Comoros
The subject for my portrait for Comoros is Houssoyni Housseni, who is an environment management specialist currently project managing the expansion of Marine Protected Areas around the country
Geography
The Comoros is an archipelago in Southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of a Channel in the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar. The Comoros is formed by Ngazidja , Mwali and Ndzwani, three major islands in the Comoros Archipelago, as well as many minor islets. The islands are officially known by their Comorian language names, though international sources still use their French names of Grand Comore, Moheli and Anjouan.
Source Wikipedia
Environmental issues
Environmental problems in Comoros include deforestation, soil erosion and water shortage along with extreme weather exacerbated by climate change
About Housseni
Housseni has been working on the Comorian Protected Areas Program for the lat 12 years. Housseni has a broad range of skills and talents such as natural resources management, marine ecology, sustainable development, negotiations and conflict resolution that allow him to be at the heart of the success of Comoros's first MPA on Moheli island and to now be introducing 5 more protected areas on the islands.
Housseni believes community engagement is key to the success of the projects. Everyone needs to contribute. There is a real need to engage volunteers as there is very little funding to support projects. The coastal villages are heavily impacted by marine pollution and on a small island Housseni points out that it is easy for everything from the land to eventually end up in the sea. Engagement is helped by showing communities that even protecting a small area can produce rapid change with fishery stocks improving.
The video showing the full painting in timelapse and telling more of Housseni’s story can be found by clicking on the link below