The SIREN app is a mobile tool developed by AMMCO to collect data on marine wildlife sightings, strandings, and bycatch, while simultaneously serving as an educational and engagement platform for coastal communities. Beyond data collection, SIREN helps raise awareness among fishers and youth by delivering marine conservation messages directly through mobile technology.

What makes this approach unique is the dual function: it informs and empowers users to act as citizen scientists, while also fostering a sense of community through shared environmental responsibility. Users, mainly small-scale fishers and local conservation volunteers are connected through common reporting goals and periodic in-person exchanges (e.g. during trainings or events like the Street Whale Symposium), enhancing trust and collaboration across regions.
The app is introduced through outreach sessions in coastal villages.
 

To implement SIREN, we apply the following steps:

• Users receive basic training on species identification and reporting procedures.
• Each report (sighting reported through the app) is reviewed by AMMCO staff, who provide feedback and clarification.
• Educational content (Virtual Reality, posters, storybooks, videos) is developed based on the reports, and delivered through schools or fisher meetings.
• Shared results and feedback loops build trust and stimulate user engagement and connections.

 Featuring black bear science education as an exhibition zone in the Hubei (Wuling Mountains) Wildlife Specimen Museum, externally promoting and popularizing species knowledge and project achievements. Nature educators organized public museum tours, conducted wildlife rescue activities, science lectures, etc., with annual public reception exceeding 35,000 person-times. By displaying spectacular black bear footage captured by the project, publishing science articles, and streaming real-time videos, visitors observed bears without disturbance. In recent years, illicit excavation, deforestation, and poaching have nearly vanished. Local residents now fully recognize the species’ importance; diverse educational approaches fostered comprehensive multidimensional understanding of Asian black bears, acknowledging them as part of the reserve community while avoiding intrusion into bear habitats.

To effectively resolve wild beasts harming farmers, the Houhe Reserve invested 244,000 yuan, purchasing 63,000 meters of fencing nets for free distribution to communities, and issued 160 sets of prevention alarms; explored installing 5,000 meters of pulse electric fences; annually acquired 50,000-100,000 yuan in wildlife damage insurance, installing real "insurance" for residents' production and livelihoods. Through alarms, fencing nets, and electric fences, effectively warned of black bear presence, blocked bears from entering community areas, alleviating human-bear conflicts.

 The Houhe NNR applied for financial support through multiple channels, and the black bear survey project secured 300,000 yuan from the "Green Mountains Public Welfare Nature Conservation Initiative" fund. Subsequently, scientific staff from the Houhe NNR selected 20 high-frequency black bear occurrence sites to deploy infrared camera traps, installing three infrared cameras at each trap point to capture individual identification markers of black bears. Simultaneously, they collected bear feces, hair, and other trace information to assist in population analysis. Using infrared camera traps, they identified and marked a portion of captured individuals, estimated the black bear population size in Houhe via mark-recapture methods, and concurrently conducted surveys through semi-structured interviews, completing a total of 193 questionnaires.

The adoption of FFMA among fishers through awareness and capacity building using multi-pronged strategies like awareness campaigns at the village level, conducting mass campaigns at the harbour level, promoting community level fisher friend ambassadors and master fishers for peer to peer learning, announcing top users for every month and audio and video visuals to spread the importance of FFMA in day to day fishing activities etc. All these positivly reflect on the adoption of FFMA. 

The purpose of interinstitutional articulation is to involve all the
actors with relevant competencies to coordinate actions that
allow effective management of the ZEPA and to address the
impacts of industrial fishing in the area. The creation of the
Expanded Interinstitutional Roundtable made it possible to
manage this effectively.

Industrial fishing causes serious impacts such as the destruction
of the marine food chain -especially when catching key species
such as shrimp- and the use of fishing gear that affects dolphins,
turtles, sharks and even whales, which suffer injuries or stress
due to noise and blows. The purpose of the ban on industrial
fishing has been to reduce these impacts. In addition, responsible
artisanal fishing is promoted, avoiding altering the ecological
balance and using more sustainable methods, such as the use of
curved hooks that protect vulnerable species by preventing them
from being easily hooked. Their fishing is based on selective
techniques such as hand-lining or spinning, which conserves
species and ensures a viable fishery in the long term.

Several organizations and researchers have carried out
monitoring work focused on artisanal fisheries, generating
valuable information that highlights the importance of this area.
These data, complemented by technical assistance, have served
as a fundamental basis for establishing and sustaining the ZEPA.

The legal accompaniment was aimed at guaranteeing a fair
defense of the fishers's rights that were being violated, as well as
promoting the extension of the ZEPA figure. Thanks to this
support, the filing of the legal action was initiated in 2012,
leading to a favorable ruling in 2019 and, subsequently, a final
decision in second instance in 2020.

The local leadership process began between 1997 and 1998,
when a group of artisanal fishers identified a growing conflict
with industrial fishing that affected their practices and territories.
The most critical point of the conflict occurred between 2002 and
2005, when the industry intensified its presence, generating loss
of equipment and greater pressure on the resources. This
prompted the community to organize to represent their interests
and seek solutions from the government. Leveraged by local
governance schemes, these leaders were able to support each
other in order to advance the process of establishing the ZEPA.