Marine Protected Areas are characterized by considerable operation and opportunity costs, undermining their efficacy, particularly within coastal communities especially in the Western Indian Ocean. This is predominantly due to high dependence on donor funding, which is in many cases sporadic, inadequate, and in some cases, does not address the community's priority needs. There is a need to develop, and share knowledge on appropriate and more sustainable financing mechanisms to enhance the efficacy of community-based marine protected areas. Mwambao will showcase and present a marine environmental conservation program (ECO-CREDIT-MKUBA) to encourage coastal communities to actively participate in marine resource management leading to absolute compliance.