feedback session at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Stone Town, Zanzibar, July 2022.

The objectives of the workshop were to allow participants to learn from OctoPINTS findings, to stimulate reflection and ideas concerning the octopus closure model, demonstrate methods that others could take inspiration from, and support collaboration and co-learning.

We also wanted to learn how our research and results were taken in by stakeholders. Specifically, if they saw usefulness in our qualitative inductive approach of the fieldwork, and the use of the agent-based modeling to outline mechanisms of why or why not closures are successful or collapse (i.e. if closures are either repeated or do not reach their intended aim).

Workshop Overview

The workshop took place in a large conference room of the Golden Tulip Hotel in Stone town. About 20 participants attended, ranging from state employees, practitioners, researchers, and students from: MWAMBAO coastal community network, Marine Cultures, Aqua-Farms, WIOMSA, Ministry of Blue Economy and Fisheries (Zanzibar), The State University of Zanzibar and the University of Dar Es Salaam.

Tim introducing the session, aims and expectations.

Following a welcome and introduction by Tim, the first part of the workshop comprised presentations. Emilie introduced the OctoPINTS project and Elizabeth (Liz) presented the qualitative, inductive methods used in the OctoPINTS fieldwork and the rationale for their selection.

Participants at the open research feedback session listening to Liz presenting her fieldwork results.

Following this Liz shared a summary of the fieldwork results with respect to 1) well-being and perceived inequities, highlighting the diverse perceptions of success about the closure model and, 2) compliance, showing how different stakeholders felt and judged rule breaking. The aim of this presentation was to stimulate reflection and discussion about the complexity of both what could define ‘success’ and compliance.

Emilie continued to present the agent-based modeling work. This aims to represent dynamics and feedbacks around how fishers’ acceptance of the octopus closure model can change over time with respect to poaching, patrolling, transparency and their landings at closure openings. She also explained how Liz’s fieldwork was used in designing the model, e.g., fishers and their actions as well as how people change their acceptance.

Emilie presenting the modeling work at the open research feedback session.

We ended the formal content part of the workshop with a play reading to bring voices from the villages where fieldwork took place to the meeting, and to share with participants how we used play readings to communicate our results. Aiysha and Shariff (our enumerators) also shared reflections from our recent feedback sessions in the communities.

Next, we had designed a session mixing plenary and breakout groups to tackle questions of interest. However, it was clear that people had many questions and also wanted to share their reflections on the research and specifically on researchers in general so instead a ‘questions, comments and answers’ session between OctoPINTS team members and participants was done in plenary.

Finally, participants completed an evaluation form before lunch that was served on the hotel rooftop terrace, to provide further opportunities for discussion and networking.

Participants’ responses to the presented materials

The interpretive approach

Some interesting reflections emerged around the qualitative, inductive and interpretive approach of the fieldwork. The fieldwork emphasised hearing participants own stories and voices around closures rather than imposing particular questions or topics or measuring quantitative indicators. Liz used open-ended broad questions about experiences of closures and methods to encourage sharing of stories and experiences as a way to understand people’s perceptions and feelings from their own points of view. In addition, we took a critical social science stance to understand who benefits and who loses from closures, specifically looking at the context and mechanisms behind those outcomes, through the agent-based modeling.

Some participants expressed that the research approach taken was a new approach, less commonly used in the work that they do. It was also a way to learn new ideas and to get more feelings and less misleading “so called” facts. It was highlighted that this approach could give insights into social interactions and conflicts around the closures.

Other participants had a more critical perspective on the interpretive research, informed from a natural-science, positivist research tradition favouring objective, quantitative data. This position did not appreciate the potential for data on perceptions and feelings to help understand behaviour and the micropolitics of closures.

The inductive approach, was also critiqued. For example, some participants felt that key dimensions such as health problems should have been reflected in our results (but health did not feature in participants spontaneous comments about the effects of the closures on them hence we could not report on this). This followed a logic that one needs to go into a research situation with ‘the right questions’ to ask, favouring a deductive process in which researchers have a-priori topics and questions that are relevant to ask.

The agent-based modeling

Based on our feedback forms the modeling was appreciated. A couple of participants noted that the modeling was thought to reflect the real situation of what was happening in the field, while it was perceived by some as quite technical and requiring special skills to work with. Someone noted that it might be more useful for researchers than practitioners to take on and use. Another person thought the model was a bit simple, and useful as a tool to learn the basics around closures.

Discussions highlighted several interesting applications of the model to investigate particular topics, such as scenarios or experiments that would test the results of changing the size and duration of the closure, the opening length of the octopus closures, or adjusting the number of fishers able to enter at openings.

Snapshot of the OctoPINTS agent-based model from Emilie’s presentation.

The focus on social groups

Our results on the key role of young, male skin divers in conflicts and non-compliance resonated with several participants from the NGOs who struggled how to address rule-breaking by this group. They agreed that directly engaging rule breakers needed more attention. Several stories from failures on how to deal with these rule breakers, as well as what could be opportunities to get such groups on board were discussed. For instance, certain groups known to rule break won’t come to meetings even if the Sheha (village chief) calls them, so inviting them to formal meetings seems ineffective. Other approaches, such as individual NGO staff (ideally young males) making contact, socialising and building relationships, trust and an understanding with this group may be more efficient. The literature on young male fishers from a masculinity angle in fisheries could provide further insights into this problem. (e.g., see Fabinyi, 2007 and work by OctoPINTS intern Benedetta Veneroni, 2021 ).

Reflections by the organizers

Overall, the response of the participants to the research was mixed. Some engaged enthusiastically, with an interest in the concerns and perceptions of stakeholders that were revealed. The anonymous evaluation forms suggested that a majority of participants appreciated the research and the seminar. During discussions however, some voices focussed not only on critical comments about the OctoPINTS research but also on vocalising general problems around external research (i.e., Western led in a low-income country dealing with high levels of fishery related research fatigue, Hakkarainen, 2020). For instance, the problem that researchers fail to feedback their research, was raised, despite the explicit purpose of this trip and workshop. This limited the time available for more in depth discussion of the OctoPINTS research and its implications.

Our main determinant for having a successful workshop was to share knowledge with different organizations that could be useful for their practices or research around closures. The discussions and evaluations suggest the inductive qualitative research was a novel approach for most participants, and that our results and methods supported or challenged participants’ thinking. This may provide new insights or methodologies to understand the perspective of different social groups and the challenge of engaging them in the governance of octopus closures and in resolving conflicts.

The scepticism amongst some participants towards our research approach inspired us to explore the role of inductive, interpretative and process focussed research for marine conservation and management practise in a Mini-Symposium we held at the WIOMSA Symposia 2022 (Lindkvist et al., 2022).

We thank all the participants and our local collaborators for engaging in this session, and we are eternally grateful for your support,

Emilie, Liz, and Tim (OctoPINTS team in situ for the session, Zanzibar July 2022)

Contributions to the session

Dr. Emilie Lindkvist, Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Drury O’Neill, and Ass. Prof. Tim Daw prepared the session. Liz and Emilie presented their research, Tim facilitated, Dr. Narriman Jiddawi a Senior Marine scientist and deputy Director of Women in Marine sciences network of Wiomsa welcomed and opened the event. We would like to thank and acknowledge the important contributions of all the participants of the session as listed in the report, and especially Aiysha Mohammed Juma and Salim Nassor Mbarouk (Shariff) that were our field assistants acting as facilitators and translators during the whole research feedback trip, as well as assistants during this open research feedback session.