Here all big fishing is stopped - with the help of the Swedish idea

Warm winds sweep through the town of Berbera on the Gulf of Aden. Outside the harbor lies one of the world's richest waters and where foreign fleets want to start fishing now, when it has become worse with fish off Mozambique and other African countries.

- Now that the area has become calm, you should not start industrial fishing directly, says entrepreneur Marcus Skinnar.

Skinnar has worked with China for a long time and when he became interested in eastern Africa he was asked if he could arrange fishing agreements between Somaliland and Chinese companies.

- Absolutely, there will be no difficulties when proper agreements and rules are written, I thought something naive, explains Skinnar. A colleague was shocked when he heard what was going on and told about other fishing agreements concluded with large foreign fishing vessels with devastating consequences for local fishermen.

Together with other environmentally interested colleagues, Skinnar started to make proposals for the marine national park. It became a fixed idea to realize the reserve, but along the way unexpected problems appeared. It turned out to be difficult to get foreign financial support as Somaliland is not a recognized country but is considered a breakaway republic. But the Somali countries welcomed the Swedish initiative.

"It's a project that is important to the whole world," says Shukri Bandare, Minister of the Environment in Somaliland.

In three areas with a total area of ​​24500 km2, fishing has now been banned wholly or partly. Somaliland's coast guard has the task of protecting marine reserves, but resources are limited and it is uncertain whether the coast guard can keep away foreign vessels fishing illegally.